996tt buying guide/advice

pretty much decided i want to be in a 996tt by the end of the year. i jus want o know as much as possible and what to look for when buying a 996tt. main pitfalls, big bills, problems to look for etc. budget of 25k, must be a manual coupe. many thanks nick

You could start with the buyer's checklist here: http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=269468 The Turbo engine is relatively bullet proof, but there are a few things that do go wrong. The turbo wastegates can rust and sieze, the actuators can fail, or the actuator rods can rust and break. Listen for engine noises, as it has been known for intermediate shaft gears to come loose on the shaft. Diverter valves can also fail. Check the boost on a test drive. A standard 420bhp car will boost to 0.6-0.7bar at WOT. Any more and it has been chipped - any less and there may be a problem.

Very much as as Richard said, they are in my opinion Excellent VFM without the fear of engine issues standard 996 has. Check the rear tyres inner edges for wear as its £600 for a new pair i.e you can have 4/5mm on outside and below minimum on inside. So some 2nd gear blasts to check that it doesnt jump out. also the usual radiators and a/c condensors. With chipped cars they also tend to cause the traction control to flash. I prefer the cars with the short shift kits. Please note a std car may very briefly flash 0.8bar (less than a second) also if one of the intercooler pipes has popped of, the car will compensate with the remaining single turbo boosting to 1.2/1.3 bar.

As this happened to me, check that the air box has the correct filter. I can only assume that in a quest to wring every last pony out of the engine, one idiot previous owner, and I am not sure which one, fitted an oiled-cloth and mesh filter. It had the code BMC 156 or something so I don't think it was a K&N but either way the error was in that it was a carrera filter, which goes in the airbox, but does not fully mask the aperture, due to the cut away necessitated by the need for the carrera airbox to clear the air-con pump. The upshot was that I needed to fit a new throttle body (£675) to cure erratic high idle speed.

that shouldn't really happen, Gordon. I had exactly that happen to me, and the DME did what it was supposed to do, and went into 'limp' mode, which restricts the boost to 0.4 bar.

I hate to be a party pooper ,but the intergear can be a game changer as I know only to well, the american's who are more forthright have started to notice this more where as over here we still believe in the engine's invincibility sadly service history doesnt help much a good inspection by an indie will since my misfortune/fortune as it was caught before any engine damage , I have spoken to various people in the know Kevin at ultimate motorwerks belives the only way you can reliably pick this on up is by regular oil examination checking for aluminium shaving I know you will not find many people here talking about that ask yourself why did porsche build a solid billet intergear for the GT3 aside from that everything else is cheap, well less expensive[ ]

Well it happened on mine, maybe it was not fully of! It was two years ago and I'm sure Northways said that has seen quite a few. I'll check tomorrow when I'm there.....

Gordon I know Ray Northway has seen a couple,Tony Wright was talking to one of the mechanics there,as you say the bolts back out the gear still remains on the shaft but the wobble causes marked backlash noises in my case it looked like the chains were stopping the bolt come out completely I suspect the next thing would have been a chain giving way [ ] In the US they have had the bolt work completely loose and then grenade the engine.I have some groovy pictures when i can work out how to up load them.I meant to add the 997 is not immune either I think I am correct in saying in the new 991 they have done way with this design

I am going to buy a 996 Turbo later this year. Is there any regular preventative maintenance you can give the wastegates, actuators, actuator rods and diverter valves. Or is it just a matter of replacement as they fail? You'll see from the question I know nothing about 911 engines.

Threespins, take the plunge, buy the best that you can and you will not be disappointed. No engine is completely bullet proof but as engines go the gt1 block on which the 996 T is based is right up there. I'd take the odds on a 996T failure against the RMS and IMS woes in a heartbeat.

Hi Richard, Can you explain a little more what you mean by the above comment eg at idle, on changing gear, on accelerating etc ? Can you describe the noise a little better ? My Turbo has been exemplary but the engine is a little noisy at idle once warmed up hence my interest