New Owner - Day 16 of Porsche Ownership

Howdy all! Only been an owner for a short while, but want to stop lurking on the forums and introduce myself and share my narrative for any interested parties. I'm gonna include all the details because after reading through here, it seems lots of y'all are are detail oriented as I am. After wanting a Porsche since I was old enough to know what one was, I finally realized the goal on 12/4/09 with the purchase of my 2002 Guards Red Carrera 4 Cabriolet. 44,200 miles, bought for $33,750 from a local private seller. Got all records, including window sticker. Seller is an airline pilot (very detail oriented and fastidious with regard to maintenance, and a great guy, the sort of guy you want to buy your first Porsche from!) and had just about everything replaced on there that could be replaced (tires, brakes, struts, et cetera), except the clutch, but we'll get to that. Weeks 1 and 2 were fantastic. I added an Alpine iDA-X305 to facilitate use of my iPod in the car. I used http://josh1.com/Music/AlpineImageCo...3-2176b79e1605 to put the Porsche logo as wallpaper on the head unit in case anyone else is considering a similar project. ***Incidentally, this frees up the original CDR-220 and changer for sale. I saw a few people post WTBs regarding this. So, feel free to make offer or I'm gonna liquidate on eBay. Week 3 was marked by minor hardship. Let me rewind. Rob, the guy who sold me the car, and the mechanic, Tony at Stuttgart Specialists prophetically warned that 996 clutches are only good for circa 50K miles. Generally, I'm a pretty lucky dude so I figure what the hell I'm sure I can get by for a while, it's not slipping or anything. Well, and somewhat ironically, I was headed to church one night this week and all of a sudden, while still in my neighborhood, and not exceeding 30 mph, the clutch pedal goes all soft and starts gyrating. It was the kind of tremble you get right after you get a speeding ticket and are about to pull back into traffic but this was an actual mechanic thing, not mental residue from a brush with the law. So, I limp on to church thinking that maybe it was just the cold weather. I get it home, talk to Tony at Stuttgart the next day and he thinks the clutch is probably toast. C'est la vie, I figure, I just wish I had the car for more than 16 days before it costs me $1,800 for clutch, flywheel, and friends. Incidentally, Tony was also recently elected President of the local PCA chapter. Solid dude, if you need Porsche service in Louisville. I dropped the car off yesterday, he's gonna diagnose tomorrow and, Deo volente, I will get the car back by Tuesday. So, that's my story. And even in lieu of this hardship, owning a Porsche friggin' rocks! bobby

good attitude man!..... enjoy your dream car and drive it like you stole it (except driving it to church... that wouldnt be right).

Even at $35k, you got a rockin deal! New tires, brakes, struts, AND clutch = fun for many years to come (hopefully)! Beauty of a Cab too!

Welcome, its not 50k for the clutch and honestly they CAN last much less or much longer. The only way to know condition it to remove it and inspect it, and not many people do that. They do die quickly once gone. I think $1800 is really really really high for the job unless I missed the part where he is replacing the flywheel too. While in there he will look at IMS seal and RMS seal if he is as good as you say, so expect some feedback on both of those. Did you have some pics? My blackberry doesn't always show them. If not post some up for us. Church is a good place to go and confess the repeated trips to the garage they know, others have blazed that trail Best luck on the repairs and long lived love with your very special car that took a long time to get. (28 year wait for me, why did I wait SO long!)

The $1,800 included clutch kit and dual-mass flywheel. Tony advised against light-weight flywheel because he said it had negative impact on driveability of car. Specifically, he said something to the effect of "it would sound like marbles in the bell housing."

Congrats Bob and welcome aboard - great looking car. Nothing like having the top down to really enjoy the engine note. Drive it in good health! Rudy

Nice ride Bobby, Welcome to Rennlist!

Bobby, congratulations on the purchase of a gorgeous Porsche. That color combination with those wheels realy works well together. Welcome aboard. I recently did the clutch on mine at about 38,000 miles. I went with the single mass (lightweight) flywheel. It is not for everybody. Your mechanic gave you good advice. The price on the clutch job sounds pretty reasonable, since it includes a new flywheel. Hopefully it is the only major repair that you need for the next 50,000 miles.

Congrats & welcome! 2002 cabs rock!

Beautiful car! Enjoy it. Drive it every day. Take lots of road trips with the top down.

Congrats, now you can go put your own 50k on 'er..... Looks great and have fun!

Sharp color combo.Welcome!

Nice intro, great looking cab...bummer about the clutch, but because you aren't complaining about it, you get a gold star. Sometimes it helps to have a good attitude about Porsche ownership.

Yeah, I figure I knew what I was getting into and bitching about it isn't a constructive use of our time. Now, on the other hand, my fianc�, Katie,..... well, gentlemen, that is a whole other story. There has been plenty of told-you-so'ing and general displeasure with the entire Porsche experience. That's why I took care of this BEFORE the wedding.

Congratulations, I did the same thing. My first Porsche was bought at the encouragement of my girl friend at the time. After that car's untimely death, I bought my second one the same day I bought her ring although she didn't know it, she was a bit annoyed at my purchase of the car before I proposed to her. Boy was that an expensive day, LOL Enjoy it in good health.

thats a beauty! I finally see the pics! WOW! now there is a car where the pumkins work....changing them wouold be a mistake IMO - car looks super clean! AND $1800 is OK since he is including flywheel in the price (though it IS possible you might not have to change that and if not that will save a big chuck of the $1800 - GL with the repairs, Beautiful car

Welcome to Rennlist, Bobby - great looking C4 cab you've got there.

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Have you read about the hazards of going to lightweight flywheels? 1. You lose the damping effects of the DMFW. (I have seen in other engines the devastating effect of messing around with the damping of a engine. With either a LWFW or replacing the dampened pulley with undersized undampened. Throwing off the harmonics is not a good thing.) 2. The LWFW flywheel is not balanced against the engine internals. (engine would have to be dissasembled for balancing) Read about it more here (see pics): http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...howtopic=23219

Jim, I read every post that I could find on the LWFW for about a year, prior to purchasing one. When I first read the Renntech post, I was concerned. I spoke to Randy Aasco (who designed and built my LWFW), prior to installing mine. His flywheels are used by several race teams. After speaking to him, I am very comfortable using his product on my car. That damaged engine in the Renntech post had 12,000 miles on the track. I would be thrilled if my engine could take that kind of abuse. I had to replace the flywheel on my engine, when I did the clutch job. Whether I replaced my flywheel with a dual mass or LWFW, it would not have been balanced to my engine's internal components. I am very happy with the LWFW. It is the single best mod that I have done to my car. Thanks for the information.

Nice car OP - the way I see it, you get a new clutch, and that's a good thing. $1800 is not a huge amount of money for a major mechanical item. You *do* know these cars eat a set of rear tyres every season right? Don't let the fiance push you around bro. It's *not* all about her. You're allowed to be happy also.

Great to see you post up on Rennlist! I am glad you did not let me drive the car before the clutch failed!

Of course it's a great car you got. Congradulations and all. In high school I got the same deal you did with the clutch where an MGB I bought had a fried clutch. Learned a trick before that while hanging with drag racing friend that throwing some dirt in the flywheel clutch area gets some more miles out of the clutch. I don't advise it on your car All the old friends road racing in the mountains and tarheels or drag racing knew opening the inspection plate and tossing dirt in would work to get them home. Funniest thing those boys did was one night racing just the lead car would have the lights on and followers ran only parking lights. Lead car went into the woods so...... yep they'll laugh a life time about that night. Anyway I don't think the porsche has an inspection plate into the flywheel and clutch area but if it does and on a long trip in a cellularless area it might help to remember if you need that friction to get you home. Mountain areas let you know real quick if a clutch is going to slip and end it just as quick. Hey you get a brand new clutch out of the deal and I'm sure you will be very happy with that. Best of cruising to ya. Just noticed you are in Kentucky so I'm sure you know the life of the mountains already. Enjoy!

So, with the new clutch this thing drives like a whole different car. Before, the pressure required to depress the clutch was 20x greater than it is now and it made weird sounds (compared to the silence of the new clutch). In retrospect, it was obvious that the old clutch was toast. Also, he dropped in a new battery to correct the slow cranking issue. Starts like a champ now. I attached photos of the old clutch and the bill as evidence for the permanent record. b

Nice car! FWIW, I got 90k on my clutch. Once it went, it went. All I've put on my car is clutch, 2 window regulators and water pump (well, not including brake pads, tires, serpentine belt, plugs and oil/gas...these were DYIs). Happy touring and let us know when we can help!

Nice, that bills doesnt look bad at all and you picked up a battery. (IIRC the total bill is about equal to Phils annual battery budget ) Good job, glad it worked out. any talk of seals or additional things noticed while in there?

I guess the benifits of the light flywheel allowing faster revs have been explained. The extra flywheel preasure you might see in the spindle having drag on it from smoked clutch on it. Not even slight preasure resting a foot on the clutch was advised to me a long time ago to stay away from extra wear on a clutch. ivangene's question is a good one. You want to stay in touch with your car....more than with a woman I'm about the same amount of days with this porsche of mine and I would like to wish you and everyone else the best of holiday's. Porsche is the best there is Bobbybailey. I know some time I have noticed the world looks a lot better while driving now. Best of crusing to ya.