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YOUR RESEARCHNewb here: is this a good price for a 2004 c4s? previous IMS failure
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Replace engine
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed
The engine was replaced under an extended warranty in 2009.
Newb here: is this a good price for a 2004 c4s? previous IMS failure
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Leading evidence: 'Replace engine' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, The most frequently discussed action is 'Clean c2 or c4' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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It's quite a complicated issue, but it seems to come down to a combination of oil changes, quality of gas used, driving style.
Newb here: is this a good price for a 2004 c4s? previous IMS failure
Clean c2 or c4
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Newb here: is this a good price for a 2004 c4s? previous IMS failure
Replace quality of gas
Suggestion or failed attempt
No successful repair reported for this finding.
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Reported fixes
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Unsuccessful attempts
1
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Read evidence and context
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Suggestion
It's quite a complicated issue, but it seems to come down to a combination of oil changes, quality of gas used, driving style.
Newb here: is this a good price for a 2004 c4s? previous IMS failure
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long story short, 2004 996 C4S coupe, 128k miles, engine rebuilt (with IMS updated) @35k miles (because of IMS failure), so ~93k miles since rebuild. had (has?) salvage title due to engine failure, but been running well (according to the owner) for last 93k miles. owner says its in good condition, it looks to be in good condition from photos. i will get a PPI to make sure, but if everything checks out (ie; nothing too bad/no red flags from the PPI), what seems to be a fair price? he's asking 27.5k, im thinking 25 seems fair, does the salvage lower it much? just want to be careful here, first big car purchase. any insight appreciated.
also, recent work done: - Water Pump, this past year.
- All four tires, this past year.
- All 6 coil packs this past year
- Rotors and Pads done yesterday
- Front Wheel Bearings and Alignment yesterday
- New Battery
- Passed Inspection - 20 October 2020
also, for the PPI, should i go to a porsche dealer or independent shop? again, any info appreciated. thanks.
Salvage title due to engine failure? I don�t recall seeing many salvage title cars with engine failure as the culprit. The branded title certainly will decrease the value around 25% or so, Getting full coverage on a salvage car is more difficult as well, some insurers won�t do it.
Rebuilt engine doesn't mean much almost 100k miles later. If the IMSB isn't the Solution, I'd think about replacing it again. In very good shape I'd pay $22k for this car, maybe.
The car could have a salvage title for any number of reasons, recovered theft, flood damage, collision, but I've never seen an insurance company get involved when an engine fails. So it seems suspect that the cause of the salvage title was an engine failure. You *will* have a hard time selling the car with a salvage title. I certainly wouldn't buy one unless it was for a track car.
What DBJoe996 is trying to tell you is walk away from that one and keep looking. He just hasn't had his coffee yet. Joe: Drink some damn coffee before posting! :-)
I wish I could see what
DBJoe996 wrote, but it's likely i agree with it. The salvage title because of engine failure is a complete lie unless it was rear-ended so hard something broke in the engine. I would not touch this car unless i found out what really happened....unless it was priced like a roller. For 27k you can find a nice no story C4S if you are patient. It maY need some work like IMS or brakes but at least it won't have big surprises
Price is too high for a non-salvage car. It's way too high for a salvage car. The interesting thing here for me is that they are driving it and performing what seems to be the right maintenance. It's worked well enough to gather a bunch of miles. This seems to indicate that, regardless the salvage, the car is quite stable. The real problem for me, other than the price, is the total miles. We know the low mileage engines have issues from sitting around. So this one's OK. But we also know there are lifetime issues with these engines, specifically, cylinder bore scoring. It's quite a complicated issue, but it seems to come down to a combination of oil changes, quality of gas used, driving style. This engine has higher mileage, so is at risk of bore scoring. Has it been the same owner all this time? If they have full documentation on maintenance that shows consistent use and oil changes, and can better explain the reason for salvage, maybe you get the invasive PPI to look at the cylinder walls, maybe you talk about the price, If it's had a bunch of owners, look away.
Good luck. You are absolutely correct to be looking at these cars. They are super fun.
Just be ready to do all the longer term maintenance stuff that people get rid of 20 year old cars for...
Colton,
Listen to me... Buying this car is like walking into a bar hooking up with the first good-looking woman you see only to find out that the "gal" is actually a guy... (s)he takes you out back and beats you up, steals your wallet, goes to your bank, drains out all of your money, goes to your house, robs you blind, burns your house down, shoots your dog, and then travels to Las Vegas and maxes out all of your credit cards before you even wake up in jail the next morning.
Do you get my drift, Colton?
this particular car is a disaster....
but, as for cars that unfortunately suffered an IMS failure, to me it would depend on who rebuilt the engine and with what parts.....
in some cases, depending on the builder, that car might be more valuable to me than a car with unknowns.
to your question; you are not being careful buying this car. pass. Spend at least 6 hours reading about M96 before purchasing one. and then make up your own mind what these engines require (think Russian roulette).
thanks for all the responses (and putting it in terms i can understand, looking at you b3 lol), ill see what the seller says about all this and will pass unless i can get it for much less (half). would anyone be willing to look at the autocheck history report to see if im interpreting all this correctly? message me if so. overall, i do have some research to do, and the search continues.
Colton - once again you absolutely stump me. Where in the world are you from? What is an "autocheck history" lookup? Do you mean CarFax? Why do you want someone else to do that and report back to you? Do you even have a VIN number to look up? You seem to have $$$$ to throw at this and I'm wondering where that came from. Dude, you really really really need to look at other cars and spend your money there....maybe a Toyota?
from the US, and as phil said, the autocheck history report is basically a carfax (surprised you don't know what that is). and i was wondering if someone would be willing to look at it and let me know what they think (a second set of eyes couldnt hurt). yes, i have a vin, how else would i get the report? as for money, believe it or not i have a job. and relax, i know im not an expert, hence coming here in the first place. thanks for the help though...
Carfax (or autocheck report) aside, the core information makes that mostly useless unless it can show the reason for salvage. You're better off if there is a stack of maintenance records from all previous work performed.
For almost $28k asking, you can find a much better, much more sorted & documented (original, should you desire) 996. Not to mention, one with a clean and clear title. I'd walk hastily from this one unless you could grab it for around $20k.
i got the seller to send me the work done (pic below), does this emphasize everything already said here or does it make it more safe than what everyones said? if i could get this for 20k like Billup said, would that be a reasonable purchase?
https://pdfhost.io/v/WRkezmfmg_0b8f1...afe714d6ff.pdf
link to the autocheck report (carfax basically)
AutoCheck clearly shows that this car was a total loss because of an accident on 10-19-2010.
The engine was replaced under an extended warranty in 2009.
I�d seriously avoid this car.
There�s plenty of nice 996s for sale.
Colton, I say I say I say bouy... are your ears on boy? Read my post son ... read my post!
How bout a lil' board of education on the seat of knowledge!
~ Foghorn Leghorn
I�d much rather a clean C2 or C4 for the money. The dates really seem to demonstrate that the salvage title was from an accident. And just to be clear the replacement motor still has 93,000 miles on it; not like the motor brings a ton of value to the proposition. Sure it�s less than the odometer but it�s still a lot of miles.
