High mileage 996.2 - tell me it''s a basket case

Good evening and bear with me as this is my first post on this here forum. I've been a long time lurker, though. Right, I put a deposit down on a 134k mile 996.2 with heaps of service history and once owned by the fantastic and helpful member, JK. The car is black on black with sports seats and the most beautiful BBS CH-R wheels, acid green painted calipers and H&R coilovers. The rear tyres were huge; 315/25 section tyres with barely any fender gap at the rear. So I travelled from sunny Essex all the way to Sunderland and walked away from it. I've never owned a Porsche, my current car is a MY05 SLK 55, so the drive of this car was nice, surefooted and reasonably quick. I liked it. Now, it had some issues. I'm guessing the rear tyres were contributing to a 'brake distribution failure" message. The oil pressure gauge was up and down and even displayed an orange warning light. The seller has a replacement sender to hand but hadn't fitted it. The oil level had a count down of 1hr to read the level and there was the tell tale sign of oil and water on the oil filler cap and the tube, although this was argued was more likely condensation as the car has barely been driven. Other issues was a pool of water under the car, identified as a broken jubilee clip. The brake discs were shot and would need replacing by the next MOT. Finally, I bought a Foxwell NT530 to be able to read over revs. It came up with P0830 and P0071 error codes and a DME fault that I couldn't retrieve. So I walked away from it, but I'm still drawn. Am I mad?

I hope it was very cheap. I sold my 134k mile 996.1 C4 cab 2 years ago for £15k. It ws a cat c but looked like it had just come off the production line. and the engine had been replaced 60k miles ago. It was faultless. DIY on 996's is very do able for the home mechanic but start with something that has few or zero issues as by the sounds of it, it might not have been well looked after. Just my 2p. And well done buying the NT530, absolutely essential to ownership. I hope you bought the Porsche software bundle.

I think most people would have walked away from my car as on the face of it it needed work, but that was part of the appeal for me. The engine at around 142k miles appeared sound but only came with a stamped service book and there wasn't a patch of rust so at £8900 for a non cat recorded car I took the plunge. I have since 27/05/20 Spoiler gater and auxiliary belt replaced 06/06/20 Front discs and pad's replaced, flexi hoses and calliper pipes along with rear arb bushes. Calliper's repainted and new bolts fitted. 06/07/20 New A/C condensers fitted and re-gassed 30/07/20 Coilpack covers replaced August 20 New alloys and tyres fitted November 20 Front speakers upgraded and new stereo fitted April 21 Paddle shift fitted 28/08/21 Lower Cam chain and ims adjuster changed 17/02/22 Rear brake cover plates, discs, pads, handbrake shoes changed, new ARB bushes and ARB repainted 23/05/22 Front ARB bushes, coffin arms, drop links and control arms changed 20/08/22 Coil packs and spark plugs changed 27/09/22 RS engine mounts fitted February 2023 New stainless exhaust manifolds fitted along with braided rear lines, flex's and calliper pipes to rear. Full gearbox service completed, diff output shaft seal, o-ring and oil replaced. All in very happy with the car so if your gut feeling says it's a good car then maybe you should listen to it

If in doubt there is no doubt, walk away and forget it.

Keep looking, there are lots of good cars out there. And arranging a PPI is always a good way to be sure of what you are buying. Happy hunting!

Thanks all for the advice. The seller has swapped the oil pressure sender and repaired the water hose leak but I'm nervous that the car won't get me back to London at circa 300 miles. All things being equal, at what price is it worth a punt? I'm going to make a low ball offer to factor in the potential hassle, discs etc? £12k? £13k? It was up for £16k so I'll be dumping on the seller.

Buy only on condition. There are loads on ebay for £12k ish and check the sold items to see what they actually fetch. Let us know how you get on.

Its to easy to say just walk away, if your handy with tools and see potential then dont dismiss it. A lot of that sounds like relatively easy fixes, which the buyer seems to have addressed some of already. Wheels can be changed very easily, discs and pads are easy / cheapish and water leak sounds like an easy fix. You could argue the seller should do them then but if you can get it cheap then why not. Ive bought a few cars that on first instinct I really wasnt sure on but have turned out great. Id say on a 996 find the one with a solid body and no rust as the mechanicals for the most part are quite easy to work on and not that expensive. You could wait and find a "better" one but you will probably end up spending the same if not more for that, assuming this one is cheap enough.

As fantastic a car as that 996 was, in the end I walked away from it and bought something else on the way back down to London. I'd spent the whole week dreaming about that car only to get there to find that the seller hadn't bothered to prep it ready for a long journey back to London. I was disappointed and even though I still loved that 996 - the way it looked, the way it drove and it's general condition, the emotional high of buying a product was on the steep curve downwards. Blame the seller. I'll have to swap subforums because I bought this instead: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-Por...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 A very difficult decision in the end partly because I felt that the 996 drove better than the 997 but I believe this is a logical decision given what had happened with the 996 the day before.

That 997 has not moved for at least 2.5 years. Did the seller give a reason for it not being used over that period? You may be OK for bore-scoring as it's a manual 3.6 so least likely to be scored, but I'd still be getting it checked out as soon as possible.

I wouldn't automatically discount the ropier end of the 996 market. I bought my C4S for £15 last year. It was pretty poor, needing all sorts of work. But if you're OK with spanners, the 996 is really good to work on. I was happy buying a project though, but I wouldn't recommend going this route if you're going to be paying for garages to do the work. Two other caveats; as a previous poster said, bad rust is best avoided (unless you're a bodyshop expert!) and shot engines are also bad, as they're nearly always expensive, even if you are an expert.

...hmmm...the trouble with neglected,ropey examples is; often the exterior,interior,paintwork and mechanics have collectively been ignored thus you can spend a fortune and still end up with a sub par and often leggy car...it's a false economy and as for the engine well even the best kept cars can ***** themselves! ...my advice would be to buy the very best example you can ,so condition,condition,condition... ...and should you not be able to get your hands on £10k plus buy one with an engine rebuild :thumbs: Or buy a ***** and enjoy until it breaks if you aren't concerned about appearance?

That 997 has been for sale for a long time, I was looking at it maybe a year ago It looks all good from the Ad Nice colour Atlas Grey

Indeed the car had been up for sale for a very long time, 14 miles since the 2020 MOT would attest to that. In fact since the chap had bought the car from a garage as an unwanted part X in September 2020, he'd only driven the car for a total of 200 miles. So 200 miles in nearly 3 years while the car was parked up inside a heated car storage facility doing nothing. That said, in all of the time it was up for sale I was the only person that actually went to see it. I think the ad was poorly worded, with the specs and full OPC service history - 7 stamps in total to 2020 not highlighted. The 19" Carrera sport wheels with N2 Pirelli PZero tyres with near 7 mm of tread and zero kerbing not mentioned in the ad. PASM, Litronic lights, Bose, extended leather, non sunroof. He even had the car serviced, a minor service, before I collected it. It also seems that prospective Porsche buyers pay attention to good grammar when considering buying a car. The seller is from a family that have owned Porsches for 30 plus years, including Speedsters, 930 Turbo's, etc. they've got more cars than they know what to do with, nice wheels, Recaro Pole position seats and LV bags are other high value items that are listed for sale including a MY08 C4S Tip for £25k. As for the car, it took the 200 mile trip back to London in its stride and managed 35 mpg. What impressed me with the car was the a/c, refinement and the throttle response. The drive train is a little jerky mind, leading me to speculate that the car has perhaps had a lightened flywheel fitted in its history, or they're all like that. The 996 wasn't. Funnily enough, when I started driving the car back to London I was convinced it was no where near as good as my SLK 55 AMG. Manual vs Auto, V6 vs V8. And then I got back to London, parked up the 911 and jumped into the 55. As good as the 55 is and it is good, the 911 is better refined, has better throttle response and is perhaps a step up from the 55. There's no shame in that. So what happened to the 996 C2 you might ask? It was relisted for £14k and it looks like it's already sold. It was a great car for sure but the 07 was too tempting to pass on.

Fair play for you for going to look at the car you bought, its the only way to really understand what they are, it sounds like you will be very happy with it and got a good car. A few fresh tanks of fuel and some use, will do it the world of good and let it stretch its legs.