How do you deal with 996 anxiety? – 996.1 Carrera 4

Ladies and gents, I’m the proud new owner of an old lady called Erika. She’s a 2000 996.1 Carrera 4 with the 3.4-litre engine, and she has decent equipment: C11 – Austrian-market specification M030 – Factory sports suspension, approximately 10 mm lower M139 – Heated driver’s seat M288 – Headlight washer system M340 – Heated front passenger seat M436 – Three-spoke sports steering wheel M490 – Porsche Hi-Fi Sound Package M534 – Factory alarm system, 433 MHz M601 – Litronic xenon headlights M639 – Soft-leather rear seats M662 – PCM 1 Porsche Communication Management system with navigation She’s in good condition, has a solid service history and has covered only 148,000 km. I did plenty of research before buying her, but the more I read about bore scoring, IMS bearing failures and other engine problems, the more anxious I become. I can’t help wondering whether she’s going to die on me. There are posts about engine issues almost every day in Facebook groups and on Reddit. Reading them sometimes makes me afraid to even drive her. I’m becoming a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to Erika! Have any of you experienced the same thing? If so, how do you deal with it? Thank you, cheers!

She's not going to die on you! First of all check your engine number to confirm you have an engine with the dual row IMS bearing, if you do (most likely) it will also have the iron coated pistons which do not suffer from bore score, there are plenty of these engines marching past 150k easily now. The thing you do need to check is the cam chain pads these wear out and can break causing mayhem i should imagine yours will need replacing soon. Keep an eye on the temp and fluids and clean your radiators of debris once a year Other than that just enjoy the car and drive it.

As a rule, 2000 3.4 C4 most likely have the dual row bearing and also don't suffer bore scoring the same as the later 3.6 I got up to 170,000 miles before it was due a rebuild and when it was rebuilt, the IMS bearing and the bores were the least worn parts in there. Go for a blast, flick your wicket, have a nap and forget about it........always worked for me.

Thank you so much Hooner and Alex for giving me a relief about everything. I am preventive maintenance guy, I still own an BMW Z4 E85 (2003. -M54B25 - 2.5 engine) that I need to sell, and it has almost 230.000 km on the clock, and it is so reliable (which is strange for an old BMW) that before my 6 month old son, we would take it for 3.000 - 5.000 km road trip in Europe without problems, I am so confident in that car and the engine, that will break. I made all preventive stuff, VANOS, oil separator, cooling system, that the engine has all the new parts. I will do the same with 996, in time, but now I need to have confidence that se will not break. I already did a 300 km trip on the motorway, 140-150 km/h with average of 13 liters per 100 km without oil consumption after a good service. But still, for me this is a new, and most expensive car that I owned, so anxiety kicks in. I did a regular service at my mechanic, we changed the oil in the engine, and I will do that every 5.000 km, I did that with BMW, we changed the oil in te transmission (it is manual), we checked the cooling system, belts, I did a new expansion tank cap and of course all the filters. She scared me after first road trip of 100 km, morning after, smoke on the start, a second or two, disappeared, and she occasionally do that, but I got it from an very old gentleman from Germany, he didn't drive her properly for several years, and he was taking a good care for her. Honestly, if BMW Z4 had 4 seats, I would probably stay with Z4, amazing car, but also, my dream car was 996 (posters and everything, I am 43), and mainly I wanted a weekend car for our little family to go on road trips, as we love to do that. So yeah, first test is passed - our baby boy, Whiskey the Pomeranian and my lady and I have enough room for everything.

Like Alex said, at that age, you’re probably not going to be seeing those issues but doesn’t mean it will be problem free motoring. They can be expensive to maintain - particularly if you are paying a garage for the work - and there will be maintenance costs on top of servicing which you will need to keep on top of. Remember it is now over 25 years old. There are things such as the AOS, starter motor, brake lines, steering rack, coolant tank etc etc which will probably need doing before the ims/bore score issue occurs. Search on here for what each of those is likely to cost to fix (sure someone else will add other usual parts that will wear out) and make sure you’ve got some money put aside to sort it when the issue starts rearing its head - delaying maintenance just pushes the problem down the road and can make it worse.

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I went through exactly the same fears after 3.5 years in my 996.2 C4. I'm sure that 13 years on my beloved 'Helga' is still running fine but the only way I could deal with the anxiety at the time was to part-ex her for a 996 turbo . It was a pretty radical solution but it worked for me and I've never regretted it.

Thank you benny94 and T8 for comments, I agree benny94, and by all means I know that I drive a 26 old Porsche, and there will be trouble. For now, I will stop listening, watching, and just driving with planned preventive maintenance. I build an Excel project, a custom GPT model with 996 service manual, I have a good mechanics and I can order parts from all parts of Europe, so I think I am covered with that. I know, if I take my Porsche to official Porsche service here in Croatia, the bill will be crazy high. T8 that is a really radical solution but a good advice. ​

I'm just back from a 2day 600mile trip up North (Gairloch) on some epic roads in torrential rain, my C2 98 was fantastic , she's such a brilliant car and the engine is so revvy. Brakes are superb as well. Did get surprised by a VW ID BUZZ at one point, I was struggling to keep up with it in a roller coaster section, I'll need to look into that, must be a hot version

Get in her, start her up, wait for the revs to drop, drive a few miles until warmed up...... then let her loose....!! Fantastic 50 mile commute to work on country A and B roads this morning.... blimey these are brilliant brilliant cars..........!!!!!

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Great advice mate, thank you!

Bought 80k miles Carrera 2 last summer. Read the internet stories of bore score, IMS, blah blah blah. Ignored them and just drive the car. Every car has its problems the 996 is no different. You can buy a brand new car and it can break down on you. However just be prepared. I keep a toolkit in all my cars and on my bikes. Also have breakdown cover. My advise would be don't worry about it. Have fun drive your car, it will probably never happen. If it makes you feel any better. I work on Business jets which cost over $100 million. Those things most the time breakdown on their delivery flights

Before or after they have landed?

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Thanks Matt Yeah, I will try not to read internet stories, I will maintain my car as best as I can with preventive fixes and just drive it.

Massively overhyped problem that actually rarely rears it's head given the number of cars out there with significant miles on them. I only sold my 997 C2S because I was fed up with electrical faults and door handles or window motors breaking, I never even gave the engine a second thought except to argue with the scaremongers who think they'll all blow up. Drive and enjoy.

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Thank you so much, my logic when I was buying was simple, looking at 26 year old engine, if it was fault, it would brake in that period and kill the engine, but it didn't. And early 996.1 with dual-row bearing has under 2% IMS failing rate, and after 2000. with single is 8-10%.

Yep, 98-99 manual is the way to go................!!!!!!!!

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Usually before they land

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...usually..?

If not already done, have the cam deviations checked to gauge the health of your chain wear pads. At the next oil change, pull the bottom plate and inspect for any debris and cut open the oil filter to inspect the pleats. These are all easy things to do that can set your mind at ease.