zcacogp

5 minutes ago, dim33 said:

I was surprised to see that my 987.1 3.4 doesn't have to pay a ULEZ charge.

When I checked my old CBR600 motorcycle (600cc as the name suggests) it has to pay £12.50.

I do not see how a 600cc motorcycle can pollute more than a 3.4 litre car.

You are trying to apply logic to government rhetoric, which is never going to work. 

Pointing out that buses and taxis which pollute more than private cars but come under different legislation so won't have to pay is wrong is another example of trying to apply logic where it's not wanted. 

Pointing out that by far the most polluting thing in Central London doesn't have wheels at all is also not allowed. The fact the gas heating boilers (domestic and commercial) pump out FAR more pollution than traffic in London is something you aren't allowed to talk about. 

Khan's only two interests are raising money and maintaining a political charade. The latter can be used to do the former by taxing private car users. 

1 hour ago, Bradders59 said:

Assuming its still the same area as the congestion zone ? it wont affect me whichever one I use.

My daughter lives just off the right hand side of Commercial street, coming from Whitechapel direction, and the zone starts when you turn left off Commercial street, so right on the edge, but no quite inside the zone.

 

It is currently the same area as the CC zone but Khan will expand it; he's talking about the area between the N and S Circular roads. Oh and it's likely to be for longer hours - possibly 24 hours a day. 

https://www.lgcplus.com/finance/london-mayoral-polls-khan-reveals-plan-to-reverse-congestion-charge-hike-27-04-2021/#:~:text=London mayoral polls%3A Khan reveals plan to reverse congestion charge hike,-27 April 2021&text=But he has now indicated,until 10pm%2C including at weekends.

46 minutes ago, Menoporsche said:

Mmm, long hair platform boots and tight silver vests...

Well that's another fine thread totally ruined by some off-topic comments. Thanks chaps! ☺️

(In fairness, I think we've answered the question though. Thanks.)

Thanks RR. Others have said good things about the Spyder Performance parts. What do they look like in person - are the rubbers nice and beefy, do they look like well-finished castings etc? 

Sadly it seems that Spyder Performance are out of stock of at least one of the parts necessary for their pack of 4x tuning forks and 4x coffin arms at the moment. 

4 hours ago, DaveEFI said:

The ULEZ  and Congestion Charge are different. A 987.2 is exempt from the ULEZ, but not CC. The really annoying thing is there are many thousands of diesels - VW, Audi, Merc, BMW etc, which have the Euro 6 certificate, but this was fiddled in lab tests, and they don't meet that standard in use. A subject of many ongoing court cases. It's rather typical of so many of these traffic reducing measures. Seen to be doing something to satisfy the activists. And of course raises revenue. That it may not actually reduce pollution doesn't matter. Close to here in SW London (but outside the proposed ULEZ extension) they have introduced fenced off cycle lanes in each direction on a main road. Reducing the traffic (including buses) to a standstill for much of the day. And stationary traffic produces emissions too, so actually increases the total for that journey.

4 hours ago, Clivescoobydo said:

Welcome to the new ‘enforced’ world order...

Ain't that the truth, brother! The increasing ridiculousness of the traffic situation was one of the reasons why we got out of East London 6 months ago and headed for the wilds of the Cotswolds. Kahn has nothing more than the interests of himself and his activists at heart and he will destroy traffic in the capital bit by bit. 

KWR73. whereabouts in East London are you based? 

Chaps, 

Quickie, I am looking at doing a suspension refresh on my 987.1 Cayman and it seems that there are numerous brands of parts to choose from. What's good and what's not? 

- Spyder Performance seem to be very well priced and well rated. They are out of stock at the mo but are probably the ones I will buy. 

- Meyle I understand to be good. 

- TRW are OE? 

- Triscan? 

- Monroe? Shock absorbers straight out of the 1970's but are their parts up to anything now? 

- Febi Bilstein are NOT Bilstein (totally different company) and I understand that they are not up to much. Is this correct? 

- Lemforder? 

- Corteco? 

- Delphi Technologies? 

- Stark? (Lots of this on Autodoc.)

- Vaico? 

- Mapco? 

- Bugiad? 

- Moog? (I thought that they made synthesizers, and very good ones at that?) 

- Optimal? 

- dys? 

- Fortune Line? 

- DAKATec? 

- Ridex? These look too cheap to be any good. Am I cynical? 

In short, what's good and what's bad and what's ugly? What's worth spending money on and what should be avoided like the plague? 

Thanks! 

Simple: choose an oil which is of the required specification and buy the cheapest one you can find. 

You are welcome to spend more on oil from companies with bigger marketing budgets if you wish. 

I changed the gearbox oil on my 987.1 Cayman earlier on this year. First change (as far as I could tell), 14 years old, 100k on the clock. 

Frankly, it didn't make much difference at all. Old oil looked OK and smelled OK, new oil went in easily enough and the gear shift may have been marginally improved but that really is it. As others have said, new oil isn't going to do any harm but had I known how much difference it would make (just about none at all) then I wouldn't have bothered. 

Interestingly, a gearbox oil change on my 944 makes a HUGE difference, and always has. Improves the shift no end, makes it quieter and smoother. I would do it every two years or so and it was an improvement each time. The 944 was an older car but I can't think that the gearbox technologies were that different. 

14 minutes ago, Tyreman said:

Forums are brilliant but sometimes maybe ignorance is bliss, I'm sure that lots of Porsche owners just buy a car and enjoy it without knowing or worrying about the potential financial doom 🤪

 

Ain't that the truth!

I've had a 944 S2 since 2005 and it was my daily driver between 2005 and 2018. I am (or was) a very regular member on the PCGB 944 forum and there isn't that much that I don't know about the cars.  

I put my S2 into storage about 3 years ago as I lived in Zone 1 in London and the ULEZ extension was coming, which would mean it would cost me £25 every day I drove my car. I didn't want to sell it so kept it for when I moved out of town. I bought a 987.1 Cayman 2.7 as a replacement until that day. 

The two cars couldn't be more different. The 944 feels like (and is) a much older car. It's heavier to drive, feels more solid and is clearly the less sophisticated car. When you drive it you are aware of there being quite a lot of weight in motion due to the transaxle design. It's a much more solid, stable car. The 987 by comparison feels lightweight; everything is very easy to operate and it responds in a fraction of the time to any steering input. The controls are lighter, the steering is lighter and it feels somehow hard and brittle by comparison. The interior feels VERY plastic by comparison with a 944 (despite having the extended leather in my 987.) 

The way the engine delivers the power is completely different between the two cars. The S2 has mid-range slug, and quite a lot of it. It doesn't reward revving it out. I had the ProMAX ECU in mine which exacerbated this but I very very rarely got to the rev limiter in the S2 as there was no point. The mid-range shove made it easy to drive fast, easy to drive in traffic, meant you didn't need to think about overtakes. The 987 on the other hand has just about no mid-range whatsoever, but if you wind it up hard then it will go quite briskly. However you need to want to go fast because it takes work to achieve it. Overtakes need to be planned, catching up with the traffic in front may require changing down a cog or two. 

While we're on the topic of engines then the 944 engine sounds dull. The 987 is a sonorous musical instrument by comparison. 

In practical terms the 987 is more fuel-efficient, quieter, cheaper in London (no ULEZ payments) and probably grips the road better. However which will I sell first? The 987. The 944 is more rewarding to drive by a country mile. It appeals to my heart in a way that a 987 simply doesn't. 

If you are serious about changing your S2 for a 987 then drive a few. Drive a lot of them. They are chalk and cheese. I guarantee that you WILL miss your 944, and getting a good one back is not easy these days. I took mine out of storage a few weeks ago and am currently buying the bits to get it back on the road again; balance and cam shaft belts and some engine mounts. It's currently on around 215,000 miles and I know it will do another 215,000 miles without a problem. Here is a photo of it. 

13 minutes ago, McDonald said:

Found a 987.1 & realised it was a better deal, probably.

😄

Good post Lenny. I like the bit about scratches and dents. My 987 has a light peppering of stone chips around the front and I'm not too fussed it I get some more. A more expensive car would have me more worried on this front. 

My wife and I have recently bought £1000's worth of second-hand Skoda Fabia as a practical thing to go alongside the 987 (and 944 in due course) and I'm really enjoying it. It's entertaining enough to drive (albeit slow) but it's great that I don't care about it too much. It looks very like someone scuffed the front corner in a car park last week but I polished the worst out at the weekend with some T-Cut and thought 'meh' about the rest. Would I be that relaxed about the 987? No. Would I be that relaxed about a GTS which has £40k of my money in it? Very much no. 

I guess I am saying that there is a happy balance to find with a car and I reckon that I'm pretty much there. (And that's before we get to the point about people who clearly love their cars all a bit too much and practically worship them. Don't go there people, just don't go there .... ) 

Oooooh, good question! I'm in almost exactly the same boat; I have a 987.1 Cayman non-S and find myself all too often browsing the classifieds for a 4.0 GTS. 

So, why change - or why not change? 

I bought my 987.1 because it was the most suitable car I could actually get excited about given the constraints of living in London. It had to be Euro4 compliant to avoid the ULEZ costs, it had to be fairly practical as it's an only car, it had to be hard-topped to avoid problems with keeping it outside and it had to be reasonably affordable to run. A 987 was one of the few vehicles that fitted this bill. At the time I owned a 944 which I put into storage as we didn't intend to stay in London forever. Money was a deciding factor; I was lucky in that I could have easily bought a 4.0 GTS without really noticing the cost but I baulked at spending that much on a car. 

Things have moved on in the last couple of years since I bought the car and we no longer live in London. I am planning on getting the 944 out of storage in the next few months and will do a mini-restoration on it before putting it back on the road. I am still perusing the classifieds for 4.0 GTS models but I doubt I will ever buy one; it would still feel wrong to spend the £40,000 or so needed for one and I don't think it would be four times as much fun as my £10,000 Cayman. As such it would be a poor use of money. I do use the full oomph of my current car quite a lot (country roads and long drives) but am aware that the weakest bit of the setup is me and that the car is much more capable than I am, making me reluctant to buy an even more capable car. 

Does that help you? Probably not. In short, it's your money and you should spend it as you see fit! 😀

On 2/18/2021 at 4:20 PM, Dubdubz said:

ok so my base 987 07my does not have the plates on the struts - so when it all arrives on Monday I will offer for sale

so also hmmmmmmph 😞

edited maybe its an S model only thing?

Ah. Interesting. I have a base 987 on a 57 plate, but it's a Cayman. 

If I have the plates then I may be interested in buying your bits .... 

23 hours ago, Christopher2110 said:

Wonder like you say how much noise will be come through ....

I took the top and front engine covers off my 987 Cayman the other day and took it for a (very brisk) drive. 

Were it not for the fact that I am SURE my wife would HATE it then I wouldn't have put them back on. It sounded simply sublime! 😀

As said, the seats in the 997 and the 'sports seats' in the 987 look to be identical. Given that the cars are pretty much the same as far back as the B pillar then I'd expect them to be identical and therefore a straight swap. 

I have the sports seats in my 987.1 Cayman and they are good but not excellent (the seats in my 944 are better IMHO). Are the standard 987 seats significantly much worse? 

22 hours ago, Kenbo1000 said:

Cleaned out the radiators today and discovered someone in the past has tried to remove the bumper and managed to break off the passenger side spring clip. The part that was broken was the piece you pull it out with, absolute pain in the butt to get out but got it after 45 minutes, now need a new one.

Those little spring clips are a pain; they had rusted almost to nothingness on my Cayman and I replaced them when I took the bumper off to clean the rads. They are more expensive than you'd expect from an OPC but I can't think of an alternative. 

@Toeside - you flatter me! I'm an expert on little more than drinking beer and being wrong, and I'm not that good at either of those now you come to mention it! 

Didn't mean to decry the link you posted though. Thanks for popping it up here. I'm aware that the front of the 987 and the 997 are identical and if you look closely at the underneath of the 987 front end you can see the architecture to put a front gearbox and drive shafts in. I've never looked at the front of a 4x4 996 or 997 so it's interesting to see on the video how Porsche made it all happen! 

On 3/13/2020 at 7:47 PM, Toeside said:

From memory this set of videos will take you through a similar experience on the 987. Probably a few minor differences

 

That's a 996 turbo - i.e. 4WD. You can see the driveshafts in the video. 

I don't know enough about the cars to be sure but I'd have thought that the RWD 987 models would have a different front hub assembly. 

This may not be the most helpful post of the day but are you sure it's a wheel bearing that's gone? A duff wheel bearing usually drones when moving, and drones more loudly when moving more quickly. 'Creak', 'click' and 'low speed' are not phrases usually associated with dead wheel bearing. 

However, to answer your question; I don't know what changing the front wheel bearing entails but I doubt it's hard. Rears on RWD cars tend to be much trickier than fronts. With luck you won't need to take the hub off as that may be quite a fight and will entail a realignment afterwards. 

Stay tuned - other people who actually know what they are talking about will be along soon, I'm sure .... 🥺

@iborguk - you contemplated a drive through a window? 

Is this you? 

Interesting, thanks @detail1. How did you do the makeshift press? 

What is it about the drop links that refuse to play ball? I've never done the job but will be doing so in the near future so am curious to know. 

Is it that the nut won't come off the end? Or that the drop link won't come out of the ARB? Or is it the suspension member end that causes problems? 

I presume that people are hitting it with the usual stuff; penetrant spray? Heat? Blowtorch-then-freezer-spray thermal shock? Drilling along the length of the bit that won't come out? Big hammer? 

Odd - I quite like the little Fiat Panda and have had several as hire cars while on hols. I almost thought about buying a 100HP version of one once. 

The Fiat 500 is the same car but in a flirtier frock. (And the Ford Ka is the same again but with a little less Italian flair!)

You're going to fit right in 'round here, I can tell! 😊

All you need to do now is buy a 987. Have you purchased that Boxster yet?