JERSEYJOE

How out of my mind would I be if I was to buy a high mile C4 (120,000) and expect to drive it 1000 miles home? I fully expect this to be a project and will do a bunch of work on it including the IMS.
How reliable are the C4 transmissions? with all the scare about this IMS I would hate to get halfway home and explode it. Or should I jump in the F-150 and trailer it back to NJ? DAS wants $1000.00 to ship it!

Porschetech3

Hard to say. IF it's a garage queen that hasn't been but 100 miles in 2 years and has 120k on it I'd say no! If it a DD and the PO say's it's Ok and I believed him, it could be an adventure!!

professorman

I would trailer it since you have that as an option. If you own/borrow the trailer, I would bring a friend where he could drive the F150 back with the trailer, and you drive the 911 back. If you plan to rent the trailer from conventional places like UHaul, then drive the F150 and only rent the trailer if you run into trouble and need it.

Or you can sign up for a motorclub membership. My All state motor club, they will cover certain expenses if I am broken down away from home. So lets say you are driving it back, and you run into trouble, the membership will pay for some towing, and hotel and food for you, then you arrange to have it shipped.

Elumere

Mine currently has 113k on it and I'd trust it to drive me across the country and back without a single issue (aside from driver error).

So, if it was a DD and has receipts showing regular maintenace in decent intervals, go for it. Enjoy the drive, learn to love the Porsche reliability. If it was a garage queen, up your AAA membership and drive anyways. Or trailer it.

JERSEYJOE

Yeah I have a trailer that I usually tow my custom CJ 7 on

dan_189

Post pics of the adventure regardless!

dporto

I bought my '99 C4 with 135,000 mi. on it in Chicago, and drove it back to New York (just shy of 1k miles)... No drama... High mile? Was the car maintained? Is there something wrong with the transmission that you know of? The transmissions on these cars (the manuals at least) are known to be near bullet proof. Has the IMSB been changed? Recently? Ever? I suppose it depends on the condition of the car - it sounds like it may be "rough"...If so, all bets are off. a 120k mile car that's been well maintained should give no qualms over a 1k trip... Good luck

De Jeeper

If u do bring a trailer make sure u bring a lot of ramp. There is a big difference in height between a cj and a 996 . I say drive it.

ejdoherty911

Not enough information....what has been the car's usage over the past 12 months? If it's the daily driver of the owner then probably low risk to drive home 1,000 miles. If it's only been driven on weekends occasionally I would bring the trailer.

professorman

Buying any used car is always a risk. That risk could be 10% , 20%, 30% chance that something goes wrong, but whaverever the risk level, when you fall into that small margin of error that something goes wrong, then it truley sucks. My first few months of ownership, I want my car to be more local. I am more risk adverse than others, but when something goes wrong, it causes a lot more headaches. I bought a older 528i from my best friend 400 miles away a few years ago. I drove it back, and when I was 10 miles from my mechanic, the car overheated. Luckily I was close enough to have it towed to the shop and easily fixed. When that happens hundreads of mile away from home, you are left trying to figure out a lot of logistics.

I am not a proponent for chanigng the IMS as the very first thing you do to the car. I want to make sure that everything is good with the car before I go dumping thousands of dollars into a car that could be a pile of heap. I say, first thing, do a oil change, and with that first oil change, get a Oil analysis done. If they oil analysis comes back good, drive for 3-6 months to make sure no other secret problems pop up, then do your IMS and start investing into preventative maintenance. A used car has to 'earn' my trust through time. I dont just see it and automatically trust it.

I am now at 1 year of ownership on my 911, and it has fully earned my trust.

Chris(MA)

My 2000 cab I bought with 102.4k on the clock. I drove it 6 miles home and did the IMS/clutch and all the rest of it, the IMS was in very good shape, so I didn't need to be so paranoid. It had a dual row IMS

What year is the car? the dual row has a failure rate of around 1% I believe and the single row about 7-8%

You might have other problems, like worn clutch, split CV boots, AOS failing etc

EDIT: can you ask to remove the oil filter and check for metal particles? it can be done very quickly as a bit more of a check. You can drop a new filter in at the same time.

The odds are probably in your favor you'll make it home ok with no drama, esp if you take it easy. That $1000 you save would pay for a LNE ceramic bearing and a new AOS...

dporto

Uh...That's what a PPI is for. Ideally, an oil change/analysis should be done as part of the PPI...If the IMSB (Yes, it's the bearing we're talking about - nobody is changing their IMS unless they're doing a full engine rebuild) was done close to 50k miles ago, it wouldn't be overly premature to proactively replace it - I personally, would replace it with "The Solution" - which I did on my own car as it's a "do it once and never worry about it again". As for driving it a thousand miles as soon as you buy it - what better way to get to know the car, how it drives, sounds, smells? A thousand mile trip isn't all that much and any decent car should be able to handle it - especially if it passes a PPI. Could it break down? Sure, but you could also get hit by a bus driving down to the corner store... These cars were made to drive...being overly cautious or paranoid is just silly (drive it for 3-6 months while looking for "secret" problems? really?).

shootermcgavin

i just drove a '99 with 149k miles 650 miles home...

dporto

^^That's^^ what I'm talkin' about! Why would you buy it if you don't think you could drive it a thousand miles without breaking down I mean, it's not like driving over the rocky mountains in the middle of winter (that's a high stakes gamble).

HenryPcar

Its not the mileage, but how well it is maintained. I once had a BMW E30 with close the 1/2 million miles and I drove it everywhere, including weekly trips from LA to SF while I was on assignment on a contract.