Bert’s 996.1 Ownership Diary

I bought the car Jan 2025 996.1 3.4 C2 Manual Arctic Silver Metropole Blue Model year 2000 car registered Dec 1999 (Nice Christmas present for someone!) 133k miles 10 previous owners The paperwork wasnt perfect, it had a duplicate service book but the receipts showed regular servicing by OPC then some later visits to specialists. Originally delivered New to an address in Edinburgh it was then sold in 2002 for £49k by AFN Reading and as far as I can see it spent the rest of its life in the south of the UK. The seller had owned it a couple of years and spent a lot of money putting right lots of know issues with 20 year old 996’s only to suffer an overheating problem 2k miles later. A cracked cylinder head was diagnosed, both heads were reconditioned and welded where needed. The positive of all this was I knew it’s history from the owner involved rather than buying a car blind from a dealer or auction. The car I wanted was twice the budget I had so it was a case of finding the best, least worse, one I could find! The general body and paint condition was good and the other positive I took from the engine story was that a specialist had recently had it apart, if it was toast inside it would have needed a full rebuild, which it hadn’t had. I took a very deep breath, money changed hands and I now owned a Porsche 911 !

I collected it in the rain, 8 psi in the nsf tyre curtesy of a broken tyre valve wasn’t the best start to the 911 dream but I nursed it the hour journey home through London traffic. And luckily it fitted in the garage!

Work and family commitments meant it took a couple of months to finally get time underneath it to find out what I’d actually bought !

Exhaust silencer was burning / rubbing its way through the bumper, Although fairly new the disc hubs looked nasty Found the burning oil smell, that will need tracing where it’s coming from OSR wheel flat spotted and kerbed on the inside ? Nice ..

Not a single piece of paperwork I had noted the engine number, not even the V5, so I went hunting for it under 25 years of grime I’d deliberately looked to buy an early 3.4 on the understanding the piston coating meant no bore score problems, but the engine number I had, as I understand it to be, is the one year production run of the lower emission 3.4 that DOES suffer bore score AND cracking cylinder heads, oh triffic!

Most of the suspension arms had been recently replaced, although they were now rapidly dissolving from the road salt Rear shock bodies rusting but otherwise serviceable I found 2 seconds a lap gain in the arch liners And invested more hours than I will admit on here checking things and cleaning with degreaser rags and brushes ..

Nice one, watching with interest.

Excellent diary It looks like it’s in good hands

I'll be watching this with interest as my car must have been near yours on the production line, same colours too.

Some annoying dents and damage on the lip sill both sides at the rear, maybe jacked up badly in the past ? AC pipe looks newly fitted but also newly damaged.. Various bits of under tray cracked, broken, held together with cable ties It’s certainly not winning any concours under here but positive is it’s pretty dry leak wise ..

One HUGE positive is someone else went through the world of pain that is ‘fitting new headers’ and they’re stainless ! I know I’m being picky but I’d of fitted studs and nuts instead of bolts, do I try and swap them ? Are they likely to have copper slip on ? Do I leave them the hell alone ?!

Stocked up on supplies The dreaded Tin worm has started work on the rear lower sill / quarter area And inner wing The NS doesn’t look too bad at all I’m going to need peoples advice on this, I’ve actually had very little experience with rust in all my years playing with spanner’s ..

Great start to a great project, watching with inthusiasm, the header bolts look like they'll come out easy enough.

It’s had several brake lines recently replaced, I assume this is the fabled ‘over the gear box’ line? Looks very new but it’s not sitting properly in the plastic guides? And does this brake line really run than close to the suspension arm? I just couldn’t leave the brake hubs as they were so after a clean up with 400 paper I gave them a coat of vht silver. It felt a bit like putting lipstick on a pig with the state of everything around them but if I’m going to drive it they ain’t looking like that ! Wheels thoroughly cleaned, theyve recently had a cheap refurb job so look tidy enough for the moment Recent Michelin N3 Pilot Sports Happy with that .. for the moment

For the rust, it depends on how far you want to go at this stage. If you're not about to paint the car, I'd take a wire wheel in a drill (twisted knot grinder wheels are too aggressive) to all the rust areas to remove as much rust as possible. When you've got rid of all the surface, loose material and are down to just the rust in the pitted areas, I'd treat it with Bilt Hamber Deox-Gel, using cling film to keep it 'wet' whilst it works. Once the gel has dissolved all of the rust, which might take a few treatments, I'd then clean and cover the areas with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80, which will convert and neutralise anything left in the deepest pits. From here you can use any number of primers and paints, although I'm a bit of a BH fanboy so would also cover with BH Electrox which is a 90% zinc content cold galvanising spray. From there, any top coat you choose. If, when you hit any areas with the wire wheel you find any full perforation, then it's time to break out the welder I'm afraid. Keep up the good work and tackle one area at a time to keep motivated.

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Great, that’s excellent information, thank you. I want to keep the car usable for summer and probably look to tackle the rusty bits once it’s parked up for winter.

Watching with much interest as I bought my car in December and am in a similar situation.

I turned my attention to the engine bay to familiarise myself with it, this is my first Porsche so I didnt even know the water pump from the PAS I removed the air box Newly fitted air filter good The air box was generally a bit of a mess So I set about cleaning it up Ribbed belt removed and checked, fairly new, one idler pulley with a slight rumble so I’ll change that in due course I spent a few hours with a brush / degreaser / airline cleaning off 25 years of detritus Im not chasing a detailing award, I just want it clean and serviceable so I can see whats what .. If the air box locating dowels had rubber gromits originally from Porsche they were long gone now, luckily I had something suitable in my collection of ‘things mechanics keep’ just because .. should be one less thing rattling about MAF sensor looks fairly new All going back in

A bit wet around the cam covers Cleaned down, new coil packs have been fitted but no heat shields? Previous owner was charged for them on an earlier invoice but not there now ?

looking good for the age, as it's been said with the rust, it depends on how far you wish to go, as there are good optimal (sensible) options all requiring elbow grease

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I think you can get stainless steel heatshields from Ebay rather than the tin ones from Porsche, well you certainly could for the 997.1

I'd hazard to guess the cam cover leaks are from the spark plug tubes. Looks like you also have the newer style, taller coil packs which don't fit under the OE heatshields. I spaced mine by fitting studs instead of bolts, and used nuts to space the heatshields a further out.

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Thanks for the info there, I’ll do some research into the tubes. I figured Porsche went to the trouble of fitting the heat shields for a reason so they should be there.

great thread OP Its so good to see these cars in the hands of people who appreciate them and maintain!

I dont know which circuits this relates to but 1 wire out of 3 connected certainly isn’t ideal, and the connector bracket has seen better days .. added on the growing to do list ..

Timely B Thread 'Stainless exhaust heat shields' 13 Jul 2024 I fitted some aftermarket stainless steel heat shields today when I was doing a major service. They are the ones sold on eBay. Have to say really impressed with the quality (so much better than Porsche oem) and even with the new beefed up style coils the fit was perfect and no spacing was required. £60 posted seemed very reasonable. Bigbaddog997 Replies: 18 Forum: Porsche 911 997 (2004-2012) From here Post in thread 'Stainless exhaust heat shields' 23 Apr 2025 These are a no brainer , someone should do the same with the disc shields on the hubs. Uncle Monty

It took me a while to decide how to jack and support the front, it helped getting the under tray off to see what was what. Im a little tight for space but im not complaining, definitely a first world problem that one ! The UK weather certainly makes a nice mess of a car, couple of shallow dents in the front boot floor, does it come from the factory black stone chip covered like that? Im surprised the anti roll bar is still capable of any anti rolling looking like that .. It’s recently had new front dampers, springs both sides, discs / pads are recent, braided line fitted, suspension arms are recent too. nice that’s good news .. Little temporary jubilee clip repair to PAS pipe Caliper hard line bracket swinging in the breeze, I’ll wager the mounting bolts snapped ..

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Excellent thanks, ill get onto that ..

You car has had a lot of works completed, a good find. I think the roll bars are solid on these? On my previous car, the diagonals were cruddy looking so I took them off. using a drill wire brushed them, then black Hammerite'd them. I did two coats and left them to dry in the sun for a few days. I also touched up my roll bars in situ at the same time.

Arch liners removed It doesn’t look too bad in here, few bits of surface rust.. Chassis rails all straight no accident damage, looks like factory metal work and under seal .. Radiator support brackets bit rusty, job for the future Several sheered off mounting points, bit of a pain. Nice easy job for the you tube Porsche man greasy fingers! Welding sadly isn’t a string on my bow, there’s still time to learn .. I’ve read about a threaded repair piece someone makes and you can JB weld them in place ? Maybe that’ll be my solution? Liners and under tray degreased and cleaned up

Looks good to me. Shocks and topmount look fairly new I'd say but I can't see a bumpstop.

I think your 996 was fortunate to find such a keen custodian. You are making a grand job of it Bert....

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I replace any rusted under tray studs/fixings with these using the associated 2 pack adhesive. Nylon or SS nuts can be had from a number of places. https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/m5-x-12mm-stainless-steel-thread

Nice project nothing to scary so far but the dents are annoying aren’t they I had a few tiny bits that I just wire wheeled and brush painted. Easy to get carried away and end up restoring everything!

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Thanks for the info I’ll look into this

The OE replacement is Audi N 907 161 03, which is a rivet with the appropriate coarse thread for the plastic nuts. Crazy expensive though if you only buy 1-2, like 15€ a piece!

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Thanks I just looked those up I’ve never seen those before, every days a school day. Assume you need to drill out the old factory ones without loosing the remnants in the chassis.

You just cut them off with a mini grinder clean up some metal, bond them on , protect them. The other way is like what Joel did on the YT series My911 , he borrowed the correct tool from Strasbourg Porsche and rivetted all new ones in where the old ones had corroded badly. Well worth watching.

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Thanks I’ll look that up, I couldn’t see how the Audi part number ones would fit a regular rivet gun

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Thank you, I’ll do what I can, we’re only custodians after all..

Both Front wheels cleaned up Fairly recent Michelin Tyres A previous invoice mentions non genuine wheels fitted, these wheels have part numbers and the SM manufacturer logo stamped on which I believe are genuine parts ? Maybe the car had different wheels fitted at the time of service ? Front caliper hardline bracket bolts needed attention, one thread cleaned up, one wasn’t saveable so I had to open it up and tap it to 8mm Couple of coats of vht paint again for the front disc hubs With both arch liners removed I had a good clean up with degreaser and a brush then spray the area with acf50

front under tray clips were a mess I had my first trip to an OPC to collect some new ones, After a quick clean up And check I refitted the under tray I cleaned up the petrol flap area ..

Now I knew there wasn’t anything really scary underneath we had a little run out together to Goodwood Motor Circuit to get acquainted..

Apart from both bumpers it doesn’t look like it’s ever been painted which is fairly rare for a 25 year old car. The paints looking pretty tired so I decided to give it a clay bar and invest a few hours with the polisher to see if I could improve it.. Amazing what comes off the paint on these bars I’ve started with the bonnet and wings, never shows well in photographs but I’m happy how its gone, I’ll work my way round the car as time allows ..

Clay bar cut 105 Compound and polish Still needs work but improved it massively Carpets cleaned up, past their best but clean at least After an hour driving it sits at 85 ish degrees 1 bar oil pressure Both Radiator fans are running, do they have 2 stage fans? When should the second stage come on? Although I was told the air con worked It doesn’t. Not the easiest thing to check when you buy a car in January Display is on Blower speed fine Pump clutch isn’t engaging when the snow flake button pressed

Investigation of no working AC Fuses all ok, pump clutch wasn’t operating so I traced the signal wire, I read the early 996 uses 12v to the pump so I gave it that and the clutch operated ok Before going any further I had a mobile AC engineer visit and pressure test the system I heard gushing air from the engine bay straight away. The high pressure side pipe has quite large damage/split just behind the joint. The only way I can see to replace the pipe is to drop the engine. I had a hunch things with this car were going too well..

I had to drop my engine to replace those AC pipes, replaced the hard and rubber water pipes at the same time too.

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Opens the ‘while I’m here’ can of worms dunnit …

With the AC leak diagnosed I ordered a new pipe from Porsche, £300, the engine will need dropping to fit it so that’s going on the future jobs list. After talking with Alex on here I’m going to attempt a repair, im lucky to have a retired engineer for a neighbour with a lathe! He’s turned me a little collar up and I’m going to try it with a jubilee clip and JB Weld. I’ll update if it’s successful.

I turned my attention to the oil leaks, theres oil dripping on the exhaust header and i don’t want that. (Mental note get a car fire extinguisher) My cleaning checking & investigation suggests it’s coming from the spark plug tubes. The rear bumper didn’t fit very well so while I was getting stuck in I gave it a once over The sum total of the rusty fasteners included 2 cable ties and half a broken speed clip. No wonder it’s wonky. I’ll sort this on reassembly. It’s not uncommon for a 25 year old car to have various mountings missing / broken The heat shields in the bumper bracket are all loose and rattling about, they’re held together with cable ties because of snapped broken fixings. The cars got a few vibration noises from the rear this sort of thing certainly won’t help. I’ll rectify on reassembly Exhaust removal started well And followed a similar theme The exhaust system looks good being mainly stainless, even if the mountings are a mess, I don’t know who made it?

6 new OE Match plug tubes from Design 911. On inspection one had a damaged seal new out of the packet, Design 911 dispatched another next day no charge. A brief look on youtube suggested you could easily lever the tubes out of position with a screwdriver ? And while I was very apprehensive after seeing just how brittle the first one was, I replaced the first two without a problem making a nice job of it. My worst fears were confirmed on the last tube which broke on removal with the plastic debris falling in the engine. This engine has not long been apart by a Porsche specialist, at circa £8 a tube why wouldnt you change them while you were there? It looks like the old tubes have been gummed up with sealant then stuck back in. It doesn’t fill me with confidence about the rest of the work.. Anyway time to rectify my monumental ***** up. For others reading this : DO NOT USE A SCREWDRIVER TO REMOVE LEAKING SPARK PLUG TUBES.

What a nightmare Can you not just remove the rocker cover and pull the piece of plastic out? I think that exhaust might be a DesignTek , it looks the same as what came with mine. They're pretty good , not noisy but a nice little burble higher in the rev range. Good luck

Worryingly the Exhaust manifold bolts were bone dry but luckily hadn’t been in long so came out without an issue. Every thread has been properly timesert repaired I assume by the engineer who welded the cylinder heads? Definitely not a job I wanted to inherit so every cloud and all that .. I’ll replace these bolts with studs and nuts. Silencer mounting bracket only had 2 bolts in it, luckily no fight there either. It’s a bit of a mess, maybe a car from a nice dry climate somewhere will donate me a pair? After some research I learnt the camshaft caps are part of the cam cover !? What?! So I’m going to need some special tools, this is going to be an expensive mistake. Ouch, yes, good quality special tools are a few sheckels, so I took a chance with a cheap copy item

Engine on TDC Green plugs removed camshaft holding tool inserted Vario solenoid cover plate removed and loom connector disconnected The oil pump hits the chassis when it’s withdrawn you can’t get it fully out of the engine. I left it in place with the bolts removed hopefully I can get a new seal on it and refit it properly like this ? Only one way to find out. Cover removed Luckily the plastic Debris was staring me in the face as I took the cover off. Inspecting the oil pump it’s so corroded you can only just make out the cylinder markings ! Grief that’s had a life under there .. Now I just need to put it all back together. Then replace the plug tubes on cylinders 4 - 6 WITHOUT breaking one! And fix all the broken rusted exhaust mounts And the broken missing bumper fixings And the rattling heat shields And … and

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Oh right ok, yeah It’s not very loud, It’s fine with me, I’ve kinda done the noisy exhaust thing I’m getting old lol

Good thing you got the debris out! I had to change a few of the spark plug tubes in mine despite them being renewed back in 2018 and some 20k km ago as 4/6 were leaking. Luckily mine hadn't been glued in I ended up using a long bolt with a washer and a nyloc nut at one end. I crushed the washer oval slightly so it would catch the end up the tube a bit better, inserted the bolt in the tube and pulled out the tubes with the help of a pry bar. Worked a treat!

Great thread Bert, super images too, and impressed with your way of going about things......

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Thank you It takes a bit of time to post it up so hopefully it’s interesting/ informative for others.

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Thank you yes I’ve seen reference to this method on rennlist I think? Much better idea, I’ll look to do something similar

The attention to detail and care with this project never fails to amaze me. It’s going to be some finished article Bert. Look forward to reading the next installment!

Cam cover cleaned up ready for fitting The outside looks truly awful, it messes with my OCD bolting it back on but I’m staying focussed on getting the car running and reliable first Clean inside, cam cap areas look ok, not perfect, it’s done 130k I don’t know what’s normal for these engines? Oil pump cleaned up, new seal All back on with new plug tubes You can put the Oil pump in situ and bolt the cover over the top, it helps to get a couple of bolts in it before tightening everything down New Solenoid cover seal, yes the rusty bolt bothers me too but needs must for the moment Plugs are quite black, it was used in around London? little crack on the ceramic of one, frustrating, I need to get some miles on the engine and see if they brown up As per Mr Harts recommendation I bought some Millers Oil, a filter and while im there a magnetic sump plug I thought I’d get the oil draining while I moved onto plug tubes 456 and … the sump plugs moooked .. I think if you round off sump plugs you should be banned from using hand tools for, I don’t know .. maybe this lifetime.. ? Gas, impact driver, punch drift, and it hasn’t budged a millimetre.. Those sump pan bolts have got SNAP written all over them … You’ll have to wait, back to work tomorrow

I put a propane torch on mine before I even attempted to remove them and thankfully, they cracked free. I guess someone has already left you that challenge? If that were mine, I'd probably drill the chewed hole out (blind) and tap a large left handed thread into it and use an appropriate bolt to undo it. Best of luck.

Try tapping a torx into it , they sometimes go in mangled Allen bolts really well , enough to slacken at least and get a new one. T40/45 might do it

It looks like that trick was deployed to do it up uncle mont ! There’s very little material left to do much with I’ll get it out, somehow, venting my frustration of adding 2 hours to a 5 minute job..

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First 2 hours of a 5 minute job are always the hardest.

Have you got a box of these? That plug shouldn't be too tight so these should work

I replaced mine with a Stainless one.

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Oooh, got a link?

They're a cheap set but should manage a sump plug US PRO 15PC Heavy Duty Screw And Stud Extractor Set - Removes Broken Screws 2637 | eBay UK US PRO 17pc Screw, Bolt, Stud & Nut Extractor MIXED Set 2649. Lighting & Security. US PRO Industrial. Hex drive extractors in the following sizes 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 8, 10mm (12mm Hex Drive). 11, 12, 14mm (16mm Hex Drive). www.ebay.co.uk

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Thanks, I just snapped a US Pro T55 bit so nervous of quality, but will take a gamble! Sorry for derail, let us know how you get on with the plug extraction.

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Might be a bit geeky, but i bought some correct tyre pressure stickers from https://www.classics-stickers.com/en/18-tire-pressure They’re reproductions but are brilliant quality.

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No I haven’t ? interesting thank you I’ve never seen such a thing ? My line of thinking today is JB welding a bolt nut combo into what’s left of the hole .. ?

Yeah I think that would do it too Make sure the JB has gone off properly before you have a go at it I’d probably use brake cleaner inside the bolt before the epoxy Good luck

I have to say over the years I’ve seen very little success with ‘easy out type’ solutions they look similar but different ..

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Same here - I find that they only tend to work on bolts that require not much torque to un-do and where the need is due to lack of grip in a rusted or chewed head. When I've used them on REALLY tight, seized bolts, it either sheers the head off or snaps the easy out.

I'd hammer a torx or spline bit (or one of those chunky design easy outs from above)into it, then while an assistant puts some torque on that, use a chisel on the outer part/edge. This has worked for me in the past when nothing else would!

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They’re rubbish and made of pastry but I reckon it’d undo a sump plug.

Leaving the sump plug problem for the moment I started plug tubes 456 Manifold bolts all bone dry but haven’t been in long so came out ok, same with the silencer bracket bolts, top ones are a bit tricky to access Coils are new, marked up the connectors so they go back in the right place, ideally that would have been 456 but that’s a lot of paint dots ! It doesn’t look that bad a leak but once running it starts to drip on the exhaust, familiar red sealant on these tubes too Cleaned down the cover as best I could I wasn’t going to repeat the disaster of 123 so after some research I made up a small puller with a top hat spacer and it worked a treat. I would highly recommend this method to anyone doing this job. Again the tubes this side have been gummed up with sealant a bunged back in Don’t really want all that floating about in my engine Patent pending Nice New tubes little bit of red rubber grease Another job done

Earth strap actually looks brand new ! But it’s been fitted back with the original rusty old nut? I don’t get it, you were there.. with the nut off, in your hand ?! If you’re going to do something ..

Silencer mounts have seen better days, New ones aren’t disastrous money but certainly not a top priority I gave them a clean up and decided to cut off the nasty bits, clean up and paint the mounting parts. Hopefully they’ll service like this for a while ..

With its reputation as a grenade you’d think it was job number one for a new 996 owner wouldn’t you really ? I’ve borrowed a scope from a friend, cross fingers ..

great work

I've built quite a few bike engines over the years but never used a boresope so this was new to me, This tool has a head that rotates 180 degrees so you can inspect the valves, brilliant idea. Its hard to know quite how the pictures relate in reality without stripping the engine to inspect it, ideally id want to scope and dissemble a few dozen for experience but that would become quite an expensive hobby! You can easily use it to inspect for anything obvious and the screen is easier to see than the quality of the pictures show. The good news is there isnt any really major bore damage, there is without doubt wear in the bores, some worse than others. Its covered 130k miles, its been apart previously to repair cracked cylinder heads, with the M96 reputation (and my luck) I fully expected it would need rebuilding in my ownership. . There's more oil in the bores than id like, not uncommon in a boxer engine as i understand it, The debris on the wall doesnt look ideal For the moment the old girl runs, idles ok, quiet enough, pulls well and doesnt smoke, I need to get some miles on it to see where we are oil consumption wise.

That's in the "no emergency, perfectly serviceable, monitor with use" category' I'd say, which for the mileage is very good indeed.

nice work on the plug and tube change, I'll be doing mine soon so the reference shots will be useful. I'm thinking about attempting it with the bumper on though... great job overall and keep the photos coming!

The sump plug put up quite a fight but I got it out. The thread wasnt looking great , no idea what’s happened to it? I considered a helicoil repair but lying on your back with swarf going into the engine ? Research showed that a boxster sump plate had the same part number, so did the baffle piece. Further research, 5 hours later down the worm hole about X51 sump plates I was back in the room. Hmmm have to park that for the moment. Boxster sump plate readily available 2nd hand very reasonable money. All I had to do was get this one off? To my amazement every one of the bolts with ‘ready to snap’ written all over them came out without a problem. It never fails to amaze me what you find in the sump of running serviceable engines. I often think being completely mechanically ignorant would be a lot less stressful. 2nd hand pan procured, cleaned, new magnetic sump plug. Certainly got my money’s worth out of these tap drivers over the years Bolts cleaned up and run through the die Cleaned up the treads in the case All on, fill it with oil and hope it seals

Back to my motorbike roots I got some stainless studs and copper nuts for the manifolds Almost ever thread in the head has been previously repaired, I’m guessing by the engineering company who repaired the crack? Small mercy I was saved from that hell. I don’t know who makes the stainless headers? Seem nice enough quality, probably out last me! The only thing you find with studs is everything has to be spot on, you don’t the wiggle room you do with bolting them on, few adjustments and we were on, take a chance with the old gaskets as they’ve not long been fitted.

Another forum member rightly pointed out the heat shields don’t fit over the newer style Beru coils, I had a couple of spacers that worked well, some new stainless bolts. At this point I realised the silencer mount bracket won’t fit on after the manifold so the whole lot came off again Both the brackets only had 2 bolts holding them on when dismantling, now I know why. 123 side had one top one snapped off. I’ve got 2 hopes of getting that out (not that I didn’t waste an hour trying!) it’s gunna have to go on the jobs list (very annoying) And 456 side are a bit of a pig so I could see a mechanic without enough resolve left wouldn’t bother. Never the less Silencers cleaned, because.. they’re stainless it’s the rules Manifolds on brackets assemble with new M8 stainless flange nuts and bolts. These look like something from B & Q ! They’ll have to do for the moment, it’s going to be winter soon, put on the Jobs list.

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I spoke with Hartech, you can send them the cases, they’ll do the liners and I can do the rest, which works for me. I’d be very tempted to 3.7 it while I was there because, why wouldn’t you? Even with my technically free labour it’s a huge lump of money to me, let’s hope it’s got a few miles left in it before we have to think about that ..

great work

You are doing a grand job. Been there done that re-using old parts when needs must and more than once, such is life, and not everything falls to hand when required or desired...at least those clamps will be a simple removal task, once replacements are sourced, unlike the challenge lying in wait under my 991..!

brilliant work - i think i am doing well if i clean the inside of my wheels when i wash it so this is somewhat CSI level for me

With all things considered I decided to follow Hartechs recommendations on engine oil. I later realised although the viscosity was correct, the oil I bought was missing the +NT part in the name, Frustrating mistake, penny dropped why it was £20 cheaper. It took 10 litres to fill, presumably because I’d had the sump off and one side cam cover apart. First start up, it was miss firing.. The Beru coils were an incredibly tight fit, the air pressure was such you needed the mounting bolts to pull them home, I wasn’t convinced this was right and half expected a problem. One of the Bosh Spark Plugs had a cracked ceramic anyway so I knew I was chancing my arm, Only new plugs l could get same day were Denso from euro car parts. Everything Cleaned checked refitted with new plugs, Problem solved. I made some repairs to the rattling bumper mounting heat shields Drilled out, used a rivnut All those years of hoarding continue to pay off Not pretty but it’ll service Raided my daughters art box to get a new brush for my Copper slip tin .. Cleaned up ready to get covered in road muck Bumper on, doesn’t fit great OSR. Put it on the jobs list, we need to get an MOT !

Had a flickering number plate light, the connectors had seen better days, cleaned up and soldered in place for good measure. Great news! Great to finally get out in it for a couple of hours, I think Mr shell is going to do alright out of me ..

Looking super smart there, congrats on the MOT pass....

Can't beat a clean Silver 99 996

I’ve been investigating the AC not working. The system had no oil/gas in it and I found a large leak from a damaged pipe in the engine bay. I bought the pipe from Porsche £300 ouch but the engine needs dropping to fit it. One for the winter jobs list really.. After a suggestion from Alex on here I attempted a repair with Liquid Metal JB Weld and a small collar and jubilee clip my neighbour made me on his lathe. It was tight squeeze to get it on nicely but I thought it was worth a try, nothing to loose the pipes got to come out anyway. In preparation for filling the system I took a chance and fitted a new dryer A friend of a friend had a small local garage with an AC service machine so I paid them a visit. I was actually pretty amazed it held pressure! I was really optimistic at this point so we plugged the AC machine on and did a full vacuum and regas. But unfortunately the pump clutch didn’t engage so it still didn’t work. I turned my attention to how the system works, I always find I need several mugs of something to help me think when I’m working with electrics. So…. I have no ground feed from the DME to the AC relay. If I supply it a ground, everything works and we get beautiful cold air ! OK So what parameters does the DME need to see for it to supply a ground ? Renntech Internet worm hole about people fitting an LS1 ? I don’t even know what that is Bang head on wall. Run out of time, Back to work to pay the gas bill. To be continued….

Another deeply impressive thread. I like seeing these 996's reach the stage where people with proper knowledge and ability resuscitate what, to most of us, would be a terminal diagnosis. Bodes well for the 996 generally I hope. Great work. am enjoying reading / seeing the progress. And am envious of the time 7 ability you have to dedicate to this. We need an OCD thread section of the forum......

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Thanks for the kind words Simon, it’s nice to know it brings people enjoyment reading about it, I love the work, always have. It’s certainly not easy getting the time around the day job & family, Mrs Bert’s ‘residential to do list’ has been rather neglected since the arrival of the 996, there’s murmurings of a disciplinary !

We have AC ! With my head in the wiring diagram (thank you Alex) and further testing carried out I couldn’t go much further without access to piwis. I took an educated guess the HVAC controls weren’t doing what they were suppose to. A lucky find on eBay from Douglas Valley Breakers, with matching part numbers (apparently this IS important) was dispatched amazingly quickly and we were in business! Nice another tick in the box.

The gear shift and steering wheel were all sticky for some reason? I can only think maybe it’s had a reconditioning treatment of some sort that hasn’t really worked? Or maybe the leather conditioner I put on reacted with it? I tried lots of different products and it just kept shedding blue dye ? Anyway Ive removed what ever it was and although not cosmetically very nice it’s clean and not sticky anymore! I’d like to get it all retrimmed at some point when the budget allows . With an MOT, and working AC ! I let my soon to be 80 year old dad have a drive. He owned a 70’s 911E about 40 years ago when I was small so it was lovely to make a memory in it together. I had a play with the tyre pressures, ended up running 36 32 and it drove really well, the standard 44 36 was just too hard for British B Roads. Of course we had to visit mr shell, again.

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I second the tyre pressure issues... factory way too harsh a ride. i run 34 rear and 32 front.

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Ive been looking at the various options for mounting a phone in the 996. I’ve been through my fair share of plastic crap over the years, like most have. The main thing I wanted was easy access navigation for road trips, Im old fashioned, I’m quite happy with a paper map, back in the day I use to write out my directions on a bit of paper and gaffer tape them to the tank of my bike! I’m thoroughly spoilt now .. I decided on this bespoke mount from a chap in the states. Hazard Trim Phone Mount | Renn Classic Hazard trim phone mount for all 1999-2005 Porsche 996 models (Carrera, Turbo, and GT2/3). Ideal location for mounting your phone or GPS lap timers. www.rennclassic.com I removed my current heath robinson affair, yes that is motorcycle inner tube. Dismantle that, you need the magnetic head part. 3D printed Tough plastic nylon the kit is brilliantly Designed to replace the factory hazard light surround Robert’s ya father’s brother. Excellent.

The headlights weren’t the worst I’ve seen, I think they’ve been played with before but they didn’t look nice. I invested a couple of hours with wet and dry and a rotary mop to improve them. I think I could get them better with a few finer grades of paper and some more time but they’ll do for now.

Nice work. I need to do my headlights too as they are starting to yellow. I have the same hazard trim phone mount and think it's an excellent solution.

There hasn’t been much time, or budget, to spanner the 996 lately. I have managed to burn a few quids worth of v power though which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing ! It’s been really good to get some miles on it, shake it down and see where I am .. Visiting Mr Shell . Popped into Caffine and machine one day to see what that was all about.. Visited Mr Shell .. again . before chasing the dawn Enjoyed it so much I did it again another day Visited Paragon Showroom, beautifully prepared cars, the work these guys do is first class, was lovely to see .. With the new Oil we have a hot idle pressure of 2 bar, it was 1 bar before. We also now have a regular puff of smoke on start up, the biggest of which it saved for leaving my first 911uk Fairmile meet! Thank you 996 nice and embarrassing, we’re spose to be mates, I’ve spent hours working on you !! Summary: Unfortunately the controls are ruining the driving experience, they’re top of my list to sort. Gear shift is awful, worn sloppy plastic bushes I’m still deliberating which option I go with to sort this while I save some money. The throttle pedal is sticky and wobbly Ive ordered the Rennline Aluminium hinge to hopefully cure this with a good clean up. Brake pedal makes a funny metallic sound, operating fine but needs investigation. Clutch pedal is creaky Unfortunately it sounds gearbox end, my experience says it’s pressure plate, don’t really want to go in there just yet .. Back to work, get some more Porsche Vouchers ..

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I found a 997 standard shifter with a 2019 date on it, on ebay, perfect for me ( tried the blue chinese one, utter rubbish, too short, too awkward) Ive done the rennline throttle after finding the plastic original clicked and moved when stamping on it on track, that fix works fine, no downsides. No idea on the brake pedal sorry. My clutch is the same, im building up courage to do it this winter. Good luck

Money and time have been in short supply lately but I HAD to fix the shifter and throttle pedal, they were awful and ruining the driving experience After much deliberation I decided to fit a Genuine Porsche 997 Shifter mechanism, hopefully a good OEM plus kind of repair/improvement I bought a Rennline throttle pedal hinge to fix the floppy pedal A powerflex gearbox bush to compliment the car’s new engine mounts. I’m interested to see how this feels And some wipers, because the ones fitted are the wrong size. Simple enough job to strip down and fit A welcome donation to the cause from previous owners, unfortunately the pounds are outdated .. All fitted in, very satisfying hoovering and cleaning this area while it’s apart, it’s the little things .. I noticed the hand brake pivot didn’t look central, it didn’t operate very well and the whole system was on my list to look at I removed it and realigned the pivot, checked lubricated and cleaned it before refitting and it’s much improved! Excellent, not often you get a ‘free’ repair in this world .. The felt on the seat belt buckles had disintegrated leaving sticky residue and scratch marks on the console. I cleaned it all up and fitted a couple of foam patches on the buckles, no idea how long they’ll last but while you’re there do the best you can .. I decided I’d look at the centre console delete while I was there, its creaky plastic construction and a redundant CD holder just seemed something I could easily live without, less faff, I set about relocating the heated seat switches to the horse shoe. The fabric loom tape the Germans use just falls apart overtime, unlooping itself and leaving the cables all sticky and generally unpleasant to handle Soon turns into one of those jobs you wished you hadn’t started And I ran an I phone lead from the Blaupunkt up to the hazard switch phone mount All fitted back together, I’ll research the console delete trim options ..

On to the throttle pedal hinge repair, I suppose technically you could fit it in situ? But where’s the fun in that .. Upside down in footwells, it’s really not my favourite place to work, there’s never enough room for both your limbs AND your head let alone your body aswell ! You can see why any jobs in this area of a car get neglected.. I decided to removed the whole unit The aluminium with bronze bush replaces the plastic original Stripped checked and cleaned, because .. Nice ready to reassemble Washers they supplied are not up to spec so I fitted my own All fixed, no more flop, great ! Cleaned reassembled lubricated where needed Back in the car, piece a cake New pedal rubbers needed .. more money

I’ve got no intention of putting my book pack between my legs so that can go ..

Obviously the shifter and throttle pedal needed a thorough test so I stole a few hours for a shakedown .. Can’t go wrong with a spitfire in your coffee .. It drives so much better, really happy with those jobs, hopefully I can get time to fit the gearbox bush before the years out. Theres a loud click from the rear suspension that needs investigation, that jobs found its way to the top of the list now, I have a feeling im going to need more Porsche vouchers …

What a brilliant job you are doing…..keep up the great work mate As for the phone holder that is the one earmarked for mine I just couldn’t make my mind up on how to connect it to my phone……is the magnetic one a good hold?

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Thank you It works great, the guys engineered it really well, the ESR Magnetic part he recommends is really strong, almost too strong.

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Cheers for the feedback I need to buy one and I should have bought one earlier as he’s put his prices up

Good work, Sir!

An opportunity presented itself recently to get out of London and enjoy the car so I grabbed it with both hands, I was up to chase the dawn this time to wales I only had a day so cobbled together a route around Brecon from various online discussions. Had a lovely dry morning but the inevitable UK rain and wind soon dampened proceedings .. Nevertheless 996 dealt with everything thrown at it no problem, munched the Motorway, absolutely loves a sweeping A road, happily squelched and slipped its way over the black mountain pass and when I got home I could of thrown the keys to my wife to go out to bingo, considering it’s 25 years old, what a thing ..

The 996 has been laid up all winter, I had lots of jobs I wanted to get on with but had zero time, had to prioritise family & work. It had a really good clean before putting away, 50psi in tyres and a cover With the first signs of spring and a free morning I was really excited to get out in it! I fully charged the battery several times over winter but I think my old battery charger has had it, I had dash lights but not enough to crank. Used the jump box and it started first go with no smoke at all ! For sanity I gave a quick alternator check. All ok Lights levels pressures and we were off to Goodwood for a coffee ! Was great to get out of London for a few hours, Ive really missed driving it.

I managed to find some hard back sports seats in metropole blue for a reasonable price. They’re pretty tired but hopefully with some work will clean up ok. The backs are pretty knocked about, I need the front bumper painting so think I’ll look into getting the seat backs done at the same time? After much deliberation I decided I wanted to keep the car as period correct and original as possible which ultimately for me ment choosing this style of seat. Ive bought some leather jolop, see how we get on cleaning them up.

I’ve managed to squeeze in a few hours on the sports seats lately. They had some nasty dents in that vastly improved but not gone with careful application of a heat gun. I used the ultra clean product, applied with a clean kitchen sponge, amazing what comes off on the cloth. Followed by the revive solution with the seats bagged and cling filmed to stop the product evaporating too quickly. Several treatments of protection cream and they’ve come up pretty well. A thorough clean of all the levers & runners, seat belt parts looked nasty. Stripped off the old felt, cleaned treated new foam patch fitted and a red sharpie to finished off the button. I set about stripping the old seats out, bit grotty under here Someone went to Italy ? In 2005. I’m sure there are plenty of people that would just bolt the seats in without all the faffing .. I’m just not wired up that way Drivers side yucky .. hoard I had a really decent check under the carpets, all clean, dry nothing to report except a pencil wedged in the box section What sort of enthusiast drives around in his her Porsche knowing that’s there ! Took some perseverance but got it in the end .. One sport seat was missing a side trim, they’re also grey not blue. After retrieving the remnants if the old one I’ll use the trim from the original seats, how hard can it be ? 2 bleeding fingers and a couple of bad words later it was done. Swap over blue switch panel Id read the base sponges sink into the frame and the drivers side has done the same I don’t want to go into a full seat refurb job until I know I get on with the seats so repurposed a motocross inner tube to support the foam for now. Another Heath Robinson affair was the addition of an inflatable lumbar support, I ran it in the comfort seats and it worked well. All fitted in Now technically my car came with ruffled leather so it’s going to bug me the rear seats are wrong, I like the ruffled look, maybe I could swap the base and centres of the original seats into these hard backs ? Hmmmm, I’ll have to get more plasters for my fingers if we’re doing more upholstery …

loving the attention to detail - i was bored last weekend so stripped out the centre console to get at the crud that was visible around the handbrake - cleaned up the little metal plate and found 10 hong kong cents from her first life for my troubles - 1997 coin. When i had the seats out I found a 1 HK dollar from 1994 which was her first year.

That’s great moo youve got to keep that coin in the car for good luck! I’ve always found the history of cars quite fascinating, where they’ve been, who’s driven them, the memories they make for people. We are only custodians after all. A few months back I was looking through the paperwork of my car, there’s a photocopy of the original V5 registered in Scotland and quite a rare name, I didn’t recognise it, out of curiosity a google search ensued. It transpired the first owner was a famous foreign football player when he moved to the UK, he’s since retired abroad but there was an email address for the business he was involved with. I politely contacted with pictures as I thought he might like to see his old car and know it’s still alive being cared for and enjoyed and I got a lovely reply to confirm it was his and he had great memories of driving around Scotland in it when he first came to the UK. I don’t follow football, I don’t imagine the cars association with him will net some enormous financial gain for me personally, that’s not of interest to me and out of politeness and respect for his privacy I won’t put the name on here. But for one old dusty photocopy in a car’s history paperwork I would have been none the wiser.

I wrote to all my cars previous owners - and not one replied..................maybe i was not as polite as you were nice that he took the time to reply, these cars are living breathing history and its far too easy to forget previous adventures they had before we got to look after them ready for the next person

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Folk are strange aren't they..... i contacted 3 of the previous owners of my 996 and all replied and we fondly discussed owning her and all 3 were pleased she was being pampered and running strong and i also got some info on what had been done that wasn't documented......i always enjoy discussing an old steed....all 3 of them regretted selling her too........!!! Also spoke to 2 dealers that sold her over the years and got a few extra photos frpm each of them for the archive .

Sorry you didn’t get a reply moo, that’s great skoosh. I’ve got other addresses, maybe I’ll look into those next ? It was lovely to get a reply, I wasn’t holding out much hope, it’s well known footballers go through cars like they do pairs of boots !

Have you googled said footballer for pics of him with the car...?

Nothing I could find, things were different in 1999 though, not sure there was the abundance of photographs there is now ? I didn’t even have a mobile phone then, let alone one with a camera on !

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Ah, the good ol' days..............

After blowing the cobwebs off it in April I had lots planned for the year but sadly none of it’s happened. Our second trip out together came to an abrupt end 100 miles from home with the mother of blue smoke clouds out the back. Obviously being a 996 owner I feared the worst but on inspection there weren’t any signs of catastrophic failure, I still had good oil pressure, there were no horrible metallic noises and nothing was dripping or hanging underneath? I took the decision to nurse it home, on reflection I should have trailered it but anyway, we made it back. And there it sat for 2 months until I got time around work family to look at it. I had puffs of white smoke on start up and plooms of blue smoke under load. So we had oil in the bores and that only comes from 2 places, past the rings or in the valves. As they’re such a common failure point I checked the AOS, the car had a new one fitted when the engine work was done so it hasnt been on long I bought a cheap Manometer and a secondhand oil cap. Jake Raby in the US suggested 5 - 6 inches of H2O at hot idle. Ok that’s in spec Increase the revs and on the return to idle it peaked at 8.2. First one ive tested so I’ve no idea if it should do that ? Plugs out white tips and horrible black electrodes Compression test Good news no obvious low compression readings but 2 cylinders with high readings ? Excessive coke up maybe oil in the bore ? Bit inconclusive

I bought an endoscope recently and put it straight to good use. A few light cylinder marks and some horrible looking piston crowns but No obvious sign of the dreaded bore score ! Ah ok so we have oil in behind the valves, that’s really not good

Righto let’s get stripping my little German friend : Great start, throttle body loom connectors got no clips left so it’s using gravity to hold it in place Throttle value sealed with mastic, nice And we have lots of oil in the plenum So the vacuum chamber is rolling around on top of the engine because the mounting brackets completely broken At this point I noticed we had green fluid too! Triffic I’ve only just got that working Although it had been staring me in the face all this time and I hadn’t noticed until compared to other cars I realised the low pressure AC line to the pump was all bent, it’s been mullered, With damage marks and the wrong mounting bolt in .. And now it’s leaking.. Temperature Sensor swinging in the breeze A couple of hours work and I had the inlets off AC PAS and Alternator out the way so I could see what I was dealing with, which was a huge bloody mess basically.. To steal another man’s line “It’s like wall papering your hallway through the letterbox” The AOS is genuine and not that long fitted but I’m going to replace it anyway while I’m here. I’ve little doubt that’s where the oils come from but like everything I want to understand why it’s done it?

Oh dear Bert, what a bummer. That AOS does look new and OE like you say but... You'll get there and get it fixed Just read your entire thread again, great start to a Sunday.

She’s in a bad way Bert, but it could be worse I’d just drop the entire engine and box in one do it’s much easier and quicker honestly, it then becomes a pleasure to work on.

I need to drop the engine to fit the new AC lines and get access to fix a few other bits. I was really hoping to keep it driveable doing jobs as and when I get time but the more I go round it, the more I find, I’m wrestling with Mission Creep on this one that’s for sure !

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I feel your pain.