I have been trolling over at the GT3 forum since I have been looking to move up, and what do I see, the cars with Center locks are having wheel bearing failures.

Porsche now is stating that even if you only do a few track days you must replace bearings AND wheel hubs, at about $10000 after a few thousand miles. I am sure if they can't take track abuse a few NY potholes and crapy road exposure would cause the same damage. Go look at the video that is posted, another member has had the problem and never tracked his car.

 

Simple solution, do a 5 bolt conversion. Suncoast has a kit, and it is about 6 hours work to get the swap done.

 

I've had my 2012 GTS with center locks for 1.5 years with absolutely no problems at all.

 

The kit for steel brakes is over $2K plus you need to buy new wheels. Pretty pricey owner proposition considering Porsche is at blame on this one.

oops my bad . . . . The kit for converting lug spindles to center locks. I didn't see a kit going the other way.

 

The price is still around the same, below was copied and pasted from a thread on RL 997GT3 section

Front:
997-341-605-01 WHEEL HUB, 2 required, $326.80ea (Suncoast)
999-053-054-06 WHEEL BEARING, 2 required, $88.70ea (Suncoast)
Rear:
997-331-605-00 WHEEL HUB, 2 required, $ 359.32ea (Suncoast)
999-053-055-02 WHEEL BEARING, 2 required, $113.49ea (Suncoast)

Additional Parts:
Porsche Lug bolts, 20 required, $7.43ea (Suncoast)
or
Race Studs: $91/set and Nuts: $77 (2 sets, cone-type and rounded Porsche-Type, best to have both types)

Total Parts cost with Race Stud upgrade: $1954.62
(Of course this does not include the cost of a new set of wheels,…..or the required labor!)


The end of the day, it is a 1 time cost, and no potential failure with a CL coming loose.

I bought my GT3 about a year ago, and didn't even consider a 997.2 as I was under the impression that the 5 bolt conversion was very expensive. Knowing this, it would have been considered, but the car I bought was already heavily modified that I save a lot of $. I did do a sunroof delete on my GT3 to get rid of 45lbs at the top of the car.