Father of 3

Well, the good news is I got the DIY done. I did the oil cooler ballast resistor today. Probably took me about four hours or so, maybe a bit more. I took off the front bumper, which made it pretty easy to access. I would say the toughest part was 1) making sure I didn't lose any screws, nuts, etc. (or end up with too many), 2) putting the bumper back on and making sure there was a nice, tight fit, 3) lifting the oil cooler off of the pins (that secure the bottom of the cooler. Not sure I'm 100% happy with how it ended up so I may have to redo the bumper fitting. Overall it wasn't that bad. Is the A/C side bad?

One major casualty of my DIY was that I broke my driver's side fog light lense. I was pulling off one of the lights when I dropped the light on my garage floor. Does anyone have a spare driver's side fog light that they can part with? Please PM me if you do. Otherwise, I guess it's off to LA porsche dismantler.

Thanks to JP, p-car.com, and others for all of the pointers and pictures. I couldn't have done it without Rennlist.

Father of 3

Any pointers on how to ensure a snug fit for the front bumper? Had to call my Wife out to the garage to hold the bumper while I bolted it in.

Father of 3

Confirmed today that my low speed fan works! Very nice to have in stop and go traffic in Los Angeles. Like I said above, this DIY is not hard. Just make sure that you don't drop your foglight. Any thoughts on the front bumper fitment would be appreciated.

tj90

Glad to hear that it went well. I just changed both of mine (resistors) and replaced the gasket above the bumper cover on both sides. The PO had the bumper sprayed and the gasket was old and cracked. I used 2m weatherstrip adhesive to attach the rubber gasket to the cover and yes I had a fellow porsche owner help me stabilize the bumper while we bolted it on. What specifically is the fitment problem you are having?

TJ

Father of 3

Just not as tight of a fit as I think it was prior to the DIY.

pezza

I had trouble getting my front bumper to fit after I replaced my AC components. It turned out that I was trying to refit the wrong way. I was trying to slide it under the black metal area at the front of the luggae compartment with the screw holes, it in fact sits on top off this area. The rail then goes on top of this, does that make sense? Sorry I don't have any photos.

It should fit snug without having to exert too much force on it, it will just pop into place. Hope I haven't got the wrong end of the stick and this might not be what is causing the problem, but my bumper was driving me crazy, only worked it out after taking it off a third time, it just wouldn't sit nice and flush.

Have a look on http://p-car.com/diy/bumper/ this gives pretty clear info with pictures. Hope it helps.

Perry

tj90

Perry - you are correct. The lip is on top. I also found that by gently lifting on the center part of the plastic lip from the bumper cover, the gap will increase betwen the cover and fender around the headlight. This will give you the opportunity to work the rubber gasket into position so it looks flush.

BIG-BRO

The bumper removal / refitting comments make me glad that I did my resistor from the wheel-well direction (with bumper in place).
Not to say it was easy to reach and contort tools and hands in there, but no bumper fit issues and it took a lot less than four hours.

Stewart

I've recently replaced the oil cooler resistor and can confirm, whilst its fiddly and time consuming, its not difficult. I got to it by removing the leading wheel arch liner and the lower corner grill (undo all the self screws visible from below plus there's one between it and the bumper cover on the trailing edge in the wheel well and then the corner panel slides out forwards). I found I didn't need to remove the bumper cover. I had to drop the oil cooler itself, but that dangles by its own pipes once all the retaining nuts have been removed (two nuts on the rearward bracket, one on the leading edge, one on a support struct at the front and not forgetting there's one accessed from inside the headlight void, so you need to pull the headlight out as well). Its then posssible to see the resistor bolted to a horizontal panel above and to the front of where the cooler sits. The resistor nut is undone from below and I found there was just enough room to be able to unplug the connector and pull the resistor out rearwards from the wheel arch - actually mine came out in a handful of pieces. The new resistor is supplied with a steel washer to seat it on so I lightly taped this to the resistor with electrical tape to hold it in place while I threaded it back into position. Happily everything went back together without leaving any left over nuts! Oh, and I also put copperslip on each of the liner screws to make their removal easier in the future - most were fairly corroded and difficult to undo. About 3 hours in total.

Howdy993

Father -

Did you find the area around the cooler full debris?

slapshot

Great work B! Congratulations on a job well done.

CarmG993

I also did the resistor change on the passengar side w/o removing the bumper. My first attempt got me no where. A fellow Rennlister emailed me directions. I went back at it and had it replaced in about 45 mins to an hour.
I may attempt the bumper removal as I want the front end resprayed, but am not interested in getting the hood and side panels blended. My PO put thick plastic protector over the lights, turn signals and fogs. I would havve to peel off or drill a hole to get at the screws to remove the fixtures.