My 03 C2 adventures (was: Intro and 996 Airbox questions)

Hi Everyone, First post here from a new owner of a 2003 C2, loving the machine so far.  After starting out in Mazdas (RX4 Coupe... don't I wish I still had THAT one!, 626 Coupe, MX5) I then degenerated into the Euro scene with an Alfa, followed by a Saab and a couple of Beemers.  I've come to really like the Beemers (e36 and 39), they're pleasing and dependable as long as you keep up the maintenance, easy to work on and when you do you can see the quality in everything down to the fasteners (okay, interior plastic sucks).  I appreciate nicely engineered cars but to be perfectly honest I can't afford them new, and am handy enough with spanners so prefer to spend a few bob throwing parts at a high quality but somewhat aged car than buying a new korean/whatever miserybox. So anyhow, through some fortunate (time will tell...) circumstances I got into this daily driven example.  It's been well used with a few good stories to tell and just a bit over 200k on the clock, well looked after cosmetically and a reasonable service history.  I'd have liked to see more oil changes but what can you do.  It's had clutch and flywheel replaced around 130k, IMS done pre-emptively at 150, AOS, water pump and a few other things done as required.  It has a few oil leaks which seem to be a feature of the marque, growing up I was into motorcycles and it was always the pommy rubbish that leaked oil and the euro stuff generally held it's oil on the inside.  BMW's taught me that German cars are not necessarily oil tight and the Porker backs it up.  But I've gone in eyes wide open and expect to be pulling the engine/gearbox for a look-see. The car looks great in midnight blue over a black interior with the alcantara headliner, factory 10mm lower ride height.  Genuine 997 19" wheels and what now appears to be non-original skirts and spoiler set it off.  For a comparatively cheap car she certainly is a looker!  It has a Gemballa exhaust and K&N air filter charger thingy.  The latter does not really meet my approval, seems like a hokey type of thing even though it sounds GREAT!  I pulled the S-pipe off and noticed some residue on the throttle butterfly suggesting it's not really filtering all that well.  Fortunately the original airbox came with it, I've sourced a Mahle air filter for it and pulled it apart to clean it up for installation today.  I found a K&N panel filter in there as well, but will go with the paper one for the moment. A couple of questions; the foam in the bottom half is crumbling away, it doesn't seem to serve much purpose except perhaps noise emissions, I assume it's ok to simply pull it out?  And secondly, are the 'speed holes' in the bottom correct or have they been added?  I would have thought they want to pull air only from the cooler/cleaner deck lid rather than the hot and grimy engine bay? Cheers St3ve

Still looking for my 'daily driver' so can't tell....some bargains around at the moment.How about some pics of your car?

Started reading this and wondered if I’d posted while drunk. I’m Steve, once had an RX4 (although sedan) and also have an 03 996 C2. I came across this exact issue on mine just 2 days ago while doing the idler / tensioner pulleys, and came to the conclusion it’s better off gone. It’s covering a drainage hole at the bottom of the airbox, and given it’s on the unfiltered side (ie any air coming in still passes through the filter) I couldn’t see any risk in removing it.

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that can happen... especially in lockdown. Thanks for the input, I've already removed the foam and the frame. How about the multitude of small holes on the other side?  They look altogether too orderly to be anything other than factory now I look at it closer, so I think that's normal.  I stripped the box down and cleaned it up, stuck it back together for reinstallation this weekend. I'm getting a hoist installed at home, should be in late next week.  That will hopefully make both minor and major jobs quite a bit easier.  I have leaks which need investigation, most likely an RMS, and also something on the LH cylinder bank.  I'm hoping it's just spark plug tubes, but might be cam bridge.  Fun times ahead. Will take a couple of pics next time it's out of the garage, I think I have a shopping run to do today in fact... Cheers

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Hi Steve, Congrats on the Carrera, sounds like you will be well set up to take care of it. Even though I don't think I would be as proficient on the tools as you seem, having a hoist at home would be the dream garage.

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In reality my shed is too small and too low for working on cars, it won't be ideal by any stretch but should be a good improvement on jack stands as I've used for the last decade or three. Here's the Carerra.  The body kit parts seem to be Porsche Carerra Aerokit, my good mate the PO said they were original, but they're not on the build plate so might be either genuine ones fitted at the dealer or aftermarket.  Looks quite schmick anyhow. New Stabilus gas struts arrived yesterday for the front and back, so yay I can now put things in the front without it trying to eat me. I didn't realise but they actually ordered me two gas struts for the engine cover where I only needed one.  If anyone in Canberra region wants it for $40 it's better than sitting in my spares cupboard for 15 years.  The ones on there were original and still working to a degree, so I won't need another one soon.  Not genuine Porsche but the same brand and fit etc. Cheers

Nice looking car Steve. Love the wheels...  997 Carrera classic?

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Thanks!  I don't know the exact model, only told they were from a 997.  I like them too, they are not dissimilar to the original 18's and are somewhat understated (and not too hard to clean!). I didn't get around to fitting the airbox on the weekend but I have plenty of time...

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Yep, they look great on the 996, and I agree, similar to the original 996 18's. Unfortunately it seems I have too much of it... Has become counter productive, and I'm finding a sad lack of motivation.

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Just get out to the garage and do something... anything.  As James May would put it, brush the dust off the interior vents! Even if it is ultimately no use for the car, it will be of a use to you! I spent an iso weekend playing with the new toy on the new hoist, it's a long while I've been wanting one of these! The first objective was just to get underneath and work out what I was dealing with, and to start to learn the car.  Obviously, it is a very different mechanical architecture to anything I've experienced before, so it required some looking and pondering.  I knew it had oil leaks, but was unprepared for the horrors under there - what a mess! The front of the left hand bank, the bellhousing at left foreground... is there an engine under all that crud?? Front of the sump.... So as expected, rear main and/or IMS leaking badly for a long time. I'd done some preliminary de-greasing earlier and narrowed the biggest leaks down to what seemed to be rear main area and left cylinder head area.  I wanted to see what the story was with the head, to work out the extent of what I need to do.  I will likely pull the entire engine/gearbox anyhow, but want and idea of what I'm dealing with. On the left bank which was really dropping oil badly, there is evidence of blown oil from the rear main, and also a big buildup from the cam timing actuators and/or spark plug tubes. Much the same on the right...  I'm being cautiously optimistic about this, it might not be the actual cam covers, just fairly easily serviced items on the outside.  With a bit of googling and youtubing it seems these spark plug tubes and solenoid flange seals are very common leak points.  Makes me wonder why the shop supposedly servicing it didn't suggest this (since it took me all of half an hour on the internet to learn) but there you go. I spent most of Saturday under the car seemingly transferring all the crud from the car onto myself.  I was prepping for pebble beach, just wanted to get a baseline to examine new buildup and get an idea of what really needs doing.  I'll order the cylinder head parts and have a proper crack at those areas with the rear bar and mufflers off.  A bit of cleaning had photo #2 looking more like this which is a good start. More to come... Cheers Iso'ers St3ve

Great work St3ve, The hoist is already paying itself off..! Love the effort on the degreasing, looks like the toothbrushes worked well. Hope you put your wife's one back in the bathroom when you were done 🛁

Hi All, Just trying to work out what I need to order... Can anyone clarify whether the M96.03 3.6l has the same spark plug tubes as the 3.4?  I have what I believe is a factory parts book but they were too lazy to replace the cylinder head graphic for the 3.6 so it's a little confusing because it shows the 3.4 head without valvelift.  The graphic in the parts book does not show the tubes, just 2 seals per cylinder which appear to go between the head-to-tappet carrier and from tappet carrier-to-cam bridge/cover. This leads me to believe that the plug tubes are non-servicable in the 3.6l donk?  If they're leaking then it's an engine out job to remove the cam covers and tappet carrier? Thanks!

Okay, well I can answer my own question... yes the 3.6l does not have spark plug tubes they are integral to the head, basically the tappet carrier I guess.  Continuing on my new Porsche adventures - and figuring I'm in iso anyhow so why not pull it apart some more and see for myself - I took off the rear bar, mufflers and heat shields so I can better clean everything up and have a good look.  It looks like major surgery but is so so easy and quick to do!  The only annoying aspect is the muffler brackets remaining in the way of the heads and looking like being more or less impossible to remove in situ. Here's the plug hole -aluminium so no tubes (I think!).  Seems like one thing they fixed in the update from the M96.2 to the M96.3. I'll pull the others out tomorrow and see if there's any sign of oil inside but this one is dry and I'm thinking the oil is from elsewhere.

So I've done a bit more on the old bus.  It seems like everyone and their dog on youtube pulls the radiators apart to clean them out... ok that will give me a sense of achievement and get to know a bit more about the car.  Once again, everything is really easy to pull apart.  As I had expected, loads of crap in there. While I'm at it, clean up the wheel arches and suspension.  Bump stops are knackered and one of the sway bar links has a slightly split boot but otherwise the suspension looks good from the outside.  It will be getting a going over but not until after the engine is sorted. Bad photo, but all nice and clean under there now.  It's coming up really well for a 200k daily driver.  In spite of the well-publicised engine shortcomings they really are a well built car. Fair enough we're an easy climate compared to many places, but everything's totally spot on. Of course you can't see any of this work once it's back together and it will drive exactly the same as before (which is why it rarely if ever gets done by a shop) but the rads will hopefully live longer, my ocd was satisfied and when I do come to do some suspension work it will be less gross. PS: I still haven't swapped the airbox...

I got all the engine, heat shields and so on cleaned up as best as possible.  Removed all the coils and sure enough no sign at all of any oil leakage from inner or outer seals which was great.  One coil had been replaced with the newer 997 type but the others were original.  There was some slight degredation of the rubber tips but the coils seem in good shape with no cracking etc.  Not sure whether to pre-emptively replace them in due course or not. I had a crack at fitting the Gemballa tips which had come with the rest of the exhaust from new but never been used since they didn't fit.  It certainly didn't seem like they would fit a stock rear bumper.  Anyway, I did a bit of cut and shut with some 54mm tube and they're now on... not perfectly symmetric but it's a start. Did a 100km social distancing drive including three lots of roadworks and the old girl looked like a WRC car... dirtied up those nice wheel arches nicely... yeah!  I put it back up in the air and checked out the areas around coils and solenoids as best I could without any disassembly and they look dead dry.  Put another 1000km on it and see how it looks. I'm wondering if all the mess can just be blown oil from the rear main seal??  Do people end up with oil all over cylinder heads and around the injectors etc just from a badly leaking RMS? PS Still haven't fitted the airbox...

Since the last post I've done a couple of thousand k's and spent some quality time staring up at my "pork belly" while trying to remove several years of accumulated minor oil leaks.  Today was another run at it, I removed all the under trays other than the front one and got degreasing.  Gross, but satisfying.  I've got some Motul Gear 300 arriving early next week so started around the box to tidy that up prior to the oil change.  The gearshift isn't terrible but is not great either.  Looked at the cables underneath and there's no slop down there so after the oil change I'll attack the shifter console. I then got going on the engine which is cleaning up nicely and the new AOS line seems to have cured all but my small RMS leak.  It seems to have been the AOS line which was causing the bulk of the mess.  On later cars this line is entirely convoluted plastic and mine had rubbed through in two places.  I don't think this is an issue on the 3.4's which has a mostly solid line.  Either way they're all getting on for 20 yrs old and prone to cracking though, so if you have a major leak over either cylinder head, that line is worth a look. Harking back to the original thread title, I have been running the original airbox on it for a while now but I really miss the banshee induction howl.  I bought a nice new BMC 90mm cone filter to suit the K&N apparatus that I had removed some time back.  I'll swap over to that and see how it goes when the replacement belt arrives along with the gearbox oil.

Cleaning under cars is no fun Steve and as the Irish poet said (about house painting in his case), it is 'a dirty and dangerous job!' However one done and filthy clothes disposed of, it is satisfying and you can see what you have in front of you. Especially where the leaks are.  The Aero set up looks great and these are highly valued in the UK.

Loving your work sir… Another one to add to the OCD kanbra Kollektiv

I have a Gemballa exhaust system including the tips fitted to my 996 with standard bumpers so it's definitely feasible.

^^ It's 996.1 v 996.2 The tips are different, hence the need for the xtension to make them 996.2  compatible

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Cheers Merv(o)!  It's been good to track down what at first looked pretty bad, only to find it seems like it was basically just minor leaks over a long period which resulted in something that looked a lot worse than it was.  I think this is also exaggerated with a rear engine car since it's getting the dust from all 4 wheels landing on any slightly sticky surface. Me?  Never! Sorry for the late reply, I was just re-indexing my toolbox by brand, title and middle name of the company's most senior engineer using the dewey decimal system... Aha!  That explains a few things then.  There was no way at all they were going to fit, and even the quad pipe type tips that were on there before had been (indelicately)  'adjusted' to make fit.  The bend of the tip would foul the entry pipe looping into the muffler from the cat if they were angled anywhere near downward enough to fit the rear bar.  I added 30mm above the bend and they're a lot better but still not ideal.  I think they need less length between the bend and the tip, or a slightly less acute angle of bend.  Anyhow, working for now and looking pretty good. The line in the photo below seems to have been the culprit for all the over-cylinder-head leaks.  It had rubbed through on inlet runner #5 on the right and the coolant level sensor on the left.  If you have a 3.6 check it's not rubbing in either of those spots or anywhere else.  Part # 996 107 147 59.

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Thats a great win Steve. You've done some great work cleaning up the mess in those first few pics, so it must feel great to have sourced the problem.

Cheers all, yeah it'll be nice to not see those oil slicks under the car.  I'll still have what I think is a rear main seal weep, but that is pretty minor and easy enough to clean up every so often.  I'm up for a clutch soon, so that should get sorted then.  Next up will be some gearbox servicing and shift console enhancements.  But for the moment back to just driving and enjoying it.  Had a nice 35k run into work this morning in fact.

Love the hoist Steve.  I have had hoist since 2008 and it has been a godsend really.  Most leaks are minor and dust and road grime accumulates and makes to look worse than it is. When you get to the clutch, also check out the slave cylinder as they can also be suspect and are very difficult to get at otherwise.  See the Franny and Heidi video.  Love those as she never gets dirty and is always so well prepared! And the visor with bling ... She is good however. Love the colour of your car - I should as mine is the same.

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They are good !

After so much doom and gloom on the internet about the NA M96, finally something where I'm glad I don't own the mezger version! That looks like a nightmare job.

But if this lady can do it .... 😀 It also makes the owners of Tiptronic versions smile.

Good thread 👏

Had another play with the Porker today.  I received my parts order from Clickable Automotive with a new ribbed belt and Motul gearbox oil among some bits for the BM.  Big shout out for Clickable, if you have a  BMW they are awesome and as I have found also excellent for other marques too, as long as you can wait about two weeks to order-in. I noticed early on that the belt looked old, so it was good to get this done.  Looking at the date code on the (genuine) belt, it seems to me this is either June 2003 or March 2006 belt?  Hells bells.  Anyway, nice new made-in-Germany contitech belt fitted for all of $25.  At the same time I refitted the K&N "hot air induction" kit with a new BMC cone filter.  I just missed the induction howl! Took it for a 40k run to get it nice and warm then dropped the gearbox oil.  A bit of trepidation doing this since I could find no evidence of it being done before, but it was still looking nice and golden and there were no gnarly bits in the oil to frighten my wallet.  Swishing the pan around there is the occasional bit of sparkly stuff in the bottom but looked perfectly normal (excellent in fact) after 204,000km.  I poked my finger through the drain hole and there is nothing other than a fine film of dark deposit.  The car had a nice life at least since 2009, with easy Canberra commuting and a 400km return trip to the coast every 1-4 weeks. Apparently this is another instance where Porsche - in some bit of logic I can't understand - fitted sealed bearings inside the gearbox.  OK, the IMS I can sort of see that if you're trying to make it an extended-oil-life engine then a rolling element bearing should not be in the oil, but in the gearbox I have no idea. I'd researched the gearbox oil a bit but neglected to check the crush washer size which at 22mm is larger than what I have in stock here, so the verdict will have to wait.  The shift was ok (no crunching) but not slick.  I checked out my gearshift console and there is clearly some wear there, especially in the cross-gate lever.  I'll wait till the car is back on the ground before tackling that one.

I also get my Motul oil (engine & transmission) from Clickable - and I found them reasonably fast delivery and good pricing too.

I've been playing around with my shifter console which had a bit of play.  There's loads on the web about this, I'd looked at the various upgrade options but most are from overseas and with shipping what it is at present wanted something quicker.  I I figured I could make a decent improvement with just some repairs and enhancements. As usual I had mission creep. From what I could see, the largest part of the play in mine was the cross-gate lever system, whose lever (the white bit on the left) had a lot of movement when you rattled the shift lever side to side when in gear.  It just has a snap-in plastic spindle which was pretty average when new and hasn't improved in 17 years.  The pin is 12mm and I just happened to have 1/2" (12.7mm) reamers so figured on a bit of a quick 'ghetto' refurb.  Without disassembling the main lever I was able to run the reamer through the lever and outer bore, then make up a stepped brass spindle which bolted up against the inner bore. This was such an improvement that the slop in the main lever spindle was now the most annoying part.  Okay, in for a penny, in for a pound and I cut the original bush carriers out and pondered what to do.  I made my own version of the often shown replacement bearing setup, just using what I had to hand.  I didn't have any suitable circlips so it's just waiting on those.  Feels good on the bench at least, so I'll see how it goes.

Bite the bullet and go Rennline short shift, every piece is metal and extremely well made:

Driving the car throughout the week I'm pretty happy with the results, the gearshift is greatly improved.  It's still not as good as (...at least my 2-decade-old recollections of...) my old NA MX5 which had the sweetest gearshift I've experienced.  But it's far more definite and has lost the noticeable difference between cold and warm operation. In terms of the shift console itself, there is zero play, you can see that the slightest movement of the shifter translates to the cables.  There is a tiny bit of movement between the fore-aft cable outer and the gearbox bracket that should be easy enough to eliminate and what remains is within the actual gearbox itself, which is in the too-hard basket for the moment.  But the mods have removed the free movement at the lever that was bothering me, cost nothing and kept me entertained in the shed over a cold weekend. The Rennline thing seems to me something you'd add only after you've already got a perfectly set up gearbox, tricky cables, fancy gearbox mounts and all that.  On a typical well used road car it seems like a bit of an expensive conversation piece with the wrong kind of bearings.  <dons flameproof suit>

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Advice from Rennline is that it's the first thing to fit.  The cables and mounts are more hardcore. In my opinion when you shift the standard set up really fast, the gear throw particularly second to third is too long relative to the clutch and you can sometimes still be shifting when you want to start releasing the clutch.  The Rennline kit is beautifully engineered and has three settings that you can get it how you want it.  I have it set on on the middle setting and added an alcantara 996 GT3 RS shiftknob and it transformed the shift and is much sharper and intense than my MX5 NA was by a long way.  (I had the Voodoo titanium gearknob on my NA that sharpened the shift up beautifully as well) I went with it because it is beautifully engineered, every part is metal and it will take a very long time before there is ever any slop in it.  Never regretted doing it and improved the shift immensely.

👌 Sounds nice.

Well my refurbed shift console still has zero play, and if anything the gearbox seems to be improving further with a few miles on the Motul oil.  Really happy with the shift now, although I might pull it apart again and do a shortshift job on it as well if I'm bored one day.  Will update if so. In other news, the car now has ZERO oil spots under it after several weeks. After doing the AOS line job, the remaining spot on the floor in the RMS location gradually diminished and then stopped appearing altogether. So either the RMS has magically healed itself with the car being put back into more regular use, or else the oil coming out of the engine-to-bellhousing joint was actually finding its way into the bellhousing from the former AOS leak further up?  Either way, a win!  That revelation has also caused me to reconsider the engine-out service and clutch replacement.  Everything is working fine at present, a lot of what I was planning to do was just preemptive maintenance "while it's out". Car is running great and a ton of fun even just commuting to work - which is a 35km run for me with 2/3 of it highway.

Finally!  For the first time in my ownership I have working key remotes!!  The infuriating runaround of manually unlocking the door, disabling the alarm and unlocking the passenger door can finally be laid to rest.  Shout out to Gulson Canberra who looked after me really well today after some difficulties during this process.  So I now have two new remotes and blades which should hopefully last another 16 years with some careful management. You have to use your second key every so often to keep it 'associated' - as I understand it.  There is a finite number of rolling codes (1024 I believe) that the system can handle between the two keys.  So locking with Key A and then using Key B for 1025 lock or unlock operations will see Key A disabled. Also, an even lower number (256?) between the car and one key, so giving your key to a 3 year old to mash the buttons while out of range of the car can quite quickly see that key also disabled, possibly never to return. So glad to have this sorted out.  Next might be to disassemble the instrument pod to try to eliminate the super annoying rattle from around the hazard light switch.

Nothing quite like a working remote…What was the cost?

Good information Steve.  I routinely swap over my remotes in use.  I had to replace both keys ($350 each) and also repair the central locking module.  They are a pain!  But to have them working is a blessing. I also installed key safe in the house as finding keys makes these cars easy to steal.

Merv, I know you know this (since it was in your thread!) but for anyone else finding this in future my info was kindly provided to me by the Porsche tech 'deMort' on the 911uk site.  The relevant page is here: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=140239&start=20 The info which I think came from his Autologic tester is copied below: Once again from the UK, JMG Porsche is an indy over there and has put considerable effort into working out the failings of the system and has an article on their site: https://www.jmgporsche.co.uk/index.php/menu-articles/articles-maintenance/item/234-996-986-alarm-primer They obviously omit the detail for security reasons but it makes for interesting reading and provides good info for ways to prevent falling into the trap.  They will also recode things by mailing your keys and security computer to them but that seems like a bad idea from AU.  Dealers or a very limited number of Indy's can sort it for you, but it does usually seem to (at least) require new key remotes. My job had some issues, they accidentally ordered key blades rather than remotes, and things were further messed up by Covid delays and staff changes etc - this started in early July!  Once I got onto Craig from the service department things smoothed out and were resolved pretty swiftly.  I had previously paid $215 for diagnosis, and paid up-front $560 for what turned out to be two key blades (ouch!).  The two remotes were apparently meant to be $775 and another $215 for final coding but those were waived yesterday.  So effectively I paid $215 for diagnosis/coding, $560 for the remotes and got the blades provided gratis.  A pleasant surprise at the end of a rather difficult process, they were quite kind there I think so want to give them the thumbs up. Long story short - drive your car every few days and rotate use between both keys!

deMort is one of those rare guys on Porsche forums who knows so much and further, is prepared to share his undoubted expertise. The guide you attached Steve to understanding these systems is an excellent one.  My OPC could not do the job and charged me nothing after a day trying.  My local indy did the job in half a day with the right bits at the right price.

Agreed, deMort is a legend.  On top of it all he provides the info without any form of ego or commercial interest.  If you have a P-car conundrum you can do a lot worse than starting at 911.uk and searching by user deMort.

I've lent our spare hack car to my Dad for the moment so the 996 has been doing daily duties and doing it well.  First proper drive in fully wet conditions went well, it seems to have plenty of grip.  I - very happily - do not have PSM so was mindful of that but in this car prefer the 'old school' nature of no nanny state electronics spoiling the fun (until I'm zooming off the road backwards I suppose...). Since owning it I have been chasing a couple of annoying dash rattles, the worst was in the vicinity of the hazard light switch.  Like most of these things it was hard to pin down exactly, pushing and pulling the instrument binnacle didn't seem to cure it, pressing the hazard light bezel did seem to mostly stop it.  Either way I figured I'd take the binnacle out and have a look, which is an easy procedure. I had seen photos of leather trimmed instrument binnacles and thought they looked a lot nicer than the slightly blobby moulded plastic one in my car.  A combination of red wine, ebay and man-logic saw me purchase one from the UK on the basis that if was taking the binnacle off I might as well change it.  You can't argue with that. Step 1 is to disconnect the battery, with alarm equipped cars you should do it with the ignition on so I put a note on the battery to remind me and also a positive lead label after hearing of several people hooking up batteries wrong and causing big $$$ damage. Here is the before: Ad added bonus of the binnacle I purchased is that it also came with a silver instrument surround which matches the highlights already on my interior even though the surround on mine was black. Gives me the option of choosing which one I prefer.  Removal was easy, following instructions for the somewhat strangely constructed three-piece hazard switch/surround. One bit I found a really obvious potential rattle was between the two pieces of the actual hazard switch button, I popped the cover off and put a couple of tiny bits of foam in there and snapped it back together.  I think there is also the potential for a rattle between the hazard switch itself and the binnacle, but I remounted that as-was for the moment to see how it was with the new binnacle. Here is the after, I wasn't sure if the silver might be 'too much'.  The leather one came with silver instrument surround and a black hazard surround, while my original had the opposite.  I think it looks nice with all the silver bits, and the leather trimmed binnacle looks heaps better in my eyes.  A couple of very minor bits of damage to the left of the hazard button but overall I'm very happy with the mod. Took it for a drive and seems like the best thing is THE RATTLE IS GONE!

Great work Steve and I love the battery label!

After Christmas I had a little time for some more work on the Porker.  Before chrissy I'd had the AC refrigerant evacuated so I was ready to swap in the new compressor I'd purchased.  It was a fairly easy procedure, my biggest snag was trying to suck the fluid out of the power steering upper reservoir.  I have a big syringe and tubing, but the trajectory of the tube to get it down into the lower reservoir is like JFK's 'magic bullet theory' and I found it totally impossible. I found an article on rennlist about draining the PS at the low pressure fitting under the passenger floor and figured it would be a good idea to change the fluid anyway.  Easily done, and a good maintenance item since it was likely original.  I could then easily remove the upper reservoir without making a mess. I also removed the throttle body to make access a little easier and I soon had the compressor out only to find the new one didn't come with o-rings, so I'll wait till I source some before opening the lines. With the engine bay work stalled, I looked inside.  Once the AC is working again it will remind me that I really hate the position of the climate control panel, which is totally obscured by the gearlever and hard to operate.  I do like the idea of a console delete, but it's complicated to go back to a single DIN unit due to my PCM2/MOST/Bose setup.  Although the PCCM+ seems to be a very expensive and not particularly good unit, it reportedly integrates well with my car spec and I'm coming around to just getting one.  Another plus for keeping the console is that the storage bin is going to be useful on a car which sees regular use. Alex over on 911.uk did a DIY on moving the climate controls to the upper slot of the lower console so I decided to do that.  While being a social media influencer sheep I figured I'd do a Heidi and Franny garage/gate opener mod using a targa shade switch. I started by stripping out my centre pod, there was some gunk in the vents and cupholder which needed a good cleanout.  I meanwhile found the remains of an old Harmon/Kardon ipod input in the dash, which I removed. Wired up the shade switch, happily my car doesn't have PSM which meant all 3 switches on the RH side of the horseshoe were blanks and there was no wiring there I could easily jump the illumination wires from.  I ran a wire over to the other bank of switches on the other side and wired up a spare garage door controller, have to wait for another gate controller to arrive. I bought a bin and a bezel, modded the cage, bezel & bin and made up some supports for the control unit more or less as per Alex's DIY. And lo and behold the finished article: Battery is still disconnected for the compressor job so can't light it all up for testing yet but looks acceptable (the top line is not quite right but oh well) and so much easier to use.  Gate and garage door opener will be so much more convenient than fumbling around in the door pocket all the time. Cheers St3ve

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You wouldn't by chance still have the engine cover gas strut would you??

Good work! This is the first post I’ve seen of modding the dash on a “modern” Pcar. I must be old fashion but I prefer the aesthetics of the older air cooled cars dash in its simplicity and everything blacked out. I understand the newer cars have more buttons & screens to find a home, like nav & sound. The central silver binnacle & oval buttons stick out, in my humble & retro aesthetic, like balls on a bull. It would be a big project to change the binnacle for the sake of doing so. I wonder if anyone has tried?

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Ive got one, it's old but it's yours if you want it, if you want new ones i can get them cheap, let me know.

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New one sounds good Tingster, what will they run at?  Cheers

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A lot cheaper than you can get them even after I post it to yours.

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Lets do it my friend, you had me at Hello !!  PM me your bank details & i'll send you the moola.  cheers

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I still have it but doubt it's worth the Ozpost charge sending to Brisvegas.  Sounds like you're sorted anyhow. Thanks!  I do think they look better with the lower console removed, for that "straight across" look - the floor area being completely separate to the dashboard.  But the practicalities of doing that on a MOST/Bose/PCM2 car is just a hassle.  Someone else here is working on a HVAC controller mount that hangs under the dash but is less intrusive than the lower console, it'll be interesting to see how that comes out.  Meanwhile I find the storage bin handy already, bear in mind it's intended to be more or less a daily driver. The horseshoe and so on is not to everyone's taste, but I don't mind it.  The 986/996 lighter-colour interiors do come across too monochrome and a bit overpowering.  The savannah looks quite good with a few key components done in black to break it up.  I suspect the 'hilux grey' and Boxster red would respond similarly.  End of the day these cars were an adventurous last-gasp new direction for Porsche and were deliberately trying to break free of the ye olde 911 while still maintaining an engineering connection.  They're a 25 year old design that's too old to be new and new to be old.

Hey St3ve thanks for that nugget of gold further back regarding key syncing. Tried it today for my 2nd key and while it didn’t actually fix the problem, I only came to know about the method because of your post. Cheers for that. Key light flashes but it does nothing, so maybe a faulty transmitter.

Glad it helped in some way, I enjoy the tinkering and working out the idiosyncrasies of the car. Both my keys flashed the key led but we're not received by the car.  The led in the middle of the dash tells various tales as well. If it does not respond to a button press, car has not received it. New keys were the only option for me. Amusingly they were cheaper than those for a mate's Hyundai Santa Fe!

Fitted the Mr12Volt bluetooth adapter so I can at least stream some music and answer the odd call when driving.  I didn't want to hack into my original harness to tap the 12v and ground for the module so I found a suitable ISO stereo adapter I could modify at supercrapauto.  Using just the male and female black ISO plugs I repinned them as a 1:1 short extension  then cut into +12v and ground to splice the power feed for the module. It's a bit of a cable soup behind there especially with the very inflexible fibre loop Y-cable, but I fed everything through and located the bluetooth module and as much of the cable as possible in the void beneath the PCM2.  the included microphone I just fed through and stuck to the top of the steering column surround, aligning with a gap in the idiot lights.  Still chasing how to enable the phone buttons on the PCM2 but otherwise it all works very well. Car is still going great, not so much use recently with various impositions on my time, roadworks on the Kings highway, earthworks on my driveway + rain turning it into a clay pan and so on.  But it got a quick run into the village today to the postie and it put a smile on the dial as usual.