2001996c4

Well Sunset is servicing my car, oil change, new PSS all around alignment. Did request inspection of water pump as advised in Excellence Mag. and by many on this forum. I had purchased a new AOS as I thought this was the culprit of my small oil leak, apparently AOS is dry but spark plug tubes very wet with oil.

Bottom line my check book was open for AOS, water pump, but dealer is not concerned about either. Oil change, filter back to me for inspection, tire mount and balance and I'm back on the road for another year. Currently 104,000 miles on the odometer. After talking to dealer about my fears, and getting the puzzled look back at me from the service advisor, feel like this forum is causing me undue paranoia, anyone else feel the same way?

dotframe

I've only recently recovered from my Porsche hypochondria. This forum wasn't helping. Now that I am recovered though I can read here without fear and enjoy driving my car even more.

halik

Adverse selection in the forum posts is what creates this paranoia - the relatively small number people that have issues are far more likely to join the forum in search of answers.

E46 M3 forums are full of people scared of VANOS kabooms, S4 forums are full of people scared of cylinder scoring, RS6 forums has people terrified of transission/torque converter problems etc etc.

Barn996

No question that at times there are threads that instill a momentary lapse of confidence towards my 99' 996...I#$, R#$, water pump, AOS, air pump, chain tensioners, D chunk, oval cylinders, overheating, warped heads.... Then I remember that in my current ownership going on 6 years(this Sept.), I have had no major parts failures and very little outlay of $ other than routine oil/filter changes, tire replacement, MAF, 1 wheel bearing, and a leaking coolant tank. Reliability with my Porsche has been outstanding to date with just a little over 60k miles on the odometer.

white99c2

I bought a warranty and since I did that in June of 2010 I had the passenger seat switch replaced, the starter motor, coolant tank, front passenger sway bar bushing, vario cam actuator and solenoid and one of the horns. If I recall I think all of that cost around $5500.00. I got the warranty dirt cheap throgh a friend for $2250. I'm way ahead with still 2 years to go and 22K miles of coverage.
I had the same paranoia about the water pump and got the same stare from the service writer at North Scottsdale Porsche. Every time I have my car in Porsche I ask them to check everything out and they come back with a good report.
My car was a garage queen when I bought it, the guy drove it about 4K miles a year. Now that I'm using it for 2 years as a DD everything is sorted out and I have to say at 54 years old and owning more than 30 cars, trucks, SUV's and 2 other 911's in my life, this by far is my favorite vehicle, a '99 911.
This site can get one spooked from time to time.

halik

The previous owner of my 4s had $23K worth of work done under extended warranty, including a new motor. Absolutely worthwhile on a mid-mileage car.

targa996

Yeah - I think Paranoia is high due to the fact people are coming to the forum with problems (so this skews our view of how many cars have these issues) - but it is still good to know what the issues are to look out for - where preventative makes sense - and then make the call on if the work is justified or not. My water pump is at 10 years/60K now - and I will probably replace soon as preventative - if I get another 10 years out of that it is worth it - cost is relatively low. For IMS on the other hand - I will wait until I have to do the clutch - & keep checking the oil for metal in the meantime. And if that is the one time the engine is dropped in the next 5 years - makes sense to me to take care of AOS , IMS at the same time for the small incremental cost at that point.

Kazual99

I would agree that most forum participants are searching for answers to problems. Preventative maintenance makes sense, so replace those items and drive it like a rental.

2001996c4

Good to know I'm no alone.

Thanks for the replies!

philooo

the forum is tough to read, indeed a lot of people coming to answer their problems, not many just thinking about posting a good review that the car is great and run fine... your post is refreshing.

I will add my 'all is good' words.

I purchased my 2003 911 with 27k miles on it. two years later, it has 41k miles on it and I have not spent more than $100 fixing things. Ok my headlight and key switches went dead
Aside of those two little things, the engine has been perfect. I drove the car from Lubbock Texas to Miami Fl over 3 days of driving 8 hours per day, the car was perfectly reliable.

Extended warranty is still good for piece of mind but on my 2 years ownership I paid them $2,700 and they have not spent a dime on me... piece of mind was priceless though

machbx

70% of all Porsches ever built are still on the road

Macster

For various reasons I'm in and out of Porsche dealers a bit and often I use my time there to speak with a tech or the techs about various things. I tend to stick to things that have some connection to my cars but I also speak to thiem about things about a model I *might* be interested in.

And once in a great while I will bring something to them that has no link to any of my cars. In these cases sometimes I get the gentle brush off and I understand. Some of the things... Jeez.

When I bring up some of the stuff posted here (and there's another site with even weirder stuff...) the techs just look at me like I said a bad word in Church.

The water pump, cam shaft chains, rails, tensioners, and on and on and on should be replaced at well, you name you favorite mileage number. The techs' reaction? What the heck are you talking about? No symptom? No problem.

We should run Turbo Diesel oil? What is the basis for this recommendation? As best I can respond is "because I guess it has "turbo" in its name" and I feel stupid for even saying it cause I know it is stupid. Sorry but there it is.

Ditto some super du jour tranny fluid, or anti-freeze, or no anti-freeze but some magic radiator elixer.

Low temp t-state is the biggie in some regions now. And guess what? In cooler regions. Owners in AZ ain't talking low temp t-stats, but owners in mild/cool/damp UK are... Gimme a break.

The list is endless. And about all the techs would advise is a more frequent oil/filter servicing -- though often they qualify this with something along the lines if the owner's usage is severe usage, which means one thing to them and another to well, just about everybody else -- and other vital fluids servicing done more frequently if one wants to do this is it.

They point out that Porsche can set a transmission/diff fluid change schedule at say 90K miles because Porsche knows through 100's of thousands of miles of testing with test "mules".

Allow me to stray a bit: Many a test mule car gave its all so our cars run as well at they do, last as long as they do. Those test mule cars live a hard life and after Porsche is done with them they are crushed!

Let us take a moment of silence to say a thanks to those poor test mule cars...

Anyhow, Porsche knows not only from test mules but from the feedback over the years of millions of miles from the cars that are in use that the fluid will last this long without any problems.

These are wonderful cars. (I've spent a week driving a Chevy Captiva and while it served its purpose I'm ready to kill myself! I miss my Porsches!) Most Porsches will gives miles and miles and years and years of good relatively trouble-free service.

There are a few that suffer from various afflications the majority of them due to manufacturing defects with a few from just being unused or even neglected or a few abused.

Now one big plus in my book when considering a Porsche was Porsche offered a 4 year 50K mile warranty. I had been bitten by 3 year, 36K mile warranties on my two Fords. I vowed to if I could do this to not let it expire on time, but on miles.

I was successful.

My 02 Boxster has covered over 256K miles and while it has had some problems related to the miles, it still is a heck of a car.

While I can sympathize wth those unfortunate owners that experience a catastrophic failure out of warranty for many of them it comes at low miles, low miles that had the car been used more would have been reached with the car still under warranty.

Part of my says oh so sad and it is a heartfelt emotion. Another part of my says should have driven the car more. They are made to be driven.

Drive your car more. Visit online forums less.

Sincerely,

Macster.

billyboy

^^ Bingo ...

DreamCarrera

^^^ THIS


This 996 forum should come with a big disclaimer:

"Caution - Reading the 996 forum may reduce your enjoyment of your 996!!!"

jackarelli

Ha ha! So true!

There should be a 996 support group... Maybe this is it