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YOUR RESEARCHConsiderring Seriously - 1999 Carrera
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Replace engine
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Suggestion · Original poster
i could afford to maintain it I just dont want to spend $8000+ to replace an engine for what is supposed to be somethinhg I want to enjoy.
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I replaced my engine in my '99 in March with a new factory motor.
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Suggestion
happy, healthy, and prosperous ( for a change ) new year to all.
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Suggestion
The original motor had about 92,000 on it and was running perfect right up until it died.
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Outcome without a verified action link
Also, the remote lock/unlock key function did not work, and one of the headlight washers was leaking.
So recently within the past year I've been thinking about this car, however everytime I'm about to commit to a purchase I'm scared off bye an engine failure story. So I have to klnow from the 1999-2000 996 owners out there. Is your car on it's original engine? Should I take the plunge? Was it worth it?
And also lets say I buy it today, could I purchase a warrenty or some sort of insurance on the engine?
Also is this honestly common enough that I should worry to death?
I want porsche ownership to be enjoyable, I realize it's not a toyota but I'm not looking for another wallet drainer.
max 1500K a year regular maintenance. If something were to come up like transmission failure it happens so I wouldn't freak out. i could afford to maintain it I just dont want to spend $8000+ to replace an engine for what is supposed to be somethinhg I want to enjoy.
If anything "major" would sting financially and you feel that the car should never have a problem when it is 10 years old then you need to move to another choice in cars. And quit reading these forums and letting them freak you out that the motors are ticking time bombs.
I bought my 99 from a Porsche dealer and bought it with an aftermarket 2 year warranty. So far, after 1 year, I did not use the warranty and the car works great.
PPI is a must, and just get an aftermarket warranty. Or keep the money on a warranty, take your chances, and enjoy the car
Either way you are driving a Porsche, and I agree the engine failures were a small amount in early production 99s.
I bought my 99 in 2004 from a dealership as a CPO. warranty has run out, but I didn't need it to begin with. The car has been solid with no issues other than a $150 sensor. It now has 72K miles (bought with 40K). Just remember to get a PPI on whatever car you decide on. RMS leaks are over hyped and are relatively cheap to fix. Just find yourself a good indy mechanic.
You could buy a car with a replaced engine, which I think is a bonus. You may want to avoid very low mileage cars with original engines, say less than 30K miles. My engine is original and runs perfect, the same can be said for the vast majority of people on this board. I don't think an aftermarket warranty is worth it (assuming you could even get one).
The fact is, the engines with original manufacturing defects have already failed and been replaced. Every single one? Who knows? But most likely 99.95% There are no guarantees in life, even if you buy a brand new Ferarri, it can fail.
At today's 996 prices, which are insane (low), how can you go wrong? This vehicle is the BEST dollar for dollar sports car on the market right now. You could get a TT with 60K miles for around $38-40K no problem. You could get a 996 with say 55-75K miles for $20-22K.
Do it. Do it now!
I'll echo the sentiment, I have a 99 (my second) and so far it's been great although I've only put 7k on it this year. These are great cars but they are not without their problems (but all cars have something to be mindful of).
If you worry about a motor going bad and the cost of replacing it will hurt too much, than maybe this car is not the one for you. However, there are some options, shopping for a 99 with a fresh motor so you won't have to worry as much.
I will offer you this as well, recently, there has been a surge of development from the aftermarket that has been developing fixes for the M96 motors weaknesses so if you do ever go through the unlikely event of a motor failure, you have options than just going to the steelership and you can make the motor stronger and less susceptible to a future failure.
Me personally, I wouldn't worry about it, considering how cheap you can pick up a 99 for now a days, even with a possible motor replacement the cost is still going to come in lower than other 911 models and you have a modern, easy to live with, fun to drive car.
Hope this helps and good luck with your decision,
I love my '99. My engine was replaced in '05 - before I bought it.
Even if the engine blows up tomorrow, it was a worthwhile purchase.
I agree with Ejdoherty.
I have a '99 that was deliver in Nov. '98 to its first owner. It has 37K+ miles now, and I've put 8k on it in the last year. No problems, and I'm not worried. But, +1 on being realistic about what you're buying - it's a 10 year old high-performance car.
Things on these cars are going to need attention and they can be relatively expensive. I have had the same situation each Porsche I have owned, and I have absolutely no regrets. But, I save $$ for those situations. If you don't have your PPI and put away some money for service, then you're playing with fire.
I vote for buying the car and having the time of your life!
Bob
Buy it. $1500 a year is good enough (albeit close) for annual maintenance. A 1999 is probably too old too warranty. If it grenades, tough luck. The chances of that actually happening are small.
I've owned my 99' for a little over 2 years(27 mos.) and have 44k miles on the odometer(35k miles when I bought it). I have done only routine services with the exception of a front wheel bearing, period. Get a PPI, drive a number of 99's, and buy the best one your budget allows. Yes, there are engine failures, but the forums have a way of compounding that issue. GL
have a 2000.
bought it w/12500 miles; now 25k mi.
no issues and don't baby it.
have an aftermarket warranty thru AAA/Prizm.
bought it online for my own piece of mind.
if it blows, will have ins. co. pay for a new bullett.
life is short, take care of the important stuff, and have fun.
happy, healthy, and prosperous ( for a change ) new year to all.
if your buying *any* 996 you should have the dealership do a leak-down test and compression test and go from there... if it doesn't pass with flying colors I wouldn't touch it... it will result in failure. These two tests are good indicators of engine health.
I realize the prices on the 99's are very tempting, but as a guy who actually got to come out of pocket for an engine replacement, do yourself a favor and minimize risk (in my opionion) and get an 02.
As others have stated, if you can only afford a 99 (which I presume are going for around $20K) then maybe this is not the car for you. If it were me, I would spend a little extra and get an 02. They are not immune, but seem to have fewer engine failures.
I am waiting to get into the 09' 997 - NO intermediate shaft and no RMS issues.
Almost exactly one year ago, I purchased a '99C4. I had a PPI done by a Porsche dealer which revealed that the car needed new rear tires, wiper blades, and serpentine belt. Also, the remote lock/unlock key function did not work, and one of the headlight washers was leaking. The only downside was that it was a high milage car with 153,000 km on the odometer. When I had the PPI done, the service manager told me that they knew the car and had serviced it regularly for many years and that it had had a complete brake job at 120,000 km. Finally, the price was very good by Canadian standards, at $28,900, which at the time would have been about $25K US. All other '99 Carreras that I could find in Canada between Toronto and Montreal were listed for $35K Canadian or more. So I proceeded to purchase my 2nd Porsche, about 30 years after selling my 1969 911T back in 1978.
After driving the car for a few weeks, I was impressed with the tight, almost new feeling. The engine had good low speed torque and pulled very strongly up to the red line. Brakes were most impressive. Gear shifting and clutch action was excellent. All my friends who drove the car agreed that I had purchased a great car at a great price.
After a couple of months I was most pleased to find that there was little of no oil consumption, and that the car would deliver excellent fuel consumption when cruising at regular highway speeds. About 8 liters/100 km, which was better than my wife's Subaru Legacy GT (turbo). So I was most pleased with all this. My only concern was that there was a lot of interior noise on the highway. Much of it was tire noise, but there was a humming, growling noise from the transmission when under light load.
So now we come to the bad part. After owning the car for about 9 months and about 10,000 km of trouble free driving, the engine failed. I won't go into details, but some of you will recall my thread about "Looking for a replacement engine". Just do a search with my user name.
So it can happen. I am not bitter or angry about it. Disappointed, yes. I wondered how Porsche can win all the races they do, and have issues with their production engines such as have been described on this forum.
BTW, I was not aware of any engine issues with 996s until a couple of months after buying the car, when I had joined this forum.
Just thought I would share my experience.
....Rickker
I had a used 99 C2 and sold it with 102K miles after a few years of daily driving. I had no issues except for cracked plastic coolant tank and failing alternator.
I would weigh the benefit of the lower initial purchase cost and the risk of major repairs. The risk probability can be mitigated with a good PPI and thorough service documentation i.e. any engine changes, etc. I have owned/still own over 10 Porsches, three of which have known "early model" issues: 90 964 C2, 99 996 C2, 04 Cayenne S. The 964 and 996 have both turned out to be great used, daily driver cars (I just picked up the Certified 04 Cayenne S last week so the verdict is still out). I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the bad reputation to have a much lower purchase price. Just make sure you get good service records including updates. I would think that a lot of the 99's have already been sorted by now, especially the ones that are not garage queens.
Do your Due Diligence, buy it, enjoy it, and don't look back...
I would only buy a '99 with a warranty. I replaced my engine in my '99 in March with a new factory motor. Not cheap but the best way to go. The original motor had about 92,000 on it and was running perfect right up until it died. I've been enjoying mine since and don't regret the car at all, but wouldn't buy an early 996 without a warranty.
Being a great time to buy an earyly 996 now, you have the choice to be very picky and get one with a warranty. I'm going to be moving soon and haven't been able to sell my 996 with transferrable warranty for $24K! If you're seriously looking to buy, there's great deals out there that have warranties. No need to rush into one that doesn't have one. Hope that helps.
Wow, never would have figured that the engine would let loose after 92k but I saw it here first! I chose an 02 over the rest partly for the RMS but as I have a Cab, it was mostly for the glass rear window and the updates to the interior. Having said that, it appears the RMS issue does happen but not nearly as frequently as we fear.
I have a 99 that I bought in Jan 04 with 33000 miles on it. I drive it every day and now have about 78000 miles on it. My car is not abused but I certainly don't baby it.
DO NOT use all your money to buy the car, you'll probably need a decent cushion in case stuff goes wrong with it. (Typically minor things but $800 here and $800 there starts adding up.) In the first year I would probably budget about $1000 more than your $1500 yearly maint expectation. Most stuff has probably already broken and been fixed (coolant tank, RMS, hood latch, window mechanisms, etc.) but in case it hasn't, you'll be picking up the bill.
Reading the forums I was also pretty apprehensive about severe engine failure, especially since I had no warranty.
Eventually I had the intermediate seal leak and around 58000 miles but had the clutch replaced at the same time and I didn't think it was particularly expensive. It did fix the problem so far.
You have to make your own decision about risk, certainly if my car had grenaded in the first year I would probably be seriously pissed off and disappointed. But it didn't and I've been very happy with the car, I can't believe it's 10 years old.
Wouldn't mind going for a TT but financially it's not a great time for me to make a purchase like that. That said, TT's are only a little more expensive than what I paid for my 99 five years ago.....sigh....
