Chuck Jones

Opus: I forgot to include the 2 oil changes I did while i had it, so add those in. The dash fire (I surmise) was caused by the PO who might have put in an aftermarket radio, then took it out and replaced it with the stock CDR220. The fire started directly behind the radio....which is why I think that is what happened. AAA was going to pay an expert to chase it down, but then decided that they had to pay me for the car anyway, so they opted not to bother with the forensics. I guess they figured that most guys who torch their own cars don't do it while they're actually driving them.

gregorycarl

Very Interesting post. This post can give us a good indication of older 996 3.4 engine replacements. Assuming that the over $10,000 represents engine replacement and not a laundry list of waterpumps, transmissions etc...

As of my post, we have 3 people out of 52 responses that checked the 10,000 or more. Indicating a 6% failure rate, again with the assumption that they are engine replacements. Don't intend to turn this thread into that or hijack it, just mining some data.

Rob in WA

Bought new - nothing spent on repairs ( some were made under warranty - RMS, MAF ).

Mods, well that's another story...

M Fig

Don't let Mark Fletch respond to this thread...it will skew the results...

He completely rebuilt a few 996's...one burnt and what was wrong with the first one he had...was it burnt too?

Kims996Cab

Bought my 2000 Cab with 30K miles, just out of warranty. 3.5 years, and 50K miles later, the ONLY repair costs have been for the coolant tank that I recently replaced myself. During this time I also adjusted my front lid latch, and cleaned out the cab water drain lines .... each at no cost. Never leaks or uses oil between changes. All other expenditure has been for scheduled maintenance. WHAT A GREAT CAR!!

opus

Bump... we need more sample data to make this statistically meaningful... keep the voting coming.

Down South

I hit the $2K button, but I feel that's a little misleading. I purchased my '99 in December 2006 and spent most all of the dollars repairing common items such as: Coolant tank..$500, water pump..$750 (two weeks apart!), oil separator...$1000, all done over a year ago. The only issue I've had since then was a MAF sensor. Once everything was sorted out, it's been a fantastic car. Just turned 89,000 last week.

pat056

Rember not to post oil changes, pads, tires, normal maintance per OP's direction.
Mine:
Water pump $500
Trailing arm bent before I bought the car, but I found it $500.
Window regulator that was bad when I bought the car $400 (the 2nd regulator was a DYI for $223).
I've only had the car a year, but have put 24,000 miles on it, so I figured I qualified for the poll.
It's been a pretty, no very reliable car.

Stefan Richter

I bought my MY00 C2 with 84K miles. It has slight RMS dampness when I bought it. A month after ownership, it threw a CEL for a bad Vario Cam Solenoid. To replace the solenoid and actuator would have cost (IIRC) about $2500 in parts and labor. I was also going to do the clutch and flywheel and RMS, and have a few spark plug tubes replaced, new plugs and tranny flushed for a total of just under $5K. Long story later I got a new engine. However, I guess my cost would have been $5K in the first month of ownership. Except for the solenoid, I knew what I was getting into as a result of the PPI.

Stefan

joes c4 cab

$10K for me.

99 M/Y

53K miles

Ugly & painful.

opus

Let me summarized the results after 72 votes...

1) 6 or 8% voted $10,000 or more (at least 2 of those votes came from 1999, don't know where the others came from)

2) 46 voted in 1999
15 in 2000
9 in 2001

Did Porsche really sell 3x as much in 1999 versus 2000? When I am looking at the ads, most of the 996 I see are for 1999.

3) Based on the small sample size, it seems that the 2000 and 2001 model year had the least issues. I don't know if this is just because the cars are a year and two years newer, or if the 1999 is the case of avoiding a first year redesigned car. Any thoughts?

smshirk

This poll needs a box for mods. Costs goes up dramatically for a lot of us

spaceman_spiff

How many of those 10,000+ had an engine replacement or was it a string of things that went wrong and accumulated to over 10,000?