rbc123

Have you been on a long road trip and had your 996 die on you?
Tell us your story and how you got out of it.
One of the reasons I ask is that my new to me 2002 996 cab seems like a great road tripper. But I worry about being out in East Kabosh and the car dying and no parts available.
rbc

Kalashnikov

Why is this car specific? You do what you do with any other car. Tow the car home if you can't fix it on the spot.

Sneaky Pete

I guess the real question is how you maintain your car. This is true for Porsche, Buick, Ford, Chevy, Yugo....well not a Yugo. Well maintained cars road trip just fine regardless of what make it is. If the car is not maintained get a rental.

I suggest a road trip to TX to find KK and become lovers.

rbc123

I think you missed my point. I could be 1,000 miles away from home when the car craps out. Not a nice tow job.
rbc

FRUNKenstein

rbc - I suspect you'll get a lot of backlash from the insinuation (I'm sure unintentional) that a 996 is going to strand you. Our cars already have an unfair reputation for mechanical problems when in fact they are incredibly reliable. I suggest that this would be a better topic for one of the non-model specific forums.

Kalashnikov

Get AAA Premium membership? Premium membership includes 3 free tows, each tow is free up to 100 miles.

If you car breaks down 1,000 miles away it is expensive situation anyway. Either you pay to fix it there or you pay $1,000.00 to ship it home.

FRUNKenstein

In the spirit of the thread, back in 1984, I was on road trip in the deepest, darkest mid-Missouri Ozarks in my RX-7 when it crapped out. Not a lot of rotary engine mechanics in that part of the world. I ended up buying an old green Toyota station wagon from a local car lot for $150 wholesale as my uncle had a dealer license. Once I got home, I sold the Toyota for $250 the day after I got the RX-7 back, making it hands down the best car I've ever owned.

drh

I made it to our home near West Yellowstone to find my headlight switch failed. Ordered the assembly from Pelican Parts and had it within two days. No problemo.

rbc123

I am just trying to generate some maybe interesting stories about a bad road trip and how you got out of it.
Maybe even some tips and tricks on how to limp home.
rbc

DK570

There have only been two unplanned times I have not been able to drive my 996. Once was when the ignition switch broke, so if yours is feeling at all sticky or not perfect, I'd suggest you put in a new one before a road trip. The second time was when the alternator died. This had no warning, but luckily I was able to make it home by not using climate control, and it was day time, so no head lights. FYI I'd say about 25 miles is the max you can drive a 996 with out a working generator. It's kind of funny that neither part was made by Porsche. The switch is an Audi part, and the alternator is a Bosch part!

Dennis C

My 996 has never left me stranded on a road trip. The only time I had an issue was once when my battery died in the parking lot of Home Depot, 6 miles from my house.

Zanzibar Red 996

Generate some more negative **** about 996's ?
No they don't breakdown if maintained
Maintain is what rennlist is all about

alpine003

I have the misses tail me on long road trips with a Honda as a support vehicle. It is equipped with a spare IMS, Belts, AOS, gallon of blinker fluid(synthetic version), jack, and a tow bar in the event I can't fix it on the spot. Those Uniden walkie talkies come in real handy to converse with the misses and allow me to switch channels if I get sick of her and talk to the truckers about all sorts of interesting topics.

Macster

Couple of times in my Boxster and once in the Turbo...

The first time I was in the Boxster and was on 50 highway in KS (west of Strong City KS) I hit a tire carcass and busted a radiator. Stranded in the middle of no where. Late at night.

No cell phone. But I managed to get a trucker to stop using my hand held CB radio and he let me call AAA and I got the car towed 70 miles or so to Wichita KS where the next day I got the car into the dealer for repairs.

More recently, down on I-10 I stopped at a Chevron station on the freeway to fill up the Boxster's fuel tank. Just had driven it with one stop for fuel from the Livermore CA area. Filled up the tank got in the car turned on the ignition and nothing. Tried again. Nothing.

Oh not really nothing. The dash lights came on everything was normal except not a peep from the starter.

Don't know what I did next but after a few minutes I got back in the car and tried again and the engine fired right up.

Didn't do this again for I don't know how long.

Then it started doing it on occasion but a retry also had the engine start. So I ignored it.

In June of 2009 I bought a used Turbo from Fletcher-Jones Porsche in Fremont CA. Left the Boxster there at the dealer and drove the Turbo home. Late that night I called a cab and took a cab from Livermore to Fremont. About half way there I started to feel sick, very very sick. Food poisoning I guess. By the time I got to the dealer I was so sick I could hardly see but all I could think of was to get in the Boxster and get out of there.

Of course the engine would not start. It was the everything was fine but no start thing all over again. I was getting sicker by the second and of course I had let the cab go and was a distance away from any place open. I had my cell phone but was so sick I didn't think I could operate it.

I tried and tried to start the engine but there was no reaction at all from the starter.

If I had felt better I would have tossed lit match in the gas tank and walked away.

After 15 minutes of pure misery I tried one last time and the engine caught. Violating my rule to let the engine idle a few minutes I slammed the thing in gear and hightailed it out of there to a nearby hotel where I stopped the car in the drive and ran inside to the bathroom where I was properly sick. Staff wanted to call an ambulance. But an hour later I was good enough to drive home.

The next business day I had the car in the shop for a new ignition switch and a new clutch interlock switch.

Another time started the Boxster and was backing it out of a parking space and the fuel pump quit. Just so happens it was my parking space at home. Two mile tow to the dealer for a new fuel pump.

Another time I started the Boxster and noted a noise. Traced it to a suspected water pump. The car was in my drive. Called a tow truck and had the car towed to Walnut Creek Porsche for a new water pump.

On another trip back east the Boxster CEL would come on generally as I was on the freeway off ramp for the last exit for the night. Checked error codes -- had my scanner with me -- and the codes suggested a MAF problem. I decided in a pinch I could disconnect the MAF and limp somewhere for a new one.

Did this one, two, and even the 3rd night on the road. The next morning at my destination 2K miles away from home I started the engine and the smoke just billowed from the exhaust. I knew then it was not the MAF but the AOS. The car's second one. I called a tow truck and had the car flat bedded 90 miles to the dealer in Merriam KS (where I bought the car in 02 and had the AOS replaced in 04).

July 3rd of 2009 I was in the Turbo out on 50 highway (what is it about 50 highway?) outside of Ely NV and I hit a mule deer that stepped out from behind a guardrail with no warning right into the path of my car. Not even time to say Oh ****!. The impact busted a headlight and radiator. Had my cell phone but no coverage. I was on a pass at around 7K feet elevation too. Stranded.

After some time, I managed to get a passing vehicle to stop and with just a bar or so showing on the driver's cell phone I managed to call in the accident. A state trooper was dispatched -- I thought I needed an accident report for insurance reasons -- and a tow truck.

The trooper showed up and a t-storm moved in and he put me in the back of the cruiser and drove down the mountain away from the lightning.

The tow truck operator showed up and hauled the car and I into Ely. His shop was at the west end of town. Late at night but lots of cars parked around to the point I asked him about the cars all around. He told me it was the two brothels just down the street. Customers didn't want to park at the brothels -- which is why their parking lots were empty -- but instead parked on the side streets on either side of the shop.

The next day the only way out of there was by a turbo prop regional airline. Local car rentals only. No one way rental car rental, no bus service, no passenger train service. Caught a flight out the next afternoon. I was the only passenger. The pilot had me sit in the middle of the plane so he would not have to use trim and thus would save fuel. We flew to IIRC Durango CO then after an hour or so layover on to Denver where I rented a car and drove from Denver to KC Mo area.

(Side story: About the rental car... I was at the airport and rental car agency and one of the cars that had been parked at the tow truck operator's business the night before pulled in and I expected some guy to get out of the car but instead a young woman got out and turned the car in. We got to talking and I found out she was with some social services agency and she visits the brothels as part of her job.)

Long story short that was on a Friday night. That Monday from my folks home in MO I had to arrange by phone to have the tow truck operator haul the car from Ely NV to Livermore CA, a 600 mile tow.

I keep my cars in good repair -- ignore the part above about the starting issue with the Boxster! -- but stuff happens on the road. The tire carcass incident was my fault. I was sleepy and pushed on rather than stopping. Since then whenever I get sleepy I stop and rest at least or stop for the night. No 20 hour days driving for me anymore.

The mule deer accident was just that. An accident. Wrong place at the wrong time. I was not sleepy or speeding, actually going rather slow since the road was unfamiliar to me and it had been raining off and on and the road in areas was slick with mud/silt washed over it by the rain run off from the cliffs. There were large rocks on the road way too in the lane going the other direction. I found out in town the next day just about everyone hits a deer about once a year. In fact that woman that had the rental car had one because her car was in the shop getting fixed after a deer encounter, and it was her second one of the year.

Have a cell phone. Keep it charged. Join a good auto club and get the premium membership. AAA here in CA costs me less than $125/year.

Then hit the road. And try to hit nothing else.

Kalashnikov

Here is non-Porsche event. Was practicing for Prescott Rally last year on I88. It was 115 degree day.

Ran the Acura at 60-80 miles per hour on the dirt roads across the jumps, bumps, and bridges. Transmission overheated and lost ALL gears but 2nd gear. No reverse, no 1,3,4,5 only 2nd gear. 70 miles from home, on the dirt trail.

Ebraked it around, drove home in 2nd gear only on side streets. Car sat at 5,000-7,000 RPM for 2 hours to get home in 100+ degree weather. Flushed the transmission fluid that night, good as new. Undisputed Honda Motor Company engine expertise in the works. That episode sold me on Honda forever, I know that I will always have one in my garage.









Here is the in October this year driving on the 2013 Prescott Rally roads.