Big Swole

Thank you!! I looked at and drove one of his cars the other day in fact. 2003 X50 Polar Silver 50K miles. Nice car.

He's a very nice person for sure. I'll use him as a source of info if needed. He's only 1.5 hr. away from me.

pfbz

Let me give you an example: Not long after I bought my Turbo, the AC compressor seized up. Not a common failure in 911's, which have used the same AC compressor forever, but it happened. No PPI would have spotted it, AC worked perfectly, then seized. It happens...

When an AC compressor fails, it often sheds metal into the refrigerant lines, so simply replacing the compressor isn't advised, as you need to get all the metal out or the replacement compressor might fail quickly. So it's the compressor, the evaporator, the expansion valve, and two condensers should be replaced to be thorough. Plus you have to flush, preferably by removing, every AC line in the system.

If I had brought it to a dealer and say 'fix it', I shudder to think what the total bill would have been... The dealer list price for the compressor alone is $1,600. Condensers another $400 each. Dryer $200. Expansion valve $140, full set of o-rings almost $200. Plus a pretty big number of hours for labor. Can't imagine it would have been less than $4K out the door.

Instead, I sourced most of the OEM parts from third parties (mostly RockAuto, RMeuropean and Amazon). An OEM Denso Compressor for $260. Condensers, $80 each. Expansion valve, $22, Dryer, $9. A fair amount extra for some new AC tools, o-rings, refrigerant, etc. but my total hard cost was maybe $600?

A pretty good amount of work do do it all, but nothing hard. I considered it 'getting to know my car'.... Pull the airbox, belt, boost hoses, intake manifold, throttle body, a bunch of hoses and finally the compressor.

Up front, pull the front wheels, wheel well liners, front bumper, front cowl trim, etc to get to the condensers, ac lines and other parts. Plenty of work, but none of it difficult. Between the digital copy of the service manual, forum info, and other online info, all came apart and went back together pretty easily... And everything looks and works perfectly.

The bottom line is they are older cars... Lots of frequent failure modes are known (coolant lines coming loose, clutch slave, coolant expansion tank, etc.) and other parts can fail randomly just like any car (compressor, fuel pump, WHATEVER).

Parts for our cars are actually pretty reasonable if you can source them outside the dealer (RockAuto and RMeuropean are my two go-to sources, Sunset and Suncoast Porsche if I need a part only sold by Porsche). Labor is really expensive at dealers. Still expensive at indy's. My own labor is free in one sense, or incredibly expensive in another, but I do enjoy researching/finding/fixing problems myself and knowing as much as I can about my own cars...

So cost of ownership experience can vary wildy depending on your luck, if there is a high quality and fairly priced indy service shop near you, and your willingness to source your own parts and install them yourself...

pfbz

Just looked up that Polar Silver TT... Nice car. $60K seems a bit steep for a 53,000 mile car, but prices seem to be on the rise.

The 2001 Speed Yellow TT he has seems very fairly priced at $44K with 44K miles, but the color combo and particularly that natural leather/burl maple interior would be a deal breaker for me. Shame because whomever specced that car spent BIG BUCKS for those options, just not my taste at all! Replacing, painting or wrapping most of that burl with plain black would do wonders for that interior...

Hosewater2

Grateful for my plain zero optioned all black.

Thought mine was the only one left with the original cassette storage!

Big Swole

Thank you for the long / detailed post!!! Very much appreciated. Just sent you a PM about another car local to you.



Agreed!! Awesome car and price but I just can't see me owning / driving that color combo..If it were black inside, I might actually consider it.

Road King

Yeah, speed yellow and black is a great combo (yellow belts, some yellow stitching ftw!), and it being a cop magnet not really a big deal for you like it is for us civilians.

But that particular interior pictured above is quite the crime scene...no thanks.

Big Swole

Ha! lol

Right!! I'm not a fan on that interior at ALL! lol

"02996ttx50

good point, and post. i just had my points/plugs/oil/filters all delivered for under 400 bucks. next up, a 3 hour saturday AM tune up session. hugely divergent cost variables, btw dealers/indy shops, and diy.

Dock

Agreed.

Hosewater2

Would this have been better served with a wood burl center console or the existing black that doesn't match?

pfbz

Your showing your age... But I assume you meant coils.

pfbz

IMHO, wood burl has no place in a Turbo or any other 2-door Porsche... It really wouldn't be that expensive to replace burl with black trim pieces. Easy to find base level used trim which is black.

Big Swole

Anyone near Rancho Cucamonga, CA that would be willing to go check out a car for me???

That's near Riverside and San Bernardino

Alan A

That burl would be what $2k to replace everything with black - including the wheel?

I'm biased - I have that interior without the wood - but that car for $45k would be a pretty good buy imo.

Dock

Neither.

I don't think any wood looks good in a Porsche sports car. Additionally, I don't think that interior color looks good with the exterior color.