KEEPING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD
There’s always something to be done, but constant maintanence keeps Matt Stone’s Carrera 3.2 in fine fettle. This time it’s a service, tyres, brake lines and a split gaitor fix
In planning the Carrera’s annual service regimen, I knew going in there would be some extra items, time and cost; all good in that there was nothing serious needed – only steps to preserve the car’s goodness, and make it all that much better to drive. In addition to the usual 5k service, including engine oil and filter, and lots of other small tweaks, checks and adjustments, a previous undercarriage inspection revealed a massively torn and leaky CV boot on one side, plus I’m embarrassed to say that I’d let the tyres age out to a decade.
The CV joint/boot service is a straightforward job, involving removal of both halfshafts, complete disassembly of the shafts and universal joints, deep cleaning of the above, regreasing and replacing the old boots with new ones. The risk of torn boots is that U-joint grease can leak out, running the joints dry and risking bind up. Or, nearly as bad is allowing water, muck and dirt to attack the U-joint and possibly even the wheel bearing. The guys at Callas Rennsport said they’d tear it all down, assess and let me know how much or little needed doing. Luckily, the U-joints were fine as were both side wheel bearings, so the job only called for the major cleaning, fresh grease, the new rubber boots and re-install. Potential bullets dodged there.
Choosing tyres is nearly as anguishing as selecting the right shop to paint your car, as there are so many variables. After deep consultation with the Callas folks, and lots of independent research, we decided to go with Michelin Pilot Sport All-season 3 Pluses, in the factory 16-inch sizes. My goal was to find optimum ride/handling balance in a tyre up to the task of any road trip, long or short. Over time, I’ve had great luck with Michelins for these reasons, and in discussion with team Callas, and the tyre techs at The Tire Rack; we agreed this would meet my needs for good performance, a comfortable ride, worthy grip and traction, reasonable wear and sensible pricing. I don’t track the car and didn’t want anything too racy, nor cheap tyres with no name, so this performance biased all-season tyre seemed the sweet spot. Plus of course a proper
mount and balance job, and a fourwheel alignment.
I will say that my previous Continental Contitrac tyres performed well, and still looked great, which is of course a fool’s game; even though the tyres had lots of tread left, and uncracked sidewalls, the rubber was getting hard, and the ride and grip both beginning to degrade. And 10 years is far too long to run a set of performance tyres on any car, much less a sports car like a 911.
When I first took my car to Callas back in 2012, I recall that we replaced two brake lines. They were now getting old, and the rest were originals, so this was an opportune time to replace all the brake lines, and flush out the entire system, as I think we last did the latter two years ago.
I’ve been running the car for some years now on Joe Gibbs Racing High Performance 15/50 conventional oil and have wondered if at this stage it would make any sense to switch to a full synthetic such as Mobil 1. I discussed this with Callas, who suggested that they’ve had great luck with this high zinc content oil, as it minimises cam wear and doesn’t appear to junk up catalytic converters too quickly. The high performance synthetics do an ultimate lubrication job, but cost more than conventional, and can cause older engines to be a bit more leak prone, so taking Callas’ advise, I stuck with the Gibbs 15/50.
Lastly for this service was a new battery; the car had a 5–6-year-old top spec Interstate that was OK day to day, but would flatten out and lose charge if it sat for a week off a trickler. So I reupped for another “luxury import” size and spec Interstate that I swear has enough cold cranking amps to fire the burners in the Titanic.
As you can imagine, the 30-mile drive home from Callas’ shop was near magical, the car feeling as new and sharp as it ever has since I owned it. Everything just felt peaked in, and of course nothing makes a car sharper and fresher than new tyres. So much so that it beckoned me up the Angeles Crest Highway for another 25 miles or so. Barring the unforeseen, this should hold us for a year or so, although 2021 might bring with it a new clutch. The open road beckons, and both the car and I are ready.