safulop

Oh crap, when Jeff (speedtoys) spoke of "the write-up" I assumed he meant in the WSM. So he meant Dwayne's materials I guess? Wow, I had the wrong impression that this was a fairly easy job and it is the total opposite. Tedious and not fully documented -- it's no wonder the shop balked at playing around with it. It's almost certain they have never done this before.

Captain_Slow

Someone may have posted this already...I just realized it wasn't one of Dwayne's write ups. It was one of John Pirtle's outstanding write ups. If you have a garage and no physical limitations, I encourage you to do this yourself. As Sean noted it's not in the WSM, so anyone doing this should have this write up. If you must have it done at a shop, print this out and take it with you to the shop(s) your considering. They might be more willing to do it after flipping through it.

http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/svc_blo.html

Captain_Slow

Also..I tried the modification to the HVAC fan controller resistor coils and it worked for awhile, then the "magic blower" behavior returned. I prevent it from happening by running the fan on level 2 all the time. Keeping constant air flow over the coils keeps the resistor cool - preventing the blower from magically coming on at full power until it cools off.

One of these days I'd like to replace the resistor pack with the newer design that solved this problem (I think 1989 and onward have the new design).

safulop

This whole thread just provides a major reason why I am selling this car soon. I don't work on cars much, apart from shining them up, and this machine is just too old to be practical for me. When there are things going wrong that a shop can't handle, it is definitely not something I want to mess around with. I am going to be selling out and getting myself into a 996 hopefully by the end of the year. Those things are easier for my shop to repair.

Speedtoys

"When there are things going wrong that a shop can't handle"

I think you're reallllly talking about just not having a shop that wants to even try.

If they can do a 996, and not a 928, beware. One is complicated, the other my daughter does heavy work on in her high school ROP class.

safulop

^^^^^^^^^
Yes perhaps. But it's also the matters of the 928 being very much harder to diagnose what the problem is, and get parts in. It took my shop a long time to trace a major problem back to the MAF this year, and even then it was guesswork. Without spare units to try it is a real handicap--we're just not set up like Precision Motorwerks. We had to borrow an LH and an MAF from Rich Andrade just to test theories of the crime. In any case, my fun with 928 ownership has been a very good "bucket list" item that I never thought I would do. I think it's getting to be time to move on.

Speedtoys

I hear what youre saying...

But theyre not hard to diagnose, and parts are easy...

Your intake oddity was 1:1000...dunno what to day, you got the one unlucky issue out of...almost all others i have read up on.

Let your intake refresh..move into the past man, it's colored your view, and I understand that.

safulop

Oh it's not just that, it's really a big package of stuff weighing me down. I mean, if I could own this car purely as a hobby I would keep it. But as things stand, I can only own my one car. I choose to make it a sports car. If it isn't operating, I'm riding in Uber.

Given these facts, it seems like good idea to get into a 13-year-old 996 with 75K miles on the clock for $20,000 when I can sell my 28-year-old car with 150K miles on the clock for $20,000. She's falling apart around me, you know? Stuff is breaking down so it's hard to keep up. I can't imagine a 996 would be so fragile at such a young age, unless they are truly junk.

SeanR

Make sure either the IMS/RMS has been done or do that before you start to rely on it as a daily driver. I've worked on a great number of 996/997/986/987 and since you can plug it in the computer and it tells you what to replace, I can see why the shop would rather work on one. They don't actually have to do any work to diagnose anything. That's when mechanics become parts changers and the art is lost.

Like Greg said before, his buddy has a shop that only does these and makes the comments that he makes more before lunch doing a water pump on a 996 than those of us do on 928's all day.

bureau13

What Sean said about that IMS bearing. They don't all fail, of course, but when they do, it's major.

I get what you're saying about the 928 as your only car. One of the reasons I decided to take the plunge was because I wouldn't have to rely on it like that, and I could take my time fixing things as they came up. (The irony is that since I've had it, with the exception of the stupid loose fuel pump battery connection at first, it's been the more reliable of my two vehicles, by far).

GlenL

This is good, clear thinking and you're still talking "Porsche." I've been looking at the earlier 996s myself. It'd be an adder but the prices are good for what you get.

safulop

Yes to all the above, I am reminded of Greg's famous "when did I stop being a mechanic" thread, but the truth is that even the old mechanics are tired of doing the art and would prefer to get an answer from the computer instead of having to figure anything out. Apparently my shop despite their long experience only want to be "parts changers." They are even helping me find a 996 to buy!

Unfortunately my 928 has been fairly expensive as I have had a number of early failures from bad parts (usually rebuilds). I lost an MAF and a steering rack both with less than 30K miles on them. I also snapped a nice-looking alternator belt under strange circumstances which stranded me in the middle of nowhere. Then of course there was that episode with the Chinese heater control valve that lasted about 10 days.

And yes as soon as I did some research into the 996 I ran upon the intermediate shaft bearing fault, which apparently must be pre-emptively fixed or the whole engine is toast when it fails. This is not a moment for "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Shameful design flaw!

safulop

It's funny you mention that. I seriously considered (for about 2 days) getting into a Dodge Challenger. Now I have to laugh out loud just typing those words. I mean, it's a toolbox with windows for God's sake. And there's one about every 20 yards here in Fresno.

There was a funny moment a while back when I was driving around in the 928 with my 16-year old daughter (whose friends love the Porsche of course) and I pointed to the first Challenger we saw and said "you know I might sell this car and buy one of those." You guys would all love to see the look on her face as she shook her head and said "aw Dad... that guy driving it looks like a tool."

The 996 idea is daughter-approved.

The Forgotten On

Personally I would get a 996 turbo. It's the first of the Mezger engine platform and doesn't have the IMS bearing issues the normal 996 and 997.1 have.

Captain_Slow

Yup...get the 996 Turbo. No IMS, but dragged down in value a bit due to the bad rap on the regular 996s - making the Turbo a bargain.

I do relate to only owning a 928 because it's just my hobby car. I wouldn't own it if I could have only one car.