Teaser...🙃
Small update.
XC90.
Finished rebuilding the rear differential with new bearings and seals. It's now assembled in the rear subframe.
Serviced the Haldex unit with new filter and seals, fully cleaned the old oil out of the clutch pack and galleys. Made a tool to torque the input coupling.
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Cayenne's and Berlingo
Gave their undersides a good wash after the recent road salt, sprayed Fertan on the rear subframe and ACF50 on the shocks and springs ready for winter. Did all three cars similarly.
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This forum software is shit.
Yes, it is.
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Stripped and cleaned the front XC90 CV joints, rebuilt ready for grease and OEM GKN lobro boot kit. Knocked the ABS reluctor rings off ready for shrinking new ones on. All 4x driveshafts cleaned up ready for paint.
Haldex pump removed, strainer cleaned, casing painted.
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Haldex pump and coupling painted, made a tool to torque the coupling.
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Time for an annual summary seeing as its two years to the date that I bought this 955 Cayenne for the bargain price of £500!
It's done 6k miles since it's last MOT (it's on 178k now) which included the trip to Prague earlier this year, it's also done some caravan towing and a few tent camping trips. Other than that it gets used once a week on Fridays for my commute to work just to keep it from seizing up.
Cost wise this year it needed a PCV / Evap service which was <£100 in parts and a few hours tinkering. The rear abs sensor threw a wobbler but was fixed by cleaning the bearing magnet surface and a new sensor.......however it spoilt its copybook this week when the windscreen/scuttle drain blocked up and in heavy rain overflowed into the passenger side footwell drenching the carpet. Its been a challenge to dry the carpet due to the PU foam moulding on the underside.
Otherwise it continues to be an amazingly capable car with years of life left in it.......or does it?
It's MOT expires tomorrow on the 21st Dec. Today I took it over one of my favourite moorland road for a last drive before parking it up and shoving my boot driers under the carpet.......to be (hopefully) continued next year!
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......however it spoilt its copybook this week when the windscreen/scuttle drain blocked up and in heavy rain overflowed into the passenger side footwell drenching the carpet.
Don't blame the car, that's user error 😉
Hope it dries out OK, but it may take a while, my wife's 718 got a flooded passenger carpet thanks to a blocked drain [6 months after she bought it] and it it took over a week at the dealership with the carpets out to dry it!
It's MOT expires tomorrow on the 21st Dec. Today I took it over one of my favourite moorland road for a last drive before parking it up and shoving my boot driers under the carpet.......to be (hopefully) continued next year!
…….and after a good wash and hoover last night Greta passed its MOT today!
Here’s to another year of £500 Porsche bangernomics!
and after a good wash and hoover last night Greta passed its MOT today!
I think that might have more to do with the hours of graft and pennies invested in making her a safe reliable car than the wash and Hoover. 😉
Rusty, how is it landing with the changes to VED rates?
Rusty, how is it landing with the changes to VED rates?
its band K but because it’s pre March 2006 than it’s capped at £430.
Ive just renewed the insurance, £268 fully comp for 8000miles PA.
The heated seats and steering wheel are nice in this weather!
I have a 2003 2L turbo with the same tax rate....but it's not a Porsche...it's a Saab with 53k miles on it, just run in, Mint (family owned:) but the tax:(
If you want a change I'll swap for a year 🤣
because it’s pre March 2006 than it’s capped at £430.
So the 958 is a little cheaper 👍🏻
Just renewed my insurance.... £230 🤯
The only benefit of being old I guess!
Not very exciting post but 5k oil change today in MrsRNP’s 958. Also doing the fuel filter @ 5k mile intervals rather than the 10k VAG service interval. The high pressure fuel pump is vulnerable on the 3.0tdi and if it fails it sends shrapnel through the injectors and back into the fuel tank hence keeping an eye on it every 5k. A Mann filter (OEM) is £20 so it’s a low cost to keep in front of potentially writing the car off.
With the £500 XC90 I’ve cleaned and regreased all the driveshafts/CV’s. New GKN Lobro (OEM) boots fitted.
New SKF wheel bearings x4 (Volvo started life as a subsidiary of SKF bearings)
New Lemforder front control arms
Primed the top coated with Jotun.
Another win for a member of the RNP fleet, my 22 year old Peugeot Partner/Berlingo passed its MOT today (has an advisory for a rear brake line with corrosion / covered in gloopy stuff?????)
It really is the cheapest car to own, 50+mpg, no rust, decent OEM parts are dirt cheap and it’s easy to work on. Renewed its insurance @ £260.
I might go for a ride along that bike path on my next day off.
Oh no! The £500 Cayenne bangernomics is broken!…..well actually just the soft close function on the tailgate.
The tailgate is overly complicated and has a soft close function as Porsche thought that because the car is so well sealed that people would struggle to close the tailgate/boot so fitted a soft close function that draws the tailgate down. Mine started playing up this weekend and made a weird cyclical action which didn’t latch the tailgate properly.
Pulled it apart to find the connector had a corroded pin/cable, popped the terminal out of the connector, soldered the wire back to the connector. Pulled the lock mechanism apart, cleaned and regreased seeing as it’s 21years old! Sorted!
The £500 Cayenne let me down this week….work colleague Sam who was the previous long term owner of the car and the guy who sold it me (and regretted it immediately) was leaving today for pastures new.
I wanted to give him a final send off in it but on bank holiday Monday it threw a P0306 code for cylinder 6 misfire and was clearly not happy. Ordered a Beru (OEM) replacement for £27. Fitted tonight and it’s running well again.
The coil packs are all originals so can’t complain at 178k miles and 21years old. Should probably have ordered a full set but in the theme of bangernomics it just got the one. If another fails I’ll change all of them.
Small update for anyone interested in DIY maintaining a 958 Cayenne (the second bargain Cayenne I bought exactly a year ago).
MrsRNP complained that the aircon wasn’t very cold and might need ‘regassing’. I had a look and figured out the blower motor resistor had failed as the fan didnt go above setting 4.
The complete fan from Porsche is £1031, OEM is Bosch but you can only buy the left hand drive variant. RHD drive fan units are only available from aftermarket. I went with the ‘OE matching’ resistor from Design 911 for £65.
The fan is fairly easy to remove from behind the glovebox, once removed stripped the unit down, cleaned, oiled the bearings, new resistor and reassembled. I removed the Febi cabin filter the Porsche independent installed just before I bought the car and installed an OEM Mann filter instead.
Result is ice cold mega blast aircon again when you press the ‘AC MAX’ button and one happy MrsRNP!
I keep reading this thread and thinking a £500 is a great idea.
Then read
I had a look and figured out the blower motor resistor had failed as the fan didnt go above setting 4.
And
The fan is fairly easy to remove from behind the glovebox,
And decide yet again I haven't got the skills to diagnose and fix any car.
Great job RNP for stopping me buying something I can't afford to.fix.😃
I think the reason I started this thread is to show pretty much the opposite - in that it’s not particularly difficult looking after cars and that my pair of Porsche’s are DIYable despite being a premium brand. Both my 955 and the 958 are better supported information wise than my old simple Peugeot Partner.
Pelican Parts of America produce clear concise YouTube repair videos, the full 9000+ pages factory workshop manuals are available FOC online, and there’s lot of cross referencing so you don’t need to buy Porsche main dealer parts.
All my Porsche tinkering is done outside (my £500 Volvo is inside) using basic hand tools.
Admittedly I bought both Porsches cheap from work colleagues but as a result I have two fantastic cars* for £6k and over the years I’ve saved £10xthousands in PCP/garage costs by DIYing
*I know these cars are ICE dinosaurs, a BMW i3 will be in my not so distant future.
My £500 Volvo on the other hand ?………
This is probably beyond the scope of most STWers but I then might have got carried away!
The rear subframe/differential/Haldex unit is now reassembled and back in the car.
The differential was stripped because of the common failure worn front pinion bearing. Timken bearings and Corteco seals (OEM) used in its rebuild. The Haldex unit was fully stripped and cleaned. New seals and filter unit.
The subframe got all new genuine / OEM parts including subframe bushes, shocks, springs, complete handbrake mechanism, bearings, seals etc.
All surfaces cleaned, any trace of rust removed and lots of Jotun marine spec coatings applied.
Note the blue fuel line - I drilled and tapped the auxiliary fuel port when the fuel tank was removed so I can fit an Eberspacher heater.
The Volvo handbrake shoe springs are difficult so I made a tool at work to make it easier.
Financially worthwhile = no!
Better than scrapping / landfill = yes
I keep reading this thread and thinking a £500 is a great idea.Then read
I had a look and figured out the blower motor resistor had failed as the fan didnt go above setting 4.
And
The fan is fairly easy to remove from behind the glovebox
And decide yet again I haven't got the skills to diagnose and fix any car
I’ve diagnosed the same issue on my £3k skoda, the difference is a) my diagnosis is google so could be completely wrong and b) I haven’t the confidence to take buy a resistor a glove box apart, avoid an airbag, and get it back together (yet) and so just stick the blower on 4.
Wierdly I’ve just rebuilt a set of motorcycle forks so I should be able to change the part but cars seem a lot more tricky.
And the 2 previous repairs would have taken me many hours with absolutely no guarantee of success:
I wanted to give him a final send off in it but on bank holiday Monday it threw a P0306 code for cylinder 6 misfire and was clearly not happy. Ordered a Beru (OEM) replacement for £27. Fitted tonight and it’s running well again.
Pulled it apart to find the connector had a corroded pin/cable, popped the terminal out of the connector, soldered the wire back to the connector. Pulled the lock mechanism apart, cleaned and regreased seeing as it’s 21years old! Sorted!
Fair play RNP but this thread really isn't making me think 'what a doddle, why aren't I doing this'.
When you say BMW I3, is that the tiny city car or the new electric 3 series? Why have they used the same name for 2 such different cars...
Honestly - if you can tinker modern bicycles (electric shifting, droppers, bleed brakes etc) then you can DIY spanner cars!
The older i3 EV (not the REX) will be my next car. EV electronics don’t bother me (I’m used to repairing industrial inverters/drives), the body shells are carbon fibre so no rust and by all accounts they are good well built cars that have suffered heavy depreciation so perfect for my DIY ownership model!
Had RNP not blogged here but instead, bought a gopro, worn a baseball cap and earring, and vlogged on YouTube, he'd be swapping fuses and changing wraps on Bugattis but worth well over a million. Maybe.
Some of this is having the confidence (stubbornness?) to have a go. Which is all good when it goes to plan...
My Nondas radiator started getting a bit scabby where the front wheel throws up grit. No problem, can of paint, whip it out, quick refurb, job jobbed. Except...
It was a bastard to get out. The hands of a gerbil's gynaecologist were required to finagle it out plus sorting out how the various bits n bobs clipped/screwed/fitted together took tiiiime, lots of it. No matter, half a day later and the thing is back together with a nice black rad and new coolant plus the bonus of no leaks. But...
The ****ing fan no longer works. Fuse, relay, fan, wiring, grounding, continuity etc all researched and checked and all good. Turns out, the radiator temperature sensor coincidently failed during its period of liberation. Cheers. So another £50 later and fairings off again (third time), swap it out, block the hole to avoid losing £30 of new coolant than back together and test. It works - after another couple of hours of faffing on the drive and it rained today for extra pleasure.
The panic that sets in when you get to the ends of your very limited knowledge, experience and YouTube capabilities is deeply unsettling and I'm not a panicker... I think I'll go back to paying a chap. Happy to change the oil and filters but anything much more complex and I'll be a Customer thankyouverymuch. Cars or mbikes.
Honestly - if you can tinker modern bicycles (electric shifting, droppers, bleed brakes etc) then you can DIY spanner cars!
The older i3 EV (not the REX) will be my next car. EV electronics don’t bother me (I’m used to repairing industrial inverters/drives), the body shells are carbon fibre so no rust and by all accounts they are good well built cars that have suffered heavy depreciation so perfect for my DIY ownership model!
I really like the original i3 (120ah model). BMW really went all in with the design, carbon polymer shell, aluminium chassis and running gear, slimline seating and suicide doors. Proper wheel drive too. I can see a purchase at some point in the future.
I think the reason I started this thread is to show pretty much the opposite - in that it’s not particularly difficult looking after cars and that my pair of Porsche’s are DIYable despite being a premium brand
I've a friend whose had a Boxster a 911 and now an older Cayenne and he's done the vast majority of work on them himself with basic tools and all outside with no garage. He's always been able to source parts far cheaper than main dealer costs as there is as you say a lot of information available.
Had RNP not blogged here but instead, bought a gopro, worn a baseball cap and earring, and vlogged on YouTube, he'd be swapping fuses and changing wraps on Bugattis but worth well over a million. Maybe.
I'm looking forward to RNP's neck tattoo
Can we input into the design? Binners is a graphic designer isn't he? Some sort of stw/bike chainring/Portchester logo/Peugeot logo mash up inking maybe.
Can we input into the design? Binners is a graphic designer isn't he? Some sort of stw/bike chainring/Portchester logo/Peugeot logo mash up inking maybe.
Got to get some branding and merch in there too, I'm suggesting the slogan "Hard Work And Talent"
That XC90 looks like a proper project taking over the garage! Bangernomics always starts with a cheap runaround and ends up knee-deep in a rebuild. Looking forward to seeing how this links to the Porsche plans.
Well!…….it’s going (the £500 Cayenne). MrsRNP firmly said so.
The reason?….MrsRNP wanted running to a ‘do’ last night. Dressed up in her finery and make-up deftly applied she insisted on going in Greta the Cayenne as the sweltering glass box Berlingo doesn’t have AC.
5 minutes later with make-up sliding off her face the Cayenne showed no signs of cooling down. On arrival the sweating and flustered MrsRNP slammed the door shut and me and Greta skulked home.
The AC had been working okay but I noticed it occasionally didn’t engage immediately when selected. The code reader didn’t find any codes but I noticed the interior temperature sensor was showing 2degreeC. All other values were correct. A read of a few Porsche forums found that the AC wont engage if the temperature is below 3c in order to prevent the unit icing. Disconnecting the sensor has resulted in the AC working again and a new sensor has been ordered for £11.
Greta and my marriage survives……
That was a good 'spot'. Some great work going on there. I can do basics, oil changes, brakes etc, changing sensors, but I don't have all the tools. I did keep my last car for over 20 years, and the garage only did big stuff like shocks and an ac radiator/pipe. One of the main things I've found, if you like to keep your cars, as well as regular oil changes etc, is keep a close eye on the suspension and sub frame on any vehicle, and coat it with a rust preventative.
Don't go using a 'black' wax type undercoat unless you have no rust under it - rust will carry on un-noticed - a clear coating, or a full refurb like you've done !
when the XC90 is done and the Cayenne swops places with it and gets some tinkering time - im going to iceblast (co2 shotblast) the underside. We have a co2 machine at work so know the score with the process and it’s becoming a bit more popular now with more places doing it (unfortunetly I can’t do mine at work!).
Id then apply Jotun mastic in situ without stripping everything down like I did for the Volvo.
The older i3 EV (not the REX) will be my next car. EV electronics don’t bother me (I’m used to repairing industrial inverters/drives), the body shells are carbon fibre so no rust and by all accounts they are good well built cars that have suffered heavy depreciation so perfect for my DIY ownership model!
I had an i3s for three years on lease and it was a lovely little thing. A great deal of thought clearly went in to the design and there's loads more room in the cabin than you'd expect. Get the S is possible, more of a go cart with it's wider stance.
