Rvca3112

Hey everyone. I'm looking to join the turbo club very soon. The car I'm looking to get into is a very well maintained car. Full service records of all maintenance and mods with what mileage things were done and by who. The car is unfortunately, kinda far away from me, so id have to buy the car sight unseen. It looks flawless though even though it has lower 80k miles on it. I paid to have a PPI done on the car and it came back all very solid, except for three things really. 1) the rear spoiler actuators are leaking (common problem i know) and 2) the power steering pump is leaking 3) the bigger issue i think, the driver side cylinder head gasket is weeping slightly. That makes me nervous because I know the mezger engine is a very good one.The owner of the place where I had the PPI done (a air cooled specialist but overall porsche garage) said i wouldn't be worried about it but to keep an eye on it during oil changes. I would rather have input from actual owners who deal with 996 turbos on a daily basis than a jack of all trades (if that makes sense)

What do you guys think?

Rvca3112

Or actually a rubber hose that goes from the head to the block. Oil drain hose? Does that make sense? I want just told this.

Rvca3112

Disregard this info^. Back to the first post. The slight weeping is coming from driver side too second of the head. Going towards the front of the car.

TT Surgeon

Power steering leak is likely the clutch slave and accum, they share a common resevoir in the 996/997.
Proceed with caution.

Rvca3112

The car has a gt2 hydraulic clutch setup done. Accumulator and slave removed. If I'm speaking incorrectly about that then I appologize. Familiar with standard 996 just not the turbo.

kmagnuss

What did the owner say when you asked him to fix the issues?

Carlo_Carrera

What is your budget? I have a feeling you can find a car with no issues for the same money.

Rvca3112

It was reflected on the price we agreed on.

Rvca3112

Budget was low 40s. But I wanted maintenance records, which for that price point will be difficult

Carlo_Carrera

How long have you been looking? On that budget you could definitely find another with records and no issues.

911mhawk

The records are nice but a weeping head mystery overshadows anything good. If they wouldn't worry about it too much then they should fix it.

Things like the spoiler or PS pump are usually a known cost to fix. A weeping head could be fluid coming from somewhere else easy to fix or necessitate pulling the engine apart. Replacing a $40 hose or spending $5-15k are worth determining before taking ownership.

Pay for a good car or you'll pay to make one good. Or, pay for a documented good car then pay some more anyways because it's 15years old and needs something. Have $5k in reserve you consider spent when you buy one of these. If you still have the $5k a year later go to the casino with it, you're lucky.
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petron5000

I'll sell you mine for low $40s

Jferrante

Go check this one out - local to us
https://cnj.craigslist.org/ctd/6015635057.html

Rvca3112

thanks for the heads up. I've seen this one, but it's at a shady car lot so it seems with crappy reviews of the place. Kinda weirds me out.

911mhawk

Everywhere has an anomaly, I'd check it out.
Bad *** color and options if you like them with low miles.