When it comes to the maintenance on your Porsche are you a Do It Yourself (DIY) type of owner? If so, and maybe even if you’re not, then this post is for you.

As a kid, I used to relish taking the time to fix a problem on my then current ride of choice. My family didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so my cars were usually whatever I could purchase with the money scraped together from a couple of part-time jobs. The fact that the car I was buying may not be running at the time of purchase never really deterred me (just ask my friends) as I knew with the right parts and perseverance I could get it running. Part of this process usually involved a trip through the labyrinth of junked and abandoned car shells littered across the grounds of the local junkyard. With a box full of wrenches and the resolve to spend the time to find whatever I might need I knew I would/could get the car running again.

Well, let me tell you, times have changed, and drastically. No more searching and hunting for a car with the right part. No more getting lost in the maze of dusty cars and trucks wondering if the dog you hear barking is that proverbial “junk-yard” dog or just a neighborhood stray. Read on and you’ll understand.

Finding Used Porsche Parts

Sara Darkamen is the VP and Co-owner of Los Angeles Dismantler. Sara and I first met through Linkedin and the Porsche network there. Ever since then, we have corresponded through email and a number of various social networking sites including facebook and Rennlist. What I’ve come to know about Sara is that she is passionate about networking and even more passionate about Porsche; two of my favorite things. As a result, I asked her to write up a brief overview of her company so that for those of you who are the DIY type, and need quality parts, have another venue (if you weren’t already aware of them).

Here’s what Sara had to say:

Walking into Los Angeles Dismantler for Porsche arouses mixed feelings. On one hand, there is a bit of sadness in seeing so many wrecked Porsches. On the other hand, wheels immediately start turning in the head.

What would it take to swap a 996 Turbo engine into something a little older, or a little lighter? It doesn’t stop there though. The interchangeability of parts through various generations of Porsches leaves the possibilities nearly endless. Brakes, transmissions, interior pieces, even front end conversions are possible with a bit of ingenuity and work.

The sight of 100’s of Porsches in conditions ranging from completely destroyed, to nearly perfect is impressive to say the least. Every car has a story, and for most of them, it comes to an end at this lot. When a car comes in, it is photographed and documented. Usually two or three guys stand around and try to piece back together the cars last moments. Some cars fates appear obvious, others remain total mysteries. Either way, questions of how and why are rarely answered.

Demand for Used Porsche Parts is Growing

Most cars come in with salvage titles, so even if the car could be brought back to life, it simply wouldn’t be worth it. The few cars that arrive in running, drivable condition rarely last long that way. The unfortunate reality is that almost all the cars that come in, are worth more in pieces. New Porsche parts can be extremely expensive, and some parts are nearly impossible to find for older models. The demand for used parts grows with every mile Porsches are driven.

No matter how destroyed a car is, there are still valuable parts that can be salvaged. These parts are bought up by various mechanics, body shops, and enthusiasts. Little of the car is wasted, components that can be resold are shelved or shipped, and any scrap metal is recycled. The average Porsche owner is not one to neglect their car. Fortunately, this is reflected in the parts that come off the cars.

LA Dismantler is the end of the road for many of the cars that come in, but it is far from a junk yard. Junk yards are dirty, unorganized, and overcrowded with all different kinds of cars. LA Dismantler’s facility has only Porsches, and they are organized in custom built racks. The facility is kept clean, all work is performed indoors in a shop that most mechanics would be jealous of. Every Porsche that gets dismantled helps keep many more Porsches on the road.

I’m looking forward to visiting the yard for myself on my next trip out to LA. I’m not sure how I’ll feel standing amongst all those broken and busted Porsche shells. It is safe to say, I hope my Pcars are with me for a long, long time before getting up close and personal with the likes of this place.

Some of you may remember Valerie from her Introduction to Driver’s Education posts from a few weeks back. Today’s post comes from Vaelrie’s brother Ernesto. Ernesto is a Porsche 993 owner, enthusiasts and PCA DE instructor. Recently, while tracking his car at Waterford Hills Raceway, Ernesto experienced a catastrophic suspenion failure at 90+ MPH. Fortunately, he was able to maintain control of his 993 and he was uninjured. While I would have preferred to wait and post this article with pictures, given the fact it could happen to any one of us, I wanted to post it up immediately. The following is a description of what happened and is important for all 993 owners to read and understand.

To my 993 family friends,

The suspension failure on my car this past Tuesday has an interesting background and is worth understanding if you own a 993. Please note that the 996 and 997 use very similar suspension components and geometry, so my final conclusions/recommendations at the bottom do apply.

I went through the car yesterday and have the following details to offer:

Issue: Rear left suspension collapsed under very high lateral loading and moderate impact from road surface. For reference, I was in a right hand corner, traveling about 90mph, under maximum acceleration, at Waterford Hills Raceway.

Root Cause: Rear left knuckle failure at lower attachment point. The lower attachment point joins the base of the shock absorber to the knuckle and is held geometrically in place by a cast aluminum link that attaches to the rear-most point of the rear crossmember.

Failure Sequence: The lower attachment point on the knuckle has two ‘ears’ that wrap around the shock. The cast aluminum link has a ball joint stud that goes through the knuckle ears and the shock. This bolts the assembly tight with a large nut on the opposite end. The left ‘ear’ (forward on car) of the knuckle failed first, allowing slop in the overall joint. This caused extreme bending of the other ‘ear’ on the knuckle, which eventually failed also. At that point, the rear left suspension had significant slop. (That is what I was feeling going through big bend, which I thought may have been a corded tire.)

Please note that all the events described here happened in a few seconds, but the failure modes of the components show that there were various phases.

The sustained corner loading on the car (during the corner) caused the suspension to push rearward, its travel being limited only by the shock and the cast aluminum link. The cast aluminum link bottomed out on the crossmember and began bending dramatically. Eventually it failed also. The shock rod then broke and also collapsed, ripping the sway bar link off of the shock in the process. At that point, I had the car stopped and was limping back to the pits with the suspension collapsed.

Background on Ernesto’s Porsche 993

I bought my car with only 36,000 miles and clean car fax. The car drove perfectly, but during the first few drives I noticed that under moderate cornering acceleration, I could generate fairly violent wheel hop. Under mild acceleration, the car would not do it. Under very aggressive acceleration, the car would not do it. But under moderate acceleration, with only mild wheel spin, the wheel hop was severe.

I learned after talking with various Porsche folks, that the original shock absorbers on the car tend to blow out fairly quickly, allowing the suspension to hop around uncontrolled. I thought that was an insane recommendation given the low mileage on my car, but through forum chats I discovered that people had seen this issue on cars with as little as 20,000 miles. So, I took the shocks out of my car and confirmed that I had a left rear shock completely blown. It’s incredible how well the car drove considering the condition of the shock. I replaced all 4 shocks with slightly better quality Bilstein HD’s. During reassembly, I noticed that the car had a slight amount of wheel end play when performing the traditional top-to-bottom and side-to-side check for loose bearings.

Even though the play was slight, I decided to replace the culprit link / ball joint. This link was the lower, rear-most cast aluminum link described in the content above. With new links, the suspension was firm, slopless.

Over the next year, during my routine vehicle checks, I noticed that the rear suspension had again developed a very slight slop. Very slight. Most people would ignore it. I monitored it but it didn’t seem to get worse.

Looking back now, given the severity of the original wheel hop issue, I suspect that the knuckle integrity had been jeopardized. The lateral slop and violent wheel hop the car experienced may have stressed the knuckle enough to create a hairline crack, or the start of a crack, that I never noticed. It took four years of dedicated track use and sticky race tires for it to let go.

Conclusion / Recommendations

The failure I experienced on my car can be prevented. So,

1. Check your rear suspension looseness regularly.
2. Be very strict about slop or endplay.
3. If you have end play, have a thorough inspection performed and replace any component that contributes to this end play.

I want to thank Ernesto for sharing this post with my readers. Has anyone else experienced anything like this or something similar? Ernesto is going to be repairing the car next week, so hopefully I will have a follow-up post with some good pictures.

On Monday I posted about choosing the right tire for your Porsche (any Posche). Specifically, I discussed how the new Sumitomo HTR Z III contradict the concept of having to pay (or over pay) for quality. My review was based on 1500 miles or so of ordinary and spirited street driving. Today’s post is a review, compliments of John D. (Founder of Rennlist and PCA DE Instructor) of the Sumitomo HTR Z IIIs on the track as compared to Michellin, Toyo, Dunlop and BF Goodrich Ultra High Performance street tires. I want to emphasize that this review is a comparison of high performance STREET tires to other high performance STREET tires. While the Sumitomo HTR ZIII is a great STREET tire, it would not be fair to compare it to a purpose built/designed track/racing tire.

John’s Review of the Sumitomo HTR ZIII:

I run in the Instructors group (RED) – and the first session out was slow, to see what the tires would do and to break them in (they had less than 100 miles on them before I hit the track – not advised.) I think I was the perfect HWFM (Hey Wait For Me) Racing ombudsman during the break in.. OK…

Fast forward to the next day (3 sessions later).. Temps were about 60 degrees F in the afternoon. Tire pressures were set at 33/37 COLD (post track session – these were 36/41). Observations…??

For a street tire the HTR Z IIIs outperformed my previous Michelans, Toyos, Dunlops, BFG tires. They have a stiffer sidewall than the HTR ZIIs (by a whole lot – which is why I didn’t like the ZIIs on the track).

Performance of the ZIIIs are as follows (rated 1-10 compared to the tires above):

• Feedback – 8
• Traction – 8.5
• Braking – 9
• “Looseness” in the corners – 9
• Predictability – 9.5
• Ability to control – 9.5
• “Hot” laps – 8.5

I imagine I killed the life of these tires on the second day by – oh – about 5,000 miles – BUT – they are great tires to run to the limit.

For everyday use? Good. They will flat-spot over night – so it may take a mile or two to run them out. (I agree with John on this and have noticed it myself).

In wet weather/rain? Absolutely fine.. Back it down a notch – and they grip as well as any ultra-high-performance tire. Maybe better…

Sumitomo is a Great Tire for your Porsche

As you can see from John’s review above, these tires perform extremely well. I don’t make it a habit of plugging products on my site (I do it occasionally when something is worthwhile) but these Sumitomos are that good. Factor in the cost (or lack there of) and you would be crazy not to get a set for your Porsche next time you need new tires. I don’t know how long before Sumitomo raises their prices, but based on the number of people I personally know who have purchased these tires, it may not be long.

Do you run these tires? Do you agree with my review from Monday? What about John’s review above? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks again to John D for allowing me to post his review here. If you have a minute don’t forget to check out John’s charitable organization Rennwish.

Related Posts
Choosing the Right Tires for Your Porsche
Understanding Porsche N Spec Approval
Tire Choices for a Porsche 993

When I purchased my 1997 Porsche 993 C4S the odometer read 24,000 miles. From the service history I could see that it had four new tires installed (Continental ContiSportContact 2s) less than 4,000 miles ago. This basically matched up with the information from my PPI and with my visual inspection upon receipt of the car.

Enjoying the car as much as I do, I clocked more than 6000 miles last season (including a great trip to Prince Edward Island). This meant the tires now had 10,000 miles on them and the rear tires were starting to feel a little worn. It was very subtle at first, a little chirp around a tight corner or a quick spin on a fast start. Given these signs I decided to start shopping for new tires.

The first place I started was the 993 forum on Rennlist (RL). As a quick aside, if you haven’t been to Rennlist, and you own a Porsche (any type of Porsche), you owe it to yourself to check it out. The recommendations and opinions on RL were varied, to say the least. Like me, a lot of people felt strongly that you get what you pay for and therefore the more expensive tires must be the best. Thankfully, especially grateful was my bank account, I/they were wrong.

Tire Choices for a Porsche 993

Back in January I posted this article “Tire Choices for a Porsche 993.” As you can see I had listed the following tires as my choices:

1. Bridgestone Potenza S-02
2. Continental ContiSportContact 2
3. Pirelli PZero Rosso
   
4. Michelin Pilot Sport Rib

I even went on to mention the following two tires as cheaper alternatives but I was going to shy away from them as I felt “you get what you pay for.”

5. Sumitomo HTR Z II
   
6. BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2

As I said, turns out I was wrong. When push came to shove and it was time to pull the trigger to purchase the new tires for my Porsche, I did one last round of research. What I found was this thread which pushed me over the edge.

Sumitomo HTR Z III for Porsche

You see, when I was researching, the Sumitomo HTR Z III wasn’t on the list (just the HTR Z II). It seems that with the HTR Z III, Sumitomo made some significant improvements. So, without wasting any more time, I went online to The Tire Rack and ordered four (4) new tires all for $700 delivered. That’s a cost savings of almost 45% to my original choice of the Michelin Pilot Sport Rib.

My 993 was scheduled to visit the shop for a spring check-up, 30k service and brake bleed so I opted to have the tires delivered directly to them. After seeing the wear pattern on my old tires I decided to do a four-wheel alignment (they were cupping a little on the interior front edges) along with a hi-speed balance. This way, not only am I starting with a matched set of four new shoes, but I know they alignment and balance is correct. Assuming I keep the proper air-pressure and don’t play too hard, I should get some significant wear from these tires.

First Impressions

Since picking the car up I have turned almost 1500 miles on the new tires, each one with a huge smile on my face. The Sumitomo HTR Z IIIsare as advertised. They are very sticky, with a firm/stiff sidewall that handle great for daily driving (spirited or otherwise). I have not yet used them on the track or in the rain so I can’t comment on that aspect. However, for driving on back roads, highways and anywhere else, I am most pleased. They stick as good, if not better, than any tire I have driven in the past. They seem to blend well with my stock suspension and absorb the bumps and pot holes quite well. I can’t comment on road noise as I usually have the windows open or the revs too high to hear.

All in all, I am extremely pleased with these tires and would recommend them highly to anyone, for any modern Porsche, regardless of budget. We all know that there are lots and lots of modifications to do to our Porsches. So, if you can get a great bang for the buck with this tire, why not turn around and roll the money into another mod!! Keep sliding down that slippery slope.

Related Posts
A Guide to Understanding Porsche N spec Approval when Choosing Tires
Review of the Sumitomo HTR ZIII
Tire Choices for a Porsche 993

In Part I of this post Andrew had just started to polish the hood on his 944 and the difference was stunning (click the image to the left to see). In today’s post Andrew finishes the polishing and walks us through the process for sealing and waxing with amazing results.

Andrew is a student at Miami University, studying Technical & Scientific Communications with a double Minor in Marketing & Entrepreneurship. He enjoys maintaining his 1986 Porsche 944 and is looking to sell his near-mint 1975 Porsche 914 to a good home! (more on this in a later post).

After completing the entire hood with the orbital (using the SSR 2.5) the red is already on its way back to the original luster and shine it had when it came from Stuttgart some 22 years ago! This next shot is the hood after polishing it twice.

It’s almost new looking! After that, I polished the rest of the car once over with the Poorboys SSR1…

But I’m STILL not quite ready to wax yet! Now that the paint is free of dirt and oxidation, I want to lock in the shine – and with Porsches, to simply shine isn’t enough. They have to shine with Klasse (bad pun!).

Klasse All-In-One (AIO) is a great polish and protector for paint’s surface, especially older single-stage paints found on cars like mine. Their Sealant Glaze is the penultimate icing on the cake, second only to a nice wax. It can infuse the dullest of colors with a mirror-like brilliance, and it only gets better with each successive coat you apply! Normally I will apply two coats of the AIO and follow up with two coats of the sealant. However, I was running out of daylight, and the last time I washed and cleaned my car past sunset my family was a little concerned.

But I digress, the clay bar did such a fantastic job cleaning the paint, one coat from the AIO and the Sealant was all it took to brighten my paint! I used the orbital once more, but attached a softer polish sponge/cloth for both the Klasse products. NOW, we’re ready to wax!

Waxing your Porsche

I’ve used everything from Turtle Wax to Meguiar’s to Zymol, but there’s only one wax that I’ve found to stand above all others: P21S Concours Carnauba Wax.

This stuff is AMAZING, period. Amazingly easy to apply and remove, it produces amazing results on every car I’ve waxed with it, it even FEELS amazing! Best of all, there is no residue on rubber or plastic, something any Porsche owner can appreciate, but especially those ‘80s Porsche owners with rubber bumpers/bumperettes and trim!

I drove back to campus, hoping to take some pictures at a local park, only to find that the weather had other plans. Not one to be deterred, I took some pictures anyway! It’s no fun when all your hard work gets rained on less than an hour after you’ve finished, but seeing the water bead up on the surface still looked fantastic! Here’s my finished product, bad weather and all!

For such a large and well know car manufacturer, Porsche doesn’t put out a ton of press releases. However, when they do, they do their very best to make sure its good stuff. This new release is no different. My favorite quote: “This year the 3.6 Liter 480 PS Boxer engine (530 PS in the GT2 version) even gained first place in the free capacity class, putting strong competitors like BMW, Ferrari, Nissan and Audi in the shade.”

Stuttgart. Once again Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, has been successful in the International Engine of the Year Awards. With its 911 Turbo-Drive, the sports car manufacturer has underpinned its position in a field of high performance competitors, receiving the coveted “Best Performance Engine Award” for the first time. For ten years now, this prize has been awarded by the British specialist journal “Engine Technology International” for outstanding engine characteristics.

In 2007 Porsche was already successful in the three to four liter category. This year the 3.6 Liter 480 PS Boxer engine (530 PS in the GT2 version) even gained first place in the free capacity class, putting strong competitors like BMW, Ferrari, Nissan and Audi in the shade.

A First for the Porsche 911 Turbo

For the first time the 911 Turbo power unit features an exhaust gas turbocharger with variable turbine geometry (VTG) for efficient control of the exhaust gas flow throughout the entire range of engine speeds, guiding the flow of air in exactly the right direction and at the right angle to the turbine blades. This leads to a discernible improvement in flexibility and acceleration, particularly at low speeds.

In the Engine of the Year Awards, 65 renowned motoring journalists from more than 30 countries judge power engines in various different categories. As well as performance, fuel consumption, driving behavior and driving comfort, the use of future-oriented technologies is also taken into account.

A few weeks back I had asked for some guest bloggers and a number of people took me up on the offer. Today’s post is the first, in a two part series, written by Andrew Granieri. Andrew is a student at Miami University, studying Technical & Scientific Communications with a double Minor in Marketing & Entrepreneurship. He enjoys maintaining his 1986 Porsche 944 and is looking to sell his near-mint 1975 Porsche 914 to a good home! (more on this in a later post).

Spring is here, and summer is right around the corner. What better way to celebrate than giving your car some attention? My daily driver is a 1986 Porsche 944 and it was in dire need of something more than a mere wash (you can click on the picture above for a larger image).

As the photos show, dirt wasn’t my only enemy – I had oxidation to deal with as well! I set to work washing and stripping the car. A lot of people don’t realize that car wash soaps don’t necessarily strip remaining coats of wax from the car – dishwasher detergent does, though! My car was dirty enough to warrant two washings…

An easy way to tell whether or not a car still has wax on it is to look for water beading, or a lack thereof. After using the standard car wash soap, there was still a fair amount of water beading up on the surface, but after using the Ajax, there wasn’t a trace of beading. I felt like going the whole nine yards with this, so I used a clay bar on the car after drying it off!

Using a Clay Bar

Clay bar usage is still relatively new to many enthusiasts, which is a shame because it’s an easy way to brighten your car’s paint! I myself have never used clay on a car before, but I used Pinnacle poly clay and lubricant on my car, and I was impressed with the results. Even with the lubricated surface area, the clay is still sticky enough to snatch up dirt and contaminants from your car’s paint, even if they’re wedged under your clear coat! It sounds difficult, but it really isn’t!

The process is fairly simple. Spray the clay lubricant on both the bar and the surface you’re working on, then rub the clay across the paint. There are a few key things to remember:

• the clay doesn’t need a lot of pressure against the paint to work – just let it glide over the surface – if there’s no resistance, it means that area of paint is virtually free of contaminants.
• If there’s a bit of resistance, you’ve found a dirty surface; check frequently to see if the clay has brought up dirt and turn the clay to a fresh clean side when it picks up ANYTHING.
• Keep the clay bar lubricated!

Misunderstanding this procedure is what gives clay its reputation as a double-edged sword; while it’s great at trapping the dirt and grime, if you aren’t diligent in turning the clay over, you can inadvertently damage the paint by scratching it with the dirty clay! I was especially careful to turn the clay at the first sign of dirt, so my paint was scratch free – save for some trouble spots that needed polished up. Which brings me to my next point…

I needed to polish this paint!

My weapons of choice include a Porter Cable random orbital hand tool and Poorboy’s World polish products, specifically their super swirl removers, or SSR line. The most important thing to understand when working with polishes is that you should use the weakest polish that’ll still get the job done. When you polish a car, your goal is to remove the tiny layer of oxidized paint that lies on the surface — use a polish that’s too weak, and you can always go up to a stronger blend. But if you start off with a strong polish that rips past the oxidized paint, it can be troublesome – and a pricey mistake, to say the least!

I used the SSR2.5 compound on the hood, and the SSR1 everywhere else. With the random orbital unit, it’s important to saturate the polish pad with the polish compound before using it; with no lubrication between the surfaces, you’ll be doing more sanding than polishing! Once it’s saturated, it’s best do polish a square area, moving the orbital in left-to-right and up-and-down motions.

Never stay in one spot! Here are some shots before the polishing…

Here’s a closer shot under the rear spoiler – oxidation is a problem here, too!

This last picture is particularly telling – I’m sure there are plenty of Porsche drivers who can sympathize with my Guards Pink hood! But there’s hope!

In this next shot, I polished only a small portion of the hood. Can you see the difference??

On Friday, part II of Andrew’s post will show how the rest of the car turned out after polishing and then a nice wax.