GEAR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Editor Furr’s 2006 997 Carrera 4S throws a tantrum and dumps its gearbox fluid...
My 997 Carrera 4S ownership experience will soon reach its fifth anniversary. This car has been brilliant throughout the time my name has appeared on its logbook. European road trips, car shows, commuting, days out. You name it, I’ve done it in this 911. Granted, I haven’t yet taken it to a track. Maybe this is something I should consider for 2024? After all, as many of you will know from the fleet updates and ‘how to’ guides published in these pages, a huge amount of work has been done to ensure this Basalt Black beauty is in tip-top condition. You can take the car’s servicing history as proof — in my custody, despite averaging little more than three thousand miles each year, this 911 has been treated to four major services, the same number of minor services and five transmission services. This is far more considerate than even the most aggressive of 997 servicing regimes. What gives? Well, I make sure all my cars get a major service every year they’re on the road, irrespective of mileage. The quartet of minor services is a consequence of fluids being flushed when other work is being done. As for the transmission services, one was carried out alongside a major engine service, another was performed for the purposes of producing a step-by-step guide in these pages, a third was done when the car’s engine was removed at the beginning of last year (because why not?!), which brings us to the most recent fluid and filter flushes. Yes, there were two. The photograph at the head of this page hints at the reason why.
I’d returned home after a thrilling few days away on location for 911 & Porsche World photo shoots. Specifically, the good folk at Porsche Cars Great Britain handed me the keys to a 992 Carrera and a 992 GT3 Touring. Both cars featured in our bumper October issue, celebrating
the 911’s sixtieth anniversary. I had a great time testing them, but was eager to jump back into my 997, a more compact, more analogue Neunelfer.
The three-and-a-half-hour nighttime journey from the company’s headquarters in Reading to my home in Norfolk was a blast. Deserted roads, my 911 was totally on song. I jumped out of the car appreciative of just how involving a drive in a 997 really is. You feel an integral part of the machine, certainly more so than when piloting a 992, regardless of how awe-inspiring today’s Porsche engineering might be.
BACK TO THE RANCH
independent Porsche specialist, PIE Performance (pieperformance.co.uk), for his thoughts on the matter. Predictably, a Whatsapp exchange of photographs and videos proved inconclusive. “Get the car to us and we’ll sort it for you as soon as we can,” he offered. Invitation accepted.
The next morning, a Macan-owning neighbour contacted me to say he’d seen a long trace of oil stretching from my driveway to the nearby main road (a good half-mile away) and a significant distance along it thereafter. Of course, the trail was to my house, not from it. “I thought you’d driven off with an engine ready to implode,” he chuckled. The jury’s out on whether this was educated commentary on the reputation of M96/ M97 flat-sixes.
Shortly after this exchange, I arranged for transportation of the car to PIE Performance (a journey of more than two hours) on the back of a low-loader. Chris and his team then set about inspecting the car, but could find no evidence to suggest the transmission oil cooler was compromised. The problem, so it seemed, was more serious than either of us predicted. Now, PIE Performance is adept at most things Porsche-related, As I approached my house, I activated my garage’s electric roller door and drove inside. Bright LED strip lights illuminated the driveway. What’s this? Oil?! I stepped out of the car and was immediately hit by the unmistakable smell of transmission fluid. Not at all good. Removing the nearside rear wheel, I shone a torch into the belly of the beast to find out what the problem was. Driveshaft seal failure? Had the transmission oil cooler split? It was difficult to nail the source of the leak because there was a great deal of fluid making a mess. I contacted Chris Lansbury, founder of Suffolk-based
but it isn’t a Tiptronic transmission specialist. To get to the bottom of the issue, Chris recommended sending the unit to a firm specialising in the repair of these gearboxes. PIE Performance, would, he promised, remove the transmission, send it away for diagnosis and any necessary repairs, and then take care of installation following the fix. The problem turned out to be a failed gearbox oil pump causing all sorts of problems, including the ejection of transmission fluid through seals as a result of a built-up pressure. With the gearbox in pieces, it made sense to go for a full rebuild. To this end, save for new ratios, pretty much everything has been replaced — a new oil pump was obviously top of the list, closely followed by new seals, new thrusts, a new valve body, a new torque converter, plus new clutch drums, steel plates and friction plates for all gears. The rebuilt transmission was returned to PIE Performance and duly installed. During testing, however, the problem presented itself once again. Out came the gearbox and off it went, back to the transmission specialist, who dismantled the unit for a second time, only to confirm the brand-new oil pump had failed. Of all the rotten luck, a duff pump! With another new oil pump installed, the gearbox was reassembled and returned to PIE Performance, whereupon it was bolted into place, thoroughly tested and confirmed to be operating good as new. Phew! Coincidentally, Chris’s father had agreed to buy my classic SAAB 900 S Cabriolet, making his journey over to my workshop the perfect opportunity to give the 911’s refreshed gearbox a longdistance shakedown. “This is one of the very best 997’s I’ve ever driven,” Chris remarked, when stepping out of the car. “It performs absolutely brilliantly.” As you’d expect from a 997 with a freshly rebuilt semi-automatic transmission, shifting is super smooth, perfectly complementing the beautifully performing engine and the refreshed suspension (all components are renewed, save for the PASM dampers, which I’m thinking about upgrading). Incidentally, while the car’s engine and gearbox was out, I bought a Spyder Performance (spyderperformance.co.uk) low-temperature (70°C) thermostat, allowing the flat-six to run cooler, reducing the chances of temperature gradients forming and the associated bore scoring that might result. The PIE Performance team installed the part while the car was in its care. As you will have seen in last month’s issue of 911 & Porsche World, I’ve since installed a GT3 throttle body, an IPD Competition plenum (ipdplenums.com) and a K&N air filter (knfilters.co.uk). I was immediately taken aback by the throatier intake noise and the more responsive throttle, but I wasn’t keen on the plenum kit’s rubber airbox resonator delete cap. The primary benefit of removing the resonator box from within the air filter housing is to increase airflow across the surface of the air filter, thereby aiding mid-range acceleration. Available for the 996 and 997, Spyder Performance’s resonator blanking cap is manufactured from high-grade aluminium and is hard anodised for a long service life. It’s a more elegant solution than the rubber cap previously installed and looks great in my 997’s engine bay. That said, in the interests of further airflow experimentation, I’ve ordered a Fabspeed (fabspeed.com) carbonfibre competition intake system. I’m looking forward to comparing and contrasting the car’s performance with the stock intake setup, that of its current configuration and with the Fabspeed equipment in place. I’m hoping to secure time on a rolling road in order to precisely gauge the impact of each arrangement. I’ll be sure to share my findings with you in a coming issue.