nsnick67

Hi guys, have been considering a 02-04 996 carrera for a while and wanted to get some opinions from actual owners, as far as I've read/heard about them so far the only real issue with them seems to be the IMS and they are otherwise pretty solid cars. Also have been told they are ~1k a year to maintain and repair and wanted to know from owners if this is a real figure or low-balling it. Thanks rennlist

5CHN3LL

A thousand bucks a year does not sound realistic to me - but I drive my car a lot, and I drive it vigorously, so I can spend a thousand bucks a year in tires and/or brakes.

As much as the "you should do all your own maintenance" guys **** me off, whether or not you do your own oil changes and other normal maintenance WILL dramatically affect how much you spend. You can do the 30K mile services yourself for a whole lot less than you'll pay at a dealership or indie.

I feel like my car has been solid - but in 2.5 years I've replaced the coolant tank, motor mounts, brake pads, rotors, one window regulator, a fuel pump, a muffler (one of the stainless aftermarket mufflers it came with came apart internally), the MAF sensor, an oxygen sensor, all six coil packs (only one was actually failed, but all were cracked).

Big-ticket consumables: 1 set of front tires, 2 sets of rear tires, 1 clutch
Replaced preventively: IMS bearing (retrofitted with LN dual-row and AOS "while you're at it" during clutch change)

Even a DIY oil change can cost a little bit, since you're buying 9 quarts of synthetic oil for each change.

IF you find a 996 that has been METICULOUSLY maintained and has had ALL preventive maintenance done (coolant tank, IMS bearing, water pump, etc. etc.), sure, you could spend less than $1K a year. However, this has not been my experience. The car has been rock-solid, only failing to start once (fuel pump) - it still ran when the coil pack failed and when the water pump let go, but it has not been Hyundai-cheap to maintain.

nsnick67

so what would you guess your annual spending on it is? would be a DD for me as well so ~10-12k miles a year, and you mentioned LN retrofit, does the retrofit not solve the IMS problem permanently? i read if that is done its something you don't need to worry about going wrong anymore or is that bad info

5CHN3LL

There are multiple routes for the IMS situation:
1) Ignore it - many people do.
2) Replace the bearing with another bearing (this is now considered preventive maintenance, with some experts saying it should be repeated every 50K miles / with every clutch)
3) Replace with something like the "IMS Solution", which IS a one-time fix.

I would guess that I put about $2,500 - $3K a year into the car for the first two years, but at this point I have caught up with anything that had been deferred. Note that a lot of things - like the water pump and coolant tank - were not known to be maintenance items initially - only once the cars started aging did people realize that the coolant tanks split and the water pump bearings fail.

A set of 4 tires can be $1K, so that could potentially be your entire budget for a year.

This all sounds like I'm harshing the car, but that's not the case. I love it, and don't plan to sell it anytime soon, if ever. However, I'd be lying if I said it has been a cheap car to own thus far.

Is it still a LOT cheaper than lease or loan payments on a new, $100,000 911 with a bumper-to-bumper warranty? Hell yes. Hands down. Absolutely. Amazing value, if you look at it that way.

Chiamac

The biggest issue with them is that anything that goes wrong can be expensive, either in parts or in shop time. On the same note, when I was driving my old 98 Jeep Cherokee it was around $600-1k a year in maintance, and that was more or less normal stuff on a 15+ year old car. The 996 seems to be the same way, stuff wears out, and stuff needs to get fixed, plus the landmine of issues that any old car could have (was it beat up, accident, engine issues, etc).

If it's a manual, may not be a bad idea to, off the bat, budget in money for the IMS and a new clutch. At least that way you know both have been done and worst case you have a good used clutch for parts later and either have found out the IMS was done or now have it fixed for a while.

But, as with any really nice used car, there are a lot of $1000 things that may need to be done which are just normal maintenance.

WalterRohrl

I'm with Schnell on this. Even if the car you buy is perfect and has been maintained immaculately, you may spend less the first year or two but eventually it'll catch up. My car was pretty much perfect mechanically when I got it 2.5 years ago including a new factory engine with all ancillaries. However, this year I will be replacing the brakes all the way around, I've replaced one set of tires already, will be getting another set this year, I am fairly certain one of my radiators has a leak (was quoted around $1500 to have them both replaced at a good local indy, but think I can do it myself for around $800 total, it's time to replace coolant anyway). The car is also at the point where replacing the suspension would be a worthwhile endeavor. I also had a bad idler pulley, and I replaced the sway bar end links to (successfully it seems) remove an irritating rattle and there were a couple of other little things.

Oil changes I do myself every time, it's so easy and obviously you can budget the time and place for it. So when all is said and done it probably makes sense to budget for $2500 or so per year, some years less, some more. It is still a hell of a bargain for what you get and way more fun than anything else I could spend $2500 or so per year on. The car has never left me stranded, is relatively easy to work on, and parts don't have to cost a fortune, especially if you are willing to buy the same exact part in the OEM box instead of the silver Porsche one from the dealer.

Also keep in mind that the purchase price is probably not going to plummet much more, certainly less than anything new or near-new that you could buy for the same outlay. Also I enjoy the fact that anyone can walk into a new car dealership and buy a new whatever, but my car, while far from unique, is not that easily or often replicated/seen in the wild.

TSMacNeil

Unless you find a flawlessly maintained example, plan on spending some $ bringing it up to proper form. I call that "baselining" a car. That means all the wear or life-limited items are replaced and the car is daily reliable.
This is the expensive side of initial ownership.
Some people defer preventative maintenance until something breaks...I don't advise that on these cars.

Dennis C

You'll burn through a set of rear tires every year with that kind of mileage, and then you'll need fronts and rears the next year. You'll come close to or exceed your $1K per year estimate in tires alone.

nsnick67

still not terribly unreasonable, however it would probably be hard to find one that well maintained on a 20-25k budget, thanks all for the info will look more into it

FRUNKenstein

I would figure $2,000 per year if you are willing to do some wrenching yourself

996_North

What's your budget for the purchase?

nsnick67

selling my current car for around 23-24k and was hoping it could last 2-3 years of maintenance/repairs as well as the car itself, to many other great cars under that price range to justify spending more on a 10+ yr old car as much as i absolutely love the 996

johnireland

I paid top dollar for my 03 996 C2 with 39k miles. Everything I did was my call and my option and done in the first two months of ownership...oil & filter change, brake fluid change, complete inspection, 2 new front tires, balancing, alignment, motor mounts, spark plugs...all around $3k. Add another $800 for a window regulator and a power seat motor and I'm pushing toward $4k.

Nothing I did seems unusual for a 12 year old car, milage not the issue. I expect to soon do the swap bar end links and replace the shocks. And I will do oil changes every 5k miles. And I expect other things to wear out along the way. My estimate is a bare minium of $3k a year and easily $4k to $5k if bigger ticket items break down.

All is possible because I paid cash for my car. I strongly recommend that you avoid car payments. I did nothing to my AOS, IMSB, RMS, or clutch...yet.

I am in heaven. I even learned to love my first door ding.

TSMacNeil

Basically, if the car doesn't have records of the AOS/RMS/Imsssbbb/ and clutch being done recently, plan on paying a good Indy about $2500-3500 for those " while you're there items.
That goes for the thermostat and water pump too. Plan on $1000 or so for those two items at an Indy as well.
That covers the usual suspects for large repairs for some piece of mind after purchase. If it has records of those items being done, all the better.

nsnick67

issue is finding one with all that done and it still being within my budget, don't want to push up to the top of my budget even with all of those done as surprise bills come with german cars well