New owner

Proud third owner of a Lapis Blue 2002 C2S. First owner only had it until 1200 miles (probably because it was a very occasional car.) Second owner bought it in 2005 and put the remaining 79k on it all in SoCal. Full service history, RMS, IMS, rebuilt engine by dealer, water pump, etc etc. We pulled the oil filter, sacrificed it to the IMS gods by splitting apart and spreading out and it was completely clean (what may look like specks in the photos are reflections.) We replaced the oil and filter for my drive up to Seattle from Palm Springs. Soft top could be in better shape - no damage but what might be an oil spot so I'll have to see about cleaning it. The worst is a terribad touch up job on the hood: looks like a bird dropping but no, it is touch up paint. I need to take care of that soon because it's the only thing I can see... All in all I'm very pleased for the $20k I spent on it. Installed options: 18" Lt Alloy Wheel- Turbo Look, Wheel Caps with Colored Crest, Porsche Stability Management, Delete Cabriolet Hardtop, Supple Leather Front and Rear, Advanced Technic Package, Power Seat Package, Design Package, Porsche Crest in Headrest

Looks beautiful! Congratulations my friend!

At how many miles was engine rebuilt ? Ims issue ? Looks very nice ...

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Around 40k (I'd need to check the paperwork again.) It appears that there was a persistent leak and it took the dealer several attempts to fix. There's paperwork for IMS, RMS and engine rebuild around the same mileage.

Great car and price! Congrats!!

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For the curious, here are service history highlights: At 5k the RMS was replaced because of an oil leak. At 35k the RMS was replaced again because of "multiple oil leaks." At 45k the water pump and coolant tank were replaced because of leakage. At 47k the IMS was replaced because of the persistent oil leak. At 50k the engine was rebuilt to fix the oil leak. The detail says "engine case is warped. Disassembled motor and replaced case." At 65k the brakes and rotors were replaced. At 73k the clutch was replaced.

Wow -- have fun!

Welcome! Lookin good!

Congratulations bal Now it's time to let the modifications begin

Congrats!

Congrats, man! Beautiful car... enjoy it in good health!

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Congrats. I'm surprised the dealer didn't just replace the motor as that seems to be the normal protocol with most. I never heard of a dealer just replacing the IMS. Sometimes they say that when in actuality, the IMS Flange is the only thing that they end up replacing. Care to disclose which dealer did this?

It was Newport Auto Center in Newport Beach. I'll post the documents showing the detail later - perhaps you can interpret the "service departmentese"

Congratulations nice looking car. Unfortunately not a C2S as they don't exist in 996 era.

Welcome aboard! Car looks great!

Nice car, looks good to me. $20k and into a 911, wow! Awesome!

Thought I'd make the most of being in LA so I drove along Mulholland Drive from 405 to 101. Superb!!!

If you're still up there and have time, take any of the other canyon roads that cut over from the coast. A bunch of them! Better than Mulholland by a long shot.

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I wish I'd thought of that. Up in the Bay Area now. Oregon tomorrow. Bought some Bosch Icon wipers to put on in preparation for the impending rain...

Really glad I put on those new wipers... The heavens opened up around Mt Shasta. And now I'm back home in Bellevue.

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Here are the sections of the service history showing the work done: First RMS work at 5k Second RMS work at 35k IMS work at 47k Engine rebuild at 50k

Love the Lapis

Looks like they just replaced the IMS seal. Had a moment of joy when I was researching my car, dealer who serviced it originally said they replaced the IMS at 50k miles. After some talk on the forums, someone told me the dealers won't typically replace the IMS bearings. Called back and confirmed they just replaced the IMS seal, so I guess I'm on original IMS at 82k miles. Gunna wait it out and replace when I do the clutch.

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I'll double check with the dealer as well. Given that the oil filter was clean I'll wait until the clutch needs doing too.

Had the car checked out by Chris and Chris' German Auto in Bellevue, WA (well respected local indy.) He plugged in his Autologic tester and determined no type 2 overrevs and that the engine, fuel and emissions parameters were nominal. There is an available firmware update for the ECU so I'll get that done at some point. The test drive was uneventful. There is some vibration from the back at high speeds, which we think might be balancing. I will check the alignment next week. I replaced a burned out dome light and a parking light and placed an order for a new wind deflector, cabin air filter, serpentine belt and some miscellaneous bits. At some point I'll get a quote for repainting the front end (hood, bumper cover and fenders) and also for a new aftermarket cabriolet top. Here's another picture after a good wash.

Update on the vibration. I took the car to Truline in Bellevue who are very well respected locally. They found that the rear wheels are out of true radially. The left one is quite noticeable, the right one very slightly. They have an independent wheel person who will sort out the left one for $150 ($270 including fixing the curb rash.) once that's done, they'll balance sand check the alignment. I'm leaving the right one alone for now though I'll attempt to refinish it myself. Pete at Truline seems to be fantastic, methodical and patient. Really happy to have found them. Once I get the car back, it will be radio installation time.

Sweet looking car! I love that color! Enjoy in good health!

Would the dealer automatically replace the ims seal when they're replacing the rms?

The car is back from Truline. The left rear wheel looks brand new! They did the alignment test and everything was out of whack - I'll post the before and after sheet later. While they were doing that, I also had them adjust the e-brake (which was going to be my first proper DIY but oh well...) All that wasn't cheap but well worth it. If the car felt like it was on rails before, now it feels like it is on Velcro and vibration is gone. Got my delivery from Vertex yesterday as well, so I started to play. The new cabin air filter is in. I would get OEM next time since this was not the best fit. I replaced the frunk hydraulic struts so I'm not getting sandwiched by the frunk all the time. I replaced the driver's side plastic rosette for the wind deflector and also installed the new wind deflector. The old one was knackered and the new one already feels much sturdier and isn't flopping about. While I was at it, I opened the cab top halfway and found a bunch of pine needles all over the place so I vacuumed those out. I looked for drains and saw channels but not really drain holes. The PET and Bentley diagrams are cryptic so if anyone has a photo of those, I would love to see it. I cleaned the drains in the front - they were completely blocked. I'm still not convinced that they're all unblocked. I found that removing the battery and battery plate gave me much better access. I had observed a faint fuel smell from the passenger wheel well area so part of the reason for removing the battery was to take a look at the fuel sender, since I have read that the connection between the fuel hose and the sender can leak. Sure enough, the top of the fuel sender was covered with a small amount of fuel I've read some DIYs on this but I don't feel comfortable messing with fuel related items. It's a $280 part and probably a couple of hours of labour, so I'd rather pay someone to do it. Of course if it turns out to be a $1000 repair I may change my mind... I threw on the spade terminal connectors for my new CTEK charger , so that it is neat install for charging and reconditioning. Then I spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning the driver side door sill. I have the ridiculously expensive aluminium plate that says Carrera and it is attached by three strips of foam tape. Well that foam tape has perished leaving crud. Lots of crud. After a good hour using an adhesive remover and a plastic scraper, I got most of the residue off. Lesson learned: that plate has razor sharp edges but since I'd cleaned it at least the wound was clean! This weekend's project is radio install time. I will try to put the Bluetooth microphone in the factory position, which means taking the instrument cluster off... I went for this Kenwood receiver since it seems to be relative non-bling. If anyone has tips on how to make the shiny piano black fingerprint magnet surround look matte, I am all ears.

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If you're talking about the radio surround bezel, I found steel wool or 1500 and 2000 grit wet sanding to achieve a good result in the past.

i have that kenwood in my 02 cab as well. really really really wakes up the bose speakers and sub! i mean REALLY! nice to have the bluetooth for the ipod too! pia changing radio stations though.

Radio is in. Not one of the easier radio installs I've done for four reasons: 1. Despite having the Bose system, my car is wired such that the line level inputs to the amp are on the brown speaker terminal. As a result, the wiring harness I bought was wrong. In fact, I ended up going back to the factory wiring diagrams to make sure everything was wired right since most of the instructions I found left something to be desired. 2. Installing the Bluetooth microphone in the factory location was a giant PITA even once I'd removed the instrument cluster. 3a. There really isn't much space for wiring harnesses if you actually want the radio to fit into the dash, so I ended up forgoing crimp connectors, making the wires much shorter, soldering and heat shrinking the wires. 3b. Whoever at Kenwood decided that it was a good idea to make the rear USB input have a captive cord is an idiot. The end result looks clean and works (the white foam that you can see in the picture of the microphone is visible due to the flash and can't be seen normally.) I fished the rear USB down to the cubby mostly to get it out of the way! It could be useful for charging the phone though. I will also replace the tape trays with another cubby. Playing with the fader, I think that my rear speakers are either not connected or not there. I get sound from the front door speakers and the top of dash speakers. I suspect that the next step will be to replace the amplifier and speakers. I'll check the rear speakers to see what is going on with them. I suppose a good test would be to put the factory head unit back in and see if they work with it.

Alignment before and after as promised.

1. The fuel leak turned out to be the fuel line and that ended up being a $1500 repair (mostly labor) but at least I've reduced the chances of turning into a fireball. 2. I have also replaced the battery since it was time. The parts catalogs claim that a size 49 battery will fit. It does fit the tray but cannot be secured because there are no threads on the third hole in the tray! Size 48 is the way to go. 3. The microswitch under the emergency brake was sticking and as a result, I could not operate the convertible top. I disassembled the trim and got the switch unstuck by dabbing a little CLP on it. I also thoroughly cleaned the trim and shifter, but have ultimately decided to buy a new shifter because the leather on the current one is so worn. 4. I applied Gummi Plfege to any rubber surface that I could find. I don't think that the car has seen this since new and the rubber just sucked it up. 5. The most noticeable thing though is that I did a full clay bar, polish and wax exterior detail. The results speak for themselves and really bring out the shine of the Lapis Blue. I've placed my order for a new convertible top and am sticking with the graphite grey colour, and I will be getting the nose repainted soon to address the state of the front bumper and the spot on the hood where the clearcoat has failed.

Its coming along nicely. The lapis is one of my favorite colors.

Looks good Bal. What made you pick the Kenwood head unit? I'm leaning towards Alpine.

As a new owner as well, I have to say that you're doing great mod work! Subscribed! Ken

Thanks for the kind comments everyone! @adcampo - I went for the Kenwood because it looked the least blingy of all the receivers I had seen. I considered Alpine, but wasn't a big fan of the large blue illuminated square button on the face. I looked at the Alpine CDE-HD149BT, which seems comparable to the Kenwood. As far as the Kenwood goes, all I can say is that it works. I'm extremely disappointed with the Bluetooth audio streaming (A2DP) implementation (and the same deficiencies seem to apply to the Alpine) namely (1) no information about what is playing is displayed on the screen; (2) audio from the phone is always routed to the head unit whether or not BT audio is selected on the head unit! This is bad because if you're using a navigation app on the phone and you're listening to the radio, you don't hear the turn by turn directions. My workaround is to use Waze, which enables me to select audio to be played through the phone - not ideal at all; (3) the music service integration does not work via Bluetooth, (2) the much vaunted music service integration does not work via Bluetooth. These are my experiences with an iPhone 5S and perhaps Android users fare better, but points (1) and (2) work fine on my 2010 E550, which only supports A2DP through enabling it in the car's engineering menu since it was not officially supported in that model year! I can only hope that Kenwood releases a firmware update to address these issues, but I shan't hold my breath. I should find an Alpine unit displayed somewhere and test it out - if it addresses points (1) and (2), I would replace the Kenwood unit with one.

I stopped by Car Toys this morning and tested the Bluetooth streaming operation with an Alpine CDE-HD149BT . It does display track information when streaming using Spotify from my iPhone 5S. It also seems to have more traditional preset buttons. I will replace the Kenwood unit with one of these. Unfortunately, the Alpine microphone is different to the Kenwood's, so I will need to re-run the microphone wiring. Also, the Alpine only has four preset colors and the display is always bluish/white. However, the improved functionality outweigh these disadvantages.

Really nice! Out of everything you did, I think claying and waxing made the biggest improvement!!

Yeah, Claying, polishing, and waxing is like the icing on the cake. Did the same myself yesterday.

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Nice! Is that a heater that I see on your wall? If so, what kind is it?

Yes, a 220V electric fan forced heater. Was with the house when we bought it, but I relocated it from the greenhouse to the garage. About 5000 watts. Just right for the garage. Can't remember what brand it is tho.

Alpine head unit substituted for Kenwood. I did find that with the Podcasts app on my iPhone connected via Bluetooth, the Kenwood displayed information about what was playing. I tried again with Spotify but no dice.

Oh and I managed to break the hazard light switch by being an idiot and forgetting how to pull it out. Do not pull from the white part - use a needle nose pliers to squeeze the tabs and pull those. Being German, it is more than just a switch - it has diodes and other stuff on it. Without the switch, the turn signals do not work. I attempted to refit the broken switch but that resulted in the hazard lights coming on, the left blinker always being on and the airbag and roll bar warning coming on! The part is not cheap ($80) and I opted to get one from my local dealer since they can have it in by Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed that I haven't messed anything up by plugging in the broken switch...

How are you liking the Alpine CDE-HD149BT now? Can you adjust the display color so it looks something close to the stock instruments?

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The Alpine is a big improvement over the Kenwood in terms of Bluetooth functionality and usability. The BT streaming works properly with track and artist info displayed. The radio presets are easy to access. However, the color can only be blue, green, red or amber and this is only for the buttons. The amber is redder than I would like, so not a perfect match. Note that the Ideal on the Kenwood would have between two of its colors, which is not possible to select! The big source button is always blue as is the display. In this respect the Kenwood wins. The Kenwood also let's you disable certain inputs, which is quite useful. On the other hand, the plastic removable bezel is matte and blends in with the surroundings better than the Kenwood's fingerprint-magnet piano black. I'm not happy with the sound quality but that's because of the overly boomy sub which I may just disable for now. I plan to investigate de-Boseing the cost by replacing speakers and the amplifier at some point.

Car is getting its new top today, which is exciting! I'll probably get the paint work done next week since I'll be out of town. I spent time over the weekend tinkering and replaced the cracked belt and air filter, broke and then replaced a plastic coupling between coolant tubes (the plastic had become incredibly brittle so all in all perhaps a blessing that it broke whilst in my garage!) I also cleaned the throttle plenum, which was actually pretty clean. I got to try my Jackpoint Jackstands and got the rear end up with the idea of replacing spark plugs. Took one look and decided that dropping the muffler is the way to go, which I didn't have time to do so that's a project for another day. I did get the wheels off and repaired curb rash on one of them. It went quite well: the repair itself is fine but the paint needs to be blended since the new coat is raised. I'll try to use some polishing compound to knock it down. I also used some Mother's mag and aluminum polish on the exhaust tips. They turned out really well! Finally, I applied some Dr Colorchip on some of the worst scratches on the doors. I'm quite pleased with it. The deeper ones will need additional treatment and close up you can see the repair but from a few feet away you don't see a bright white scratch.

New top is on and must remain closed for two weeks so that it can stretch out. There seem to be fewer rattles which is nice. Old one for comparison:

Looks good. What brand of top did you go with? It looks like the plastic window??

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Thanks. It is a GAHH top. Glass window since it is a 2002. Cost with installation about $2k. The headliner needed some stitching and resticking. Since I bought the top from the installer the whole thing has a single warranty. Not sure how useful that is but there you have it. The shop is across the road from Barrier Porsche and they seem to be the local go to place.

This is my favorite thread of all time. This was kind of how I expected my porsche ownership to go. A good car, a little DIY, a little professional work, and a few mistakes. I hope you keep posting so we can follow the progress even after people stop responding. Did you consider a Pioneer deck? I am looking at the same deck but worried about the color. Can you post some day and night pictures of the unit insalled in the various colors?

Car got new Porsche grey mats (old ones were beyond done), hood interior hood trim piece by the latch and stupidly expensive but really good Proclip mount for iPhone. Now the car is at the body shop for the week for the front nose repaint. See you in a week!

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Thanks and yes I'll take some interior pictures of the unit when I get the car back next weekend.

Car is back from Queen City and looks fantastic! Here are the before pictures of the front: You can see rock chips, scuffs and the holes for the license plate holder. Clear coat failure on the hood (about the size of a quarter) The rest of the hood had some chips as did the backs of the side mirrors. The fenders had a couple of peens and some rock chips. The result (with a new Porsche emblem as well) I also had some patches of complete paint abrasion just below the convertible top cover (the part that moves up and down when the top is in motion.) My guess is that sand storms took paint off when the top was open since the edges of this part would have been exposed. They blended in some paint and while it is not perfect, it looks great even from close up.

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Here are pictures without the headlights turned on (so no dimming) There is a dimmer control but this should give you a good idea. I focused and metered the iPhone 5S on the illuminated keypad.

The 3rd one down is pretty reasonable.

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Yes that's the one I picked. The Kenwood has many more color shades but there is no perfect match - it ends up looking similar to the Type 3 of the Alpine. I just wish that the display of the Alpine also changed color.

I used the 3M headlight restoration kit that I bought from Harbor Freight a while ago to see if I could remove some of the yellowing of my headlights. It definitely did a better job than just the polishing that I did before, although I still see scratches (either deep in the plastic or on the interior.) At some point, I will need new lenses since the integrity of the seals has been compromised. Still, for a few $s and some elbow grease, the difference is noticeable. The left is untreated and the right has been refinished. I'm going to a glass place this week so I'll ask them if they think that they can improve things further. I also replaced the xenon bulbs with Morimoto XB35 6Ks. This is the full write-up but here is a sample:

I wondered when my new license plates would arrive. Turns out they had been "tidied" into the garage...

^cool tag !

^Love it!

This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing. It very nicely showcases that there are no perfect Mk2 996 around for $20k.

Hate to be the stalker guy, but I am looking at the same radio set up from Car Audio Innovations. They have the whole package with tools, instructions, harness and tech support for $300 and that is all that is left in my budget. How's the blue tooth function (with the top up)? That's may primary goal. Can you do hands free calling (dialing)? Got pics of the whole interior at night with the Amber color?

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Her Bal. Check out mine.

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Yes and that's what I was expecting. I'm around $8k into it of which $1400 was the unexpected fuel leak and $350 was an extra key. As I think I mentioned I wanted a car with a known history rather than from auction or an unknown trade. Comparing with what was available locally, private sellers wanted too much and dealers fell into the unknown history area. Besides no one seemed to have anything other than black or grey. So I'm still happy that I took the path that I did.

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Honestly I've not used the telephony much other than while parked with the engine off. I'll try the voice dialing and call quality though I should warn you that my British accent does not get on with Siri. I'll take a shot at night for you. Are you thinking of doing their speakers at some point?

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+996

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You are in the minor leagues. Talk to me when you cross $45,000 invested. I have hi fi sound. Don't know if that means I have better speakers or not but the sound quality does not bother me. But my family tells me I can't hear (I can but I just don't care) and I thought the base stereo in my BMW e60 was fine. How about you, new speakers? Is the radio reception any better? Mine sucks.

Used BT for phoning today for a couple of calls. For the first call I was driving between 20-45 mph. Reception quality was fine although I had to adjust the volume. The other person could hear me without my having to to repeat myself but did say that there was background noise (the top was closed but as you know, there is plenty of road noise.) The second started while the car was in motion and ended while I was parked. No complaints from the caller. My radio reception is fine - I only listen to HD Radio (unless it drops back to FM) and reception is no worse than through the factory unit in my Mercedes but that just means that it drops back down to FM in about the same place. I have the Bose system and with the new head unit, I initially found the sub to be overly boomy but seems to be less so now that I have played with the audio settings on the head unit. I've read the various threads concerning just replacing the speakers to replacing the speakers, amplifier and applying Dynamat, but I've not yet decided what to do. If I ended up buying a package from CAI, I might as well go to Benchmark locally who will fabricate and custom install for about the same price.

Some updates... I recently replaced the rear brake pads since they were quite worn. As is usually the case, I managed to brake something while I was at it - in this case the wear sensors. I couldn't get them out without destroying them but they're not too expensive. I also did the spark plugs. I managed to get to two on one side and one on the other side. I tried but failed to get to the others, so had my indy do those. The spark plugs had never been done and as I think you'll agree from the picture, it was definitely time! I had also noticed that after washing the car, I would get an error code "misfire on cylinder 1". This turned out to be a cracked coil and we found that there was evidence of a coolant leak on it. We replaced the coolant expansion tank top with an updated version, but I would not be surprised if the tank itself is leaking slightly even though it was replaced five years ago at 45k. Having had the front end repainted, I had my local detail experts do Xpel protection film on the bumper, first third of the hood, headlights, back of the mirrors and door edges. This might seem like a strange thing to do on a 12 year old car, but I'd rather not deal with the inevitable rock chips. The film over the headlights actually seems to have improved their clarity though I'm not sure why that would be the case. Yesterday, I got around to doing a brake system flush with Pentosin Super DOT4. I ended up using two whole cans. Once again, I'm not sure that this had ever been done. What came out was blackish/green although there were not many air bubbles. I'll do the clutch bleed at some point as well. While I had the wheels off, I measured rotor thickness in various places and have 27.4mm in the front and 22.9mm in the rear. I'm pretty sure that my emergency brake shoes need replacing since it barely holds the car even after adjustment at the wheel and in the cabin, so I will probably get new rear rotors and do both jobs in one go. Next on the list is a coolant flush, possible coolant expansion tank replacement and new engine mounts since mine are original and I definitely see plenty of passenger seat vibration. We've had some nice weather in the Pacific Northwest including a week when I was home alone with my kids. Everywhere we went they wanted to take "the blue car" with the top down. The youngest sat in the back and the eldest in the front on an inflatable Bubble Bum booster cushion (with the airbag deactivated and the seat as far back as it would go on its rails) and were happy as clams. I've since purchased an additional Bubble Bum for the back.

This weekend, I cleaned the radiators. There was a good deal of debris in there but not as much as I thought there would be. I'm not sure if they body shop cleaned them out when they removed the bumper to paint it (my guess is no since there would be no reason to remove the air deflectors.) Radiator cleaning I've started to look at the condition of the leather interior and ended up replacing the gearshift with a used one on eBay ($100!) The alternative would have been to have Porsche custom manufacture a new one. The steering wheel needs attention since there is wear and the leather feels sticky despite thoroughly cleaning with Leatherique. I'm consider re-dyeing or sourcing a wheel that is in better condition. I also purchased a Wi-Fi OBD-II device that connects to my iPhone. I've used both DashCmd and Dash apps to retrieve data and they work well. It is more for fun than anything serious. A few weeks ago, I bled the brakes (probably the first time that this was done) and the fluid that came out was awful-looking. I want to flush the coolant as well but have found a leak, which is probably the coolant tank, so I'm going to replace it. Finally, I'm going to replace the motor mounts with new OEM ones.

At 84,385 miles the replacement motor mounts are in. As others have said, it was not hard to do though I did spray Break Free liberally around all the attachment points. I went with OEM ones (Corteco brand) and the car certainly feels "tighter" when driven. I also took the opportunity to clean the engine bay while stuff was out. If you'd like the old ones (e.g. to use as a core for a Function First upgrade), please PM me.

Nice!!

Nice ride! Very similar to mine except mine is midnight blue. Enjoy it.

Congrats! Beautiful car...

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I recently decided to get my local indy to do the LN Engineering IMS bearing replacement and also replace the AOS. It turns out that my car has the latest IMSB (the kind that cannot be replaced). This is presumably as a result of the engine rebuild that happened back in 2007 (if memory serves), where it does indicate that the IMSB was replaced. They found that the IMS and AOS were both leaking and replaced the seal and the AOS. My coolant tank is cracked as is one of the hoses. I intend to replace this myself as well as the water pump. This weekend, I drained and replaced the transmission fluid at a local DIY garage using their lift. I tried using my jacks, but felt that the expense of using a proper lift was worthwhile. I also installed a 997 shift console that I bought on eBay for $140. You can see some illustrations below: 997 shift unit on left, 996 shift unit on right. Correct way to insert and remove alignment tool (slide it down the metal lever). Completed installation Finally, I addressed some of the wear on the leather and paint of the center console using the same Leatherworld dye that I used with success on my steering wheel (see https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post11924901 for more). This is still a work in progress, since there are so many pieces of trim, but it will be an improvement! Cleaned trim pieces, with problem areas filled. A few coats of paint applied. Cleaned but untreated. You can see previous repair work here. Filler applied.

Fister Ds turn up tomorrow W00t!

Great Work

Nice write-up, great photo's! You're going to town with that LW repair kit

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Certainly am! That bottle of dye goes a long way. I have to say that it is probably the best $70 I've spent!

The Fister Ds are in! The instructions that Darin provided by email were very useful. Key learnings: 1. Remove the 3 nuts that hold the muffler bracket to the engine bracket. Once the muffler/cat clamp connection is removed, the muffler is completely free. 2. I found that removing the rear wheels helped give me access. 3. The tip clamp is a complete b'stard to remove. I used its fastening bolt with two nuts to spread it open for easier removal (a handy technique courtesy of Edd China from Wheeler Dealers!) 4. Said tip clamp uses a 16mm bolt. This seems to be an unusual size since none all of my wrench sets went from 15mm to 17mm. $25 spent on a 16mm ratchet wrench at Lowes was money well spent. Some pictures for your viewing pleasure... ^ Its a big heavy box ^ The last time it will be this shiny ^ Arrows indicate 13mm nuts that secure muffler bracket to engine bracket. ^ Removed muffler with bracket still attached. ^ Bracket removed. ^ Back: original muffler. Front: Fister D muffler. ^ Using bolt and nuts to spread the clamp. ^ Assembled Fister D unit ready for installation.

I also replaced the rear rotors and parking brake. The rotors were at minimums and the parking brake was pretty much useless. The parking brake ended up being very time consuming and profanity inducing. I also found very few illustrations of what the wretched thing actually looks like in practice, so here you go. It is a drum brake and consists of the brake shoes, two tension (return) springs, two compression springs, the adjustment device and a spreading lever (not shown in the picture because it is attached to the parking brake cable.) After struggling with the left hand side brake assembly ("installation is the reverse of removal" say the books. I say "my ****"), I tried something different and assembled the mechanism, as you see it in the picture, with the exception of the adjustment device. I was then able to maneuver the entire thing over the hub starting with the top shoe, and stretch the springs to enable me to get the bottom shoe in position. Pulling down on the assembly let me get the adjustment device in and then it was a matter of refitting the compression springs. My write up makes it sound a lot easier than it actually was, but nonetheless, this seemed to be quicker than my original approach of trying to get the tension springs onto the shoes when they were in position and fastened with the compression springs. Now I have a parking brake that works and hill starts are less dramatic!

Since the last post, I had to replace the headlight switch since the right light was turning on intermittently and then stopped altogether. I also tackled the coolant tank, water pump, thermostat and leaking hose project. Took a while but the car runs cooler and I'm happy that I have new coolant in the system. During some very hot weather, the frunk latch stopped working - it was being energized, but the solenoid was not moving far enough to release the latch. I got an indy to replace this for me since I didn't have time to do it myself. I also found that the driver's side door latch had a problem that was causing the central locking to go nuts and the window to not drop when the door was opened. Finally, I put all new Sumitomo tires on today. A couple of non-maintenance item were new speakers for the front dash and rear and a new amplifier. Rather than repeat it here, this is the installation thread . Finally, I also now have Depo LED tail lights, which I really like. I can't repeat this often enough, but cab owners clean your drains. I had some unexpected fun with water incursion that took a few days to resolve.

Just came across this thread due to your update. Outstanding thread! Thank you for sharing. Question: you shared that the car had maintenance records which was part of the reason why you bought this car. Reading through the thread, you comment on several items like the coolant flush, brake flush etc. that it appeared it was never done before. Was it really never done or shown in the records or was the comment more about how bad it looked (as in overdue). Thank you again for sharing your experience. It really helps me to know what to expect with ownership.

According the maintenance schedule, brake fluid should be replaced every two years and no reference is made to replacing coolant, which is supposed to be lifetime. The brake fluid was coming up to its two year mark and although a new coolant tank had been installed, I could not find evidence of a coolant flush and refill, so I did the work.