New to porsche ownership and started with a 996 that needs some work...

Hi all I've found that documenting maintenance and upgrades in the past has helped me when I want to look back and see when I made the changes and what I did, hence the reason for starting this thread... Its also my first porsche so I'm looking forward to learning about the brand and finding out the best way to get the most enjoyment out of my ownership. I'm grateful in advance to tap in to the knowledge you all have and will share anything I learn here for anyone in my situation in the future... I'll keep this up to date as I go, beginning with the purchase experience. Its probably not your standard experience as I purchased sight unseen from an auction house. the photo below is a post I read on Facebook which alerted me to the auction website... below are the photos from the lloyds auction website...

as is the gamble with buying from auctions, there were a few things that I didn't expect. I'll drop some hints below what they might involve: - the specific angle of the photos with the soft top up... - the missing roll over bar interior covers... - the hiding of the number plates... and I'm sure its a coincidence but the person that posted on Facebook with details of the auction has deleted their account. good on ya Dayle Timmers...

Good luck with the project! Hope it was properly cheap. What's the location, if you don't mind my asking? Is that Australia?

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thanks mate, I think I'll need it. its a pretty steep learning curve so far but I'm enjoying it. Cheap enough to leave me money for maintenance, fixes and mods with change left over... yep, Brisbane Australia...

so I won the auction at 9am Friday morning, promptly paid and hoped it would have cleared by 9am the following Monday so I could pick it up. I left for work on the Tuesday so I didn't have much time. Unfortunately being time poor is a common theme as I do a 10/4 roster... I caught the train from central station and got off at Robina. I had to get an uber the rest of the journey to Carrara. I should have known it wasn't going to be plain sailing when I had to endure this music from the uber driver. I'm pretty sure it was a recording of him and he was fishing for a compliment. no compliments were given, my ears were actually starting to hurt...

I had submitted an unregistered drivers permit the night before so I could legally drive it home. It was a pretty big risk as I knew nothing bout the car and had no tools with me to fix any minor issues. I found out once I got home and put the battery charger on that the terminals weren't even clamped u. that could have been fun if a battery cable jumped off going down the freeway at 110... anyway the funds hadn't cleared by the time I got to the auction house but after around an hours wait they handed me the key, not plural... and no paper work, no service history, no nothing... I headed out to the carpark and didn't want to spend anytime looking around it, too late now anyway. it fired up first time so I just set off driving hoping to pass a petrol station soon as the tank was empty. I didn't want to put too much fuel in incase I needed to drop the tank for anything later and also incase it hadn't been used to running higher up the fuel tank level... it didn't really feel that comfortably driving it home (about an hour up the M1), I was probably still nervous that I'd bought a lemon. the only thing noticeably wrong for road worthy was a fast blinking indicator on one side that I was hoping was just a globe out and not a wiring issue... once I got to the supercheap auto store closest to home I decided to pull in and try and get a front indicator globe. I'm not sure why but it took ages to track down the right size and I wasn't totally confident, but it turned out that I chose correctly. only the home brand was on offer so it will do for now... I had already booked a roadworthy certificate inspection for 2pm hence the reason I was trying to give myself the best chance at it passing. I figured I will be lucky and it will pass or it will fail and I'll find out what's wrong with it. I had already spotted the tyres would fail and tried to get them replaced that day but nobody had the size in stock near me... After getting home I tried the lights and indicator and spotted the head lamp globes were different. I didn't spot that one of the side lights was out but the RWC inspector did... I tried Ginji in the frunk while I was working on the lights, she couldn't find any snacks so she wasn't that keen to stay in... I then took a photo of the tyres so I could get the sizes and order some while I was back at work, the front... and rear... finally the moment of truth, its probably not as bad as it could have been but I was still a bit disappointed except knowing about the tyres... feeling a bit deflated but not defeated, this is where it stayed for the next couple of weeks... I used the time away at work to research how to address the RWC failures...

Not too bad and at least you don't have to worry at all about corrosion like we do in the UK I bet it's immaculate underneath and no bubbling wheel arches like here. Michelin tyres at least , means the PO spent money on it.

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i saw that too - and they are N rated so somebody cared enough to put the right spec tyres on - hopefully its not as bad as you may first think, a damn good clean up - some leather treatment and a few bits of trim will make it look significantly better

Blimey, that’s nothing! The car looks pretty tidy too

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thanks guys, that's what I thought too but the tyres were 10 years old. that meant somebody cared about it 10 years ago...

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thanks mate, the photos make it look better than it is but I'm looking forward to getting it how I want it...

i think sending it to a decent detailer would make a huge difference and give you points to focus on once they have taken all the crud off

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Thanks mate but working roof, working aircon and more noise from the exhaust are priority over detailing at the moment…

i feel your pain with the roof - mine is in again with a suspected broken wire somewhere..............

while I was away I did some internet research and ordered some parts, dangerous I know... I thought the bump stops would be easy enough to change... shocks and springs were easy enough to get off, but a real pain to put back on. they definitely needed changing though... one item of the RWC list ticked. a side by side comparison photo proves the RWC man was on to something so I'll give him that one... next was to check out the power steering leak. I strongly suspected it would be the factory crimped connection from the hard line to the flex line and was planning the jubilee fix to get the car on the road. I also bought both o ring replacement kits and new fluid just in case... I really couldn't see where it was leaking from and the "leak" looked almost dry like it was possibly a drip from over filling or something. I degreased the crap out of it and hoped for the best... it was literally the same scenario for the engine oil "leak". it looked like minor oil residue that I used the citrus degreaser to remove. I took off the heat shield, cleaned that separately and cleaned the valve cover with a toothbrush... here's how the power steering leak looked before the clean, I don't have any photos of the engine because I couldn't see a leak... I then spent ages trying to buy the side light globes. I tried Supercheap Auto, Repco and Autobarn before I managed to get some at Bursons Auto. $25 each for tiny Phillips globes... both fitted and checked, all appeared working fine... thought it best to check the rears too. all looked well but I wasn't sure about the single rear fog light. the internet tells me the light on the passing side should be on so it looks correct... two trips to the tyre fitters and that was another thing ticked off... it felt like a very long weekend but it was all worth it. the RWC retest was booked for the Monday which was the maximum allowed 2 weeks from the original test date. this meant only a $50 retest fee and only checking the original fail items... QLD transport and main roads closed at 4pm so I had just enough time to go and register it before I flew back to work the next day. ignore the number plate holder, its coming off. it was the only one I had at the time...