996tt350

Anyone here know of any reputable place that sells a contract on 996 Turbos? Just paid for a new radiator and worried about getting nickel and dimed by parts giving out one by one.

I know i have a a RMS and diff rebuild on the horizon, and yes it's a bit like buying life insurance on someone already dead...but is there anything out there?

Carlo_Carrera

What makes you think your RMS and diff are going to go bad?

996tt350

The RMS is already leaking and there is noise on deceleration and very odd steering through the turns, the car unsettles. The previous owner had some whacky sizes on there, so off the 335 rears burned thorugh the liners (which I already replaced)

Carlo_Carrera

This is going off topic but that does not sound good. Did you buy this car recently?

Macster

Unlikely you will find an aftermarket/3rd party warranty for your car given its age/miles.

Even if you did almost certainly the company would want the car checked out and the oil leak and the car's behavior (which you suspect is due to a front diff) will be discovered and being existing conditions will be excluded.

If the front diff/viscous coupling goes out you can convert the car to RWD rather than spend the money to have the diff/coupling replaced. (I think I'll go this way when (if) the front diff on my Turbo goes out.)

The RMS leak will cost more than a few nickles/dimes -- I can't recall now what it cost to have this fixed in my Turbo -- but the cost is not the end of the world. I mean I would prefer to not have had to have had to pay to have this fixed at all but almost certainly any warranty would have cost you likely twice (or more) that amount.

This might sound a bit elitist or something but these are not cars to own/operate on a tight budget. They were expensive cars when new (sticker price starting in the $119K and going higher depending upon options) and have not gotten any less expensive to serivce/repair.

I know from my experience owning a 2002 Boxster my 2003 Turbo's service costs for the "same" services are almost always higher, make that always higher. The parts costs are higher and so is the labor. There is more labor required to do just about everything with the Turbo.

911mhawk

Have you taken the car to a reputable shop for diagnosis yet?
That would be my first move to get an idea of what you're dealing with.

996tt350

The odd thing about these Turbos is that the prices are actually not as insane as you might expect. The 3 radiators was a kick in the backside as there are more failure points than a normal car

Diff rebuild is 1-2.5 (new part is 9k)
RMS is $1500-$2000, not unheard of

these are 'normal car'prices

Kevinmacd

If you get the rms replaced, do the clutch

996tt350

Yea, I'm looking at options


The steering wobble could be suspension components too I guess. Could a tech check it and see exactly where it is coming from?

Macster

If the clutch needs replacing.

My 2003 Turbo's clutch at approx. 120K miles when the RMS was being done. No measureable disc wear. (See attached pic.)

The only clutch parts I'd replace for sure would be the clutch control shaft needle bearings/dust caps/seals. Every time the transmssion has been out of my car the tech replaced these.

996tt350

Macster, are you at stock power levels? I have a tune, I/E/H as well. probably near 600 hpr or a few less at the engine.

Clutch was replaced 10,000 miles ago by previous owner. guess they missed the seal or did it wrong...or it sat too long

Macster

Yes, the engine is stock.

A tune -- and while it should be obvious I'll say it anyhow, how the car is driven -- certainly affects clutch life.

Once the transmission is out the tech and you can check the clutch and decide what hardware (disc, pressure plate, release bearing, flywheel, etc.) -- if any -- should be replaced. (As I mentioned before the Porsche senior techs who worked on my car, who removed then installed the transmission, always replaced the needle bearings and their end caps/dust seals/etc.)

The factory manual gives a dimension -- the distance from the surface of the clutch disc to the top of the rivet (the flanged end of the rivet) -- when the clutch is new and at what point the disc is considered worn out and should be replaced.

New is 1.7mm. Worn out is 0.3mm. Please note and the factory manual even mentions this the wear is not linear. Early on there will be more wear but then the wear slows down so a clutch disc that shows 50% wear is not 50% through its service life. However, I can't tell you how much service life the clutch has but a conserative guess would be it has at least as many miles left as it has already covered. So if one has a 50K mile clutch and it is half worn the expectation is the clutch could go another 50K miles with the same usage it received its first 50K miles.

If you are running an aftermarket clutch then the above dimensions probably don't apply. The aftermarket clutch maker might have some info on how to check a disc for wear and at what point the disc is considered worn enough to be replaced.

Generally, that is I've always done this with other cars, if the disc needs to be replaced, then everything gets replaced: pressure plate, release/throwout bearing, pilot bearing/bushing, any other hardware inside the bellhousing that is worn, and often the flywheel gets resurfaced.