Having just completed this job, I thought I'd share a couple of obstacles I encountered to spare folks frustration and multiple trips to the dealer.

From what I understand, the coils have been through a few iterations. The original 996 coil packs tended to crack and fail, and were superseded with 997 parts for our cars. More recently, a newer style coil has now been devised. The new ones are much thicker at the base (i.e., the part that "sticks out" with the electrical connector). The newer parts require longer bolts, which came included with the ones I purchased. There are a couple things to be aware of when using the new coils:

• The new coils use a torx bolt that requires an E10 female torx socket; not part of everyone's standard toolkit.
  
  
  
• You don't get a direct line of attack on many of the coil pack bolts, so you need some type of swivel adapter. This was not much of an issue with the older coils that used hex bolts. Most allen keys have a rounded side that allows you to use them at angles other than a perfect 90 degrees. Not so with the torx bolts, so you've got to have some type of swivel adapter for your wrench. I use these ratchet adapters with rounded ends that allow a some play. These are incredibly useful in the tight spaces. Best HF purchase ever!
• The new style coil will NOT fit on cylinder #5 (middle on the right side) as there is a pipe that impenges on the larger coil and prevents the mounting hols on the coil from lining up with the taps on the cylinder head. You need to use one of the older style coils in this postition only.
  
  New style coil packs (Beru part # ZS 178, Porsche part # 997-602-104-00-INT) fit all cylinders except for #5
  #5 requires old style (Porsche part# 997.602.102.00)
  
  
  
  
• The taller coil bolts also interfere with mounting the heat shield on the passenger side so you need to put spacers in there else the coil bolt will rub against the heat shield. You should probably use a longer bolt for the heat shields; I just put some blue thread locker on the original bolt.

Side note. Not knowing about the cylinder #5 issue I order all six of the new style from Pelican. I was at the dealer explaining my dilemma to the parts clerk who was giving me questioning looks until they got the shop foreman who said “Oh yeah, that won’t fit. You need the old one.” I was vindicated, and they even matched Pelican’s price for the coil which saved me $50.

 

Great post!

 

Great info for the next guy that delves into this.

Any reason not to just get 6 of the old style coil packs?

 

thats strange, new style also exisiting since Long time and nobody mentioned it...? the pipe is solid?
Thanks for the n1 info!

 

I tried to muscle the pipe aside but did not seem I could do it without damage if at all. Porsche has a TSB on this but strangely it says #6 needs the different coil.

 

GREAT write up!! I just did coilpacks/plugs and came very close to ordering the thicker versions. I ended up going with the thinner versions, no issues.

Mine are Bosch 0986221016 (listed as 99760210400 on ECS website). I was going to say that hopefully they won't phase out the thinner ones but based on the issue you had getting #5 done, it doesn't look like they will be able to.

Thanks for posting this!!

 

Wow, first I'd heard of this, can the hardline not be moved? As for phaseout I think they will phase it out and leave everyone scrambling, won't be the first company to leave customers hanging and one need look only as far as IMS and coolant pipes to see their willingness to do so. I'm betting the aftermarket steps up or we find an alternative coil as time passes - I used to use motorcycle coils on my Supra :-)

 

I tried to move the hard pipe and it sure did not seem like it would budge. I got mine from Pelican, and on their site they do specify for *some* of the items whether they are the original or new design that requires longer bolts. For others, they don't say one way or the other. This is all very confusing as they list 9 different options spanning 5 different part numbers for an 03' Turbo. To boot, you can't trust the pictures as they all show the original design. For example, the ones I got do not look like the picture
http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/...ELIGNT_pg1.htm

Hopefully since Porsche has TSBs specifically noting that the old style must be used in certain locations they will keep on making them. I'll be holding onto my original 996 coils just in case.

 

Nice write up brother! Thanks!

 

parts guys are the best lol

 

Thanks for this. Will save a lot of headaches in the future. I guess it's time to start stocking up on the old style 997 coils while they are still making them.

 

I did all 6 of mine this weekend and got everything back in perfectly. I had a little trouble aligning the heat shields (now I know why - I didn't think to use spacers) but i got them to go in and sit tight with some patience.

The biggest problem I had is that on each coil pack one of the original hex bolts was lock-tited in, so I stripped the heads on 6 of the 12 bolts, one per cylinder. Talk about raising my blood pressure!! I ended up having to use a manual impact driver to remove them. After removing them I could see what appeared to be blue thread locker on the bolts - And yes they were definitely the factory parts as my car currently only has 17k miles on it. Other than that, mine was straight forward.

A slight difference is that I was sold and installed Borg Warner 997 coilpacks (with the fat bases) as recommended for my 04 996TT by Neil at Sonnen. That being said, the BERU and Borg Warner *should* have the same dimensional specs.

 

Isn't there suppose to be loctite on them?

 

I never use Loctite on coil install and have never had one come loose. I'm sure some will say they use it?

 

I've never loctited the coilpacks on any of my other cars... it was a REAL PITA to remove... Like I said, bout gave me a heart attack when I stripped the allens... Once I got them all removed, I was like "There's no way I'm going to LocTite the new ones".