Should I be concerned with this oily area?

Been looking at the 996 and think I've come to a possible candidate, a little rough on the paint and a few shallow dings which a good detailer and PDR would take care of. As I always do, I took a few images from under the car towards the engine compartment before I left after the test drive and chatting with the owner, the image from driver side rear towards passenger side direction yielded nothing uncommon, however upon studying the images more closely at home, I noticed there is an oily area near the back towards the bumper, i.e. the front of the engine, it is in the left side of the image taken from passenger side rear towards driver side front direction. Please see images attached. Any thoughts from you folks as to what this might be and cost to rectify? Since this area is the front of the engine, would it be safe to assume this is not related to the RMS or IMS? Neither have been done according to the seller who is the orginal owner. BTW the car drove fine, the owner took me for a 15 minute spirited ride both in local and highway traffic, then let me drove spiritly for 20 minutes again in mixed city and highway traffic, engine sounds smooth even with repeated near-redline shifts as the owner told me to, the car has a little over 50K miles at the moment.

ummm no, but that looks like a bad leak.

I didnt read the whole thing because I am 1/2 way to sleepy time with the amount of beers I have consumed while bar-b-qing for the extended family...but it looks like an oil pressure sending unit leak...on top of that area...do a search and its an easy fit...always be concerned with oil leaks, know where they are from and monitor them/fix them

if you like it then ppi. simple.

I have/had the what appears to be the exact same leaks. I think the drivers side one is AOS bellow (at least it was on mine) and the passenger side one.. Is still leaking on mine. But I dont think anything really major

While it's good to hear from the folks here that it may not be major, I would still get a PPI. The car may be fine - but hear it first hand from an expert. That being said, no Porsche owner I know would let their exhaust tips get into that kind of a state - it doesn't look like they've ever been polished - so he clearly doesn't spend a lot of time "down there" looking for leaks. If I were looking at this car, it would be hard for me to overcome the first impression that the neglected tips and the leak give me - which is one of neglect. Again, get a PPI!

AOS is going bad. There is a vacuum line that when the AOS goes bad some time will blow oil a vent near the A/C compressor, this runs down in that location.

and.... it needs new tires! PPI for sure!

Rear tires is probably why the current owner doesn't want to sell the car certified although he says he can guarantee the emission test will pass, the rear tires is about the only visible technical isuse preventing this sale, but I'm going to get a PPI done by a reputable independent Porsche shop in the area, which can become the requried safety certification if they don't find any major issues to cause me from backing out of this deal.

I don't know - there's a ton of 996s out there, if it's someone who is running tires that are totally worn out, who never polished his exhaust tips, and also chose to ignore a leak (which at that size, would have left a noticeable mark on his garage floor) , to me all of these things point to a car that has probably been neglected... There's lots of 996s out there, have you looked at any others (for comparison purposes?)

Appreciate the inputs. Yes there are a number of 996 out there in my area, most of them are priced beyond my justification by a fair margin, I started with looking at 928 as a hobby car, so far the only one that seems promising on paper (91 GT, 5 speed manual, and 75K km) is at a price twice of what I had initially bugeted for and 3 hours drive to see the car so I hadn't made the effort, the rest of them are all automatics and all seemed a little sluggish to me for a 316 HP car at 3,500 pound weight. That's when I started looking at the 996 as an option, I have looked at 4 other 996 close to my price range, this one which is a cab, comes with matched hard top, and is in the Viola color which has got to be rare, seems to be the best deal in terms of price vs. feature, and is about $10K over what I had originally planned to spend on a hobby car. In comparison a couple of the cars I've seem ara really worn out inside and out and are still being sold for only a thousand or two thousand less than this car. In fact the center console and hand brake handle of a car for only $1K less looked like a hungary dog, or baby aligator had been left alone in there whith bite marks all over! (see attached pix) So even though I really liked the exterior of this silver car, I walked away. I am getting a PPI on Thursday, and can always walk away with only the PPI cost if there is someting alarming found by the shop and I couldn't work out a fair cost reduction with the seller, I don't mind worn tires and oxidized exhaust tips, they can be rectified easily, the question is going to be with the internals of engine and other components, and I know I am making a gamble that the original owner/seller has not permanently damaged this car, and with some TLC this car is going to be (near) tip-top shape. This car/color will also give me the excuse to get the Flex random orbital polisher and do some compounding and polishing, which I just couldn't justify with the silver color DD car. Hopefully this gamble pays off without too much pain. Time will tell. NOTE: The pix below is NOT from the car I'm thinking of buying, it's the first one I saw and I walked away without too much second thoughts

That is some beat up interior! Do you have exterior pics? Good luck on the PPI

Quotes source post: 8761994

Of the beat-up car? It doesn't look too bad from the image, but there are a lot of stone nicks on the front bumper and hood, and nasty scrape marks on the front bumper bottom.........., I actually really like the color but the interor and the front of the car really turned me off, plus the owner never even offered me the opportunity to drive, plus he made the comments: "Are you a dealer?", "Are you a tire kicker?", "Why wouldn't you make me an offer?". I couldn't even bother to waste my energy to tell him he's saying all the wrong things to a potential buyer, especially when the car had all these flaws, I'd understand if he was selling a limited edition Carrera GT, but he's NOT!

Car does look clean from this pic but I guess you have a better view Keep looking and I am sure you will find THE ONE. Don't let some costmetic flaws scare you off. Keep in mind interior parts can be replaced for less than you think. You will realize (at least like me) once you get the car you will want to perfect her to your taste. No cars will be perfect unless brand spanking new. Have fun and enjoy the jorney !

The scratches on the interior are from a dog! Typical claw marks.

Just my personal opinion but that car has had a hard life and neglected. If the pictures look that rough I can only imagine what is hidden under its skin! My advice is to walk away and keep looking. These cars are not cheap to maintain and if you have a lot of stuff to fix after you buy it, you will be in for far more than if you paid the premium for a clean well maintained car. Just my 2 cents!!

PPI done, oil is from the Vario cam seal and cylinder 1 oil tube, no signs of RMS or IMS oil leak, will finalize deal tomorrow, but still can't fully plate the car until I get the rear tires replaced which is going to take until next week since the tires I want have to be ordered in..... This was taken last weekend when I checked out the car, needs a good polishing as there are lots of swirl marks.

Quotes source post: 8767081

Nice Car!! Drive it until you experience pure pleasure. Which may take a while btw.