nile13

I should add what some of us have already experienced - intermittant brake pad light. Very strange thing, as the wire is not completely broken yet but the light comes on when you push the brake pedal. Me thinks that it could be due to mechanical shifting of the sensor wire itself, but it is strange.

BTW, another useless tidbit - the sensors on all my BMWs were identically designed to the P sensors.

kkim

Did anyone not catch this? If you need rotors, your brake light won't tell you squat... it only monitors brake pad thickness. To check your rotors, either they need to be replaced when the cracking gets severe from hole to hole or to outside edge or they wear down beyond a minimum thickness which will have to be measured with a brake caliper micrometer.

Texas993

Andy ask the wrench at the dealer, not the service advisor. Same thing happened to me, I asked the advisor and since 99% of the cars they repair are 996 cars he said 0-40. When I asked my mechanic (the guy who actually uses the wrenches) he said 15-50. 15-50 is the consensus here on RL.

KKim, right about the rotors. The thickness is usually checked when the pads are changed. My dealer says to change the rotors everytime you change the pads.... oh $ure! I did both a few thousand miles ago. Hopefully I am good on rotors for a while.

FisterD

15W- 50 for the 993. 0W-40 for the newer waterpumpers. That's the way I understand it. 0W-40 is a much thinner oil. I'm not sure how well it would work in the ol'air cooled motor. I think some people have switched, but I'm not planning on it.

Ray Calvo

90K miles on my '95 993; still the original clutch so can't help much. On previous 911 models with 915 tranny when clutch was bad would get bad shuddering/vibration when pulling away from a dead stop.

Gotta disagree with the 15W-50 oil recommendation. Have used Mobil 1 0W-40 for years and am getting about 2500 miles/qt with no oil leaks. I remember an article written by Bruce Anderson, one of the top experts on 911s (in my opinion; writes in "Excellence" and the Porsche Club magazine "Panorama") recommending the lighter weight synthetic oils. As to where to get it - get off your butt and go down to some regular or imported auto parts stores by you. Some carry it; some don't (have a chain by you called "Autozone"? Try them.).

Wiper blades? I buy just the Bosch rubber refills; tear the old rubber out of the existing blades and replace just the rubber.

FisterD

Here's something from the PCA website about oil, you decide what works for you.

The 15W-50 is for warmer climates and/or tougher service, and the 0-40 is for cooler climates. I hope I did not misunderstand the question. 0 will flow better at a lower temperature than 15 will. Likewise the 50 will handle the higher temps better than the 40 will. In warmer weather and on the track I run the 15-50, whereas I run 0-40 in my street car for the cold winter weather. So I would say 'no, it only has advantages for the colder weather'.

Since publishing the note above, I have additional information from Bruce Anderson and Peter Smith to pass along. Porsche is currently recommending the following in Technical Bulletin 1701, "Engine Oils Approved by Porsche":

Castrol/Syntec 5W-50
Exxon/Superflo Supreme Special 15W-40
Mobil 1 5W-30, 10W-30, and 15W-50
Sunco Synturo Gold 5W-40
Havoline Formula 3 synthetic 5W-40
Valvoline/ High Performance Synthetic 5W-30

Note that Mobil1 0W-40 was not available yet at that point in time.

We are thinking that Porsche favors the 40 top weight over the 50 for street use because it is friendlier to the hydraulic valve adjusters (993 and 986/996) and other areas of the VarioCam valve train (986/996). In the case of the former, we have seen some of these newer cars struggle to achieve compression on startup in certain circumstances because the hydraulic valve adjusters are not pressurizing correctly.

So the revised answer is 'yes, it offers valvetrain advantages provided you keep the oil temperatures within specs'. In other words I will still run 15W-50 in my GT3 Cup car with the hydraulic valve adjusters because it is still heavier duty service than a 0-40 would be best for. But on the newer street cars the 0-40 is probably better if your climate is not hellaciously hot and you don't overdrive the car.

Joel Reiser / Bruce Anderson- PCA Website 2/02

Texas993

Thanks FisterD, that is perfect. In my extreme heat environment I will stick to 15-50.

Dave R.

Open circuit OR grounding to the rotor (unbroken wire contacts the rotor) will trigger the brake pad warning light. That accounts for the "intermittent brake pad light".

This makes sense when you think about it - otherwise, after the wires were broken the light would turn off every time you hit the brakes because the rotor would contact both wire ends and complete the circuit.

nile13

That makes sense, Dave, that's what I was thinking about as well. If the rotor is grounded and the system is looking for 0V to turn on the light... that makes sense.

mborkow

too funny!!!

my clutch became really hard to depress towards the end of its life

slider

Darin - been dying to ask, but didn't want to hijack a thread and this one covers clutches, so...how you still liking your LWF? The newest symptom I have for my worn clutch is that the tranny seems still in gear after I depress the clutch pedal..at least in first gear it does this. Realistically, I'm probably not going to be in a position to follow your lead on this until next Feb/March. But if you're still game, I'd be great to have a drop party then.

blackcat

Or switching the sensor plug with the ABS Plug (I think that's what the other one is).... ask me how I know

FisterD

I love it! My car ran like a beast at the track. If I used my car as a commuter, I don't know if I'd recommend this mod. It is a bit more noisy. Once it's warmed up, it kind of sounds like a dog panting (stick your tongue out and say ha,ha,ha,ha). I don't find it bothersome, but some might.( I'm also running Supercups, so...)
Your clutch situation is not sounding so good. Let me know when your planning the surgery, and I'll see if I can make it by.