You guys are amazing!!! Thank you so much for all the information. Seeing as how I don't plan to do too many, if any mods (I'll stay clear of the turbo and most engine components if I do), I should be able to cover the majority of the preventative maintenance myself. Seems I certainly need to be purchasing the warranty, so I'll need to do some research on how this works and what the process costs (although it sounds like whatever the cost, it is worth it).

Thank you all again. I have searched and read a lot of information, but the details I have received both on this post and through IM have been amazing!!!

 

I have an 02' x50 Biggest repair was radiators $305 for the center and $420 for the sides. plus around $400 labor and misc parts. How bad I blow away other cars well that's priceless

 

Welcome!!

Sounds like you are in the same spot as I was about a year ago. I bought my car w/25k miles on it, and same as you, paid cash for it (waited a long time to be in the position to do it, but was worth it).

After 5k miles of ownership, here's my report to your questions:

1) Personally, I think 996TT is the best value (driving to maintenance $$ ratio) you can get in the high end sports car market today. Unless you plan on extensive tracking, and you do your own minor work, expect to see the ownership costs of owning an Audi or even a VW (providing you buy a good car and don't eff the motor or the tranny).

2) When I was shopping for a car, 2nd gear popout was at the top of my worry list. I would argue that most of the 2nd gear pop-out issues are owner inflicted where people expected a bulletproof car and ragged on it a bit too hard, so as long as you get a car that doesn't have the issue currently(or signs of it), you should be OK if you take care of the car. When test driving the car, drive the car down the hill, let it coast, get in/out of throttle some - if the car pops out of the gear, walk away from the car. Even if the deal is great, tranny likely wasn't the only mistreated part of the car.

3) I feel like I bought a well taken care of car that was not abused or tracked (nothing wrong with tracking, but I wanted a car that has not seen track). Ater about a year of ownership (5k miles), I spent about $1100 give/take on maintenance, including a major service (30k):
- Set of tires - $700 mounted/balanced (went for budget supertire Sumitomo, pleasantly surprised and love it so far (500 miles).
- 30k service - about $200 and few hours in a garage (OEM Air Filter, Bosch FR6 plugs, OEM Oil filter/pollen filter change, Mobil 1 Syntetic, inspected a list of stuff 30k service cehcklist calls for.
- Secondary Air Pump CEL - $150 and few hours in the garage. I had the annoying CEL come on for secondary air pump (emissions), so I went through and just replaced all of the solenoids (3 in total).

4) Get a thorough PPI done, but don't soly rely on it because thoroughness varies from dealer to dealer. Definitelly get a DME scan/printout and look for:
- # of operation hours (compare against mileage to see if while the car has low miles, it may have been driven in heavy traffic queit a bit, and can mean early clutch replacement on 6 speeds, etc)
- # of Type 1 and Type 2 overrevs - this will likely tell you how the car was driven. There are various theories about the acceptable number of overrevs, but I'd encourage you to post findings of your PPI on here and let the folks help you out. One caution here is that some will tell you that Type 2 overrevs are "mechanical" and the engine was "forced" over the limit, usually caused by a missed shift (down a gear vs. up a gear). Based on my experience, it IS possible to overrev the engine pretty deep due to rev. momentum as you approach the rev. limiter (i've done it on my previous car (not a Porsche) several times, proven by standalone ECU logs.
- Get the car mic'd to make sure there is no paint/bodywork on sheetmetal. I would't worry about repainted front bumpers as long as there are no other signs of a wreck - I've seen many owner re-paint the rock chips to keep teh car looking mint.

Finally, I live in Cinci as well, so if you'd like to meet up, I'll take you for a ride in my car and you can have a benchmark car to compare to what one should feel/drive like.

Best of luck, you will love the car!!

***EDIT - wow, sorry for a long post - got carried away there***

TK



Hmmm, what's the deal with several people replacing radiators lately?

Did they tell you why this was necessary?

 

Yes, the mod bug is a bigger issue than just about ANY maintenance you have to deal with.

So far, I've stayed away from it, but it's a temptation every time I look in the for sale forum - it is the devil.

 

I was just looking at your post selling the car. Is the car still for sale? I have to tell you, I would much prefer to not have to drive or fly across country and have it shipped back if I can buy one right here in my own back yard from a board member? I would send you an IM, but I don't have 15 posts yet, so I can't.

You can email me directly at "jstjohn"@"emgcnslt" dot com (obviously without the quotes) if you would like to chat further. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the response from board members. This truly took me over the edge on deciding to purchase this car.

 

That it is. I've already purchased used 997tt wheels, which will need new tires, and a used Europipe Loud exhaust, and I can't even pick up my 996tt out of state for two more weeks . These two mods cost more than my girlfriend's car is worth, lol.

 

Yes, passively selling it while enjoying at the same time. I'll shoot you an e-mail, and I'd be glad to show you the car/take you for a ride even if you weren't interested in the car - I just love the fact that there will be more Porsche influence in this area, and while I'm selling the car, I'll be back in another one in a couple of years once the baby is a bit older and I have more time again.

This board is AWESOME and most of the members are here to help - I'm now actually good friends with the guy I bought my car from last year. He hosted my cousin out in L.A. and showed him around last summer, and I have never talked to the guy or anyone he knows before buying the car from him.

Stay in touch and feel free to e-mail me at tvrtko2@yahoo.com

Cheers, TK

Lol, love it. Yes, comparing cost of mods to "regular" things in life keeps me out of trouble - if I didn't have this backstop, I'd already have GT3 seats, TQ Roll cage, and probably about $2-3k of other little things.

BTW - Ohio is coming alive w/Turbos, i LOVE IT!!!!

 

First off, good luck with your purchase.I purchased my 2001 tt with the intention of building. Mine was a clean, unmolested, virgin with 60k mi. I was looking for a tuner when I met Akram. The tranny synchros disintigrated rapidly. EZ care covered the rebuild by Gbox. While the car was down, I went ahead and did the full build.

I also spent the extra green to add external oil lines (to correct the design flaw that burned up the synchros to begin with) which was corrected in the 997. as well as lsd's, polished gearing, and cryo treated gears. This is the only way to be sure the tranny is solid.

when you buy a car like this, you will have a relationship with an "indy" or a dealership. Since the dealership tried to screw me out of the warranty, I have chosen the indy route, and have been happy ever since.

regardless of how much maintenance you do yourself, you WILL NEED the support of your dealership or indy guy. Dealerships are notoriously dishonest with their customers.If they were half way decent to begin with, there would be no "indies" out there.

Forums like this are an invaluable tool in finding that relationship for you.

Good luck again!

 

2nd gear pop out was a concern when I was looking for mine. I was able to find one that had already had the transmission replaced under warranty by the 1st owner. If you can find one that has an extended warranty, that'll help, as the repair cost can get high for certain items. It saved my butt on more than one occasion.

 

2nd gear pop-out, in my opinion, is a design flaw. The gbox cheap mod is the fix....I added it brute force with my own machinist job in Philly when DAS did my tranny.

There was a huge thread on 2nd gear pop-out, it had been a sticky, search for it.

Personally, I'd get the gbox fix for sure and put it in...if you talk to the guy at ScarGo, a tranny cooler is way overkill for simple 20 minute sessions in DE. I don't know, but I cannot afford the tranny cooler. To me, it makes sense...especially if you really push the car/track it like Mikelly and Tom Kerr....former active people.

If you DE, you need to flush the fluids often. It is not a GTR, but it is not wihout needs. I did my front diff and tranny fluid at 30 k ...each track day is 3k in my book. Just something I made up. If hot, 5k.

My 2c.

Jeff

 

the biggest problem is that you cannot stop buying upgrades