cfiiman

Hey everyone,

Really glad to be at this board! Anyway I just put a deposit on my dreamcar, it is a 99' 996. I specifically wanted this car for a bunch of reasons but mainly 2 important ones. I was looking at many with 60K miles, give or take and decided I would not buy something with 100k> on them. Well I came across one that did have 120K on the chassis but had a Factory reman. engine put in it in 2005 when the odometer had 96K on the clock, so the new motor has 24K miles on it. The reason this was so important to me was b/c of the IMS issue and the catostrophic failures of these motors. Anyway I also chose it b/c it had an upgraded all new M30 suspension put on it just a few thousand miles ago as well.

So now to the part i'm struggling with. I am worried about this car b/c of all the damn negative stuff I find on the internet. I know it is like looking at web md when you are sick, you will think you are going to die, but I still have a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was hoping you all could help me with. I know there are no garauntees in life but spending 20K on a car that could with one problem cost you 3/4's of that to fix and put back on the road is FU$^!^#$@'n ridiculous and something I would NEVER want to do. This is precisley why I went for one that already had it done. I have seen the paperwork and all the service records since new and have talked to the shop that has done all the work and they verified that it was meticulously maintained to a "freakish" level which I am exstatic about.

I actually woke up last night thinking about the dreaded engine failure and that is why I wanted to register and post about this. Am I being too paranoid here? I called the local Porsche "Indie" shop that I will have do all the work, and he is a really nice guy. He steerd me away from one b/c he already knew the history and didn't charge me anything and he could of b/c I came to him about a PPI. He told me to "always" go for a car that has a documented engine reman in it and that I need to just relax and enjoy this car b/c he has not seen problems out of remans. Being that the reman was done in spring of 2005 (it was shipped from Germany in December 2004) I am hoping the IMS issues are a thing of the past like he says but don't know for sure does anyone here know if that problems would have been corrected/updated? Any guidance you can offer me on this would be really appreciated, I have dreamed of owning one of these since I was a kid, and I'm in love with the one I am buying, but I don't want to be stupid. I have owned cars that people on the internet said were "nightmares" and always found the opposite to be true, but they were never this expensive which is what scares me the most. I don't want a 20K car to turn into a 35K car b/c of shotty motors etc. Thanks for any help.

Meister Fahrer

You're getting the car for about ~$20k?
Well, trust us when we tell you you're getting a lot of German sports car for that money.

I drove mine out to Palm Springs over the weekend, high temps about 115*, a/c on, pedal down, the car never waivered at speed, and it looked like a million bucks the whole time.

Sounds like you found a nice one, get it and enjoy the heck out of it!

Sneaky Pete

First off, glad you are here and OH BOY what a first post. Have to say that this is not the first of the first post's on this. That make sense? There does seem to be an issue but the general consensus says that it is a very rare thing given the amount of these car on the road. Personally I drive a '99 and I am not worried about the IMS. I have stopped chiming in on the IMS threads because I'm really tired of reading about gloom and doom and death and nooses and crap like that!

I would not worry, I would pay attention to your future car though. Change the oil often and generally love the $hit out of it with maintenance. If its making noises don't wait to look at it until its too late. This should be the same for any car. Unlike some guys that beat the **** out of there cars but don't put any groceries back into it.

Good Luck with your new car cuz you are going to love it!

Until than I'm gonna sit here and eat

mavthenav

Advice without Pics, you guys are slipping.

Divot

He doesn't own it yet, so I'll give a break on the pics.

Buy it. You've wanted one your whole life, and will probably take good care of it. Drive it hard, and the odds are small you will have a major failure.

ivangene

Macster's Boxster ahs nearly 200k on it... big deal it has a lot of miles...

the sleepless nights are a personality thing, not a car thing....(ask me how I know)

Enjoy the car, relax....remember people dont post when things are "going well"
but there is a thread something like Porsche Stories - good bad ugly that I made a long time ago that is worth reading just for the warm fuzzy stories and not the scary boogie man stuff.... BTW I dreamed my car got hit (last night) by a BUS... but my car was white... not red..... I wont be buying a white car!!!!



Welcome to the sleepless nights at the Phunny Pharm

sparks259

don't baby it.
drive it like it was meant to be driven.
life is short, you only get one trip.

frisbee91

I've got a 99 with the original engine and 50k. I'm not losing sleep over the ims. I plan on addressing it this winter along with the clutch, but in the meantime I am loving this car. Don't sweat it too much. Enjoy the car!

cfiiman

Wow, thanks guys I can't believe I got so many posts in such a short time! I want to go through with this purchase but it would be an understatement to say that as of right now I am "waffling" badly. I've always owned American muscle cars, vettes, cobras, grand nationals, chevelles, etc. But always lusted in secret after the 911's. I have owned 2 of them in the past when I was a kid, I had a 68 912 and a 79 sc and loved both of them, but the day (about a year ago) a dealer put me in a 99' I was flat floored. I had a smile that I had never had before. Cars had become Ho-hum for me and then this refined yet savage beast, I was genuinly aroused, I am in that much "love" with the 996.

Here is the other part of this story. I have always done my own work to my cars, clutches, tune-ups, whatever and always enjoyed it. I'm scared I will not be able to do work on these, maybe b/c some of the owners I've talked to don't know a socket wrench from there butthole I don't know. Anyway I am not rich, God has blessed me though and I want to continue to grow finiancially. I got where I am today b/c I don't buy stupid things that go down in value. I feel like I am getting these cars at the bottom, someone asked if I was getting it for 20, but I am actually getting it for 18.5 but with taxes, pickup fees etc. it will be that so that is why I used that number.

The big "if" here though is if I had a failure like that then it would be like paying over 30 for a car that was worth about half that, and honestly I can not stomach that. So knowing I can not stomach that should I be buying one of these? Yes I have dreamed of one as long as they have been out, my heart races when someone passes me in one, and honestly I don't want anything else (I thought about getting a terminator cobra too) so the money I'll just keep in the bank. My stomach is chruning trying to figure out the right thing to do. I have never bought a muscle car and worried about something that can go "boom" and cost damn near as much as the car, that just seems INSANE to me. Guess I thought these were different but these damn forums (other forums, pelican parts especially) it just seems as though people think these are big POS which really pisses me off b/c I love them so much, but hell who am I to say they are wrong? I just keep getting a lot of conflicting opinions and am not sure what to believe, ultimately the decision lays with me and maybe that is what is hard, I don't want to make the wrong move. I feel like I am going to lose either way, if I don't get it I am going to regret it, if I do get it and it has some massive failure I am going to regret it with 0's on the end. The only way it will work is of couse if I have a happy few years like some of you. I hate that I let all the negativity I have read affect me, guess I'm just that way (really sucks sometimes). And for every article that says they are not as bad as the internet makes them out to be, there are 20x that amount saying they are time bombs AAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGGG! I'm really stuck guys.

Pac996

Your problem can be expected since you haven't even really driven it yet. Take this advice. Don't take any turns at less than 25 in town and if you catch a red light waiting in the turn lane, when it turns green be up to 35 before exiting the intersection completing your turn. That ought to get you to worry about not being able to really enjoy your car instead of day dreaming while waiting. A track day ought to have you falling asleep whimpering that you can't still be on the track.

Check the year of tires on the car. Some guys find some pretty old tires on their cars. 6 years old is the max then trash them.

ivangene

Scott, my 99' had almost 120k miles on the original everything!!

have not heard the status of it lately, had a cam actuator error a little while back

fbgh2o

I went through this when I bought my car... Did exactly the same thing as you are about to do... sought one with a remanufactured engine. I admit I was concerned about the "reliability" issues of the IMS and RMS and lost some sleep over it (or was that explaining to the wife why I had yet another Pcar before I had sold the previous one). The reality is that the issues often get blown out of proportion on the Internet - yes there are issues and engines have been replaced, but that's what gets emphasized. But the probabilities are in your favour. Even if an astronomical 10% of the IMS' have failed, that means 90% have not.

At the end of the day, this is a risk that you cannot stomach or if a engine failure breaks the bank for you, then walk away. Sometimes these are decisions of the heart and not the brain... I do not regret buying mine for one minute....and it was a decision of the heart.

redridge

You need to let this go.... someone here not to long ago sold his car because he couldnt live with the fact that one day his 996 is gonna someday die. It was a perfectly good car but, it drove him nuts. please dont end up like this guys.... enjoy your purchase and drive it like you stole it.... it is good for the car and good for your experience of ownership.... if you truely love this car, do yourself a favor and take it to the track to shake out the cobwebs.... that is the only way to understand what these cars are all about.

As for pelican.... the majority of the members there are aircooled guys, the 996 is the first watercooled 911... that war has been going on for sometime now.

Barn996

I'm in your camp as well with just under 52k miles and no immediate plans to do anything other than drive and maintain my 99 996 with its original motor.

03911TT

These are great cars, don't worry, just drive the car and relish the great value you got purchasing a $80K plus car with a 24K mile motor for less than 20 grand! You can't get a used Toyota for that!