About 6 months ago, I bought my first 911, a 1999 6 speed Carrera Coupe (C2) with 56k miles. My previous experience with Porsches is the 924 verity which is of course more VW/Audi.
I am curious about several idiosyncrasies. When I first start it in the morning, something runs in the engine compartment for about one minute. I think it is the oil separator or something but it is noisy like something is wrong and people look. Second, when first started, the oil pressure is 5+ bar, off scale high. Is this normal? Third, also when cold (I live in South Florida so not all that cold) the car is hard to get into gear, like I have to over stress the shift leaver to get it into first or reverse. I am afraid I am going to bend or break something. How normal is this?

 

i also just bought my 99 with 90k miles a few months back.

1- regarding the airpump noise, the sound should be like a air pump, not loud at all. more like a wheezing noise. if AOS is bad, then lots of smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe when starting.
2- oil pressure at 5 is normal when first starting.
3- hard getting into gear when cold, i have this only with 1st gear. once warm no prob. which gear u experiencing?

post this on rennlist too for more views.

cheers,
herb

 

Thanks for the reply Zmonsta. It's First gear and to a lesser extent, Reverse. Like yours, after it is driver a little bit and warmed up, it seems to be OK.
I haven't noticed any smoke at start-up but by the time I get the engine compartment open, the noise stops before I can pinpoint where it is coming from.

 

noise is coming from the secondary air pump, its by the coolant reservoir, the older 996's were directly bolted to the body, there are some rubber bushings in there on the newer ones to isolate it away from the body to prevent noise, you could probably by these bushings and retrofit it, or come up with an alternative.... or just live with it for the few seconds it does run.

 

Until the trans fluid is up to running temp the shifts can seem a litte harder then you would anticipate. First is the most noticeable.

Congrats on your 996 and welcome. Feel free to stop by and introduce yourself sometime.

 

Yesterday I found a trick to get into 1st gear when tranny fluid is still cold. Try putting the shifter into 3rd gear, then back to 1st gear, and you will find that it will slide right in.

Hope this helps!
Herb

 

I found just coming to a complete stop, and 1st slips in easy. Also blippng the throttle will help shifting into 2nd.

 

Do 2nd then 1st if you have problems, was told this by Porsche instructor.

Also oil pressure should be between 1.5 and 2 on idle when fully warm, about 5-10min driving after water temp reaches max depending on which part of the country you're in...

 

You can also let the clucth out, repress it and then try first again. If first does not want to go in at all you can do two things, shift in second and let clutch out slowly so car moves and retry first or hold shifter to shift in first and slowly let clutch out just a little bit until first slips in. Again you should only need this while the car is cold.

 

My '02 C4S has the same trouble shifting when cold, but the temperature here ranges from +35C to -30C ... however, the ability to shift is no different in either temperature. In fact, after 5 minutes of driving it shifts fine, so it must be the need to circulate fluids after driving.

 

OK, update … I hear the air pump and I think it sounds ok, probably normal. (BTW, I'm hearing impaired.) I think the noise I am trying to describe may be loose baffles inside one of the mufflers and goes away when it heats up a little bit. Has anyone had rattles caused by the mufflers?