aben8057

Fellow Rennys’
I have a 2001 996 in Lapis Blue with 126K miles where I am soliciting some advice. I want to start off by saying that this is a daily driver with those miles reflecting mostly highway communizing. In addition, I do all the service myself as I feel confident based upon numerous years as a DIY home mechanic. My other project was retubbing my 951 and rebuilding the engine. I did all the work (except machine shop) and can assure used every single tool in my tool box. In other words, any service on the 996 was performed by me that includes oil change, spark plug, tube, fluids, serpentine belt, AOS, etc..
About 3 months ago I was driving the car where I started to hear a light knocking noise. The noise is noticeable at idle as well as RPM modulation. As I was due for an oil change, I thought that the viscosity could have been the culprit. However, a fresh oil change using Mobile 1 0-40 did not resolve the matter. The car remained parked until I could investigate this further as my mind started to wonder…the dreaded IMS. Based upon previous searches, I know the IMS = no motor, so I decided to park the car in the garage and research further.
I returned to the 996 a few days later with a stethoscope. Probing around the noise was isolated and more evident around the passenger side cylinder head where I immediately thought lifters. I was a little more relieved knowing the noise was coming from one area so researched the process to replace the lifters. Due to time constraints and just investing too much time on the 951 project, I decided to take it to my mechanic.
The shop evaluated the scenario and started their diagnosis to the problem. Long story short, they dropped the tranny thinking it was within the trans. Upon inspection, they confirmed the tranny was not the culprit. They ran the car without the tranny therefore, eliminating that component. The knocking remained. The good news was that the RMS and IMS was not the issue as lo leakage was evident. They proposed that the engine should be dropped for further investigation.

Body has some dents, driver side seat bolstors worn remember this was a daily driver not a garage queen...so please that into consideration

ltusler

Were they able to evaluate the chain tensioners, ramps and vario cam actuator while they were in there?

C4CRNA

2001
125K+ miles
Knock in the motor

Uh! 10K maybe

targa996

If I was going to buy and did ppi ... id assume id have to replace motor soon...so price not much ...if it is just chain or relatively smaller job id do that before sale ..or sell to mechanic willing to do the work. Just because no ims leak doesn't mean bearing not worn .. did they check for play or look at condition of bearing? Did you look at oil filter for metal or send oil sample for analysis?

Hurdigurdiman

A handy mechanic I thought would be able to rectify the problem. High miles, dents, worn seat.. I think a fair price would be $12000 to the right guy. Hey I am rough guessing that $6000 should be able to put things right and bring the car back to $18000 which I think is a fair price for those miles. The thing to consider is, what would be the asking price without the knocking. Is $18000 a fair price?. If so I would let it go at about 12000 as is. OR If I was as good a DIY as yourself I would open the engine, find the fault and rectify it then ask $20,000 for it with a margin of a couple of thousand. That gives you $6000 on parts. I mean it looks like a really nice car from the photo. Such a shame to have to more or less 'give it away' as is. Hell it could be good for another 100,000 after the work is done. Its an enigma that I would not want. Sorry for your problems. I hope you get things sorted out for the best.

smokindav

Is it a factory Aero car?

aben8057

I checked the oil and filter after changing (as I always do) and it was clean. Its an aftermarket aero kit...

Shark Attack

$68000

porsche951

I think curing the knocking problem before the sale is critical for you to get a fair price. I think a 126k mile car is worth between $15 and $20 thousand depending on how it's optioned and overall condition.

FRUNKenstein

That car without the engine issue is worth about $16,000 (probably$18,000 if it was factory aerokit).Any buyer will assume the worst on the engine noise - that it will need a rebuild/replacement engine. Figure $10k for that, leaving the car worth about $6k as is. Of course, if it's in the Pacific Northwest, add $30,000.

pordlanzer

aben8057 are you selling the car because of the knocking (read: possible future problems + $$) or because you previously wanted to part with the car?

edit: Not at all implying you are trying to pawn it off on an unsuspecting buyer at all

M

JMLavoie

This is a June 2012 post from the OP.
Way past >best before> date.

groovzilla

if you want it to actually sell, try $12K -$15K - these are much more realistic numbers

kromdom

pordlanzer

oops