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I was inspired by Wayne Smith and Petza914's detailed maintenance logs so I put together a list to track my costs, repairs and projects over my first year of ownership.
Summary:
I purchased a 2006 997.1 C2 in Feb 2017. I’ve since put 12k miles on it, averaging 30 miles a day. I've had a smile on my face for every one.
Direct Costs:
$6,714 which is more than I thought but less than I expected. I had budgeted more for repairs in the first year. When nothing broke I transferred that budget to mods and projects. Those add up!
- Pre-purchase: $1049 for PPI and shipping
- Mods: $1515
- Repairs: $1853
- Cosmetic: $695
- Wear and tear: $1292
- Regular maintenance: $330
Indirect Costs:
- Fuel: $2100, averaging about 17 mpg. I typically see 22-24 for highway driving, 16.5 around town, and 12 during back country rips.
- Insurance: $240
- Tools: $500
Mods:
- Installed Fister exhaust: $450 installed by Darren at his shop in the east bay.
- Installed Eibach springs: $350 and $120 for alignment. My first major project and 2 days of pain but it totally transform the look of the car.
- Installed RSS spacers: $300. I used 15mm in rear and 7mm in front. If I did it again I would do 15s in the front and rear.
- Installed the LaPower bluetooth hands-free module: $150 installed in 2hrs
Cosmetic improvements:
My car was a B- cosmetically when I bought it. Its now an A+. In the past 12 months I've tackled the following projects...
- Replaced the sunroof gasket: $100
- Resprayed the center console: $45 for 2 cans of Kyrlon and 4hrs of labor.
- Replaced the center caps: $100
- Polished the headlights: $30 for the kit and 2hrs
- Cleaned the oxidation off the window trim
- Repainted the brake calipers: $50 for Duplicor kit (dont buy) and 2 days of pain.
- Wheels-off cleaning of the wheel wells
- Waxed (2x) and polished (1x). My polishing skills are still subpar.
- Replaced the AC *****: $120 for the MACarbons buttons. Returned the Climarepair crap. Still waiting for my refund…
- Resprayed the steering wheel silver trim. $7 and lots of cursing.
- Interior work (professional): $300 to fix a couple worn areas off the steering wheel leather, leather gear shift, handbrake as well as respray the soft touch center console. They didn't sand it down to bare plastic so it looked like crap again after a few months. I then did it myself.
- Had the front bumper resprayed, new fog lights, and windshield replaced after a rock chip, luckily all covered under insurance. $0
Repairs:
The prior owner had replaced the RMS, water pump, gas cap, DTML pump, battery, and had the 40k service done so mechanically it was in great shape. The only thing flagged in the PPI were the ignition switch and age of the tires.
I was congratulating myself on how reliable the car had been until I got a slight vibration in my clutch pedal a couple weeks shy of the 1 year anniversary. I don’t blame the car. My theory is I had the clutch partial depressed and hit a San Francisco pothole which caused the throwout bearing to knock against the pressure plate and crack one of the fingers. The clutch disk itself looked like it would have easily lasted 80k+ miles.
- Ignition switch: $250. This had been called out in the PPI. There was a slight delay after turning the key before the starter would engage.
- Brake light: $3. My first CEL!
- Clutch replacement: $1200. This was heavily discounted since I bought my own parts and was only charged 4hrs of labor from my indy. They let me do part of the work and walked me through each step. Amazing.
- New slave cylinder: $500 for parts and 1hr of labor. We replaced this when trying to diagnose the clutch pedal vibration. We found the piston sleeve had cracked, a common problem with 997s. This results in the metal slave cylinder piston scraping up the clutch release arm.
- Mysterious AC noise: $25 for a can of R134a refrigerant, my most satisfying purchase. This finally solved a noise coming from my AC system which I spent months trying to track down. It turned out to be low on refrigerant which caused one of the AC pipes, or the expansion valve, to reverberate after the condenser fans spun up. It sounded like a bearing wobble but could only be heard intermittently when the AC was on and the car was idling. Prior to this I spent $15 for a compressor clutch bearing and $100 for a used compressor clutch pulley trying to isolate the problem.
- Power Distribution Bolt: $0. Removed and cleaned the corrosion that builds up on the bolt. Helped improve my voltage drop a little.
- Front Control Module: $0. If you rub the bumper the wrong way or polish the headlights a static charge can short the front control module. In my case my wife brushing against the bumper in yoga pants triggered the frunk release switch to run nonstop. My wife thought the 997 was jealous. I took it to my indy and they reset the ECU to delivery mode which cleared up the issue. It took 5 minutes and they didn't charge for it.
- Fister exhaust
- Eibach springs
- LaPower bluetooth module
Worst DIY Project:
- Eibach installs. This was my first big project. Any project where you need to repeat every step 4 times gets monotonous.
Most Satisfying DIY Project:
- Probably the center console respray. That crappy soft touch paint pissed me off.
Upcoming DIY Projects:
- Replace the alternator / starter cable.
- Replace the plugs and coil packs around 60k miles. My plugs were replaced at 39k miles, but that was in 2015. I plan on scoping the cylinders at the same time.
- Black ceramic or carbon dual exhaust tips (my only source of S-envy).
Biggest Annoyances:
- I gained 10lbs because I go for drives to blow of steam instead of going for a long run.
- Windshield wiper chatter: You would think its an easy one but I cant solve it. My motivation for solving it also pretty low since it rains like 3 times a year in California.
- Engine knock from a low RPM throttle blip: if I blip the throttle below 2500 RPM I get what sounds like a metal clanking together. There is an old post on this that says its an engine misfire from 91 octane fuel.
- Rock chips: My new windshield is 6 months old and already has a couple small chips and a tiny crack.
- The mysterious AC noise: solved.
- Soft-touch interior paint: solved.
Worst Moments:
- Finding 5 fairly large rounded aluminum bits of debris in my oil filter after my first oil change. I will be forever be thankful to Jake Raby for responding immediately after seeing my pictures. He informed me these were drillings from the original machining of the oil galleys. They typically get washed out or flushed during engine break in. It took 10 years and one autocross event to knock them loose in my car. Wayne Smith was also kind enough to invite a total stranger over to his garage and help pull the oil pan to make sure no more were lurking in the sump.
Wow, can't believe its been a year as I remember when you picked her up. Great post and you're an asset to the 997 community. Keep it up.
To solve your wiper chatter, buy some PIAA silicone wiper blades (amazon) of the proper length. They come with a silicone windshield treatment. Follow the cleaning and treatment instructions. Then rather than installing the PIAA wipers, pull the silicone inserts from them and slide them into your OEM wiper arms as the have a very specific curve and shape for our windscreens, then enjoy the silence.
- Engine knock from a low RPM throttle blip: if I blip the throttle below 2500 RPM I get what sounds like a metal clanking together. There is an old post on this that says its an engine misfire from 91 octane fuel.
When I was looking at my car it was noted to be in "perfect condition." Honestly it really is in absolutely pristine shape inside and out. There wasnt a single scratch, chip, or even curb rash I could find on the car. That being said, when I was giving the car some back and forth revs from 0rpm to 3000rpm from idle every few times I would hear a metal "clank" coming off idle.
It actually sounded a bit like the engine itself may have been making contact with a subframe or other part. I was curious if there was either a bad motor mount or actually could be a significant engine problem. I showed the salesman the issue and was considering walking away from the car when I found out they could offer me an extended warranty on the car.
I'm glad I bought it because once I ran a few tanks of 93 octane through it with one can of BG44K i havent had the noise come back. Some of that west coast fuel is absolute crap, particularly during winter. On the supercharged Audi we share datalogs a lot and I've seen guys with stock tunes knock retarding 12 DEGREES! of timing on their california 91 octane (only able to make around 10 degrees of timing). I run more boost and can see 0 knock retard and run up to 21 degrees of timing on that pump fuel alone. It really is that much of a difference in some cases.
All you are doing is creating evidence for the divorce trial!
Ha! Yea the "I was in the garage and your car started making a weird noise" was suspicious. I asked, "what did you do to the car to cause that noise?".
Wow, can't believe its been a year as I remember when you picked her up. Great post and you're an asset to the 997 community. Keep it up.
To solve your wiper chatter, buy some PIAA silicone wiper blades (amazon) of the proper length. They come with a silicone windshield treatment. Follow the cleaning and treatment instructions. Then rather than installing the PIAA wipers, pull the silicone inserts from them and slide them into your OEM wiper arms as the have a very specific curve and shape for our windscreens, then enjoy the silence.
Wonderful tip! I'm on it even though I don't think we will see rain for another 11 months out here.
I pulled the cowling to check the wiper motor and arms, tightened the bolts on the arms, replaced the wipers, cleaned the wipers, checked the spring tension, and checked the angle. Nothing seemed to work. After a few minutes they start to chatter. My indy said if they only chatter in one direction its the angle of the blade. Mine chatter in both directions.
- Engine knock from a low RPM throttle blip: if I blip the throttle below 2500 RPM I get what sounds like a metal clanking together. There is an old post on this that says its an engine misfire from 91 octane fuel.
When I was looking at my car it was noted to be in "perfect condition." Honestly it really is in absolutely pristine shape inside and out. There wasnt a single scratch, chip, or even curb rash I could find on the car. That being said, when I was giving the car some back and forth revs from 0rpm to 3000rpm from idle every few times I would hear a metal "clank" coming off idle.
It actually sounded a bit like the engine itself may have been making contact with a subframe or other part. I was curious if there was either a bad motor mount or actually could be a significant engine problem. I showed the salesman the issue and was considering walking away from the car when I found out they could offer me an extended warranty on the car.
I'm glad I bought it because once I ran a few tanks of 93 octane through it with one can of BG44K i havent had the noise come back. Some of that west coast fuel is absolute crap, particularly during winter. On the supercharged Audi we share datalogs a lot and I've seen guys with stock tunes knock retarding 12 DEGREES! of timing on their california 91 octane (only able to make around 10 degrees of timing). I run more boost and can see 0 knock retard and run up to 21 degrees of timing on that pump fuel alone. It really is that much of a difference in some cases.
Mike
Thx for confirming! Its such a racket I thought it was the timing chains slapping against the guides. I just remember to keep the revs high and that eliminated the problem.
Great post. Between the documentation that came with my 2009 Cayenne recently (four inch binder) and your post I now will have to do one for my 911 one year in May. Your contributions to the forum have been great. My favorite is this one "$50 for Duplicor kit (dont buy) and 2 days of pain." You know this made me laugh, I wanted to say I told you so but then I remembered I told you after you had already started . Oh and hey I appreciated the inspiration to do my center console 'right' this time, my first respray was back in 2011 on my 00 Boxster S, it was good but not good enough. Hey and on that spark plug changing, enjoy cylinder #4 .
Great post. Between the documentation that came with my 2009 Cayenne recently (four inch binder) and your post I now will have to do one for my 911 one year in May. Your contributions to the forum have been great. My favorite is this one "$50 for Duplicor kit (dont buy) and 2 days of pain." You know this made me laugh, I wanted to say I told you so but then I remembered I told you after you had already started . Oh and hey I appreciated the inspiration to do my center console 'right' this time, my first respray was back in 2011 on my 00 Boxster S, it was good but not good enough. Hey and on that spark plug changing, enjoy cylinder #4 .
No, you told me before I started, I just forgot. I remembered well 2 coats later. Every product I've used from Duplicolor sucks. The Duplicolor Paint Prep I used on my steering wheel trim caused the plastic to crack.
01-31-2018, 04:00 AM
First year of 997 ownership by the numbers
. Oh and hey I appreciated the inspiration to do my center console 'right' this time, my first respray was back in 2011 on my 00 Boxster S, it was good but not good enough. Hey and on that spark plug changing, enjoy cylinder #4