Bought 2002 Carrera 4S - Need Advice

[prado]

Greetings Gurus,

I finally took the plunge and bought the car. Its parked in my garage. I keep gaping at it. It stares back. I feel we have a connection there.

1. I bought a warranty through the dealer for 3 years or till the car reaches 100K miles from aswarranty. Has anyone had experience with them. I have the platinum coverage which includes everything except wear / tear.

2. How hard is it to replace a bulb in the headlight (found out one of the bulbs - not headbeams / not xenon - but I guess a courtesy light?? that sits on the outside corner of the light assembly is not working).

3. I want to put the non smokers kit on..I found the tray..wanted to know if I can plug the cig liter with some cap.

4. I have a feeling that the battery is weak. Anytime I start the car, I see the amp meter going down all the way - once its startes it hovers around the 13-14 amp mark. - is this normal.

Thanks

Prad

[jmj996]

Greetings Gurus,

I finally took the plunge and bought the car. Its parked in my garage. I keep gaping at it. It stares back. I feel we have a connection there.

1. I bought a warranty through the dealer for 3 years or till the car reaches 100K miles from aswarranty. Has anyone had experience with them. I have the platinum coverage which includes everything except wear / tear.

2. How hard is it to replace a bulb in the headlight (found out one of the bulbs - not headbeams / not xenon - but I guess a courtesy light?? that sits on the outside corner of the light assembly is not working).

3. I want to put the non smokers kit on..I found the tray..wanted to know if I can plug the cig liter with some cap.

4. I have a feeling that the battery is weak. Anytime I start the car, I see the amp meter going down all the way - once its startes it hovers around the 13-14 amp mark. - is this normal.

Thanks

Prad

Congratulations!! :jump: A widebody 4s is really much more appealing than a narrow-body, I wish they were all built that way.

On the warranty, it sounds like you'll be in good shape (you say dealer - do you mean a Porsche dealer?). With any warranty, the Porsche service manager should take care of everything for you and just present you with a bill for the deductible at the end. I used Warranty Direct, and a few things I learned to watch out for in extended warranties were (1) if something goes bad and you can put off the work without risking damage or seriously inconveniencing yourself, wait it out, because something else could (will) eventually need to be done and if you can combine it all at once, you will only pay the deductible that one time. Another related lesson here is that if you do take it in for warranty work, ask the dealer to go over it with a fine tooth comb and get anything else fixed that would be covered. (2) Warranty Direct did not cover the full Porsche hourly labor rate, and the dealer wouldn't accept the rate they tried to negotiate, so I ended up having to pay the difference (and I was in a location where there just weren't any alternatives). If you are in a location that does have a good independent shop with a lower labor rate, it could be worth checking them out and asking them in advance if they have worked with this warranty company.

Non-smoker's kit - our 986 already had it as a factory option and it did have a factory plastic plug with an image of a ghostbuster-looking crossed-out circle over a burning cigarette. It wasn't worth having, and in our case wasn't even used most of the time since we had a phone charger plugged into it. I have a 996 that I added the non-smoker tray to, but the 'kit' did not come with this OEM plastic plug and I just leave the original cigarette lighter in there because it doesn't stick out any more than the plastic plug did. You wouldn't want any other type of more permanent plug because that's your only interior 12V power source. Even if you don't need it to charge a phone or other device, you need to have it available in the event of a dead battery, in order to easily connect a power source to your car to unlock the front trunk to get at the battery.

Battery - you may actually have the original battery. My OEM battery lasted seven years. Since Porsche batteries are not in the engine compartment, they last longer than batteries in other cars where the battery must endure heat cycles. You should see 13-14 volts, that's good, especially at idle. If you really think it's on its last leg, replace it before it becomes a problem, or it could be a big hassle (since as I mentioned above, if it goes completely dead, your trunk will be inaccessible until you can connect a power source to unlock it). If you don't need a lot of cold cranking amps, consider a smaller battery. There are three different size mounting points for the battery. My original battery was a monster - the replacement Interstate battery was 2/3 the size so it was much lighter, bolted right in using a different hole, and I believe it claims to have the same cranking amps (seven years of technology changes in batteries may actually make that possible in a smaller battery). If you want to take advantage of a weight-saving opportunity, take a look at the modern ultra-light batteries, but consider that there are some tradeoffs with these batteries (i.e. don't hold a charge quite as long).

[PeterC4]

Congradulations on the car. I too recently purchased a C4S Cab, 2004. Its an excellent lookng car.

[zdr2k]

Greetings Gurus,

I finally took the plunge and bought the car. Its parked in my garage. I keep gaping at it. It stares back. I feel we have a connection there.

1. I bought a warranty through the dealer for 3 years or till the car reaches 100K miles from aswarranty. Has anyone had experience with them. I have the platinum coverage which includes everything except wear / tear.

2. How hard is it to replace a bulb in the headlight (found out one of the bulbs - not headbeams / not xenon - but I guess a courtesy light?? that sits on the outside corner of the light assembly is not working).

3. I want to put the non smokers kit on..I found the tray..wanted to know if I can plug the cig liter with some cap.

4. I have a feeling that the battery is weak. Anytime I start the car, I see the amp meter going down all the way - once its startes it hovers around the 13-14 amp mark. - is this normal.

Thanks

Prad

Nice and I agree, widebodies look better than Narrow.

On the battery, if you will be replacing, go with an Optima battery. There is a DIY on this board.

[prado]

I see loren suggests something from AutoZone? Whats the basic difference between the optima / autozone one? Also which one is the easiest to change, I want to try avoiding modifications if I can.

[Loren]

If you use the Autozone (Johnson Controls) battery it is plug 'n play.

If you go with the Optima battery you will need to fabricate a new mounting plate. There is a DIY on this in the 996 DIY area.

[rpf996]

Congratulations on the car. I also live on Long Island & recently(6/18/07) purchased on 02 carrera 2, with the as warranty. I feel the same way about the car as you do. I have heard good things about the warranty company but luckily have not needed to use it. There is a great tuner in Freeport, Bill Rudtner, he is in the book. He is a Porsche tuner & racer & I took my car to him for a thorough inspection. I am now on scheduled maintanence with Rudtner & he told me any warranty claim can be processed through his shop. Good Luck.

[eben]

The little bulb is Halogen and will cost about 20 bucks at the dealer. I think it was called H6? I couldn't find one anywhere else.

The owners manual shows how to remove the light assembly with the tool. The bulb is quite easy to swap with the light out on your lap. Don't touch the glass of the new bulb when you put it in.

I got a gift recently that nicely fills the cig lighter hole. It is a Porsche LED rechargeable small flashlight.

I also use the lighter hole for my keep alive auto trickle charger if I am not going to drive the car for a few days. It went dead on me once in about 8 days.

and oh yeah, wide is good