I am looking into finally purchasing a car that has been a dream of mine since I was 7 years old. A Porsche Turbo. Unfortunately I cannot afford the 964/993 models but I love the 997 and the Metzger engines. I love owning cars I have always wanted and the last 4 have been fantastic, now the time has come to get myself into a Porsche. I do not mind getting into a C4S or even maybe a new Cayman GTS but a Turbo will at least give me some of the power I am used to having. My last 2 cars have been 500+HP vehicles. I miss road courses and tracking, the 911 would be the ideal daily I can always track.

The car I may be looking at is a 2007 with about 46k miles on the clock. It is a manual and is driven daily by a friend of a friend. I am just curious as to what I should be looking out for? I know the Carrera 4S and C2S are very reliable as long as maintained. My stepfather has taken 2 (a 996 C4 Cab and a 997 C4S cab) to well over 130k miles each. I know if maintained they last. My question is more specific to the Turbo models and their specific quirks, if any.
The guy I may buy from has a Carrera GT in the family and the tech that works on the GT works on their car. Supposedly a Gold wrench Porsche mechanic (not sure what that is).

It will hurt to get rid of my wagon because it is a hell of a car. Handles well, manual, 600+RWHP and RWTQ and just easy to mod as well as a unicorn. My dream of a Porsche turbo is within reach though and I feel it will be worth it. My real goal vehicle is a Porsche GT car (Gt3/4 etc) but that will come later.

 

Main "quirk" of TTs at that age and mileage will probably be the coolant pipes. They'll eventually leak or fall off, which is usually about $3k to fix. Otherwise, not a lot of major issues and the rest will be usual used car stuff that a PPI will look for. Further down the line, the spoiler hydraulics could fail. Much more rare is the dreaded spun camshaft, which is a $7k+ engine teardown.

 

Spun camshaft is an issue on these? Any idea the cause of this and ways to avoid and/or how common this is and at what mileage?

 

Seems to be extremely rare, but it can hit anyone, not just tracked cars or high-mileage ones or something like that.

And older thread about it just popped up again recently, actually: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...aft-story.html

 

I just read through that thread. Seems if I am getting into one of these bad boys I need to set aside another $10k for coolant pipes and possible cam issues. I am surprised that Porsche never stepped up. I may see if I can get the car warrantied for less than those numbers. Its a private sale but would see if dealer wants to sell an actual good warranty that will take care of any major issues like this.

 

Fixed it for you ^^^


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Mezger


.

 

In negotiating the price for the 2007 TT, see if the seller has addressed these two issues. 1. All 2007 997 twin turbos have a faulty glue used for coolant fittings. Porsche admitted this in a NHTSA bulletin, but they won't address it for current out of warranty or 10+ years car age owners. There will be 7 of these coolant fittings on the 2007 model year engine. They will in time leak regardless of how you drive the car, or worse... eject under spirited driving and you will have a rapid loss of coolant on the rear wheels. I saw this happen to a 996 TT on a road coarse right before it hammered (rear end hit first) a concrete wall. They had to pick up what was left of that car with a spatula! There are lots of posts about how to fix the coolant fittings issue. I purchased BBI fittings and had them welded, and also had the sharkwerks kit added. This is about a $4 to $5k procedure if done by itself. And 2. There is a real issue of the cam sleeves "slipping," again regardless of how the car is driven. It will show a code of P0021 or P0011 timing advancement related... depending on which side slips. Many mechanics (even Porsche dealership) will assume it is the cam sensor or cam solenoid, but usually it is the sleeve on the cam that slips. Now, if a sleeve is slipping it will cause the solenoid to work extra hard to adjust the timing, which can cause it to wear out too. So, it may need to ne replaced as well. The spun cam sleeve can be repositioned once the cam is removed, and then "pinned" to lock the sleeve once and for all to keep it from moving. Porsche knows about this issue, but rather than pin the replacement cams, they updated their $2,000.00 replacement cam shaft by using a tighter clearance when pressing the sleeves on the cam. My motorsports experts agree that pinning is the only true fix, and the presssed on tighter cam sleeves "fix" isn't going to hold. There is simply too much torque with these engines. Done alone, having both cam sleeves pinned is around a $5 to $7k procedure. With mine, the ledt bank cam sleeve spun with the car under warranty...so, the warranty paid for most of the cam related labor, some parts, etc...I paid to have the other cam pinned too, and did the coolant fittings work at the same time to save the remove and reinstall engine costs. Lastly, with the engine out look at other parts that are easy to access and replace then too (e.g. water pump, hoses, clutch plate, etc). So, based on my view as of Aug. 2018 TT prices, if these two issues are already addressed on the car and all else is right with it...color, miles, manual, etc...then pay upper 70s to mid 80s and you are getting an awesone deal and car. If these two issues are not addressed, then pay mid 60s to low 70s for the same car, and plan on having about $7k in your rainy day fund. Good luck!

 

^^^^^^ very helpful info and it helped in my buying decision.

 

I loved this forum lots of helpful cool gear heads!