I had some odd jobs done on the car this week. I had noticed a clonking noise which was annoying as I thought I had replaced the likely culprits. A new tuning fork on the passenger side fixed that. As part of the work done, I also got an alignment. My steering wheel is straight again! Amazing.
On hot days, I had also noticed the clutch had a horrible squeak. I had hoped this would simply be a case of lubricating the pivot points in the pedal. This appeared to work for a bit but then the noise came back far worse. Having done some research, I found that the clutch helper spring (a spring in a casing that pivots on the pedal when pressed to provide assistance to the weak-legged individual) might be the cause of the noise and slightly rough pedal operation. You can see it in operation in this YouTube video.
The garage couldn’t find a fault, but I asked them to go ahead and replace it. Huge difference, to me anyway. Pedal is far smoother. Wasn’t that expensive and £ for £, one of the better things I’ve done to the car.
I also had a new engine undertray fitted and some exhaust flange bolts replaced. Boring.
So after nine months and only 3000 miles, not much has gone wrong. I’m pleased with what I’ve done so far.
Every 996 should have the following checked and probably replaced straight away, in my opinion:
- All suspension arms, the parts are not that expensive
- Clutch spring (my new favourite thing)
- A properly done alignment
Oh and if you can, run it on BP Supreme+ 99 petrol and as we’re all paying £2 a litre it may as well be for the good stuff. (I hope I one day re-read this page and think £2 a litre, those were bad times… one can dream…)