New to me '04 996 coupe and two quick opinion questions

I've had a 987 Cayman S and now have a 981 Boxster S that's a keeper. At age 75, I've had a desire for some version of 911 for the experience (my first 911) Bought a 996 on BAT and had a long and tedious trip from NC to Clearwater FL this past weekend to bring it back. (Who knew there was a tropical storm moving in!) I've posted the BAT link here for the curious.... https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...11-carrera-46/ It's a fairly low optioned 2004, Arctic Silver with black leather, PSM, Bose, 18 inch Turbo-look wheels. 66,000 miles. Complete maintenance records and consistent dealer or specialty shop service including major services. IMS done a while back, Fister exhaust converson, short shift kit, new battery, decent Michelins. Since 2014 and 54,000 miles, it's had coils and plugs, water pump, motor mounts, new (Bilstein B4) shocks/struts, transmission oil change, tires and rear brakes, so maintenance has been diligent. Drove it back (11 hours) to Asheville largely in rain. I'm very impressed with handling at 80+ mph and in rain. I do not like the short shift kit, don't know what was installed, but it's stiff and a little notchy. Will be switching back to a stock or maybe 997. (FWIW, I'm not a newbie, I have a lot of time shifting Hewland gearboxes.). The brakes are good but slightly spongy. The rears were replaced, I'm guessing, due to PSM control. Fronts were not shown as being replaced but a recent inspection reported pads to be 9mm rear and 10mm front (essentially new) and the rotors have no lip. So there may be an unreported bonus. One immediate and strictly opinion question.....Since 50,000 miles the shop who has done the maintenance on the car has been using Mobil 1 15W50 in "mature" 996's. (For reference, I've been using LiquiMoly 5W40 in my Boxster.) I'm doing an oil change today to get a sample for a Blackstone analysis. As it turns out, I have two jugs of Mobil1 15W50 (from a 944 project) and 2 jugs of Mobil 1 5W40. I am planning to do a follow-up change in about 2,000 miles for a baseline. I know all the arguments against M1 and will be switching to LiquiMoiy or Motul. My thought is to fill with the15W50 for continuity and then switch to other brand. Just curious as to any thoughts. My second question is whether to consider changing out brake lines for either new OEM lines or maybe braided steel lines. I have not inspected them on this car yet. It's low mileage but an 18-year old car. We'll do a brake flush in any case, so the incremental labor and cost would be marginal. In the interest of prudence, I'm inclined to replace them. Thoughts?

I'm relatively new to the 996 but I'm not aware of folks using 15W-50. It's all 0W-40 and 5W-40 that I read about. SS brake lines are always a good thing in my book. Welcome! This is a pretty active forum and a decent bunch of folks with a TON of experience. You'll probably get 6 answers better than mine.

If the hoses haven't been changed, why not change them and do a flush? As for oil, you'll hear compelling arguments for either. Some still use Mobil 1 but a lot have switched to LiquiMoly, Driven, Motul and the list goes on... oil weight discussions tend to get a little crazy here. Welcome to the 996 family and I've always liked the twists on that body style, very beautiful car you have there.

Thanks for the compliment. The car is truly nice with only 3-4 stone chips and has been serviced almost obsessively. . I've been active on Boxster/Cayman boards for several years and value the conversation. Two things: 1) Good suggestion on coolant. The good news is that coolant was replaced along with water pump at 55,000 miles So good thus far. 2) The reputable shop that maintained the car for several years used Mobil 1 15W50. My concern was that, at idle I have about 3 bars of oil pressure and at road speeds about 5 bar. I haven't done extensive homework, but that initially seemed high to me. In further reading, 2-3 at idle and 5 at speed is not unusual. So I will go with the 15W50 for today. I'll switch to Motul or LiquiMoly 5W50 in a couple of thousand miles per the latest Porsche recommendations.

Bill, Congrats on your 996. A couple of things: Your engine is actually a 3.6 - the engine was bumped up in 2002 when the 996.2 was launched The 5 bar of oil pressure once the oil is hot could be an indication of a faulty oil pressure switch. It's a common issue on these cars, especially if it is the original part. It's not too difficult to replace. The switch is on the upper passenger side of the engine and you loosen it from the bottom (with long extensions and an open end wrench piece that connects to a ratchet). Interesting that you went from a Cayman to a 996. I wanted a Cayman, test drove 2 of them, and realized I just didn't fit. I needed another few inches of leg room and the A pillar was right by my head. It was just too cramped.

Congratulations on your 996 purchase The car looks great and you got a really good deal. As far as the brake lines, yes definitely replace them. I went with these from ECS and have been very happy. (see link below) I have brakes flushed regularly (7 times / 8 years), brake fluid, like oil types is always a good topic here. I have used Motul and Wilwood. For oil I just switched to Porsche Classic 5w50 from always since new 0W40 Mobil 1 It is great you do UOA, I am not sure how many folks do that are on this forum, my guess in at least 3/4. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-part...t/001094ecs01/

3.4 was a typo on my part. Good thought on pressure switch. This is day two with the car and my priority is oil analysis as a baseline. I'll think about swapping out the pressure switch. Since the car only has 66,000 miles, I thought it should be OK, but never assume. 8 ) I'm 5'10" and fit nicely in the Cayman. And I still love the body style. I bought the Cayman 5 years ago at age 70 (FF racer and BMW guy before that). So I've been interested to try a 911 type to round out my experience. The 981 Boxster is a long term keeper (so my wife says), so this is my new experience.

If you want an oil baseline, you should run it more than 2,000 miles. I would not run 15 W 50 as it is not recommended, it's too viscous for the bearing clearances. $0.02, nice car!

Regarding oil. If your goal is to test the oil now, and then want to run 2k-3k miles to test again to get a good baseline, then I would actually put the same 15W50 back in for now. Then the only difference between the current Used Oil Analysis, and the one 2-3k from now will be what the engine is doing. If you change oil now, you will change two variables, and it will be difficult to compare the two analyses. Then, after that, switch to whatever oil you want to run. - My 2-cents.

That's exactly my plan. I put M1 15W50 back in the car and will change in a couple of thousand miles for a test. I will then likely replace with LiquiMoly or Motul 5W50, which is now Porsche's recommended weight. Paul Waterloo, I agree this is thicker than I would select, but it is included in the owners manual as an alternate weight for climates over 50 degrees. For NC, I think we'll be good for 3-4 months. Thanks all for the comments, The car is in excellent condition and seems to be consistent with its service history.

If the brake lines look old or original, I'd consider changing them. However, the car is only 65k miles young so it may not be worth it. Things to look at: 1. AOS 2. Suspension, steering play 3. Dump that oil and get 5w40 at the minimum. Welcome to the club and be sure to check out my YouTube channel for some easy DiY tasks you can do on your 996.

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No doubt brake lines are original. I have Ate fluid and stainless brake lines coming next week. As to the oil weight, 20W50 is an approved weight by Porsche according to the owners manual. It's too heavy in my opinion as well. However, I will be changing it in short order, just to get a baseline oil analysis compared to the previous sample sent tow days ago. Then back to 5W40 Motul or LiquiMoly most likely. Among some volunteer hours, I've spent some time going over the car and driving it. Will do a separate post with more info.

Update on work with car and some learning...... Oil - I made the decision to use the 15W50 Mobil 1 as an interim replacement oil. I slightly overfilled the car and ended up pulling some out through the filter canister. The oil pressure was above what I think would be normal (5 bars at anything over idle, 4 bars at idle) which was a concern. Of course the car ran well for years on 5W50. I checked the crankcase vacuum and saw 7.5-8 psi, higher than the expected 5 psi. So I made the decision to drain the oil and replace with Mobil 1 5W40. The oil pressure has changed to 5 bars at speed and about 3 bars at idle, which I understand is more "normal". The crankcase pressure dropped immediately to about 6.5 psi and I'm hoping that the AOS will clear a bit over time. I received the Blackstone report; it was very positive with no indications of any excess wear. They also suggested that the "correct" oil weight would be fine. So...lesson learned. I will still plan to change oil in a couple of thousand miles and get a new analysis just for documentation. Brakes - I ordered braided lines. Got the car on jack stands with the intent of changing them. the inner hose fittings were cruddy and the one I started with was balky. My time this week was limited and the original lines showed no sign of wear, so I decided to leave that task to another time. We did flush the brakes with Ate Blue and the pedal is now firm. The nice surprise was that we confirmed that the front brakes are essentially new, and that both front and rear rotors and presumably the pads are Textar, so OEM at the indy shop that did the rears and likely did the fronts. So one more item of expense not needed right now. While under the car, we looked at suspension bushings. No sign of wear or cracking, but I'm beginning to believe the car received fairly easy use. Next up - Consider transmission mount insert to lengthen life presuming the mount appears in good shape. May look at Bluetooth options for CDR23, but that's another topic. For now, my Garmin has Bluetooth, Nav (of course) and traffic alterts, so those functions are covered. Hope this has not been too boring. These cars are great fun and also a learning experience.

Not at all. Your posts are informative and interesting. Keep posting vetfever

Not boring at all! Great to read and I have the same year 996 that lives in raleigh some of the time. If looking for cdr23 bluetooth I have multiple threads around it as well as happy to answer any questions you have. I figured out most of the issues and solutions across my 04 996 and 03 996tt. Good news is that for about 45 mins of your time no $120 ish on Amazon will give you a great working solution that checks about all of the boxes. Thx! - scrh1

Thanks for the comments. Scrh 1, I did look at your posts just now. Some very useful info and well organized. I think my sound issues will will wait until i've got to miles on the car. Until then, in addiion to my Garmin, I pulled a Nulaxy Bluetooth adapter our of garage "inventory". Plugged into the accessory plug and using my phone for music, it sounds great in the car. My challenge now is to find a combination to allow it and my Garmin to be operated simultaneously without too much clutter. Unfortunately, when plugged into an accessory USB source, it wants to go into PC update mode. Took car out today. Still shows 8-10 inches of vacuum. I was hoping some of the excess oil would drain or be blown out. I think it's time to do a preventive AOS replacement.

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Please look into the UAOS, it prevents a lot of problems down the road. There is a thread here that will help. All the Indies that have installed them have been very impressed. LN Engineering now installs them on there engines, just FYI. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ps-tricks.html

Yes, if you go through the trouble of replacing the AOS get the UAOS instead. That way the one piece that fails most often, the vacuum diaphragm) is an easy task to replace instead of a several hour job. Also, OP, you mentioned ATE Blue. I was under the impression that they stopped making ATE Blue some time ago. I can't get it around my area, only ATE Gold. I had an unopened can of ATE Blue from my old 944 DE days (many, many years ago). While tempted to use it one day (pre-996 purchase) I thought better of it and disposed of the old can.

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I agree that the UAOS would be a good move. However, I have several events coming up and a highly reputable shop here that can fit me in their schedule. I think the AOS is close enough to terminal that I'm actually having the car transported to the shop on Monday. I guess instant gratification still rules. 8 ) With regard to the brake fluid, I should have said Ate Type 200. It still comes in a blue can (from Pelican) and I just refer to it as Ate blue. I'm fortunate enough to have a 981 Boxster as well, but I'm really enjoying the contrast of a narrow body coupe. Having bought my first Porsche 5 years ago at age 70, I confess to playing a little "catch-up".

UPDATE..... ​​Incremental and somewhat expensive progress, but very positive. As mentioned, I switched to 5W40 oil and had a new AOS installed. Oil pressure is back where it should be. ​​​​​While getting the AOS replaced, the ship diagnosed a noise that I thought might be AOS as clutch release bearing. Although the shop said it was not critical at this point, I decided that a clutch replacement would likely outlast me, so pulled the trigger on that. Clutch was worn and would have started to be a problem. Catching it early meant the flywheel was in perfect condution. While in shop, we checked over-revs.........637 ignition in Range 1, ZERO in Range 2+! So now I'm into a 67,000 mile 996 for nearly 38k, but babied and obsessively maintained, with IMS, new struts, brakes, clutch, AOS, battery, perfect Blackstone report, and exceptional cosmetics. A premium investment, excessive for some, but I'm hoping for reliable performance from a great car.

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zero range 2 is nice! How long ago was the range 1? Seems like a nice car. If you�re going to keep her, I wouldn�t really worry about the money- it�s a 911. They�re expensive. Lol.

The range 1 stuff is normal bouncing off the rev limiter. Anything else indicates a missed shift and/or a 'money shift' with potential i$$ue$. Looks to me as though you have 30K or so miles of fun ahead of you. Enjoy the car!