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Jonttt's 993 C4S Journal

Overmats

Still on the learning curve.......

when I got the car it had what I thought where the original overmats fitted (based on the original date sticker of 1997).

I assumed these where "overmats" as they are removable and I took them out for my first interior clean.

However I now know that these are not overmats but the original carpet set which just happen to be easily removable. In effect my car had come with no overmats fitted.

Now overmats are a thing of intrigue. You can source OEM (or better) quality for 50% of the OEM price but due to copyright what you don't get is the word PORSCHE on them :roll:

So you guessed it I paid twice as much as I needed to for the OEM overmats.

There was a hidden bonus though as these do come with new retainers (and even a hex drive to remove the seat bolts to fit the retainers) which normally retail at c£22 + VAT on their own. My original retainers where still fitted but had signs of wear so a new set was appreciated :D

As I'm "deblueing" the interior in an OEM sort of way I ordered black overmats.......

One of the original retainers with 16 years of wear




Nice shiney new retainer in place




and the drivers overmat fitted. Can you see the PORSCHE embossed which cost me c£40 after deducting what the retainers would have cost me :roll: :frustrated:



I now keep my Piloti's clean :thumbs:
 
jonttt said:
Lol its was Dom who inspired me to do it (I just did it better :D ).

It should be known as the essential Dom-mod :thumb:

We'll see about better :grin: your knob might pull off all too easy now it's been loosened.
 
Re: Overmats

jonttt said:
Still on the learning curve.......

when I got the car it had what I thought where the original overmats fitted (based on the original date sticker of 1997).

I assumed these where "overmats" as they are removable and I took them out for my first interior clean.

However I now know that these are not overmats but the original carpet set which just happen to be easily removable. In effect my car had come with no overmats fitted.

Now overmats are a thing of intrigue. You can source OEM (or better) quality for 50% of the OEM price but due to copyright what you don't get is the word PORSCHE on them :roll:

So you guessed it I paid twice as much as I needed to for the OEM overmats.

There was a hidden bonus though as these do come with new retainers (and even a hex drive to remove the seat bolts to fit the retainers) which normally retail at c£22 + VAT on their own. My original retainers where still fitted but had signs of wear so a new set was appreciated :D

As I'm "deblueing" the interior in an OEM sort of way I ordered black overmats.......

One of the original retainers with 16 years of wear




Nice shiney new retainer in place




and the drivers overmat fitted. Can you see the PORSCHE embossed which cost me c£40 after deducting what the retainers would have cost me :roll: :frustrated:



I now keep my Piloti's clean :thumbs:

From a personal point of view I was surprised a few years ago after ordering OEM Porsche mats from my local OPC the dive in quality they had taken over the originals they were replacing - ie no rubber back and the carpet itself appeared more 'shiny' in appearance.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have experienced this?
 
jonttt said:
when I got the car it had what I thought where the original overmats fitted (based on the original date sticker of 1997).

I assumed these where "overmats" as they are removable and I took them out for my first interior clean.

However I now know that these are not overmats but the original carpet set which just happen to be easily removable. In effect my car had come with no overmats fitted

I had exactly the same experience when I bought mine, but there wasn't the same amount of information or help on the web ten years ago!

I kept thinking: "Although they must be overmats because they are removeable, why is there no fitted carpet beneath them?"

I only worked it out on joining this site a few years ago!

I now need to replace the driver's footwell carpet, because it was exposed for at least five years of the car's life, although as its now under the overmats, it doesn't feature at the top of my list of things to do!

What really annoyed me was that when I fitted them, there was a retainer that was still attached, which indicated that a previous owner or garage had removed a previous set of overmats prior to sale.

It was probably the same idiot that swapped out the hardbacks and put replica / fake turbo twists on it. :evil:

At least I sorted the latter courtesy of Chris W. :thumb:
 
I took the OEM part number for the carpet set when I thought they were over mats to order a new set and they said they were no longer available as they had been replaced by the newer type over mats.

So that added to my confusion. It was only when browsing the type911 parts website I found them listed for sale as "not overmats" with a pic and things clicked into place.you can order a front & rear or just front set from them.

As a carpet set mine are fine and explains why the overmats do not fit as fully.

You learn something new every day and that was my lesson over the weekend.
 
Had a delivery from Opie Oils today.......

Following a thread by OC (can't find it but will add a link when I track it down) I ordered:

- Mahle Engine Air Filter

- Mahle Bonnet Air filters (x2 in one box ;-)

- Motul X-cess 8100 5w40 Engine Oil (to keep my top-up bottle topped up!)

- New Hose Head

- Small Duster (great at attracting dust from those hard to reach places :D )

- Free Air Freshner

I benefited from one of Opie Oils large ad hoc discount codes (always worth a google search) but OC's thread confirms a running discount







 
My car went back into strasse on Monday for some agreed warranty work and to get a few of the "upgrades" I have picked up over the past few weeks fitted :)

I've had a weird problem with the air conditioning in that its been passing pressure test and working for a few days but then ceasing to work. I have to say Kwik fit have been great doing a full retest / service FOC even though we knew there was probably a leak after the first one. The weird part is a symptom seems to be some of the oil bubbling in the passenger front vent.

Anyway Strasse have confirmed today after inspection that its probably the evaporator. I believe this is the worst part of the system to get too as it requires the fuel tank out etc so labour is high on top of the parts. Strasse are covering this with no quibbles FOC under their in house warranty :thumbs:

I've done a fair deal to get the following fitted:

- new suspension and springs (top mounts to be inspected and replaced if needed) and full alignment
- billet bottom cam covers, new gaskets and bolts fitted
- braided brake hoses fitted
- front brake shields fitted (I can see Dom now :hand: )
- rear brake plate lift addressed
- cat heat shield fitted and exhaust system fittings renewed
- new rear window external rubber fitted

I've left the car with them for a week or so. I'm in no desperate rush to get it back over the next couple of weeks as I'm out of the country more than in but will of course report back especially on the suspension.
 
MPL Clutch Slave Cylinder

I have been trying to source an upgraded MPL Slave Clutch Cylinder since buying my 993 after reading several rave reviews and comments from my Indy....... but speaking to MPL they had none left in stock and where awaiting a new batch to be manufactured.

Sure enough a couple of weeks ago they appeared on eBay with a BuyItNow price of £179.

I had read that they previously also put some up for auction starting at 99p.

Sure enough a few days later 2 went on auction (one on German Ebay and one UK) but on a 9 day auction.

This left me a dilemma as my car was due in for some warranty work in 7 days. So I could either buy at £179 and get it fitted straight away or take a chance on getting cheaper but I would have to wait to get it fitted.

I decided to take a chance and wait for the auction. In the end the german one went for c£125 but I got the UK one for <£100 delivered :thumb:

I received delivery today (too late for the current work being done on the car as expected :roll: ) so will have to wait to get fitted.

It does seem to be a quality piece of engineering with clear instructions confirming which parts need to be "rescued" from the OEM unit.












and the MPL brochure explaining its advantages over the OEM part:

 
Numbercruncher said:
You'll be wanting your own mod soon Jon ala Mr Hollamby :D

It's possible. Lots of patent applications, many years of waiting, but worth it in the end, if only for the fame, but the money's nice too.

Kim Hollamby also highly recommends the MPL Slave Cylinder and it's unfortunate he didn't come up with the idea, and ended up paying £180 from Germany for his own one.

Good thread. How many hours are there in your day, where you come from?
 
Lol, Its just say I lead a varied life ;-)

Today was not untypical, completed the purchase of a warehouse, spent 2 hours on the phone in a tesco car park on a conference call (handy for paying the trolley guy to grab me a sandwich, I know all the tricks) but I missed the office fish and chip lunch day, finalised a new advertising campaign (did well 10 minutes left to deadline), finished work early to be met by boxes of 993 goodies and daughter being sick on freshly washed quilt. Currently sat in casino waiting for Friday night poker tournament to start so could be a late one and I have dance at 10am tomorrow (for my daughter). Yep the 993 keeps me busy lol

Ps I also had chance to play around with a tpms system I've just sourced for the 993 but it needs some fettling first so more on that another day ;-)
 
TPMS Preparation

TPMS

Stage 1 - Sourcing and Tyre valve stem preparation


Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (or TPMS) is a technology that is becoming more and more common place.

Back in the late late 80's early 90's it was a new technology. In fact the Porsche 959 was the first passenger car fitted with a TPMS system.

Early basic systems saw some luxury cars fitted with a system that measured the rotational speed of a wheel and could detect a tyre that was losing pressure from a reduction in overall diameter and subsequent affect on rotational speed (ie a smaller diameter wheel has to rotate faster to to achieve the same linear speed). This basic system is known as iTPMS (i for indirect as it uses the ABS wheel speed sensor fitted outside of the wheel itself so cannot provide actual pressure readings) For example my 2001 BMW Z3m has such a system fitted but it was only during the last year or so of production of Z3's that the system was fitted.

The technology has moved a long way and now many cars are fitted with systems that can accurately measure and display both tyre pressure and temperature whilst providing warnings to drivers beyond predefined boundaries. So far as I know TPMS will be mandatory on all new passenger cars in the near future.

I learned a long time ago the benefits of correctly set tyre pressure especially on performance cars and not just for the obvious reasons but it can have a massive effect on tyre wear. I once went through 4 sets of front tyres on a Mini Cooper S Works in 20,000 miles only to discover the tyre pressure had been completely wrong all the time !

The end result is that I am now paranoid about correctly set tyre pressures. Given some of my cars are nowhere near daily drivers and I feel as though I am checking tyre pressures manually every time I drive them.

So when I purchased my 993 one of the first projects I set myself was to identify and install a TPMS system.

The industry standard way of fitting a TPMS system (including OEM) is for small lightweight sensor / transmitters to be fitted within the tyre attached to the bottom of the valve stem. There is an alternative method using metal straps which are secured around the alloy (within the tyre). I did not really explore the metal strap option as I wanted to try an OEM style install.

Initial research showed that the first stumbling block I would encounter would be due to the fact that I have Hollow Spoke alloy wheels :pc:
These use a none standard tyre valve stem which is both longer and thinner than "normal".

As most TPMS kits come with valve stems adapted to secure the TPMS sensors onto then I would need to find either a suitable valve to fit or adapt the Hollow Spoke Stems.

I narrowed the choice of TPMS to the TyreSure (a rebranded Orange) system. This is a few years old now but well proven, they manufacture OEM sensors (not Porsche) and their retrofit kit is offered for sale by Porsche resellers.

The UK retail price for the system is c£170 but I managed to secure an Ebay purchase (via Malta) for <£100 delivered of a new sealed kit.

It is worth noting that the x4 tyre sensors / transmitters have built in batteries which are none replaceable ie you have to replace the whole sensor when the battery goes. They are marketed as having a 7 year operational life but I am always sceptical of such claims as they tend to be maximum in ideal conditions etc... Plus they have no "on/off" switch and I do not know how they "sleep" etc... (edit: I believe they "sense" rotation) so I have taken a chance purchasing what could be old stock with a shorter shelf life. But for my initial trails I was happy with the significant discount.

TPMS system received....




The kit is made up of x1 display unit for inside the car with a USB cigarette socket power lead, x4 sensors / transmitters for attaching to the tyre valve stems, x4 adapted standard tyre valve stems, x4 securing screws.




My car has had the standard 993 4S "solids" upgraded at some point in its life to "Hollow Spokes" but there is no history to show when this happened. I therefore have no ideal how old the current valve stems are. As these special valve stems use rubber seals I decided it would be easier / quicker / safer to buy x4 new valve stems from Porsche...... but they are not cheap so factor in c£40 for a set of 4.




So I set about closer examination of how the kit is supposed to work and how I could get it to fit to the Hollow Spokes.

This is how a kit valve stem fits together....








Essentially it is a standard valve stem with a ball socket at the end. The ball socket has a hole drilled through it (to maintain air flow through the valve) which is tapped to accept a screw. A hollow (to maintain the air way again) screw is then used to secure the sensor / transmitter to the valve stem.


If you compare the kit valve stem to the OEM Hollow Spoke stem you can see that the stem is both too wide to go through the valve hole in the Hollow Spoke alloy and it is not deep enough to sit on the outer and inner edges of the alloy.






I had read on the internet that some people had got around this problem by fitting the ball joint from the kit valve to the OEM valve but this would mean a much longer securing screw would be needed.

I did not see the need for this. Although the OEM valve does not have a ball joint it was basically the correct diameter to fit into the socket on the sensor and allow rotational movement for adjustment when fitting and be secured by the screw. So I thought I would give a direct connection a go by simply drilling and tapping the OEM valve......




There was a big unknowns ie would the OEM valve accept a 4mm wider hole and retain integrity ? Only one way to find out......

Ideally this would be carried out with a bench drill but I don't have one so a vice would have to do......

I started off by drilling a "half way house / pilot hole" using a dremel and 3mm drill (the biggest I had for a dremel).




This went through easily and you realise there is an internal "step" in the hole diameter so the 3mm drill only needs to pass through a few mm.

I then used a standard drill with 4mm bit. Again internet research implied a 10mm hole but I was worried that this would affect the strength of the valve stem so I went with what I thought was enough to allow secure attachment of the screw.






The drilling process went well and I am as happy as I can be that there was no detrimental effect on the strength of the valve stem from the increased diameter hole.

So it was then a striaght forward process of tapping the hole with an M5 x 0.8 thread.....






Once tapped the securing screw (using a T20 torx driver) could be tested to ensure enough thread to secure (and to help clear excess metal swarf)....






It was then a matter of trial fitting and to see if the unit could be put together and secured without the need for a ball socket....... I found that the securing screw actually ended up being too long. Rather than drill the hole deeper and risk weakening the valve I decided to simply pad it with a nut.

Once tightened this worked really well. The unit can be tightened as securely as the original kit valve.....




So it was simply a matter of repeating for the other 3 units....




So that leaves 2 stages to go:

1) fitting of the tyre valves (requires tyre fitter to remove tyre, fit new valves with sensors attached, refit wheels and balance

2) fitting of the display unit inside the car (I will trial via cigarette lighter socket and then hard wire in)

I'm off on holiday for a while though and my car is still having some jobs done on it so those stages will need to wait a few weeks............

ps I have no idea how easy it is to fit the kit valves to none Hollow Spoke 993 Alloys (eg Cup II's or solid spoke turbo twists). If they fit then obviously none of the above adapation of OEM valve stems is needed ;-)
 
Jon - Great work :thumb: But what will the Mrs say about clamping the vice to the kitchen table :hand:
 
Lol she was not happy.....

the story went

"how long will fathers day lunch be ?"

"10-15 minutes"

"OK I've just got a quick job to do"

:wack:

To be fair as it was a nice day I had intended to setup on the outside bench but the vice would not fit. Man logic did not factor in said lunch :dont know:

So my Mrs and daughter had fathers day lunch on a kids 2 ft tall table and I was in the naughty corner but at least I did not have to use a straw :thumb:

Once finished I quickly rectified the situation with a trip to the beach and large ice creams before settling down to watch the US Open golf all evening :thumbs:
 
Stainless Steel Kick Plates

I was interested in sourcing a set of stainless steel kickplates which where an OEM option.

It appears that these are now only available with certain lettering (eg RS) and where pretty expensive.

It therefore appealed to me when a UK supplier was identified on Rennlist who was offering OEM alternatives including a new version with "Carrera 4S" lettering.

As I'm UK based I "volunteered" to be the guinea pig and try them out. The supplier is Type911.

They offer a few options but I wanted to try the new chrome inlay style with Carrera 4S lettering.......

"Stainless Steel Sill Trims
Laser cut polished stainless steel inserts in brushed stainless sills, great quality, self adhesive, fits 911, 964 & 993, choose from "911", "993", "Carrera", "Carrera S", "Carrera 4S", "turbo", "2S" or "4S" script. Price is for a pair"

The price including tax and shipping in the UK was c£128 (I think roughly 50% of the OEM price).

It took about 3 weeks for delivery but I think these are made to order at the moment as a new product.

They where delivered very well packaged to protect them.

First impressions are very good but on closer inspection there are a couple of issues. So the good and the bad.....

Good bits ....

- the stainless steel is very good quality with a good weight to them and they give the feeling of being very robust ie they will not easily bend / mishape.

- the appearance from a normal viewing distance is very good...



- they have full laser cut lettering with chrome inlay which is held in place by the provided taped fixing backing strip. These would easily lend themselves to various inlay options if required.

but the bad bits....

- on close inspection there is some room for improvement in the chrome inlay finish which is randomly raised in some areas and an inconsistent fit in terms of tolerance to the laser cut steel. This appears to be down to the actual type of inlay used reacting to the cutting process.





EDIT: just to clarify on the above pic that I expect the inset to sit flatter when fitted as it is only held in place by the sticky backing tape currently. The issue I am trying to highlight is the reaction of the insert chrome edge to the cutting process which is not perfect.

So I was left with a dilemma, do I reject them (I don't need to argue quality as these would simply fall under European distance selling rules giving me 7 days to return them for a refund) or keep them. I have decided to keep them on the following reasoning:

- the quality of the steel and laser cutting is very good and in line with what I would perceive to be OEM quality (I cannot comment in fit yet)

- I like the "3D" effect of the chrome inlay compared to normal (ie cheaper) etching.

- the appearance from normal viewing height is fine and its only my OCDness that has an issue with the fine detail finish.

- if the inlay finish / fit deteriorates with use them the quality of the basic laser cut steel will lend itself to some nice alternative finishes ie the inlay is simply held in place via the taped backing so can be easily changed with the steel acting as a natural template.

- price I perceive as reasonable for the laser cutting and quality of steel used. nb If they had been twice the price they would have been going back.

At the end of the day I like them

Fitting should be a relatively easy process requiring the simple removal of the existing kick plates which are glued in place (time will be mostly removing old glue) and sticking these down with the backing tape already in place.

These will also meet my requirement to be fully reversible to OEM if required.

I will point the supplier to this post as I believe in customer feedback.

ps here are some OEM pictures for comparison...and why I prefer the laser cut finish......





 
Just checked my sills and they look OEM pattern but bought from Porscheshop in Sept 2005 for £29 :eek:
 

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