first thread? bought ?03-996?Tip.?IMS

just bought �03 996w/tiptronic , and could use a bit of help finding a very hood porsche mech. In the Bedford Tx.(DFW), area as I�m 78, first Porsche, waited a long time to finally get a dream of mine, and the IMSB is bothering me. My car has just turned 55k, and runs great, but �any reasonable mech�s i can lookup here? Plan to use tax refund to foot the bill. I see in a few threads the 996w/Tiptronic will cost a lot more than the manuals. I could use some good advise and help. Thanks. Harley42

Harley, Congrats! I'm not in TX so can't be of much but I'm sure others will be here to help soon! We all would love to hear about and see a few pictures of your new baby! The devils on the details! Here's is mine that I bought in November 2018! 2001 Carrera 4 Coupe TIP Biarritz White Natural Leather Brown with 87,300 miles on it. Books, Keys, service records, no accidents but lots of stuff to fix as the previous owner let stuff slide like the broken drivers seat, rear-view mirror, but the IMS was done @ 75,000 and water pump. I still have a healthy list of stuff to do. Eric

I disagree that the tiptronic will cost more to maintain. My '03 tip has never had any tranny issues. 150k miles on it. Neither did my 99 Boxster Tip. 167k. I recommend getting ALL the fluids changed, as good preventative maintenance.

I agree with Cuda the tip tronic is bullet proof! Please post a few pictures! Eric

Welcome! I also have a 03 996 C2 with a Tip, it's Midnight Blue Metallic with grey interior. Mine has 90,000 on it, I just recently did the trans fluid change. This is my daily driver, I put about 400 miles a week on it. I live in the San Antonio area, so I don't know off hand of someone. If you don't get a place by Monday I'll call my indy shop here, I'm sure they know of someone in the DFW area. Where exactly are you? That will help narrow it down. Be sure and join PCA and get involved with your local Porsche club, you will have fun! Also, the local club will know where you should bring your car for maintenance. Oh, and WHERE's THE PICS!!!

Wow, y�all are faston the rebound! Thanks for the comments! I�m in Bedford, about 6 miles west of DFW airport. I�m a retired Flt.Attendant with American Airlines, retired in 03 fue to injury on duty that finally got to me, and i decided I should step down from a job i loved. I�ve had a love of motorcycles and cars all my life and currently have an �02 jaguar XKR(about to get sold), a �13 MB S550, my DD and now my newest �03 996 w:55,k, tip, which I�m really getting to love. Wish I could�ve gotten this sooner. I�ve already fixed the drivers sun shade w/ parts from Pelican, found a repair kit from module masters, and it Worked! Love it! And i found it on this site. Great. Also, 3 days ago I took off my front bumper and scoops and cleaned all the trash out of the radiators and then installed a mesh grill from Pelican and love it! Sorry, i get winded when I get excited about stuff and it works. I�m putting in som pics now. Drivers seat really needs nycushion, I can�t do this project but would love some help finding a good,reasonable shop for this project, thanks. Dave All this grill work took me @8 hours since I�m not familiar w/my car yet. Advice from the forum really helped. Ad well as the videos

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I ask because i read a thread yesterday that the transmission and engine have to be removed to get to the IMS and only the transmission has to be removed in the manuals hense more time-money. Curious as to how much a tip. costs to change IMSB.

Hello Harley42, Welcome to the club & looks like you got a very clean looking car, Congrats. Good to see that you already cleaned-up your front Rad/Cond, very good since Dallas is pretty hot in the summer time. You should also replace the Water-pump & low-Temp T-Stat if it hasn't been done yet and change all fluids as others have already said.. I used to live in Dallas myself for 5 years and for fear of over-heating I had RUF Auto-Center in Dallas installed the 3rd Rad on my 00' Cab. Btw if you need a good body-shop/paint, just gto to the best at Stuart Bodyshop, they do all the high-end cars in the area for dealers. Also if you are still looking for a good Mech in the area, I would recommend RUF AC. I am not sure if Hans & Mark are still there or not but they are good & honest. I am sure others here will recommend them as well. One day my top was not working & they told me to bring it in and after 5 min Mark told me that my car was good to go, no charge, I was shocked. Mark said that my rear trunk was not latched preventing the top to operate, wow, great! I guess I could have found out the issue here on RL if I searched for it but was new to P-car. Anyway check them out if you have a chance, very cool group of P-car enthusiasts. Cheers,

Yes, it will cost more to replace the IMS in a Tip than in a manual. They will drop the engine and transmission in one piece and there is no offsetting labor like there is with doing a clutch replacement at the same time. Have them replace the AOS while the engine is out.

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Well you have two of the best independent Porsche shops in the country right at your back door. Mayo Performance and Zims Autotecknix are highly recommended. Zims had a tech session a few months ago all about IMS and other water-cooled cars and they know there stuff. Same with Mayos, both great shops and people. Think about joining the Porsche Club of America and you automatically become a member of the Maverick Region. Great group of enthusiasts and they meet several times a month. BTW, they meet at Mayo this morning for a monthly cars and coffee. Plus with PCA you get a 10% discount with most vendors/shops.

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A couple of years ago when I bought the car, 2002 C4S with Tiptronic, I got a quote from a local indy. Replace IMSB (included new RMS seal, AOS, and all new fluids: trans, oil, and coolant). $4,400 and yes it was higher for the Mk2 because both engine / trans have to be removed together, labor rate was $120/hr, the IMS was the LN single or dual row (customer's choice).

Congrats on the new car, looks nice!

Great job on the bumper mesh kit. Looks awesome! Little by little plug away and enjoy the hell out of it!

Congrats

Congrats on the new (to you) 996 and welcome to the club!!

Hello, sounds like you have a great car, I have a 2003 C2 targa TT and really starting to enjoy it. After a few months started to think about work needed (75K miles). So I bought IMS, plugs, water tank, water pump etc to basically do the" full Monty". Yes you have to drop the engine and transmission to do IMS, after dropping mine, I found out that my car had a new engine fitted in 2010, I called the dealer in LA and they said they do not keep records after 2-3 yrs, hence i could not get the information before I dropped it as the car did not come with full records. 1. Get the engine # before dropping to verify it is the original and not been replaced. 2. When dropped mine I did replace all items, water tank, pump, plugs etc ( except IMS as newer engine) 3. After flushing transmission it shifted so much better. I have a full IMS kit for sale at a great price if you want to bye it, the cost at this time for the kit is about $700, I will sell mine for $400 please email and I can send you photos and invoice Thanks John [email removed]