996 C2 rolling maintenance, modifications & cost

[Thunderace]

996 ownerswhip one year on
Well it's a bit more than a year on actually, 14 months to be precise. If you are considering buying a 996 please don't let the money I have spent put you off, I knew the car needed some bits, i bought relatively cheaply because of this and have done work that wasn't needed as well as that which was. In my last service I had a bit of a shock because i had catered for maybe 1 to 2K because I knew some bits that needed doing but a leaking RMS caused that figure to move skyward.

My experience:
Absolutely love the car, I really don't get the 996 haters, money aside this would be my choice, having had 2 aircooled 911s (911SC and 3.3 turbo) this is a far superior car in all respects, performance, handling, gearchange, interior and comfort. One thing I miss from the biking world is a lack of meets and rideouts, on my bike there are several big meets and rideouts every week ibut i can't find anything to do in the 996 (aside from the occasional drive to a cafe for tea and cakes or lunch which is definately not my thing).

Best mod:
Cheap quick shift kit expertly modified by an engineer on 911uk forums has transformed the gear shifting experience from pretty horrrible to an almost rifle bolt gated feeling.

Posted here on 911UK

Mileage:
73,000 at purchase now 81,000 so driven 8,000 miles

Reliability:
No issues at all just a coolant leak due to the usual coolant tank cracking. Burns virtually no oil.

Expenses (other than running costs like inurance, tax, petrol etc.):

July 2020

• 
  Main service, engine oil and filters (MOBIL 1 FS 0W40) (Brookfield garage Stowmarket, Porsche, VAG specialists)
  RMS (dry) and other vehicle checks
  Top Gear Sound stainless exhaust
  Water pump, Porsche coolant and belt
  Service indicator reset
  Spark plugs and heat shields
  Porsche specialists (Reason porsche Suffolk) July/August
  Coolant tank and coolant
  Front discs (Sebro) and pads
  Self fitted engineered short shift kit (self lubricated solif bearings and phosphur Bronze bushes)
  Rennline CNC machined aluminium gear shift knob

Running total: £2763.06
-------------------------
4 x new Pirelli Pzero Rosso N4 (636)

Running total: £3399.06
-------------------------

09/07/2021 (Pie Performance)

• Annual service
  4 x coffin arms
  Front suspension top mounts and bearing plates
  Front suspension bump stops
  Steering pipe protection (breaking so had stainless jubilee clips applied
  Wiper blade set and wiper system repair ( drivers side working off off spindle )
  Dual tone horn set
  AC pipes, condensors and regas
  Front tuning forks
  Tracking
  Brake pipe clean and Tectyl grease
  Unexpected work due to significant RMS leak
  Certificated IMS replacement and RMS (and surrounding work)
  Dual mass flywheel and clutch kit
  MOT

Running total: £9263.06
-------------------------

Known remaining issues:

• Hydraulic steering pipe failing (intend to rip out and replace with electric hydraulic cup conversion)
  Indicator broken (has to be manually held on to indicate right)
  Appears to run a bit hot, Cruising the needle is just over vertical but anything else it stays at about 3 mm before the mark between 80 and 120 so maybe 95(ish)

Wants:

• Rest of suspension not yet touched
  Koni dampers with H&R springs (Design911 kit)
  Respray (Yeah right, isn't happening)
  Refurbish BBS split rims

 

[Paynewright]

Mine has a low temp stat and runs bang on 80, tad over if its hot and in traffic. Never seen it go anywhere near as hot as yours even before I had the LT stat.

Is it pressurising properly ? Caps and bleed valves can fail

 

[Parsley]

Mine also never budges above 80 even hot in traffic.

 

[Lef]

Hi - Relatively new owner here and going through sorting out issues to make the car mechanically great too. I had exactly the same issue with the temp and it turned out to be the high speed fan relay for one of the front radiators. With both my fan resistors failed, it meant that on stationary traffic I only had one fan working. Very easy fix and easy to diagnose. (Switch on the air con and swap the relays).

 

[Thunderace]

Thanks for the replies, mine is obviously therefore running significantly hot, a condition not noticed by 3 independent specialists spending some 50 hours on the car, disappointing.

Sounds a great tip for checking the relay, thanks Lef, I don't want a low temp stat, I'd rather the car got up to temperature quickly.

Guess I'd better book the car in to get this specifically checked (I'll have to recover from the very recent £6k bill first though).

 

[911Olly]

Thanks for the replies, mine is obviously therefore running significantly hot, a condition not noticed by 3 independent specialists spending some 50 hours on the car, disappointing.

Sounds a great tip for checking the relay, thanks Lef, I don't want a low temp stat, I'd rather the car got up to temperature quickly.

Guess I'd better book the car in to get this specifically checked (I'll have to recover from the very recent £6k bill first though).

Just to add to this, mine gets up to a similar temp sitting in traffic. The car is looked after by a specialist with a good reputation and has had lots of work done by them over the last 18 months including fitting a LTT, so I'm sure they would have flagged if the cooling system needed attention. Good luck with your investigations, I'm not that worried by mine but would still be interested to know what you are advised with yours!

 

[Paynewright]

Still find it bizarre the coolant capacity is 20+ litres - most other cars I've owned are 4 or 5!

 

[Alex]

That SSK mod of mine gets some good press.

Thank you kind sir for the comments.

 

[Robertb]

I wonder how accurate the temp gauge actually is... if you have a 996.1 can't you access the 'secret' diagnostics via the HVAC display and get the coolant temp reading from the ECU? Compare notes with other owners?
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=81945

 

[911Olly]

I wonder how accurate the temp gauge actually is... if you have a 996.1 can't you access the 'secret' diagnostics via the HVAC display and get the coolant temp reading from the ECU? Compare notes with other owners?
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=81945

I have done this and it went up to around 103 in traffic, but seemed to stop there without getting any hotter...

 

[msaif996]

I bought my 2002 996.2 6MT in 2009 with 48,000 miles from the original owner. It now stands at 84,500 miles. I bought it for £20k back in 2009 and when I added up all my invoices over the years it came to (clearing my throat) £40k, double what I paid for it but no regrets as it's absolutely immaculate and drives like a dream, and is the perfect spec for me.

 

[DivineE]

I wonder how accurate the temp gauge actually is... if you have a 996.1 can't you access the 'secret' diagnostics via the HVAC display and get the coolant temp reading from the ECU? Compare notes with other owners?
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=81945

Hope I'm not further spreading false information here but on our survey in an owners chat we identified that 996.1 dash shows hotter than 996.2 dash. Given the cars we owned. The position seemed the same between cars but different. This is where my 2004 996.2 always sat, no low temp thermostat or anything.

That photo does look hotter than I've seen though

 

[Thunderace]

That SSK mod of mine gets some good press.

Thank you kind sir for the comments.

Well it is a ridiculousy good and cost efficient mod Alex, I can't imagine there being another mod out there that beats it pound for pound when it comes to the affect on driving pleasure especially as the standard 996 plastic mechanism is so aweful in contrast to the rest of the car.

Add to that the excellent information and videos supplied on how to action the mod and the fact that you just made the whole experience easy ...

** Disclaimer **

These comments are my genuine opinion, I am not sponsored by Alex PLC :grin:

 

[Thunderace]

I wonder how accurate the temp gauge actually is... if you have a 996.1 can't you access the 'secret' diagnostics via the HVAC display and get the coolant temp reading from the ECU? Compare notes with other owners?
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=81945

Thanks for that link, I'll give it a go and post my listed temperatures.

 

[Thunderace]

996 ownership continued

As I made this post I may as well use it to update on latest updates and rolling total.

The standard CDR22 was working intermitently and any way was, well old. I know a lot of people feel you "just have to" have the Porsche classic system but I just don't care about the Porsche logo on loading and wasn't prepared to pay the premium. Premium is fine for me on car parts but stereos? not so much. So I contacted a mobile audio installer of some repute and had installed the following:

Pioneer Apple Car Play system SPH-DA250DAB

This system looks fantastic in-situ and only varies a shade from the standard colour, also you can choose the colour of the display buttons so matched the standard display in orange.

The trouble was although it worked initially it worked intermittently then stopped working altogether, looked like it was the amplifier that was the problem, got some second hand amps from a breaker but none worked so i got the audio installer back in, he fitted this:

Pioneer GM-A3702 500w amplifier

All six speakers now work and the sound is fantastic, far too loud on just 13 out of 100 volume, very pleased with the final result.

To date:
£9263.06

Stereo install:
£599.00
Amp install:
£240.00

New running total:
£10102.06