st3ve Posted 12August, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 12August, 2020 After so much doom and gloom on the internet about the NA M96, finally something where I'm glad I don't own the mezger version! That looks like a nightmare job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv Posted 12August, 2020 Report Share Posted 12August, 2020 But if this lady can do it ....😀 It also makes the owners of Tiptronic versions smile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomo Posted 16August, 2020 Report Share Posted 16August, 2020 Good thread 👏 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 17August, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 17August, 2020 Had another play with the Porker today. I received my parts order from Clickable Automotive with a new ribbed belt and Motul gearbox oil among some bits for the BM. Big shout out for Clickable, if you have a BMW they are awesome and as I have found also excellent for other marques too, as long as you can wait about two weeks to order-in. I noticed early on that the belt looked old, so it was good to get this done. Looking at the date code on the (genuine) belt, it seems to me this is either June 2003 or March 2006 belt? Hells bells. Anyway, nice new made-in-Germany contitech belt fitted for all of $25. At the same time I refitted the K&N "hot air induction" kit with a new BMC cone filter. I just missed the induction howl! Took it for a 40k run to get it nice and warm then dropped the gearbox oil. A bit of trepidation doing this since I could find no evidence of it being done before, but it was still looking nice and golden and there were no gnarly bits in the oil to frighten my wallet. Swishing the pan around there is the occasional bit of sparkly stuff in the bottom but looked perfectly normal (excellent in fact) after 204,000km. I poked my finger through the drain hole and there is nothing other than a fine film of dark deposit. The car had a nice life at least since 2009, with easy Canberra commuting and a 400km return trip to the coast every 1-4 weeks. Apparently this is another instance where Porsche - in some bit of logic I can't understand - fitted sealed bearings inside the gearbox. OK, the IMS I can sort of see that if you're trying to make it an extended-oil-life engine then a rolling element bearing should not be in the oil, but in the gearbox I have no idea. I'd researched the gearbox oil a bit but neglected to check the crush washer size which at 22mm is larger than what I have in stock here, so the verdict will have to wait. The shift was ok (no crunching) but not slick. I checked out my gearshift console and there is clearly some wear there, especially in the cross-gate lever. I'll wait till the car is back on the ground before tackling that one. JWM, michel and tomo 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Tinker Posted 17August, 2020 Report Share Posted 17August, 2020 I also get my Motul oil (engine & transmission) from Clickable - and I found them reasonably fast delivery and good pricing too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 25August, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 25August, 2020 I've been playing around with my shifter console which had a bit of play. There's loads on the web about this, I'd looked at the various upgrade options but most are from overseas and with shipping what it is at present wanted something quicker. I I figured I could make a decent improvement with just some repairs and enhancements. As usual I had mission creep. From what I could see, the largest part of the play in mine was the cross-gate lever system, whose lever (the white bit on the left) had a lot of movement when you rattled the shift lever side to side when in gear. It just has a snap-in plastic spindle which was pretty average when new and hasn't improved in 17 years. The pin is 12mm and I just happened to have 1/2" (12.7mm) reamers so figured on a bit of a quick 'ghetto' refurb. Without disassembling the main lever I was able to run the reamer through the lever and outer bore, then make up a stepped brass spindle which bolted up against the inner bore. This was such an improvement that the slop in the main lever spindle was now the most annoying part. Okay, in for a penny, in for a pound and I cut the original bush carriers out and pondered what to do. I made my own version of the often shown replacement bearing setup, just using what I had to hand. I didn't have any suitable circlips so it's just waiting on those. Feels good on the bench at least, so I'll see how it goes. MFX, DT, Stepo and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrera28 Posted 25August, 2020 Report Share Posted 25August, 2020 Bite the bullet and go Rennline short shift, every piece is metal and extremely well made: tomo and Dave997S 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 30August, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 30August, 2020 Driving the car throughout the week I'm pretty happy with the results, the gearshift is greatly improved. It's still not as good as (...at least my 2-decade-old recollections of...) my old NA MX5 which had the sweetest gearshift I've experienced. But it's far more definite and has lost the noticeable difference between cold and warm operation. In terms of the shift console itself, there is zero play, you can see that the slightest movement of the shifter translates to the cables. There is a tiny bit of movement between the fore-aft cable outer and the gearbox bracket that should be easy enough to eliminate and what remains is within the actual gearbox itself, which is in the too-hard basket for the moment. But the mods have removed the free movement at the lever that was bothering me, cost nothing and kept me entertained in the shed over a cold weekend. The Rennline thing seems to me something you'd add only after you've already got a perfectly set up gearbox, tricky cables, fancy gearbox mounts and all that. On a typical well used road car it seems like a bit of an expensive conversation piece with the wrong kind of bearings. <dons flameproof suit> JWM and michel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrera28 Posted 30August, 2020 Report Share Posted 30August, 2020 1 hour ago, st3ve said: Driving the car throughout the week I'm pretty happy with the results, the gearshift is greatly improved. It's still not as good as (...at least my 2-decade-old recollections of...) my old NA MX5 which had the sweetest gearshift I've experienced. But it's far more definite and has lost the noticeable difference between cold and warm operation. In terms of the shift console itself, there is zero play, you can see that the slightest movement of the shifter translates to the cables. There is a tiny bit of movement between the fore-aft cable outer and the gearbox bracket that should be easy enough to eliminate and what remains is within the actual gearbox itself, which is in the too-hard basket for the moment. But the mods have removed the free movement at the lever that was bothering me, cost nothing and kept me entertained in the shed over a cold weekend. The Rennline thing seems to me something you'd add only after you've already got a perfectly set up gearbox, tricky cables, fancy gearbox mounts and all that. On a typical well used road car it seems like a bit of an expensive conversation piece with the wrong kind of bearings. <dons flameproof suit> Advice from Rennline is that it's the first thing to fit. The cables and mounts are more hardcore. In my opinion when you shift the standard set up really fast, the gear throw particularly second to third is too long relative to the clutch and you can sometimes still be shifting when you want to start releasing the clutch. The Rennline kit is beautifully engineered and has three settings that you can get it how you want it. I have it set on on the middle setting and added an alcantara 996 GT3 RS shiftknob and it transformed the shift and is much sharper and intense than my MX5 NA was by a long way. (I had the Voodoo titanium gearknob on my NA that sharpened the shift up beautifully as well) I went with it because it is beautifully engineered, every part is metal and it will take a very long time before there is ever any slop in it. Never regretted doing it and improved the shift immensely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 1September, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 1September, 2020 👌 Sounds nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 2October, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 2October, 2020 Well my refurbed shift console still has zero play, and if anything the gearbox seems to be improving further with a few miles on the Motul oil. Really happy with the shift now, although I might pull it apart again and do a shortshift job on it as well if I'm bored one day. Will update if so. In other news, the car now has ZERO oil spots under it after several weeks. After doing the AOS line job, the remaining spot on the floor in the RMS location gradually diminished and then stopped appearing altogether. So either the RMS has magically healed itself with the car being put back into more regular use, or else the oil coming out of the engine-to-bellhousing joint was actually finding its way into the bellhousing from the former AOS leak further up? Either way, a win! That revelation has also caused me to reconsider the engine-out service and clutch replacement. Everything is working fine at present, a lot of what I was planning to do was just preemptive maintenance "while it's out". Car is running great and a ton of fun even just commuting to work - which is a 35km run for me with 2/3 of it highway. michel, JWM, DT and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 9October, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 9October, 2020 Finally! For the first time in my ownership I have working key remotes!! The infuriating runaround of manually unlocking the door, disabling the alarm and unlocking the passenger door can finally be laid to rest. Shout out to Gulson Canberra who looked after me really well today after some difficulties during this process. So I now have two new remotes and blades which should hopefully last another 16 years with some careful management. You have to use your second key every so often to keep it 'associated' - as I understand it. There is a finite number of rolling codes (1024 I believe) that the system can handle between the two keys. So locking with Key A and then using Key B for 1025 lock or unlock operations will see Key A disabled. Also, an even lower number (256?) between the car and one key, so giving your key to a 3 year old to mash the buttons while out of range of the car can quite quickly see that key also disabled, possibly never to return. So glad to have this sorted out. Next might be to disassemble the instrument pod to try to eliminate the super annoying rattle from around the hazard light switch. Merv and Harsh 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel Posted 9October, 2020 Report Share Posted 9October, 2020 Nothing quite like a working remote…What was the cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv Posted 9October, 2020 Report Share Posted 9October, 2020 Good information Steve. I routinely swap over my remotes in use. I had to replace both keys ($350 each) and also repair the central locking module. They are a pain! But to have them working is a blessing. I also installed key safe in the house as finding keys makes these cars easy to steal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 10October, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 10October, 2020 Merv, I know you know this (since it was in your thread!) but for anyone else finding this in future my info was kindly provided to me by the Porsche tech 'deMort' on the 911uk site. The relevant page is here:http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=140239&start=20 The info which I think came from his Autologic tester is copied below: Once again from the UK, JMG Porsche is an indy over there and has put considerable effort into working out the failings of the system and has an article on their site:https://www.jmgporsche.co.uk/index.php/menu-articles/articles-maintenance/item/234-996-986-alarm-primer They obviously omit the detail for security reasons but it makes for interesting reading and provides good info for ways to prevent falling into the trap. They will also recode things by mailing your keys and security computer to them but that seems like a bad idea from AU. Dealers or a very limited number of Indy's can sort it for you, but it does usually seem to (at least) require new key remotes. My job had some issues, they accidentally ordered key blades rather than remotes, and things were further messed up by Covid delays and staff changes etc - this started in early July! Once I got onto Craig from the service department things smoothed out and were resolved pretty swiftly. I had previously paid $215 for diagnosis, and paid up-front $560 for what turned out to be two key blades (ouch!). The two remotes were apparently meant to be $775 and another $215 for final coding but those were waived yesterday. So effectively I paid $215 for diagnosis/coding, $560 for the remotes and got the blades provided gratis. A pleasant surprise at the end of a rather difficult process, they were quite kind there I think so want to give them the thumbs up. Long story short - drive your car every few days and rotate use between both keys! michel, firstone and Tips 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv Posted 11October, 2020 Report Share Posted 11October, 2020 deMort is one of those rare guys on Porsche forums who knows so much and further, is prepared to share his undoubted expertise. The guide you attached Steve to understanding these systems is an excellent one. My OPC could not do the job and charged me nothing after a day trying. My local indy did the job in half a day with the right bits at the right price. firstone and michel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 11October, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 11October, 2020 Agreed, deMort is a legend. On top of it all he provides the info without any form of ego or commercial interest. If you have a P-car conundrum you can do a lot worse than starting at 911.uk and searching by user deMort. michel, firstone and Merv 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 23October, 2020 Author Report Share Posted 23October, 2020 I've lent our spare hack car to my Dad for the moment so the 996 has been doing daily duties and doing it well. First proper drive in fully wet conditions went well, it seems to have plenty of grip. I - very happily - do not have PSM so was mindful of that but in this car prefer the 'old school' nature of no nanny state electronics spoiling the fun (until I'm zooming off the road backwards I suppose...). Since owning it I have been chasing a couple of annoying dash rattles, the worst was in the vicinity of the hazard light switch. Like most of these things it was hard to pin down exactly, pushing and pulling the instrument binnacle didn't seem to cure it, pressing the hazard light bezel did seem to mostly stop it. Either way I figured I'd take the binnacle out and have a look, which is an easy procedure. I had seen photos of leather trimmed instrument binnacles and thought they looked a lot nicer than the slightly blobby moulded plastic one in my car. A combination of red wine, ebay and man-logic saw me purchase one from the UK on the basis that if was taking the binnacle off I might as well change it. You can't argue with that. Step 1 is to disconnect the battery, with alarm equipped cars you should do it with the ignition on so I put a note on the battery to remind me and also a positive lead label after hearing of several people hooking up batteries wrong and causing big $$$ damage. Here is the before: Ad added bonus of the binnacle I purchased is that it also came with a silver instrument surround which matches the highlights already on my interior even though the surround on mine was black. Gives me the option of choosing which one I prefer. Removal was easy, following instructions for the somewhat strangely constructed three-piece hazard switch/surround. One bit I found a really obvious potential rattle was between the two pieces of the actual hazard switch button, I popped the cover off and put a couple of tiny bits of foam in there and snapped it back together. I think there is also the potential for a rattle between the hazard switch itself and the binnacle, but I remounted that as-was for the moment to see how it was with the new binnacle. Here is the after, I wasn't sure if the silver might be 'too much'. The leather one came with silver instrument surround and a black hazard surround, while my original had the opposite. I think it looks nice with all the silver bits, and the leather trimmed binnacle looks heaps better in my eyes. A couple of very minor bits of damage to the left of the hazard button but overall I'm very happy with the mod. Took it for a drive and seems like the best thing is THE RATTLE IS GONE! tomo, Tips and michel 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv Posted 23October, 2020 Report Share Posted 23October, 2020 Great work Steve and I love the battery label! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st3ve Posted 3January, 2021 Author Report Share Posted 3January, 2021 After Christmas I had a little time for some more work on the Porker. Before chrissy I'd had the AC refrigerant evacuated so I was ready to swap in the new compressor I'd purchased. It was a fairly easy procedure, my biggest snag was trying to suck the fluid out of the power steering upper reservoir. I have a big syringe and tubing, but the trajectory of the tube to get it down into the lower reservoir is like JFK's 'magic bullet theory' and I found it totally impossible. I found an article on rennlist about draining the PS at the low pressure fitting under the passenger floor and figured it would be a good idea to change the fluid anyway. Easily done, and a good maintenance item since it was likely original. I could then easily remove the upper reservoir without making a mess. I also removed the throttle body to make access a little easier and I soon had the compressor out only to find the new one didn't come with o-rings, so I'll wait till I source some before opening the lines. With the engine bay work stalled, I looked inside. Once the AC is working again it will remind me that I really hate the position of the climate control panel, which is totally obscured by the gearlever and hard to operate. I do like the idea of a console delete, but it's complicated to go back to a single DIN unit due to my PCM2/MOST/Bose setup. Although the PCCM+ seems to be a very expensive and not particularly good unit, it reportedly integrates well with my car spec and I'm coming around to just getting one. Another plus for keeping the console is that the storage bin is going to be useful on a car which sees regular use. Alex over on 911.uk did a DIY on moving the climate controls to the upper slot of the lower console so I decided to do that. While being a social media influencer sheep I figured I'd do a Heidi and Franny garage/gate opener mod using a targa shade switch. I started by stripping out my centre pod, there was some gunk in the vents and cupholder which needed a good cleanout. I meanwhile found the remains of an old Harmon/Kardon ipod input in the dash, which I removed. Wired up the shade switch, happily my car doesn't have PSM which meant all 3 switches on the RH side of the horseshoe were blanks and there was no wiring there I could easily jump the illumination wires from. I ran a wire over to the other bank of switches on the other side and wired up a spare garage door controller, have to wait for another gate controller to arrive. I bought a bin and a bezel, modded the cage, bezel & bin and made up some supports for the control unit more or less as per Alex's DIY. And lo and behold the finished article: Battery is still disconnected for the compressor job so can't light it all up for testing yet but looks acceptable (the top line is not quite right but oh well) and so much easier to use. Gate and garage door opener will be so much more convenient than fumbling around in the door pocket all the time. Cheers St3ve 911CSR, Troubleshooter, michel and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason E Posted 16January, 2021 Report Share Posted 16January, 2021 On 17/04/2020 at 18:29, st3ve said: New Stabilus gas struts arrived yesterday for the front and back, so yay I can now put things in the front without it trying to eat me. I didn't realise but they actually ordered me two gas struts for the engine cover where I only needed one. If anyone in Canberra region wants it for $40 it's better than sitting in my spares cupboard for 15 years. The ones on there were original and still working to a degree, so I won't need another one soon. Not genuine Porsche but the same brand and fit etc. Cheers You wouldn't by chance still have the engine cover gas strut would you?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian in buddina Posted 16January, 2021 Report Share Posted 16January, 2021 Good work! This is the first post I’ve seen of modding the dash on a “modern” Pcar. I must be old fashion but I prefer the aesthetics of the older air cooled cars dash in its simplicity and everything blacked out. I understand the newer cars have more buttons & screens to find a home, like nav & sound. The central silver binnacle & oval buttons stick out, in my humble & retro aesthetic, like balls on a bull. It would be a big project to change the binnacle for the sake of doing so. I wonder if anyone has tried? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TINGY Posted 16January, 2021 Report Share Posted 16January, 2021 10 hours ago, Jason E said: You wouldn't by chance still have the engine cover gas strut would you?? Ive got one, it's old but it's yours if you want it, if you want new ones i can get them cheap, let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason E Posted 16January, 2021 Report Share Posted 16January, 2021 2 hours ago, TINGY996 said: Ive got one, it's old but it's yours if you want it, if you want new ones i can get them cheap, let me know. New one sounds good Tingster, what will they run at? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TINGY Posted 16January, 2021 Report Share Posted 16January, 2021 19 minutes ago, Jason E said: New one sounds good Tingster, what will they run at? Cheers A lot cheaper than you can get them even after I post it to yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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