goofballdeluxe

The bigger expense was the 1 hour of labor charge, to remove the steering wheel and take the tach out/put it back in, if I recall correctly...

Mike J

You are kidding me, right???? Insurance here in Vancouver on any 993 in a minimum of $1800, most people are around $2100/year and up. I am around $1900 for the Turbo, and that is with a clean driving record and $1000 deductible. There can't be that much of a difference..... now I am depressed.

Lets see, does purchasing the Turbo count? Parts so far are $2800, but that includes a whole bunch of corrections that I wanted to make, oil change, brake flush, clutch slave (expensive on a turbo), detailing supplies, turbo check valve lines, steering wheel upgrades, etc.

The only big maintenance item that I know about will be the clutch, since its still on the original, and shocks/suspension, which is an upgrade. Hopefully not this year.

The only labor item I paid for is an alignment - otherwise its 100% part costs. I refuse to pay a mechanic to do something I can go, likley better...

On the Targa, the average costs were about $2400/year for maintenance, $1100 year for extraordinary repairs, and $1300/year on upgrades. That included an engine rebuild and all the $#)($()#* hassle with that $#)(*$%)(#*() roof, including a total repaint (still like the Targa's though, but LOVE my Turbo). Got a good price for it when I sold the Targa, but it was a BIG money loser.

Cheers,

Mike

gruppe75

My biggest costs was a case of Xenix to remove all of the cosmoline from the underside and a whole bunch of cleaning and wax products.
Countless hours of polishing and waxing, which my wife can attest to.
Then, don't forget you need a feather duster to remove any dust while your car
sits in hibernation for the winter. Nothing worse than sitting in your chair, staring at your 993,
and seeing a dust flake fall on it.

Steve 96C4S

Best laugh I've had all year here! Thanks for the gut buster.

Roche993

Maint. costs for me were fairly reasonable except for an on track windshield chip costing about $850 total with new seals, etc.
Two oil changes $200
Transmission oil change $55
New front rotors $470

Where I got pummeled was on mods.
New set 996 hollows + MPSC tires + stems $2200
Golden rod $185
Front BB ducts $120
Hans $650
Replay xd + mount $350
Misc. other stuff $500

Insurance $650
All work DIY

mts

$670 a year for full coverage on the Targa with a $1,000 deductible through State Farm. Clean driving record, multi-car, homeowners and below 7,500 miles per year discounts.

It sucks you have to pay so much. That's modification fun being thrown away.

Analog Theory

Define "maintenance"? I'm north of $20k with no compromise Regear, LSD, new fuel pump, new fuel tank, injector rebuild, Rothsport hub conversion, and whack of other upgrades.

race911

Then I'll raise your spare change effort, and see if anyone can beat the ~$70K the previous owner of the yellow car spent in 2003 to convert it!

Analog Theory

Lol...touché

jimq

cost for my 964 an 996TT was $80 for 4 cans of brakes fluid, $25 2 oil filters, $150 25 Qts oil. 2500 miles each. $255 total

camlob

I am about plus $27k for everything I did on my car. JICs, HRE wheels, ITBs, 4l P&Cs, RSLWF, ARP head studs and rod bolts, Pauter rods, TEC3r ecu, DFU's, magnacor sparplug high tension wires, headers, RSCS splitter and wing, Recaro's, Rothsport steering wheel, Rennline ****. And remember my car caught fire so I had to replace a lot of other things like the wiring harness, spark plug high tension wires, oil return lines etc.

But the driving experience is priceless

brucec59

After spending $0 in 2009 and $39 in 2010, I spent about $7,600 in 2011. $6,100 on maintenance and $1,500 on mods. Worth every penny!

Van Larson

Let's go "round"--$5.5k FD (LWF, clutch,golden rod, SS, ISV, Wong chip, rebuilt distributor), $3.5K (Volk TE37's w/Conti DW's), $3.5k GPW "freshen-up", .5k JVC h/u and Infinity Ref speakers, .8k Raid 340mm wheel, .5k RS splitters, .3k SS brakelines and BradPenn, .5k align/corner balance.....should be good for 2012 I hope..............

No HTwo O

I'm not going to add it up. But the Turbo had 2 oil changes in 2011, a new LWFW and performance clutch, 4 new tires, tons of stuff from Detailers Domain, and a professional polish & wax. These are the items that quickly come to mind.

Insurance is cheap. State Farm. Full coverage, $500 deductable. About $325 for 6 months.

asofine

Resurrecting this thread to lament about some of the BS that's popped up on my 993 in my two years of ownership. A friend and I decided to tally up our ownership costs since buying cars at roughly the same time a couple of years ago, and I was shocked to see the numbers add up as I went along.

Granted: I suffer from a major case of vehicular hypochondria, I'm fastidious, and I don't do my own wrenching. Nonetheless, I feel like I've been pretty unlucky with several "one-off" problems that - in aggregate - feel like I've gotten the short end of the 911 reliability stick. Most of these problems are electrical in nature. Hence, my question: are Porsches (particularly in the 993 and prior eras) infamous for poor electrical components, or have I just been unlucky?

Here are the unexpected electrical problems I've encountered in the last two years:

Rear window electrical short:
Apparently the rear window houses several electrical components that I was previously unaware of. After some stethoscoping (almost literally) and diagnosing by RMG, we discovered that a problem with the wiring in my rear window was causing a fuse (the one that runs the 3rd brake light and cruise control) to short repeatedly. The only solution was to replace the rear window (not an inexpensive endeavor). After hmming and hawing, I eventually bit the bullet and replaced the window. All told, the diagnosing, the labor, the parts, the blood, sweat and tears totalled closed to $1900.

Headlight issues:
When I first purchased the car, one of the factory litronic lights had a faulty igniter. I was lucky enough to source one on RL and replaced it. Afterward, one of my headlights nonetheless fired intermittently for a short time. Between sourcing/installing the igniter and attempting a few fixes since before finally getting to a decent solution, I've sunk $535 into this problem.

Fuel Level Indicator:
When I first purchased the car, it had a faulty fuel gauge. Yada yada yada all told this was a $300 endeavor.

Radio problems:
I have a factory CDR-210 with the HiFi package. Unlike many users here, I actually found the sound quality of the system to be more-or-less fine (particularly considering the fact that I am playing crappy MP3 files on it through an iPod anyhow), so I decided not to change the setup. With that said, it's had some problems. The backlight on the head unit has been out since I bought the car. I haven't fixed that yet. I've also noticed that the radio emits a faint static-y noise. One day, the FM radio on it also went. It turned out that a cable was loose somewhere. Yada yada I paid for an hour of labor somewhere in there ($125).

OBC Light:
How does my car decide to pay me back for giving it a thorough detail from Glistening Perfection? It decides to kill its OBC light. I haven't fixed it yet, but after reading up solutions on RL, I'm sure I'll allow somebody more skilled than I to tackle this. I'm figuring I won't spend less than 100 bucks by the time all is said and done.

Several alternator-related problems:
Not electrical in nature, but anyhow...two consecutive alternator belt sensors were faulty and had to be replaced. Then an alternator bearing was whining uncontrollably so I replaced it. I also had an alternator belt snap on me. What are the odds of running into 4 snags that all pertained to the alternator and its various components? These problems added up in "diagnosing," labor and parts costs to the tune of $530.

Intermittent brake warning light:
An electrical ghost that worked itself out eventually. Nonetheless wanted to ensure that the brakes were fine when the light kept coming on, so an hour of labor invested there ($125).

Intermittent airbag light:
Similarly, my airbag light started popping on intermittently at one stage. Like the brake light, I had it checked out to ensure that the problem was the light and not the airbag. $95 there.

Here are some of the things I've addressed that fall closer to the vehicular hypochondria area:
Front windshield rattle:
I understand that this is a common 993 problem...I ultimately did the common "rope" repair...sunk $250 and the noise is about 50% better.

Sunroof rattle:
I understand that this is also a somewhat common problem...the kind folks at RMG were able to fix it using some of their magic for $135.

So, all told, that's $4,000 invested on unexpected maintenance issues in the last two years. Yes, a few hundred of it has been mostly a result of my fastidiousness, and I could have chosen to live without cruise control or a 3rd brake light and saved myself $1,900. In any event, I nonetheless find it irksome that my car has hit me with bizarre electrical and even the odd mechanical (see: alternator) problems to the tune of thousands of dollars in just a couple of years. So, oh knowledgable folks of Rennlist, tell me, does this sound like "normal" problems or have I just been unlucky?