Hi, I am new to this forum and have recently entertained the idea of looking for a 911 TT.

I have read the 911 buyers Guide. (Good info), however the majority of the areas to look out for seem to reference dealer/mechanic costs for replacements/maintainance.

I was wondering, how many folks work on their own cars? How easy is it to work on a 911 TT?
Is it more cost effective to just have dealers/cert. mechanics work on the cars?

It seems like there is an abundance of 911s in all of the auto trading papers/websites, mainly early 2000s with 20-50k miles on them.
I just want to prepare myself for the various expenses of bringing a 911 back to spec.

Just wondering if it's going to cost as much as my previous "fun" car that managed to ingest $10k in a matter of 4mths on maintainance parts / mods.

 

Any shadetree mechanic can work on a 996TT, it just takes getting use to spending more time to do a certain project. For example, sparks plugs on an american V8 probably take an hour tops. On a twin turbo, book is about 7 hours. You have to remove the rear bumper cover and the intercoolers before you can even see the coil packs. Is it hard? By no means, it just takes time.

Oil changes are easy, only on a turbo there are 4 drain plugs (case, tank, 2 turbos), instead of 1

There are a few items though that you need a PIWIS or PST2 for, such as reseting some of the lights, testing certain aspects of the car, etc.....far too expensive for the average shadetree to afford. In those cases, the car needs to go to a dealer or independant shop.

Brakes....easy, easier than anything american I have worked on.

You do have to pay closer attention to detail on these cars though, making sure everything is torqued to proper specs, or has loctite when it is suppose to, etc......these cars can be expected to go down the road at 150mph, so everything needs to be perfect.

 

I'm assuming it's going be just as trying as humping the transaxle in a Esprit in order to work on the motor. haha
I hope my mechanic skills honed on my previous 150+mph car will transfer well here.

So PorscheDoc, were the costs quoted in the Buyers Guide shop prices or self maintainance prices?

How knowledgable is the 911 community here? I mean if I had to ask for torque specs on a bolt or head stud, would this be a good place to ask?

 

I can tell the tools you will need and the torque specs for anything you can dream of on a porsche, lol. If you can work on a lotus, then you have the ability to work on a Porsche without much trouble. It is always hard to gauge a person's mechanical ability without seeing them work, lol.

In the buyers guide, IIRC I quoted everything as if you were paying a mechanic to do the job. I typically use $100 an hour as a baseline, as some places are cheaper, and some dealers are more expensive, so that is an average. Obviously, doing the work yourself will probably cut the bill in half at least.

 

I might not be the best mechanic in the would, but if I can assume the "lotus position" to perform car maintainance, working on a Porsche can't be that much harder......excluding the Boxster/Cayman of course. Don't have a 4 post lift in my garage yet.

Well it's cool to have folks like you on enthusiast boards Doc. Fingers crossed for me to find the right car at the right time.

I'm thinking about 2002-2004 911 Turbo. Something with some miles on it to prove that it wasn't a garage queen.
Wonder if I can get a X50 spec under $60k.

 

I agree with you.

The car I just purchased is a 2002 996TT one owner from California with 47k on it. It needs some work. The previous owner had all of the scheduled maintenace done but never fixed the little things... so I'm tinkering with lights, switches, small scratches here and there, tires, and all of the little stuff that a car needs when it's past the warranty.

the front bumper is chipped and I'm thinking I may just leave it like that.

A preowned performance car like this in the 50 to 60 price range is well worth it IMO and can be more fun then driving home that brand new car that all you can do is wash andwax it, and wait for the first rock chip or parking lot kiss.

 

Doug, congrats on your 996TT. I hope to have one in the near future.

As for the minor stuff, it's the price you pay for the price that you don't. I don't think I will bring myself to buy a brand new car ever due to the immediate depeciation, I guess I'm too much of a skin flint to accept that. haha.

My thing with not getting a garage queen is that most of those owners aren't really true car enthusiasts. Keeping a car holed up in a garage does nothing to preserve items like rubber seals and hoses which tend to dry out and crack in many garage queens that I've seen.

I'm more of the guy who will take his car out for a "italian tuneup" when it strikes the mood, which tends to be very often.

Anyway, hope to trade more car stories when I get my very own porker.