Started posting couple weeks ago over here but never made an intro thread. Sold my 996. After a few weeks missed it. Didnt want to pay up for another one. started looking at Cayenne's. Anyhow, stumbled on an add for a Mechanic special in Florida. For reasons still unknown I made them a cheeky offer at 6k shipped to me in El Paso. Surprisingly, they didn't straight out decline. After negotiating we settled at $7250 shipped to me. $600 was the shipping fee with dealer rate making the GTS $6650 to me plus TTL.

Original add. Somehow I cant find more pics they sent me.
What was disclosed by the dealer- suspension needed serious work. They did not drive it over 40 mph due to suspension. No check engine lights. Body in good shape. No other known issues.

Car sold 2020 at a Dealer Auction for $2525 in Miami.

Car at auction in 2020

Carfax - clean title. Florida since new. For some reason registered in VA for 7 months in 2020, then back to Florida. Two owners. Only maintenance history was a Honda dealer just after it was purchased on 2008 (3 visits)

From the pics - suspension is full down. Passenger front wheel has curb rash. Cant tell much else. Car arrived to me after 10 days. It was a mess. It ran and drove though without a CEL as advertised. Front bumper cover isnt installed right with both wings sticking out from the fender. Missing the lower front valance despite being in the dealer pics.

 

In anticipation of arrival I ordered the 4 strut valves and a compressor rebuild kit plus the special tool. All in $300 with the tool coming from the UK. Put her up on jack stands and got to work.


Sitting so low I had to use the factory jack to get it lifted enough to get a real jack under it.

Was waiting on the tool from UK so first was the compressor. Not a terrible job. Most of the DIY's mentioned making sure the bore is clean. Mine wasn't with a bit of rust. Didn't want to sand it so I used brake clean and scotch brite pad to clean it up a bit. Compressor likely wont last long. Putting it back in - cleared the codes with my Durametric - and the rear lifted up but stuck on high setting.


70s drag look.

Tool finally arrived, swapped out the front valves. Nothing happened at first. Had to do the re-learn process which sort of kicked the suspension into operation finally. Swapped out the rears which honestly I thought was easier than the front. All seems to be working fine.

Now the wheels and tires. Tires were terrible with the tread separating and steel bands sticking out on the rears. Fronts wouldn't hold air more than a day. Got some new tires from Discount tire on sale - sold as "Aged" with a DOT date in 2019 but are new Hankook 295/35/21.

Wheels - had to be refinished. Alloy wheel repair specialist is just around the corner from me. I have used them several times. After thinking about colors I decided to be different. Satin bronze chrome. Some will love it (me) some might not. I think it looks great. Having trouble matching the center caps.


Satin Bronze chrome

 

Now fluids. FCPEuro ordered trans, oil, front and rear diff, transfer case plus associated filters and drain/fill plugs. Really easy and plenty of DIYs out there to follow. All in $500 range shipped to me. Could have been cheaper but for a click add to cart and shipped I went with the good stuff.

Today - finished getting her cleaned up. Simple wash and clay bar. Had to de-badge the rear as someone added the newer PORSCHE emblem and it was falling off. The GTS part is losing color and also falling off. Ill get new ones at some point. This is the result after getting the suspension to finally equal out.

Headlights out still - they need work

Wheels darker in the shade

Previous owner must have tried a scraper or something to get the badges off. Panel will need some work.

I dont remember if this is normal or lower setting.

 

Lastly, headlights need work. Someone converted them to LED and did a less than professional job at it.

After cleaning the outside. You can also see how the bumper is. Both required new bumper alignment slider brackets as they were broken.

Bumper after new slider brackets. Much better alignment although not perfect.


If you look close you can see little wire insulation pieces stuck to the inside of the lens. Both wiring harnesses are breaking down.

Still to do - I have used headlights coming from two different sources. These housings are ok but the wiring is bad inside.


Not pictured but the factory plug is there. These wires are spliced into the factory harness.

Is there a service to re-wire the factory xenon headlights?

 

Things to do:

Tow hook covers front and rear.
Anyone have a source for the front lower valance? The GTS uses a color matched one but I cant find one anywhere. Guessing it fell off during transport as it was sitting pretty low.
Headlights - any sources to re-wire or are new housings the only option?
I have two coming, one from LKQ and one from a private selling. Hoping for the best.
Compound and polish - I used up an entire claybar on this paint today. It was bad but cleaned up well for the mileage.

Overall - for the money I am happy with it. What did I spend you might ask?

$6650 purchase
$600 shipping
$525 shipped new Hankook Ventus S1 EVO2 from DTDirect
$700 wheel refinish (includes mounting and balance tires and TPMS
89.28 4x HUF Baolong BH Sens TPMS sensors (Amazon Warehouse - dates Sep 2021)
$300 - 4x valves, compressor rebuild kit, valve tool
$279 - passenger headlight (LKQ, marked Halogen, VIN says XENON, still in shipping)
$400 - Driver headlight with ballast
$538.91 - FCPEuro (fluids, filters, drain/fill plugs and gaskets - trans, oil, diff, transfer case)

Total $10,082.19

 

Title - Sold to Carmax in Miami Lakes, Fl Sep 27, 2021. Carmax sold to a dealer in clearwater 10/5/2021. That sale was cancelled. Re-sold 11/9/2021 to the dealer I purchased from.

Clean title. Two minor accidents both in Florida. Emailed Florida DOT but they have no records prior to 10 years ago. There is a third accident on Carfax but not on Autocheck. The date correlate to the auction date in 2020 - guessing it is not a real accident.

Anyhow- this is where I am. It seems to run great. Shifts smooth. Aftermarket stereo and wired for a sub and amp. Everything seems to work.

Only errors are for the lights. All of them.

 

Wow! Well done on everything. Looks great. Thanks for the whole story.

 

Good for you - a $10,000 GTS in a cool color. For the wheel center caps, I'd just have the wheel place paint them for you.

I have a Hellbronze 928 I had center caps painted to match for and my car looks like it's almost the same color you put on your wheels. I'm not using those caps since my wheels are bronze & silver and the silver caps look better with the design of the wheels. I'd be willing to sell them for $125 shipped.

Here's the car color for comparison to your wheels. I can send pictures of the caps Thursday evening when I'm back home if you're interested.

 

Nice deal. A bit higher mileage, but should still have plenty of life left in it.

For the headlights, would be best to get the connector pigtails and restore the factory wiring, in my opinion at least. Be careful with the old headlight internal harnesses - the insulation becomes very brittle over the years and starts falling off. You cannot remove the wiring harness without taking the lens off - the assembly is built inside the housing and then sealed off with the lens. It's quite tricky to take it all apart, as I discovered.
If the new used lights are in good condition, go with that. You'll need to get the ballasts programmed to the car's VIN to remove the warning and enable cornering lights and leveling.

After you fix all the issues, do a suspension refresh and the car should be solid for years to come.

 

Nice find, enjoy it in good health!
Looks like it's Marine Blue Metallic. If that's the case, I have the same color. I've gotten more compliments on the color of the car then all the other cars combined

 

Next round of money spend. Water pump, thermostat, valve cover gaskets, coils, plugs etc.

Compared parts are fcpeuro and shopping around. Total from fcpeuro was 1500.23.

Shopping around was 1085.79. Used Gaudin Porsche (tensioner pulley) , rock auto (valve cover gaskets, 5 beru coils, plugs, expansion tanks, water pump, 1 idler pulley, etc), fcpeuro for various parts (3 coils, other idler, tensioner dampner). All same part numbers to ensure proper comparison.


My coils are all plain without labels. They all look brand new and without cracks. No CEL and seems to run well. Only makings are 'ok' on the side of each. Guessing these are generic no name brand. Passenger side valve cover is leaking. Got the p2181 code for thermostat. Figured might as well do it all.

 

Nice. I need to basically do the same job on my 08 GTS (p2181 popping up now and then), + starter (getting the infamous "turn key twice to start").
Mind sharing your parts list, if you've got it handy?

 

Love threads like this. Well done rescuing a nice example from the scrap heap!

 

Ill try my best. Typing on my phone. If you see a +$xx.xx that is shipping. The rock auto order was 3 sep orders. 2 i remembered the 5% and the third i didnt.

Many of the parts at rock auto were last one, or in case of the coils, last 5. Not sure if they will restock. If i missed anything, let me know. Coolant i will grab locally.

Gaudin Porsche
Tension pulley 94810240323. 126.68 + 12.49
(System says wont fit 08 but it should)

FcpEuro
Idler pulley. Ina 53207921. 15.99
beru zse042 x3 coils. 134.97
Tension shock. Ina 533013210. 33.79

Rock auto
Dayco belt. 6071134. 21.99
Idler pulley. Ina 7931. 39.99. +$16.98
mahle valve cover gasket vs50680L. 27.79
Mahle valve cover gasket vs50680R. 26.79
Both include spark plug seals
cam cap gasket x2. 94810593820. 12.66
Mahle thermostat. Thd289. 53.79
Mahle resorvoir. 61.79
Water pump. 94810603301. 68.89
Outlet seal. 94810610103. 14.67
Water pump puller (aluminum) 31.79. +$25.49
Beru zse042 x5. 183.95
Bosch Fgrnqe04. X8. 28.48. +$10.99

 

Had some time today and decided plugs and coils. On the 957 this isnt a terrible job at all. Worst part was the generic coils left 6/8 boots attached to the plugs. Pic below is how I found worked best.


Just a small straight pick. Aim for the plug as close as you can. Stab through, pull slowly. May take a few tries.

Found my coils were quite generic and labeled simply "ok". No other visible markings. Guessing ebay special? I didnt have any misfire or CEL so hard to say.


These coils are ok None of them cracked. All looked quite new actually. Replacements are Beru mix of 35/21 and 34/21.

Plugs I removed were Autolite 5325. Only 2 had a drop of oil. I was expecting a bit more oil since the passenger side valve coil seemed to be leaking.


Coils looked new but the plugs looked a bit older.

Haven't started her yet. I didnt order a new torque arm (dampner?). Mine had a Porsche part number and seemed to be in good shape. There is a mild vibration when decelerating to a stop on the passenger side. I used 3M Window weld to fill in the gaps. Waiting on cure before re-install. $30 for about 1/20th of the tube.