The (un)Official Rennlist 996 Decision-Making Thread

Since we see so many "should I" threads go through here, I thought perhaps we could consolidate some of this into a thread where members and aspiring owners can refer when needing to make any life-altering decisions that involve a 996. 1) Q. I love Porsches, and I just noticed that 996's are the deal of the decade. I have plenty of money for emergencies. Should I buy a 996? A. Yes 2) Q. Should I buy an (insert older model year here) or an (insert newer model year here)? A. Buy the newer one, unless the older one is a proven-solid '99. 3) Q. Should I upgrade my XXX bearing? A. Yes, unless you believe the XXX bearing is just a bizarre conspiracy to which Porsche has been a willing participant, as evidenced by the XXX bearing settlement. Some folks do this as soon as they take possession of their 996; others, like me, wait until the clutch needs replacing, and then replace the bearing on the same schedule as the clutch thereafter. 4) Q. Is a (model year here) 996 faster than a (insert other car here)? A. If (other car) has 350+ HP and is set up for the track, why would you anticipate that a bone-stock, 300HP 911 would be "faster?" 5) Q. Is the (insert year) 996 going to be collectible? A. No, unless you ask a 40th Anniversary Edition owner. They are convinced otherwise. 6) Q. Is it normal for a 996 to emit smoke once or twice a year? A. Yes, many of us have seen a puff of smoke at startup a time or two. However, if the amount of smoke concerns you, or if the amount of smoke reminds you of the movie Uncle Buck, go get it checked out. A failed air oil separator is often the cause of recurring spy-grade smoke clouds. 7) Q. Is the 996 a ticking time bomb? Am I insane to buy one? A. No, not any more than any other 15-year-old sports car. However, if you're a born worrier, this is not the car for you. 8) Q. I've been shopping around for 911's for several months, and I'm blown away by the values available in the 996 market. Is this for real? Is there a catch? A. Nope. You really can buy a car with an $80K to $100K sticker for $15-$25K, and a turbo for $30K and up. Sure, there are areas that need some additional preventive maintenance that are not described in the owner's manual, but those things are well-documented here and on other Porsche forums. 9) Q. Is this 996 a capable car? A. At the time it was released, it was the most advanced 911 ever made. Unless you're an AMAZING driver, the 996 will be enough car for you for many years to come. 10) Q. I have the urge to add additional badging to my car so people will know it's a 911. Is this a good idea? A. No, don't be that guy. 11) Q. I understand that the 996 sometimes gets pooh-poohed by drivers of air-cooled 911's. Why is this? A. Because drivers of air-cooled relics with cockpits that look like they came off a Gilligan's Island special have inhaled gas fumes for several years and no longer think like the rest of us. If you take your car to a 911 show, you MIGHT encounter one of these people. Otherwise, you will only meet people who are stoked/envious/impressed/totally ambivalent to the fact that you drive a 911, regardless of its vintage. 12) Q. I have read that it's better to buy a ragged-out, 100,000-mile beater than it is to buy a 15,000 mile "garage queen." A. Try to determine which things you hear sound like fact, and which sound like BS. A low-mileage car that has been properly maintained is a good find in my opinion. 13) Q. Should I avoid cars with replacement engines? A. Not necessarily. A 50,000 mile chassis with a 10,000 mile engine may be a much better find than a 50,000 mile car with the original engine. 14) Q. N-rated tires? A. Any tire rated faster than your car goes is, well, rated faster than your car goes. To many 996 owners, common sense dictates that a 2014 tire rated 190MPH is at least as good as an N-rated 1999 tire. Many of us run non-N-rated tires; some of us have not died as a result. From another RLer: ""N-rated" is not about speed, it's about sidewall stiffness specs from Porsche and other tire dynamics. An N-rated tire is "tuned" to Porsche suspension characteristics." Ultimately, it's up to you. 15) Q. Oil changes: How often, what oil? A. While some owners prefer to stick to the factory interval with the factory fill (Mobil 1), many 996 owners go with a 5,000 mile interval. Different oils are championed by different people, but a perennial crowd favorite is Joe Gibbs DT40. Your author likes TOTAL Quartz Energy 9000 5W40. One thing we all agree on is that changing the oil more frequently than the factory service guidelines indicate is a very good idea. However, you're running 9 quarts of oil, so a 3,000 mile schedule is probably overkill unless you're tracking your car. 16) Q. Can I track my car? A. You can track anything with wheels and an engine. If you plan to track your 996, oil system upgrades that increase oil capacity, improved baffles to reduce oil slosh, and Accusump-type products that accumulate oil and release it when oil pressure drops during operation will all help prevent oil starvation during long, high-G turns. 17) Q. I just bought a 996, and the service records aren't that thorough. What stuff should I do to ensure it's in good shape? It passed a pre-purchase inspection, but I want to avoid potential problems. A) Items that you may want to replace if you're unsure of their age include the serpentine belt, the water pump, and the coolant tank in the engine compartment. Flushing your brake fluid is a good idea if you don't know when/if this was last done. Clean the radiators - they may be full of crap that prevents the car from cooling properly. Oil and filter if you don't know when it was last changed; fuel filter, engine filter, and cabin air filters if you don't know whether the 30K/60K mile service was done. Inspect your brake pads and rotors. Retorque the wheel lugs. Give each wheel a good side-to-side shake to ensure that the bearings are sound. Take a look underneath for any leaks - and ask on the forum if you see anything that concerns you. 18) Q. Should I replace the air-oil separator now as PM? A. If it makes you feel better, sure. However, there isn't a known lifespan for the AOS - sometimes old ones fail; sometimes newer ones fail. Some folks will encourage you do to this as part of #17 above. I waited to do this until I was having some other extensive work done to minimize the labor charge. If your 996 needs work that involves lowering or dropping the engine, that may be a good time to replace the AOS. 19) Q. Can my 996 be my daily driver? A. Absolutely. One thing most everyone agrees on is that 996's love to be driven, and nothing can take the edge off of a rough day like driving home in a fine German automobile. The sole reason for owning a Porsche (unless you're a ****) is that it's a driver's car - so get out there and drive it. 20) Q. Aftermarket air filters (K&N, etc.): Should I? A. Unless your air filter comes with dyno sheets to back up any claimed HP/torque increases, the only thing you're likely to get with a cool new intake is a neat "whoosh" sound when you floor it. If you buy a filter that needs to be oiled, you may also get a check engine light, as over-oiling your filter is a great way to ruin your 996's mass airflow sensor (MAF). 21) Q. Which aftermarket muffler / muffler mod should I choose? A. Mufflers are like spouses - they're not all the same, and sometimes you find out that you like someone else's more than your own. Heh. But seriously, the ONLY way to evaluate your options is to hear them in person. YouTube videos and sound clips just don't give you a good enough recreation of how each option sounds. That said, the Gundo/Fister muffler modifications are great because (a) they're much less expensive than many other options, and (b) the modifications are reversible should you decide you HATE what you've done to your car. 22) Q. Which battery charger should I use? A. If driving the car every day isn't realistic, the $25 Battery Tender Junior is a great way to avoid buying new car batteries ever other year, especially if you store your car during winter. 23) Q. What maintenance jobs are realistically DIY-able? A. If you have two hands, a floor jack, and a decent selection of metric tools, changing your own oil and maintaining your own brakes are both VERY doable and can save a decent amount of money. A strap wrench is handy for removing the oil filter housing. If you do your own brakes, Pelican Parts is a great source for OEM-quality parts at reasonable prices. A decent torque wrench is a worthy addition to your tool chest, and one DIY oil change will pay for it.

Bravo! I've been on the board for a few weeks and this sums it up. I particularly like number 11.

Many thanks. I'm meeting with my service manager (at the dealership that has serviced the car since new) to go over the service history on my 2003 C2. With only 39000 miles in 11 years, I need to know what the first two owners did and did not do. Carfax only gives me dates on which services were done but not the details. I'm guessing that the serpintine belt, flushing the brakes, changing the fuel, engine and cabin air filters, and checking the brake pads will probably be due. Oil and filter has already been done, and the car was giving an inspection for a post warranty service contract. The clutch was replaced at about 28000 miles so other work may have been done at that time which I would like to know about...though I can't imagine what someone could do to wear out a clutch in such a short amount of milage unless they were incompetant with manual transmissions. Anyway, your detailed post is appreciated.

Now all that needs to be done is have Admins delete 75% of the threads... great post!

Great post! Thanks for taking the time. Hopefully the newbies will find it and read it.

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you are more optimistic than I am IMSB is a PINNED THREAD and we get a weekly dose at a minimum But NTL, excellent idea 5CHN3LL

Dunno, I was hoping to find answers to questions like... What colors should I paint my "calibers"? My lugnuts are rusty. What are suitable replacements? What are the best "break" pads? Should I get a wing or not? I just installed "sports" suspension and now the ride is too harsh. What should I do? Should I use Home Depot paint to touchup my car? I hear a noise. Should I stop driving it? What kind of radio should I get? My rotors are rusty, how can I fix that? What kind of exhaust should I get? I want it loud but not THAT loud. What is the best short shifter out there? Should I lay my spare vertically or horizontally? Etc...

Alp, those items are best addressed in the "good week" thread, where the best possible advice is administered.

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FIFY.....

Nice post Great basic and FAQ info

Thinking of buying a flood damaged 996. Will I be ok just changing the carpet?

alpine003, Your list is PAINFUL but true. Not only do we have a robust SEARCH feature here but if/when all else fails, there is always this thing called......tada! http://lmgtfy.com/

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No. You may need to fully dry the DME and Immobilizer and possibly get new units but other than that, drain all the water and put on new air filter and oil and you should be good to go.

Skim off the leaves before removal. Those leaves will clog up your drain holes! Other than that, let it drip dry for 2 hours with the doors open and see if she fires. Good list above.

Every time a 996 is driven into a lake, all the other ones go up in value by a dollar.

Now thats what I call a true "Water Cooled" 911

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And an angel gets its wings...Seriously, how good do those headlights look under water!

I made the deed of driving the 996 during the flooding in Phoenix before I visited Carmax.... I wish this thread was here before. Should I drive a 996 in 2 feet of water?

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Just fill it with dry white rice for 24 hours.

If anyone posts anything useful, I'll add it to the first comment in this thread. If anyone posts anything useless, I'll probably just chuckle unless it's REALLY clever, in which case I might spit Monster on my keyboard. "Spitting monster" is NOT a euphemism, incidentally - I'm drinking a Monster energy drink.

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Now we know the whole story!

Good stuff. Thx. I am in the market and this helps a lot.

I nominate this thread as a sticky.

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But leave the windows down...

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WOW! I really hope you are joking

I'll keep tacking things onto the original list - so please feel free to add or PM anything that you think is appropriate. Hopefully a friendly mod will happen along and delete the chaff...

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No. Car was a daily driver, so it went in the battle with all other cars. September 8th was 100 year storm. 3.16" of water fell in the matter of hours and set the record for precipitation in Phoenix. Water came to the bottom of the headlights at one point.

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Surprised your car didn't stall out. I had to replace my immobilizer brain during our 100 year storm since water seeped in from underneath. Still can't really figure out which Porsche genius decided to place it underneath the seat(lowest point) to begin with.

Sorry about the chaff......maybe a bit over the top but it appears the nanny state has come to the 996 forum. What happened to the search button? No instead we now can go to one place to get allllll the answers for a 996. And everything is true that is in this thread because it's "Official". Whoooopee! And I guess that is what got my yak when I 1st read it. Sorry for the rant guys.....and yeh it's a free country blah blah blah....man this week just sucks. carry on

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Still pissed about the Packers/Saints game I suppose...

Nailed it!

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"The nanny state" for posting up a list of newb questions? In order to preserve your delicate sensibilities, I have deleted the offending data. Happy?

After rereading a few of the positive comments about the stuff I posted, I decided to put it back. If it helps one person, that's good enough for me. I also revised the thread name so the tongue-in-cheek "Official" label will no longer be interpreted as self-importance on my part. I'm just some dweeb on the Internet - I'm operating under no pretense that anything that dribbles from my keyboard is "official." Pete, you may want to go to your user control panel and add me to your ignore list. Hopefully that will be sufficient to ensure that any future well-meaning post from me (and I readily admit that roughly one out of every thousand things I post is actually useful) will not cause you discomfort.

+1 for making this a sticky

Post of the year...! Also add: My tires are too noisy. I can't carry a conversation in my car over the noise. Will driving my car in the rain melt it?

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No need to get all hurty.....it may be news to you that all of these topics you list have been discussed many, many, many times........but have at it because if it helps just one person.....well then you can sleep at night and that is good enough for me. Gawd!

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Why does my car smell like burn't rubber after a long drive? If I drive around town with the spoiler up, will people think I'm a douche?

Wholly crap...forgot about oil! What's the best oil to use in my car? And why?

The search button is your friend for almost every question that is asked concerning our Porsches. Go there first and give it a try before you pose it to the 996 forum. Pete's also Porsche-less and can't wait till the RM997S (Raby Massaged) arrives…NEXT YEAR!! You are going to be a mess by then Pete. I'd suggest 'art' therapy to fill the void.

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Thanks for your blessing. NOW I'll be able to sleep.

Just FYI, "N-rated" is not about speed, it's about sidewall stiffness specs from Porsche and other tire dynamics. An N-rated tire is "tuned" to Porsche suspension characteristics.

Good point. I added your comment to the tire Q&A.

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Ohhhhhhh Steve you don't know the half of it. I find it pretty easy these days to be whipped into a frenzy. To get my pcar fix last weekend two 'listers came over to play with their brakes...one was pads and the other did a bleed. They were surprised as to how easy this stuff is. I showed them how on the 1st wheel and they went from there. It was a fun day. How about those sweater puppies!

All butt-hurtness is forgiven courtesy of your sigpic.

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Was wondering about why everyone was getting butt-hurt. Thought maybe you guys had special rags I didn't know about.

Nice sweater pups…what were you saying Pete?

I would stare impolitely at those in the presence of my wife.

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Deleted- I had nothing to say, I see that now.

ah yes, i can see that i will enjoy this experience now. so many fun peoples to associate with. someday i may even share my project with all of you fine gentlemen, so i may be scathed so thoroughly. yes, this is the perfect place for me.