Hi gurus,

I have been dreaming of joining the 911 owning ranks for years and I've found a 15K mile, single owner, 2002 C2. The car is immaculate, but when I looked at the bottom of the engine, I saw the picture below. This car was garage kept and, as an example, there is no rust on the wheels near the brakes. It didn't seem to be leaking anything (other than some water from the AC).

I know the picture isn't great, but from what you can tell, is this a common look for a well-kept 2002 ? I plan on getting a PPI to ensure there are no issues.

Thanks for any thoughts/pointers !

Ward

 

I think it depends on where you live... I am in Socal and the bottom end of my 02 looks like new.... shiny and actually pretty clean...

 

Hi Sosoomi,

Thanks for the reply ! With all the Internet discussion of RMS and IMS, that's my fear. I'm told the car never even saw rain, so I'm not sure why the bottom wouldn't be cleaner. There's a good mechanic up here (NY) and I'm going to have him look at the car, but I figured I'd spare the expense if this had some obvious issue.

BTW: How many miles do you have ?

Thanks again !

Ward

 

Almost 50K..... I admit I was surprised by what I saw in my car... but I am used to Northern cars and dirty undersides...

 

Ok.... in all fairness to your location and after crawling under my car much to the amusement of my son and neighbors... it doesn't look that bad to me.... do your PPI and go from there...

 

Thanks for all the help and checking it out ! I guess I owe you for dry cleaning

Ward

 

My car only has 16k on it and the bottom doesn't look much cleaner than yours. It has to do with the cosmoline they spray underneath the car to preserve everything. One of my projects is going to try to clean a lot of it off the engine components.

 

What 2300cc said......

Unless someone has spent some time to remove all the factory cosmoline coating gunk, that looks absoutly normal....unless you see obvious wet oil leaks.

 

The reason the bottom isn't cleaner is because the seller is lying about never having driven it in the rain. Mine hasn't been driven in the rain and it looks much cleaner, especially the mufflers and exhaust pipes.

 

Mine, with occasional drives in the rain, is absolutely spotless. The only time I've taken care to wash underneath it was once this winter when the roads were salted before a snow storm and I got caught out. And I just sprayed the underneath out with water, nothing more.

 

A 2002 with 15k miles is a garage queen, a nice weather weekend car. I would trust the seller with the no rain or snow claims. It's common sense, especially if the car looks like it could sit in the showroom floor at a dealer.

 

My '99 has just under 24K miles (14K in the first 11 years, 10K in the last 12 months). It spent 5 years in Pennsylvania followed by 6 years in Florida and one in Georgia. It does get driven in the rain.

It looks pretty much like the picture posted.

 

seems pretty dry, my ind says the bottom of the car is treated, so after a few years of running it actually starts looking like paint flaking off... Mine has 112k mi (with a 50k+engine installed at 98k) and looks very similar...

 

It has nothing to do with rain, salt, etc... it's like 2300 said, it's that damn undercoating they spray everywhere. When the car is on the lift you can see things a little better as you will see where the spray hits some places and not others. I thought the same thing you did at first, which is why I spent hours cleaning the motor only to say screw it, lol.

Looks like every other 996 I have seen in Texas (no salt here, lol).