Hello All,
I'm thrilled to introduce myself and my new weekender. In September I purchased what I feel is the most elegant form of modern classic motoring. I don't know of another car that is aging as well, designed with the purist in mind. I plan to own this for a long time. As someone who loves driving, it makes sense to own something older and analog as electrification & autonomy go mainstream in the coming years. Since I was a little boy I was always attracted to not just fast cars, but those of a particular condition & presentation.

MY00 C2
Ocean Blue 3AY/3AZ
Graphite Gray
Turbo Twist style 18s in original finish
41k miles
All books
2 remote keys + valet key
Original virgin paint, 4.5mils throughout
PPF saving the front end from serious high nicks (bikini cut covered lower 40% of hood & fenders)
Clean DME
Service log dating to 2013, showing recently replaced MAF, annual oil changes, window regular replacement, LM IMS, various other things
Records (on their way to me)
Crystal clear headlights
No tint
No modifications
No smoking, odors, stains, yellow headlights, or questionable repairs from what I can find
Interior shows very well for a 40k+ mile car, and exceptionally for nearly 25 years old. Leather is supple and very presentable with essentially no scratches. Interior plastics are immaculate. If you told me the door cards, e-brake and airbag cover were just replaced I would believe you.
Mechanically in great shape with some items needing to be addressed fortunately related to age, not abuse.
Overall treated very well by its previous four owners.
The photos I have of the car so far:








Steering wheel after a careful cleaning

Began speaking to the seller in early June this year, but could not come to agreement on price until after summer.

Arranged for House Automotive to do a PPI in Encino. Discovered leaking front struts, AoS in need of replacement, worn drive belt, worn sway bar links, and in need of a brake fluid flush and a cracked gasoline cap. All easy enough, but one issue with the car was that it was sitting on tires dated 2003, and the seller was unwilling to do anything to address this before purchase. So I bought the car and left it with family while I arranged for new rubber to be fitted. Dried out tires + 405 freeway junctions had the steering wheel going in every direction. Drove it home from Southern CA two days later to Las Vegas after fitment of Michelin Pilot Sports in factory specifications. So far thrilled with their performance, did not think I would be impressed with the Porsche Classic recommendation of Pirellis.

I'm admittedly fussy when it comes to paint, and I am a big believer in keeping factory paint as untouched as possible if you plan to keep a car for the long term. IMO, a car is only painted new once, and never have I seen a body shop lay down paint as well as the factory (although I have seen some come very close). Initially was expecting a single step 'enhancement' would brighten up the exterior and let the beautiful blue metallic paint shine properly again based on the photos I saw online. However after close inspection of the paint, it was clear it would need more to return to it's proper state. Last week my dear friend Jace Price, owner of The Last Detail out of Buckeye, AZ was kind enough to drive to Las Vegas and restore the paint to its former glory. I didn't trust anyone in NV to safely restore the original paint without compromising too much thickness.

First however, would be the lovely job of removing the original PPF, which after being in the sunbelt for 25 years had the same consistency of our CDR-220 radio *****. I spent two and a half days chipping away at the yellowing, gelatinous film. A quarter inch at a time with plastic razor blades & goo gone was not getting it done. I phoned my talented friend and told him I gave up, and I would let the expert take a crack at it when he arrived (he graciously accepted the task).

The state of the car upon drop off for paint restoration








Those gas station photos are after removal of PPF, 27 hours of two-step paint correction, installation of replacement PPF and CS-II Glass Coating for some extra protection on this very soft paint. With the original PPF we also removed the frunk badge for cleaning around that neglected area, and fitted it over the new PPF with a new rubber grommet 7L5-853-611-B. Done this way, there was no need to do a cutout on the new film, and looks that much better.


You can see two videos of the restoration before, during and after and .

With the paint sorted, I noticed how bad the faded front grill and lower bumper trims were looking.
Ordered 3AZ touch up paint & trim replacements at my local Classic Center. Was also considering replacing the L&R air inlets but after a spray of 303 Aerospace they now look much better.

996-505-553-04
996-505-525-00
996-505-526-00

Also ordered replacement torx screws and clips as I plan to pull the bumper to replace these trims and clean out the radiators. Then picked up this little number:




I've spent the past week adding 300 miles to the car to uncover any other issues that need attention. I absolutely love the car.
- Found the remote is fussy about locking/unlocking, unsure if that's a battery issue or a failing responder.
- Hear a rubbing noise from the front when steering at low speed. I expect it's related to the spent sway bar links.
- Clicking sound coming from steering wheel. Sounds like it might be related to the clock spring.

Today I dropped the car with my friend Dustin Dapkus, service manager at Vegas Auto Gallery. Hopefully we don't uncover any other issues! Will do an alignment once everything is complete, then should be ready to really enjoy. Next looking at a Porsche Charge-O-Mat & the Porsche PCCM+, however some of the complications I'm reading about on here with the unit & pre-MOST 996 have me a bit concerned..

-OB

PS I'm grateful the market hasn't caught on how fantastic these early 996 are.

 

Congrats on the new car and looks like you're taking care of it wonderfully already! Looking forward to following along with the saga

 

Wow, congratulations on acquiring a pristine 996! Those gas station photos really show off the beauty of your car.

Regarding the service history of your car, can you tell us when the cooling system was last dealt with? Anything related to coolant, water pump, thermostat, etc.

 

Beautiful car, congrats!

BTDT with my old Cayenne and it's why I would never buy another car with any kind of PPF or wrap on it. I'm kind of surprised that after you were lucky enough to get yours off without any paint damage, you actually paid money to put some back on. You're braver than me.

 

Thank you. Have about 17 years of experience with PPF. Age, quality of film and installation make all the difference. I've removed 9 year old high quality film off an entire front clip in about 30 minutes, all without fuss. The PPF on this car should have been removed 15 years ago and replaced properly, then this removal job would have been a breeze instead of the nightmare that it was. Fortunately the nasty removal is in the past.

 

Thank you for the kind words.

Appreciate it. Not a lot to show regarding the cooling system ASAIK. I'll see this week how things look.

 

Looks like you found a very nice example, Congrats !!

I agree with 996Love, replace the water pump "proactively" on this car , The Y2K Syndrome is a real thing that is easily avoided..

 

Thank you, I’ve added the pump to my list. Expansion tank was done a few years ago too.

 

Does your expansion tank have a blue cap on it? I understand that it’s an updated version that holds pressure better.

I recommend you replace the thermostat with a low-temperature version by LN Engineering.

https://lnengineering.com/160f-low-t...e-install.html

And lastly, I also recommend you perform a mod to your radiator fans.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ml#post2458030

The link above recommends you connect the “grounding activation” pin of both your high-speed fan relays to a toggle switch (the other end of the switch is connected to the body ground), but I did a different method with a somewhat similar result. I connected the ground activation pin from the low-speed relay to the ground activation pin of the high-speed relay. I then did the same for the other fan (the other two relays).

This results in my high-speed fans activating each time I turn on the AC button. I monitor my coolant temp gauge and activate my AC when I feel that the temps are getting too high.

However, I want to warn you that I am very unsure whether this will turn on the high-speed fans automatically… One day, I tried to see if my high-speed fans would turn on at the temperature which the low-speed fans activate. The temps climbed to approximately 98C, but the fans hadn’t self-activated yet. I was very hesitant to let the experiment continue, so I turned my AC on to kick the fans on.

And lastly, I was driving my car tonight in a low-speed twisty section, with ambient temps of approximately 60 deg F. There were many turns, I was hard on the brakes and the speed never surpassed 50 mph. I was a bit shocked to see my coolant temps climb to 91C after only 5 minutes, so I activated the AC to bring the coolant temperature down.

Manually activating the high-speed fans is one of the best ways to cool your coolant temperatures, which pays dividends in improving your engine’s lifespan.

 

To follow up on the radiator cap. Take a look at the part number on the top of the cap. If it doesn't end in 04, replace it.
Also, it might help to know if the LN IMS bearing was registered so you can know when to replace it and if it passed inspection before the installation. You can check here: LN Engineering IMS Retrofit and IMS Solution Registration Database

Looks great.

 

Congrats!

One thing that you should consider is proactively replacing the fuel injectors.
Some people believe that old leaking injectors are one of the main sources of bore scoring.
Use only new oe not rebuilt injectors.

 

Yes mine has the blue cap, but seems there is a new version now.
Looking at both of these, thanks.

Thanks, tank is # 996-106-147-56 replaced in 2017. I'll look into this while the car is in the shop. LM IMS is not registered, wish it was. Records show RMS + IMS completed in Summer 2013. I expect within the next 15k miles I'll be doing a clutch, will likely address these again at that time.


Thanks for the insight, did not know that.

 

Question,
Was told the coolant expansion tank that ends in 04 is the latest model, but on LM Engineering's site I see that is for 01-08 (assuming they meant 02-08+). Tank ending in 56 is supposedly for 99-01. I have read that the 996.2 tank will fit but takes a bit of effort. Also noticed the ridiculous price difference. Even locally Gaudin charges $690. Which is the proper tank to buy?

Thank You,

Bradley

 

56 is the correct tank for your model year...and yes, they are ridiculously expensive compared to the later models. Is you tank currently leaking? Some owners have gone with the Behr model, but I don't think they are manufacturing them anymore. You might get lucky and find a vendor with stock. URO makes one as well, but varous owners report early failures...YMMV.

 

Thank you gbarron. Tank looks clear and strong. No cracking and I see no leaking.