996.1 cab C2 manual

In my mission to be a walking, talking cliche I decided to fulfil a boyhood ambition in this, my 40th year, and buy a Porsche. For whatever reason the cars I really want are the ones which were new in the mid to late 90's - and as the 993 was out of reach financially that meant the unloved 996. Luckily I've always liked this most unloved of the Porsche family, and specifically I wanted the most analogue one that I could find, so amber indicators, cable throttle and the 3.4 litre dual-row IMS bearing model was what I was after. I wanted a manual coupe, preferably with the M030 suspension, an LSD and sports seats. This meant disappointment was to be my constant companion when perusing Autotrader, eBay and Car and Classic. Whenever I did find such a car (or, to be honest, one with two out of three) the vendor either never bothered to reply to my call/email, or did - to tell me that they'd just sold the car. In the end I clicked on an advert without reading it as the main picture showed a silver coupe with amber indicators, and the search I'd run was "manual 911". The car turned out to be a five minute walk from my office so I fired a message at the seller asking to view the car. Then I saw it was a cabriolet. Dilemma. I decided to go to see the car anyway as it was in the Selfridges car park and my office was in Soho, so it was a pleasant stroll with a coffee. I met the seller in the shoe department - something of a first. It turned out that he worked in the purchasing department, and hence had free central-London parking in the Selfridges complex. Handy. The seller was a lovely guy, a true car enthusiast - he was selling the 911 to fund the refurbishment of his Maserati. Regents Park is close by so we went there and drove laps whilst discussing the car, stopping to swap seats and to retract the roof. The roof thing was good - I liked the theatre, and it was pure fun tooling around top-down. I'd almost cancelled this viewing and now I was seriously considering the car - I bid the seller farewell and went back to the office to think about things. I'd taken a photo of the build sheet under the bonnet, so to check out the spec I ran the codes: C26 South African market vehicle 139 Seat heating, left 340 Seat heating, right 197 Stronger battery 220 LSD 222 Traction control ASR AntriebsSchlupfRegelung 224 Traction control ABD Automatic Braking Differential 288 Headlamp washer 326 Cassette-radio Becker Porsche CR-21 ROW 375 Two way electical sports seat, left 376 Two way electical sports seat, right 421 Front cassette compartment 426 Three spoke steering wheel 441 Radio preparation 446 Wheel caps with coloured Porsche crest 454 Automatic speed control 490 Sound system, MY2002-> Sound system Harmann analog 551 Wind deflector 563 Side airbags 567 Top tinted windscreen 573 Automatic air conditioning 692 6-disc CD changer Becker Porsche CDC-3 936 Leather rear seats 981 Leather dashboard and door panels 983 leather front seats

We had sports seats and an LSD - quite a surprise, the LSD was a very rare option on these cars. I decided to buy the car, and arranged with the vendor to get a pre-purchase inspection done. This revealed £4,000 worth of work that needed to be done - all service items, but quite a few of them. We negotiated the price and I bought the car, drove it home via my girlfriends office with (literally) a dry mouth due to the excitement. It was a good moment. The next morning (this morning) I left the house at just past six and drove to a local Porsche Specialist: Unfortunately as he came apart more work was found - total bill now (for a total replacement of all suspension, control arms, aircon rebuild, new rads and more) is ~£5,500, more than half what I paid for the car. So - an expensive first day of ownership.

When I got the car back a lot had been done, here's the gist of the invoice: 996 A/c condenser replacement Removed front bumper and replaced left air-conditioning condenser and o-ring seals. Removed and replaced receiver drier unit. Checked for leaks and operation after repair. Replaced pressure and return lines front to rear of car for the air conditioning system. Air Conditioning Service Drain out R134a gas, carry out system evacuation. Refill with R134a, compressor lubricant and leak dye. Run system, check pressures and output temperature. Replaced front shock absorbers,top mounts and bump stops. Replaced rear shock absorbers and inspect top mount and roadsprings. Refinished road springs and rear anti roll bar. Removed and replaced seized front anti roll bar drop link rods. Wax oiled under side of car. Removed and replaced engine mounts 996 Exhaust gasket and fastener replacement Replaced exhaust 'triangle gaskets and fasteners. Checked for leaks after repair EML light on after road test. Rechecked fault memory and found bank 1 O2 sensor not switching. Replaced sensor and cleared fault memory. Carried out road test and re-checked O2 readings for both banks. Found car to be slow. Checked DME readings and air flow sensor, found air flow sensor pulling too high an air reading. Removed and replaced air flow sensor. Carried out road test and checked readings. Removed and replaced near side front radiator. Reduced timedue to A/C work. Bled out coolant system after fitment. Checked for leaks after repair. Replaced faulty clutch booster spring. Lubricated linkage. Removed and replaced front and rear lower suspension arms. Wheel Alignment: Four wheelChecked and adjust four wheel alignment. Checked steering wheel alignment after repair. Replaced missing front number plate plinth,fitted new numberplates. Carried out power steering pipe modification. Replaced hand brake retaining spring clips as incorrect ones fitted. Cleaned hand brake shoe and carried out shoe adjustment. Replaced near side rear brake caliper bolts. Cleaned out threads. Drilled out broken front brake pipe fixing mounts to front hubs. Carried out time sert repair to front hubs to refix brake pipe holder. Replaced missing or damaged discs retaining screws. Make: Porsche 996 Carrera Cabrio Mileage: 60539 Total Invoice Value £5,995.79

To take my mind off the sheer scale of that bill I bought a 997 fag lighter as the 996 was (the last of the) Euro sized ones, and the USB charger kept falling out as it was very slightly larger than the US spec ones which all cars now come with.

I made enough room in the garage for the car, this involved throwing a lot of stuff away:

I drove down to visit my girlfriends parents and the car sat outside overnight, during which time it rained - this appears to have been the final straw for the brake master cylinder, which then had to be replaced. I got Precision to fix the heated rear screen connection at the same time, as I wanted the hardtop rear screen to clear. £1,382.37 for fitting and parts.

I had become used to the car telling me what the range was, this was available for my car as an option but had never been fitted, I therefore booked the car in to get the OBC stalk fitted and the computer enabled. £465.65 (I've still got the three stalk unit if anyone wants one).

Being over 6' I was having issues with my left leg hitting the lower centre console, I also thought that the car would look better without it (as the GT3 came stock) so I had the GT3 console delete fitted, and also had a Becker Cascade Pro fitted at the same time. This was £790.69 fitting and parts plus the ~£550 for the headunit. I also picked up a NOS Porsche hands-free microphone, which was fitted as part of the install:

Next I tackled the wonky air-vent issue, details here http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=118856&highlight= . This was free, which was nice.

MOT time rolled round and I booked the car into Precision, a major service had happened the year before so it was a fluids and filters job this time round. I expected this to be a fairly cheap exercise - that was to be a mistake. Ultimately this is what we ended up doing: 996 12K/Minor Service Carried out Minor service System scan and function check, reset service light. Inclusive of all service items & lubricants. Service Parts Oil filter Drain plug seal Pollen Filter Oil Mobil-1 5W/40 Fully Synthetic Labour Carried out bore score, compression test and cylinder leakage test. Results emailed to customer. Removed and replaced head light washer jet to o/s/f. Parts 99662833400 Headlight washer jet assembly RH 99950749740 Trim expansion rivet Labour Removed and replaced n/s/f fan resistor. Parts 99661610100 Radiator fan resistor LH Removed and replaced wsher jet "T" piece. Parts 99662810200 W/washer T-Piece valve Labour Removed engine and gear box. Removed and replaced oil air separator. Parts 99610702355 Oil separator 90037817701 Oil separator to case bolt 99951242702 Hose worm clamp Labour Removed and replaced bank 1 vario cam solenoid valve. Replaced bank 2 upper timing chain tensioner and IMS tensioner. Removed and replaced IMS "O" ring seal Removed and replaced RMS seal and fitted update case bolts. Removed IMS bearing seal cover. Had to cut off exhaust fixings to replace solenoid valve. Replaced spark plugs Removed and replaced oil filer neck tube. Replaced smaal core plug to back of bank 1 cylinder head. Cleaned up earth strap to cylinder head on bank 1. Parts 99970743441 A/c o-ring seal 99970753441 A/c o-ring seal 99660590100 VC Cam actuator solenoid Bank 1 99914103207 VC actuator fastener 99610532552 Spark plug tube kit 99917021890 Spark plug FGR6KQE Cam cover removal/replacement parts 99610421554 Camshaft end cap 99970755440 Oil scavenge pump o-ring 99907331602 Oil scavenge pump bolt 90012314730 Timing chain tensioner alu seal ring 99610522352 VC actuator seal plate 00004330560 Sealant engine 50ml 99610518802 Timing chain (upper) Bank 2 tensioner 99610518059 Timing chain tensioner (crank to IMS) 99970734440 Timing chain tensioner o-ring 99710713100 Oil filler hose 99970734840 Oil filler hose o-ring 99903602601 Cylinder head casting sealing core plug Exhaust bolt: Silencer to mounting frame Exhaust spacer: Silencer to mounting frame Exhaust washer: Silencer to mounting frame Exhaust nut: Silencer to mounting frame Separate trans from engine, replaced clutch and related parts. Fitted updated arm. Replaced clutch slave cylinder and hose including connector piece. Bled clutch fluid. Parts 99611691100 Clutch kit 90006713103 Clutch bolt 99711671201 Clutch release fork (lever) 99611671602 Clutch release fork ball pin 99611674300 Clutch release fork pivot boot 99611674100 Clutch release fork retainer 99711623704 Clutch slave cylinder 99642337713 Clutch hose 99923054110 Clutch pipe joining union 99710121201 Flywheel (Rear main) seal 99907309202 Flywheel bolt 99938500301 Engine case bolt (Horizontal bolt) 90038509301 Engine case bolt (IMS housing to case) 99970739240 IMS housing O-ring inner seal Labour Replaced bank 2 oxygen sensor. 99360612801 O2 sensor Labour Replaced coolant hoses to near side rear of engine, with updated parts. Composite job with engine removed Parts 99610650256 Coolant hose CP-TH 99610685005 Coolant hose 99610624354 Coolant return pipe 99610622265 Coolant hose 00004330516 Coolant 1 Litre Labour Replaced high tone horn unit. Checked operation Parts 99663520607 Horn high-tone Labour Replaced left rear seat backrest release knob Replace missing battery vent tube Parts 9965223210101C Rear seat release knob 99950763001 Rear seat release knob securing clip 9965223150001C Rear seat backrest release rosette LH Battery vent hose Labour Replaced broken exhaust bracket. Parts 99611312352 Exhaust support bracket 99711123001 Exhaust clamp to support bar Labour Replaced gear box oil. Parts Gear oil 75w/90 SHC MOT Test MOT TEST, PASSED TEST. Tyre Tread Depths (mm) N/S/F: 8 O/S/F: 8 N/S/R1: 8 O/S/R1: 8 Spare 1: Total Invoice Value Amount £5,396.31 Tyre tread depths are both uniform and excellent - that's because Chris Weaver at Exel had supplied a freshly refurbished set of Carrera 5 spoke 18" wheels with brand new Michelins all round.

Still, one to add to my invoice collection - hopefully the pace with which I have been generating these will slow down a little now: (Latest invoice not pictured as I go to pick the car up on Saturday)

I'm slightly out of sequence now (forgive me), but as some may recall Heathrow Airport Parking crashed my car when I used their valet service, which meant that the bumper needed to be repainted, I chose to get a slight issue with the drivers side wheel-arch rectified at the same time, from this: To this (and the bumper was done very nicely): This was ~£400.

Christ, no wonder it was being sold! So basically the cars purchase value has been spent getting it up to scratch? Kinda shows what i've seen a few times, whether you buy it at £10k, £15k or £20k either way your going to end up spending £20k on a 996. Kind of scary though... i couldn't sustain that cost over such a short time frame

I suspect my OCD is to blame for a significant amount of the cost - we replaced the fourth cam-chain tensioner "whilst we were in there" at my request, as the other three had been done by the PO, also Precision said that a lot of other owners would simply live with a lot of the stuff that (once they'd identified it) I asked them to fix.

Bloody hell! Have to say she looks absolutely lovely. She's something that will last you many, many years my friend. I did something similar last year and spent around £6 on the suspension rebuild. Now - go out and drive her like you stole her and enjoy!! Osh