New Member - 996 in Chicago
 

Hello everyone! I'm Omar, posting from Chicago, IL, and I've been a long time BMW fanatic. I've frequented bimmerforums.com since around 2003 and am a member of ZHP Mafia. I've had all sorts of bimmers from several E36 M3s (both 1995 Coupe 5spds), an E85 2003 Z4 Roadster 5spd, E38 2001 M Sport, a pair of E46 330i ZHP Sedan 6spds (a 2003 and a 2004) I even had an E31 1991 850i V12 with the rare 6-Speed. I've had a long list of BMWs and I loved them all differently. I learned to do any maintenance and repairs that I currently know how to perform on these wonderful cars and I'm pretty sure I'll always own at least one. I recently let go of a 2004 330i ZHP 6spd.

That being my background, I've also always admired Porsche and dreamed of one day being able to get behind the wheel of one. Closest I've ever been was a 928 S4 that my father had in Guards Red. I don't recall the year, and I couldn't drive it because I was 13. Well, finally I was able to get my very own Porsche. I picked up a 2000 Porsche 911 Carrera 6-speed in Ocean Blue with 113k on the clock back in December 2014. She's mechanically sound and rides like a dream. The 996 is pretty vicious. I love it and I don't know why it took me so long to get one.

Here are some pics from the day I got her.

The paint was rough and faded on her, and the wheels were bad also. She's been driven her whole life, sitting at around 113k, and was showing her age. The front bumper was very damaged underneath and the sideskirts as well.

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To top it off, I had a mishap in the car myself. I drove it in February (like a dummy) and got stuck in a 3" deep hole of ice. It took many hours with a hard steel shovel to break enough ice around the wheels to dig her out. Anyway, I cracked the front bumper a little more that day and I decided to take her in to a body shop. They repaired the bumper and sideskirts, and we went for a full paint job on the car. I had the front bumper license plate holes filled in, and will use a tow-hook license plate bracket solution, the rear bumper guards were removed, and engine lid emblems were removed. I also added clear sidemarkers and the calipers were painted to red from their original black color. Currently, the headlights have bulb burn marks, so I will need to replace them at some point, and I would like to add a taco wing at some point if I can find one. She looks like a new car now though :)

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Tires were bald, worn to the wear markers, and the rims were curb rashed pretty badly, so I went with a budget solution from Tire Rack for now. Sumitomo HTR Z III rubber on Sport Edition Cup 4 wheels. Nothing fancy, but new, clean, and shiny. This is her current status.

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End Result :D

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Wheels are 18x8 ET54 and 18x10 ET58 tires are 225/40 and 265/35. Pretty much true to factory spec. Cost for the wheels, tires, mounted and balanced, shipped to my door was a little less than $1,400 ... but it looks like the price went up slightly now by about $200.

Click for wheel details

I didn't want to get into a super expensive wheel and tire setup right this moment because I just spent money on the paint and there are other things to do (IMS, RMS, AOS, Clutch Kit, Front wheel bearings) all sitting in my garage. The tires were bald and the rims were beat so they needed to go first and foremost. I didn't feel safe riding around in those tires. The wheel bearings are next priority. They're shot.

I read in many places that the Sumi HTR Z IIIs are very popular budget tires for our cars and the price was right on tirerack, around $500 for the set. The wheels were also inexpensive and look like the turbo twists, with a more modern/sharp look to them. So I wasn't dramatically changing the way my car looks, or the fitment. They're not very lightweight, but I could do worse I suppose.

My old wheels are for sale

Congrats, welcome.

Saw you on RL. Welcome chitown brutha.:)

Former and current BMW owner here too.(2002tii, e30 m3, e46 touring, R100)

Omar, welcome to the club! You are doing it right! I love stories like these and to see the results. Paint looks great, wheels look fantastic and you are on top of the maintenance items. Your car looks fantastic now and you should have many more years of fun driving and looking great!

Thanks for the comments. :) Feels good to be behind the wheel of a Porsche for once. Need to do right by her. ;)

Welcome


QUOTE=Enemy;4391668]Thanks for the comments. :) Feels good to be behind the wheel of a Porsche for once. Need to do right by her. ;)[/QUOTE]

Welcome aboard, car looks great and nice to hear you're restoring and fixing 113k of driving and harsh treatment.

Thanks!

I've never been afraid of mileage really. Most of my cars have been driven over 100k. Anything that was gonna break by then has been replaced, and at this point I come in and do some major service and forget about it for a while.

Same thoughts an logic here really, my C4S had 106k on it when I bought her last October. Some history paperwork wise most brakes and rotors but no history from the owner on how he looked after it etc. Shortly after buying I had the check engine light which ended up being the coils and plug £600 but otherwise not much else has needed doing other than device and wear n tear. Like you I figured if something will break it would happen long before 106k miles and used the higher mileage to negotiate a better price. My first time in a porsche too, great feeling ain't it. Enjoy your car and share any experiences and most of all pics, we're voyeurs here :)

I once picked up a 1995 BMW M3 with 205k on the odometer. I drove it around for a year and that car never asked for a single repair :D

Welcome Omar, car looks great! Naperville, here..

Welcome

Thanks gentlemen :)

Looking to work on the wheel bearings this weekend :D

Today was a good day.

I went in to attack what I thought were bad front wheel bearings, and discovered that the noise was my rotor rubbing on the heat/debris shield there. Looks like the rotor is warped because it looks like it wobbles slightly when I spin it by hand. Anyway, I tried to bend the shield out of the way but wasn't very successful. I ended up cutting off a small piece from the bottom, near the ball joint. Noise is completely gone. I removed the the spindle and took it to have a new bearing replaced anyway. This is on the front left. I'll get around to the front right bearing next weekend since I ran out of time. Took the car for a spin. Smooth and quiet, just how I like. :)

I also added the RSD AUX cable and some white LED side marker bulbs. Ordered LED tuns signals in an amber/white switchback config, and also some bright white 55w halogen bulbs. This should do for now.

I need to find a headlight solution. What is best? Buying some used Litronics, custom retrofit, or the LED things from eBay?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Headligh...0622d1&vxp=mtr

LED things on ebay look very nice. Saw them in person and I was impressed with the fit, finish and quality. Looks like an OEM update.

IMO, OEM Litronics are better unless you're strictly going for the style and/or DRL LED's.

The eBay ones uses a cheap projector and the plastic lenses are on the thin side and won't be able to survive a hail storm or rock chips from Semi's.

I was thinking of selling my OEM Litronics if interested. You're local so it would be easy.

Here are two pics from yesterday.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...a8d0153180.jpg


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Bend that license plate a little "your gonna like the way it looks..."

Haha, yes. It looks fine from the front, but then severely awkward from certain angles. I thought about bending it some. Just need to get around to it.

A huge thanks goes out to alpine003 for hooking me up with a great set of Litronics for my car.

Real nice dude and great person to deal with. The headlights took 5min to swap out but we killed a whole hour just standing there talking. Thanks again!

Pardon the bad pics, and dirty car :)
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It was great meeting Enemy too, who was a cool guy. His car has come a long way and looks great in person. These pics do not do it justice.

I'm sure you can actually see something at night now with these vs the burnt lenses you had. You also reminded me that I need to get off my a$$ and do the rear Euro bumper conversion too. ;)

That's what this forum is about, 996 owners / friends
I am not aware of another 996 owner in Tioga County NY, only one I think.
Our local PCA Central New York Chapter is pretty spread out.

Indeed. It's nice when you can meet locals. Especially nice when they/we help each other out.

I'm super happy about these litronics. Road visibility at night is... well, night and day. The car just looks so much better with the litronics on there, even when they're off.

Great to hear they're working out good for you. These are the kind of items that's easy(easier) to justify to the wife since it's really a "safety" issue. Lol

I used to have that "wife" problem. It went away like two years ago :)

Today was a good day.

New front wheel bearings, rotor backing plates, rotors, pads, and end links.

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