CONFIDENCE CORRODING

OK, where do I start? How about with my 18,000-mile 2006 997 Carrera 4S, price new in the region of £78,000.

So here I am one year into ownership and a regular reader of your life-saving mag. Sounds a bit over the top, but regular readers like me might want to cast their minds back to the August 2017 edition, where the issue of corroded wheels nuts was raised in the 'Technical Topics' section and a fortuitous advert for World Motorsports’ rather smart looking titanium wheel lugs. I must confess to reading the piece about corroded wheel studs with an opinion somewhat along the lines of: 'Yeah, right. A car of this standard and price, with a problem like that. No way!” But, whatever, my wheel studs looked jaded and those titanium ones were calling to me, so I thought: 'OK, let's replace the old with these new babies.' You can probably see where this is going...

The first one to be undone left a pile of grey dust on the floor. Yes, completely corroded away. This happened on nine of the 20 studs – the collar that sits in the wheel was nothing but powdered crap. I'm still in shock, this is a 175mph car – which I've had my children in – fitted with deadly wheel nuts. For the first time in my life, I'm ashamed to own a Porsche.

For fear of losing the point here, this is as much a thank you to 911&PW for your technical articles and thank you to the super technicians like World Motorsports for finding cures for the rubbish cost-cutting that Porsche are sometimes prone to resorting to. Porsche should be ashamed of this and it should be addressed, along with other well known issues.

Aside from replacing crumbling wheel studs, I have undertaken many other fixes to address some of the issues that the gen 1 997 has. To avoid the well-known bore scoring issues, I've fitted an extra centre rad, plus a lower temp thermostat and X-pipe cats to take heat away from the cylinder heads, and now new wheel nuts to stop the wheels from falling off. Jesus, am I really sane?

Anyone who owns a water-cooled Porsche, don't even think about driving is again until you have replaced the wheel studs. A huge thank you, then, to 911&PW for undoubtedly saving me from a huge accident. Mark Edwards, via email

Steve Bennett replies: We pride ourselves on our technical content and we're not afraid to flag-up some of the more contentious issues. As Mark says, check your wheel studs, nuts, lugs or whatever else it is holding your wheels on.