Words of wisdom

Hey all, just thought I would share some experiences, thoughts and advice from the work I am undertaking on my 996! Im doing a full strip down and rebuild of the rear suspension, braking etc. I'm doing it myself as I didnt want to pay the near £3.5k for garage to do it and having worked on cars all my life, how hard can it be?! (outside in the winter) The dismantling has proven to be a nightmare! Firstly preceding garages had managed to crush the jacking points. The rubber bushes have perished on the coffin arms and all the bolts and inner bushes were all seized! after cutting through the bolts to get the arms off and having to cut through the coffin arm to get the bolt and inner bush off! The disc covers had all but disintegrated, the handbrake tube on the back of the hub was crumbling, the ABS sensor would not come out and had to be butchered to remove and the wheel bearing had a small amount of movement. My first thoughts were a massive disappointment on the amount of corrosion on all the aluminium parts, especially on the hub, now this isn't a poorly serviced car, it has a massive history and a huge amount of money spent on it. And why o why do Porsche have different sizes of bolt and nut combinations!! And who uses 16mm and 18mm spanners and socket sizes as well as 19mm, 20mm all on the same set up!!! Very Frustrating. So Finally got everything stripped down and apart, the clean up begins! Getting the hub out and wheel bearing out very interesting. The inner wheel bearing grease had gone hard and crispy. Took off all the under arch plastics to give everything a good clean up, and a nasty surprise of rust on the front corner of the wheel arch hidden behind the plastic, a massive build up of mud and debris. So now the job gets much bigger. So my list goes on, shocks, polybushes, top mounts, coffin arms, wheel bearings, disc covers, caliper refurb, goodridge hoses, discs, pads, handbrake pads and cable and tube, anti roll bar, adjustable drop links, ABS sensors etc. plus rust repair and new jacking points. My words of wisdom are, if you intend to keep your cars and keep them in a serviceable condition, check behind the plastics for any nasty surprises, wash down and lubricate anything that moves on the suspension, don't just trust the dealers and garages to do it, because they just don't, they repair stuff, I don't ever see preventative work being done. You will save yourselves loads of time and hassle with a bit of early TLC!

Thanks, Rob. Interesting reading, if disappointing and a little soul destroying for you. I assume the plastic are easily removable once the wheels are off? What kind of work is involved for checking all of this out? Thanks, Mark

Sounds as if you've been unlucky; I've got a 6 year old Mazda that's desperately corroded. It's obviously been repeatedly exposed to salt which has caused a lot of premature corrosion. Looked at the history carefully and it was from an island accessed by a road which floods twice daily. I should have spotted that!

Shocking to read. It would be amazing to see all the work you are doing and how it's progressing with pictures. It would help with anyone also planning on tackling the same issues, and be very interesting for the rest of us! Good luck to you, you're a brave man

Rob. ACF 50 is one of the best for protecting everything when you've finished. Good luck Andy

Plastics are easy to remove, just a couple of 10mm nuts, Ive attached some pics of before and after cleaning some bits. Ill have a look at the ACF50 thanks.

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Good job there Rob, appreciate your attention to something that I think a lot of owners/future owners may easily miss. it’s easy for people moving from newer cars to think they can run an ‘affordable’ 911 without these items being looked at. By no means am I of the opinion they have to cost the same as the purchase price in bills, but some of these items have to be accounted for in the purchasing decision. Hopefully it serves to inform but not deter anyone buying. My assumption when buying my year 2000 C2 back in 2014 was that if I don’t have a bill for it being performed, then this type of work is going to be on the cards under my ownership. Good reminder to us all in case we forget to check!