Ahsai

You can take the battery to a shop get a load test. If it's 4yrs or older,
I would replace it to help further diagnostic. What's your voltage guage reading in the intrument cluster? Expect ~12v right before cranking and ~14v right after then between 12.8 to 14v at all orher times with and without accesories on.

A photo of the engine bay may help to show what seals you think are missing.

riddler777

the voltage is 14 and strong, but as soon as the batt/abs lights come on it drops to 12, ok battery is basically next on the list.


the seals I mean shouldn't there be some?

there are none on the body...


and none on the spoilerlid/engine cover...



yes the hole looks awful, and the rubber thingy must be replaced with a new one, (that sticks to the lid) someone tried to make it stay there using windshield glue or something similar...

riddler777

oh yes is it common that the engine coolant temperature sensor goes bad?

this one?


I cleaned the radiators from leaves and all the gunk, the fans are working (when aplying directly 12v) also when removing the relays under the dash and connecting the pins straight away, they do come on,

are there any other places where the wiring could be at fault?

riddler777

here are some pics of the radiator cleaning day, just to fill up my "project" thread, basically there was quite a lot of dirt, but not tragic anyway, but clean now, to maximise the cooling capabilities.




pressure washed...

riddler777

ok few other questions

this time thinking about future etc

the transmission, it seems to be pretty dull, or it is "self-learning" and it will eventually learn to shift the way I drive, yes in tip mode it is pretty ok, but as an automatic it very quickly shifts to high gear, and in city traffic it sometimes makes the car veeery slow on acceleration until it gets that it must downshift.

since I have had very many beemers before i know that their automatics are very cool and self learning


question 2 is:

how hard is it to replace this automatic with a manual, what differences are there? or a full partslist

ok shifter/pedals/flywheel/transmission iteself/driveshafts (I assume) what's with the electronics (the car has a normal wire throttle body, no electronic nonsense)

since I myself am able to bolt it on, the parts in europe can be rather easy to find. and the car has a very nice looks so i don't want to sell it and look for another one with a manual, and since the engine is done, there is really no need to look for another one.

and one more thing is it possible to find manual transmissions with Limited slip diff? or those are as rare as unicorns?

Ahsai

Sounds like your alternator (most likely the regulator) is bad. Typical symptom is good 14v at start up but it drops to 12v or lower once driven for some miles and warmed up. Other possibilities are corroded starter/alternator cable and ground cable between the engine and the chassis.

There are no rubber seals around the engine bay except on the bottom edge of the engine lid, which you have. You need to find a way to prevent water from getting onto the alternator as water will damage it. There sould be a cordian attached to the hole you talked about to mate with the snorkle to prevent water entry.

riddler777

well what seemed to be a nice car and a well looked after example just with an engine failiour, turns out to be a complete nightmare, very much neglect on the technical side

ok here is one small fail from me, which all turned out well

the car cranked heavily, and by hand it also cranked 2/3 ok and 1/3 very heavy

I decided to drop the engine (yes again)

and these were at fault. once cams removed from 4-6 head, the engine turned over freely (it was hard to turn round even with plugs removed)

I then installed the plastic pieces from other side, and the engine rotated very well

so new were ordered


and here is the exhaust issue

bought new canisters from 997, as they often were at better state + the price of these was 195eur shipped, instead of 500eur + shipping for oem 996 ones

I cleaned them slightly


the old crap (did some patching up, to make at least more quiet/normal sound "for now" didn't help )


installing 997 ones, the only difference




cut off



a friend of mine fabricated new pipes to replace the dead cat converters



end result quite loud anyway, enough loud for me


so far the alternator was dead, so now rebuilt

starter also rebuilt

still fighting with small issues

need to sort rear sway bar bushes,

cooling issue - coolant temp sensor ordered

transmission mount torn apart, - ordered

don't know what else I might find

well I also am not sure whether I need to detune the suspension, my car is lowered, and as it scrapes in many driveways and other places I am thinking of installing stock springs, maube someone could post pics of aerokit car on stock height. (my car has some kind of white springs, and probably techart made)

mine looks like this

riddler777

so another update with the technical condition of my 996

the car was suffering from rather heavy and unpleasant vibration at different RPM range. after small inspection it was revealed that this is to blame



yees it is the gearbox mount, it seems to be ok, but...



after checking it more closely it turned out to be almost completely torn off, so a new one was ordered, but that took a while, as averything does with porsche


it was also pretty simple to install (if you have a ramp and heavy duty press)



all in all it took me about half an hour. after longer testdrive, the nasty vibration has gone away, however there still is something, and as this was a factory mount I suspect that the rear two engine mounts are on their way out as well

so these will be ordered as well, let's see how long it takes for them to arrive