Interpreting PPI results; paint and DME
 

Howdy Folks -

Just got a partial PPI report back from a 2002 996TT I'm inquiring about, other half with interpretations will come tomorrow. The car is super clean inside and out, best one I've found after 12-15 of these. However, wanted to poll the renn community for general advise about paint and DME.

Looks like there's modest variance in paint thicknesses per panel. The lines are super clean and I didn't notice any tool marks of front quarters being removed.

Also, here are some values from the DME:

Ignition Ranges
Number of ignitions in range 1 : 65535 Number of ignitions in range 2 : 388
Operating hours counter
1287.0 hours
Total distance displayed
75375 Km

So, it's maxed out the ignition counter for range 1, at least 3+ minutes bouncing on the rev limiter. And, just over 1 second at >7250 rpm. Indicates a small number of mis-shifts? Average speed appears to be around 36.5 mph.

ALARM SYSTEM I48
PART NUMBER(S): 99661826203
1 Fault(s) Present
54 Radio receiver defective

Camshaft deviations are well within spec of the +/- 6 degree spec it appears.

Only mechanical oddity, when placed into 6th gear while not running, the shifter will not come out of 6th regardless of clutch pedal position. Has to be started, clutch pedal depressed and slightly released to come out of 6th. Drives and shifts fine otherwise. Not sure what this is.

Started it's life as a lease car (twice) for 14k miles, then private owner for 10k, another private for almost 20k and the current owner for 4k.

Help me interpret the paint readings and provide some guidance/forewarning on the rev ranges and general direction with this car. Basic 996tt, no x50, manual, has the correct seat options for me and nice color combo. All maintenance and then some is up date, so it's basically ready to drive. Rev range 1 has me a bit apprehensive. A respray would explain why the front is so clean?

Cheers!


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...493ccc5953.png
camshaft deviations
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...06a352bb7f.jpg
Paint meter readings 996tt

The DME report seems fine to me. Overrevs mean almost nothing IMHO.

i wouldn't be concerned with the rev report or the paint report. even if i was able to read it. as carlo has suggested, rev reports are largely meaningless with that sampling of numbers.

if you've looked at 12-15 of these. surely you have a sense by now of which one is "right" for you. your post reads to me, as if this one is just "broken in". GL.

Sounds like a nice car... DME overrev reports are meaningless on 996 Turbos as there are only two ranges and both ranges can accumulate events without ever mis-shifting the car.

The only thing that gives me any pause is the locking in sixth gear when not running thing, thats a bit strange. I'd go through the transmission issues a bit more thoroughly. Clutch is good? Slave is good? Accumulator is good? No pop-out? Engages smoothly?

Needing a tranny rebuild would be a very expensive surprise.

Revs could be because of a tune?

I can't give advice on the paint but that PPI is very impressive. Care to disclose the name of the shop?

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting to lean the same direction regarding the DME. It was owned by a former professional racer for 20k miles, and maybe this partially explains the Rev Range 1 buffer being filled up.

Agree also about the trans - hoping to get more info/interpretation from the shop today. Accumulator, slave were replaced recently, no 2nd gear pop out issue, and everything engages smoothly. I have some learning to do about driving manual on this platform - clutch activities are different than the motorbikes I've piled 150k miles on! Must be very smooth on pedal depress. When the pedal is more quickly depressed, I tend to induce a drivetrain shutter in the car. This has been true for a handful of these cars, and when current owners or sales reps drive them, their clutchwork is more gingerly than mine and the result and driving experience is different. One of my Porsche buddies joined me for this evaluation and provided similar feedback to my control input. Need some good time in this platform to better understand how to properly operate them.

Nonetheless, hoping the clutch doesn't need replaced or the stuck 6th doesn't indicate anything serious.

The rest of the interpretation from the PPI will come this morning. Once I've closed the loop on this unit, no worries about sharing this request!

As others have said, the biggest red flag is the transmission issue. A few years ago my buddy bought a white 40K mile Aerokit 2001 Turbo and the PPI didn't reveal any trans. issues. Exhaust was so loud that he couldn't hear the transmission whining either. The 400 mile drive home from SoCal to Bay Area was marred only by a failing oil pressure sending unit. Not a big deal and pretty common. The transmission was a big deal, as uncovered a few weeks into ownership, and needed a full rebuild at 40K miles. That was $15K and change by the time it was done.

If your shop is unable to diagnose and fix that 6th gear issue, I'd move on. Even a partial trans rebuild with R&R is going to cost $5-10K.

My 2 cents.

My suggestion is to lead with the clutch action (depressing the clutch pedal) before reducing throttle.

+1

This has been my observation as well. With my 996 Turbo on stock clutch/hydraulics/etc, I quickly found the key to smooth shifts is to start depressing the clutch earlier than I think I should (earlier than any manual transmission car I've ever owned, in fact).

It's very peculiar, and there is indeed zero clutch feel, but easy to get used to since the clutch action is at least very consistent.

That's the ticket.

Once someone gets the technique down the shifts can be accomplished as smooth as butter.

I would be hesitant with the transmission issue and the whole car has been repainted...why? was it in an accident? did you run car fax ? What year and how much is it ? there are many original paint cars out there and I prefer original paint. what is the paint job like? was it a windows out job? It is hard/expensive to do a complete paint properly on these cars.

for the overrevs, although it doesn't tell a lot, you should find out how recent they were (on the dme report)