Running Report 1 - May 2003

Wow, what a scorcher! March 2003 dawned bright and stayed that way for the whole month, I can't remember a better March for getting out and about and enjoying the early Spring sunshine. Despite the economic malaise and the war in the Middle East, people seemed to be happy.

And what a great month to get the dust covers off our cars, wash and wax them and hit the road. Well that was the idea anyway. However, back in February, I had the shock of my life as I headed down the A24 on a wet Sunday, to have lunch at my mother in law's, when all of a sudden the cabin of my beloved C4 filled with light and sound. The big red warning light came on accompanied by the ABS and the PDSA warning lights and, just so it didn't feel left out, the buzzer made its presence felt too.

ECU Failure

My heart sank, I hit the warning light kill switch, all became quiet in the car, ominously quiet. My wife said nothing, the kids in the back stirred in their seats and my mind raced through the possible causes. The car felt fine, braked ok and did not feel any less stable but, it might have been my imagination, but it felt ever so slightly rougher, maybe raw is the word I am looking for.

We pulled up at the m-i-l's, and switched off and decided to forget about the car for a few hours. Getting back in after a large roast beef lunch I started the car and to my distinct pleasure, all was fine! Phew! I thought, must have been a drop of rain or something, wetting a wire or two upsetting things, so that's ok (did I mention that I am an optimist). A smile came back to my face, as it usually does when drive this car. But 10 miles down the road the "sonne et luminaire" returned for an encore! Bugger.

Later that week I posted a question to the SmartGroup 964 forum and got a list, as long as your arm, of possible things to check. Ranging from a dirty connector (see, I am not the only one who thought this might be an easy and cheap fix) to a replacement ECU at the cost of a short skirmish with a bunch of Fedayin fundamentalists on the outskirts of Basra.

I called GT One of Chertsey in Surrey, and spoke with Craig who asked me to pop in on the Saturday and he would hook up the Bosch Hammer to see if this could read what was up. Sadly, this showed nothing conclusive (no surprises with electrical faults). At this stage the warning lights had not made a reappearance which is always the way when you want to show someone what's going on so I went home. Halfway back the lights came on again, typical.

I booked the car in for further investigations and dropped it off at GT One on a beautiful sunny morning at the beginning of March. Peter and Craig had it for the month, investigating the fault methodically, eliminating possibilities one by one. In fact they discovered 2 faults, the ABS pump wasn't pumping and unfortunately it looked as if the ECU might be shot too. Double bugger.

Throughout the month, Peter and Craig kept me informed of what they were doing, suggesting options and minimizing the expense, as best they could. As with most situations in life there were two ways of approaching this situation; chuck a heap of cash at it on expensive components but save on time and labour or secondly take some time, investigate the problem and fix what needs fixing. The down side to the first approach is that you might end up "fixing" things that aren’t broken and spending lots of money unnecessarily but at least you get the car back on the road quickly. Taking the second approach, you might save some cash but need the patience of Job while the car is out of action.

I can tell you that, with the weather we had this March, I can vouch for the fact that Job was indeed a patient individual, far more so than I. Sorry to both Peter and Craig if I nagged at times, but seeing polished Porsches out on the road, on sunny weekends, being enjoyed, I just missed mine so much!

I would like to thank Peter and Craig at GT One for looking after me. They tried as best they could from spending too much of my money, making sure that it really was the ECU that needed changing and told me at every step of the way what they were doing, why and what the results were. Fortunately, Peter managed to arrange an exchange unit with Bosch, which cut the cost dramatically when compared with buying one from an OPC. I am confident that they did all the right things and even thought it has cost a good deal of hard earned beer vouchers, I know that they have been through the rest of the car with a fine toothed comb to make sure nothing else was wrong, at least I have that comfort factor. Great job guys, thanks again. Now that I have the car back, the weather has broken it actually snowed in London on the day Peter told me it was ready for collection! Such is life; I guess this is the pleasure and pain principle at work.)

These are fantastic cars, indeed any Porsche is fantastic. I have owned mine for nearly 3 years and every time I drive it I smile and get a thrill. When it goes wrong, it's expensive but this is part of the ownership deal, thankfully this is a rare occurrence. Not having use of it during March was hard and just goes to show how much pleasure it brings me (does that make me a saddo?), and boy the great weather just made this more difficult.

Has this experience put me off? If I'm honest, I did start to think about drafting the for sale ad (for a nano-second) but on reflection, I have to say no. I have admired the 911 since I was a small boy, I saw my first one in 1972, and set myself the target of having one, and now that I do I have not been disappointed; it has met with or exceeded all my expectations. I know that it will continue to cost me to own it but I accepted this from day one and budget for it - mind you this has stretched the budget a bit more than I would have liked (ok, ok, so we get the new bathroom next year). Don't let this story put you off. Things go wrong and things get fixed, life goes on, enjoy it and your car that's why they were built in the first place.

Running Report 2 - February 2004

Tyres, keys, batteries and insurance quotes

I bought my car back in November 2000, with just over 60 000 miles on the clock and a set of nearly new Yokohamas. 12 or so thousand miles later, a change had become due. As one might expect, I have done a reasonable amount of research in to the various options open to me and to the amount of money I am prepared to spend on what it in essence a weekend car, albeit a serious sports car.

I did think about posting a question on the Smart Group forum but I don't think my inbox could cope with the responses and, having had a look; there were a number of strings already posted on the topic, which provided me with some good pointers for a start. I have also stopped and chatted to complete strangers driving various models of 964's to see what they are running and get some idea of performance.

This is a big problem. Everyone has a different take on this subject and there is simply no right or wrong answer. The original Bridgestones fitted by the factory are no longer available so I could either fit the current Bridgestone 01 or 02s for the sake of originality or I go for another approved tyre. The limiting factors here are budget and the type of driving I am likely to undertake. I think I have decided against a track day career, (too many opportunities to do serious damage; if I am going to do it, I will sell my current car and buy an ex racer) so some expensive and sticky Michelins were put quickly out of the picture.

In reality I expect to get out and enjoy my car and as such I don't want to make the mistake of re booting with budget tyres and compromise the car's performance, but the thought of shelling out the best part of £1000 filled me with some dread too. However, there are a number of quality options available to me in the shape of a new set of Yokos, the aforementioned Bridgestones and Continentals. I am keen to use an approved tyre and having discussed wear rates, ride and handling issues with as many people as I could, I narrowed it down to the Continental Sport Contact ZR N1s, 205/55s up front and 225/50s on the back.

I called those very nice people at GT One who were happy to supply and fit a full set of tyres at a very competitive price. They did the job while I waited (having booked in advance) and made sure that the small compensation weights were placed, out of sight on the inside of the rims, (Why is it, that the likes of Kwik-Fit insist we decorate the outside of our wheels with those unsightly lead blobs?) leaving the outsides smooth and uncluttered, I am always amazed as to how good a car looks with shiny new tyres. Peter warned me to take it easy for the first 50 to 100 miles, just to take the shine off, as he put it.

First impressions on driving out of the GT One yard were that these tyres were definitely quieter than the Yokos and the ride was more comfortable. That might have been down to tyre pressures and the fact that I was riding on considerably more rubber than just a few hour earlier (I have made a note to check the tyre pressures more regularly in future as well, I am sure this helps!). As a matter of interest, the wear on the old ones was pretty even, front to rear, and there was only a hint of difference on the front ones, the inner edge of the offside tyre had worn a bit more than the outside edge.

I am aware that I will need to attend to front wishbone bushes at some stage in the next year or so, and change the steering rack gaiters as well, which should sort this issue out and stop the scary squirming about the front end does under extreme braking
 

Shortly after getting my new tyres, I took my wife and daughter on the PCGB Cotswold Rally, which is a really lovely day out in the English countryside. By the time we had got to Cornbury House, (PCGB HQ), the tyres were worn in and I was able to give them a bit of a work out. Other than the comfort factor mentioned earlier, the most significant improvement is the fact that the car under-steers less than before, it's also generally more sure footed when braking. This could be down to the fact that I am comparing nice new rubber with old and worn tyres or indeed that these are actually better. I won't know for quite a while (I hope) as I only do around 5 or 6 thousand miles a year, if these are going to ware out any quicker than the Yokos (which I estimate covered at least 15 000 miles) or if they grip much less as they get towards the end of their lives, I will keep you posted.

Suffice to say that I am happy with the tyre choice, pleased that I have more grip than I did before and that the car is safer than it was with just 2 mill of tread squeezing water off the road. The Cotswold run was a useful (and enjoyable) environment to test some new tyres. We covered about 120 miles on a variety of roads, cambers and surfaces, nothing that the C4 was phased by and some delicious S bends thrown in for good measure. Add to this, another 200 miles on motorways and I think I encountered just about all the types of roads one could expect to encounter under normal driving situations.

A visit to the 964 Register area at the PGCB annual event at Eynsham Hall at the end of August, confirmed my view that there is no right or wrong tyre choice for this car. I did not make a note of who had what tyre but I did note that just about every possible tyre was represented, and I was pleased to see that I am not alone in choosing the Contis.

Other than the tyres, I am happy to report that the car is running very sweetly and the ECU repair has worked, no reoccurrence of the warning light brigade so to speak. The long hot summer has provided ample opportunity to get out and enjoy the dry roads but did leave me thinking climate control would be a nice bit of kit to have, I nearly cooked the kids one Sunday afternoon. Has your ignition key light fallen apart? Both mine have so while at Eynsham. I took the opportunity to buy a new top. I had looked at new keys but at £25 apiece I thought better of it. By swapping the top bit only, for just £12, I now have a light that works and a coloured Porsche crest, plus the original metal bit, which means no issues of a freshly cut key not working in the worn door locks or ignition barrel. Give it a go - the light makes finding the ignition switch in the dark a doddle!


One other accessory purchased this year has been a battery conditioner. As I mentioned above, I only do around 5 000 miles a year and the car often stays in the garage for a week or more at a time. I have read many articles and posts to websites that the various bits and bobs that have power running to them all the time, alarms, clock and various sensors etc, slowly drain the battery. On start up, various warning lights come on and go out and if the battery has run low, the PDAS and ABS lights are often the last to extinguish. However, if I hook up the battery conditioner, and the battery is charged up completely, then the lights go out almost immediately. If you don't have one of these and you leave your car in the garage for a week or more at a time, I would suggest you think about getting one, a few quid spent on one of these will save you a lot more in a replacement battery and save you the hassle of a flat battery when you need it least.

I am due to put the car in for it's 12 month service soon and I expect to have to consider the front wishbone bush issue and full set up of the suspension. From the accounts I have read on this job, the transformation is something to behold, of course I will provide a full report. One last thing, my car now sports a new and rare accessory - a shiny www.porsche964.co.uk sticker in the middle of the rear windscreen courtesy of John Miles, who I met at the Eynsham event, and very smart it looks too!

I changed insurance companies again in November. My previous company provided a renewal quote some 40% higher than the year before. I queried this and they said they were correct. I rang round a few other specialists and came up with a similar policy, again with limited mileage that was cheaper than the premium for last year. It really pays to shop around and these days it's not too much hassle to move from one company to another.

Well that concludes another year of Porsche ownership and I am looking forward to many more, I hope you enjoy your car as much as I enjoy mine. Best wishes for 2004.