997 BUYING GUIDE.

[Frenchy]

Check the tandem vacuum pump right rear of the engine for corrosion, the cover gets alll sorts of crap thrown at from the rear wheel it then corrodes and leaks oil circa £500 to replace with labour.
As said coil packs breakdown, change them all Beru items which are OEM available for m Eurocarparts at half the price of OPC.
Coilpack heat shields also corrode which is a cheap and easy fix, Porsche OEM batteries are crap (Moll Brand)
Waterpumps last around 50k so worth changing as a precaution, check for play on the shaft with a league screwdriver or similar.
Front drop links can fail,easy fix along with suspension coffin arms circa £100 a go plus fitting.
The inside edges of the rear tyres can wear.
Flexible water hose connections can leak, one of which runs over the engine and can be an engine out job to change.
The exhaust fixings and supports are cheap rubbish and corrode.
The underside of the plastic expansion tank in the near side corner of the engine bay can leak.
In an ideal world get a scan done on the Porsche software (PWIS) to check for over revs which range from 1 to 6 ranges in the 1 to 3 range are bad news with 1 being the worst !
Matching "N" marked tyres is a good sign along with receipts of all service and other work concerning the car.

 

[tscaptain]

Ref the above post, the rev ranges are indeed 1-6 but 6 is the highest, not 1! 1 and 2 are OK - anything higher is not. My Moll is nearly 6 years old.....[]

 

[albert911tg]

Thank you Clive, that is what our Club is all about-helping fellow Members to avoid pitfalls as there are many 'bargains' out there! My basic message is to get it inspected BEFORE you buy-the cost is usually out weighed by the prior knowledge of any potential issues i.e. coolant pipes are a common replacement and it's not cheap! I'm hoping other Register Secretaries follow you and the Cayman,928 and others who have compiled a useful guide to Porsche ownership.
Albert Walsh
Register Director

 

[997man]

The coolant pipe issue is a new one to me.
Could some one expand on this issue - including any costs ?
Is it a diy (with Porsche parts) fix ?

Regards

 

[tscaptain]

New one on me too!

 

[Frenchy]

The pipe fixings corrode where they join to the next component they are a fancy push / click fit. A reaction between the disimilar metals occur, you have to change the whole water hose assembly, they are bad for leaking where they connect to the front radiators.

 

[angusc]

Yes I noted that on my 997.1 last winter when I changed all the AC and cooling radiators myself. But all I did was clean up the metal insert and carefully removed the orings, cleaned and greased the oring groves and reassembled. Not had any issues in a year.

 

[plherbert]

Just on the note of condensation on the light cluster, having just picked up my new car from an OPC, I spotted this on the handover and was advised it was due to the valet and would dry out. Thought it was a bit of a joke of a response but knew I was safeguarded due to the 2 year warranty if it didn't improve. Has this been absolutely refused as a repair under warranty. If this is the case then the OPC will have to foot the bill surely!

 

[Wratten]

I have purchased 2 used 997 cabriolets - a 2006 CS Cab and then a 2008 C4S Cab. In both cases I went for cars from Porsche main dealers (West London then East London respectively) and sought out cars with low mileage (rather than being younger cars per se). The C4S had <13k when I bought it. No doubt I paid more than I could have but both cars drove like new, came with the full Porsche warranty (I benefitted from 2.5 years on the C4S so still have warranty running) and have run perfectly. I have now had the C4S for over 2 year and other than routine maintenance / consumables (e.g. tyre replacement) only had to replace a windscreen wash nozzle and a battery.

My advice is therefore pay a little more for a nicely cared for low mileage car, take the Porsche warranty and... ENJOY!

 

[Lancerlot]

Veloce Publishing is marketing a Buyers' Guide for 997 models between 2009-2012.

Entitled "The Essential Buyers' Guide", it is written by Adrian Streather and contains 64 pages and 111 colour photographs. It apparently shows how to spot a bad car quickly and assess a promising one professionally. The cost is £12.99 direct from the publishers.
Regards,
Clive.

 

[sally.911@icloud.com]

Ref the problem of tandem pump corrosion, I found that the cap on mine was starting to go ( no leaks yet) on a 2011 997 gen 2 with 18k mile ???
Good news is that I did see that there are replacement s/s caps available for £150, I think from memory that Ninemeister can supply these.
Major saving over cost of a complete pump assembly.
It would be nice if Porsche could supply caps rather than just complete pumps.
Ian

 

[tscaptain]

Tandem pumps and coolant pipes are covered by the extended warranty as I've just found out![]

 

[Dereck]

Evening all, I'm looking into purchasing my first 911 and as I missed the boat on air-cooled I've been looking around at 997's. My budget looks to stretch as far as a Gen 1 C2 or C2S. One thing I'm getting mixed messages on is road tax - AutoTrader quotes £290 but looking on gov.uk it says 997 is group M £515 which is correct?

 

[Lancerlot]

Yes £515 is the correct amount.
Regards,

Clive

 

[Dereck]

Thanks Clive, I might have to review my budget.

 

[Lancerlot]

It's a very small price to pay for ownership of such a stunning motorcar! []
Regards,

Clive

 

[Frenchy]

Road tax is actually £290 on pre 06 cars.

 

[Naworlien]

Is it worth buying a 997 4s that needs engine rebuild with 2 cylinder bust

cheers

 

[tscaptain]

I think we would need a bit more info than that - age, mileage, condition, price, history etc.

 

[Lancerlot]

Is it worth buying a 997 4s that needs engine rebuild with 2 cylinder bust
cheers

No, unless you're an experienced engineer with a precision equipped workshop. Otherwise you will spend loads on parts and someone to put them all together all without a warranty. Whereas you could probably negotiate the purchase of a decent runner with 6 months warranty for the same or maybe even less money.
Regards,

Clive