Wheel Alignment

[Christopher Caraway]

I used to have stock 17" wheels on my Carrera 4 and although the rear tires wore faster than the fronts as expected, they wore relatively evenly with the insides slightly more. About a year ago ~10k miles ago I upgraded to 18" hollow spoke twists. The other day when I went to the dealership to get a couple of key fobs programmed, the tech noticed I was showing cord on the inside of the tires. My question is, when I moved up to the slightly larger wheels, should I have had the alignment adjusted? The current setup has 295-30-18 on the rear.

On a side note, I live in the Salinas/Monterey area and don't know of any locksmiths around here that can cut a blank key blade for me. The dealership doesn't do it and they also don't know of anybody that does it. I am willing to make a trip up to San Jose if necessary. If anybody has any leads on that front it'd be appreciated. I'll also be going to San Diego soon, so if anybody knows a locksmith that can do it there too would be fine. Thanks in advance.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Christopher Caraway

[Loren]

As long as the new wheels were straight there should be no need for re-alignment.

You can try the San Jose/Santa Clara dealer -- Porsche of Stevens Creek. Won't be the cheap but they stand behind their work.

[Christopher Caraway]

Thanks Loren. I assume you're talking about an alignment from Porsche of Stevens Creek. As it stands, the car drives straight, so I will probably not get an alignment done.

As far as milling a key, does Porsche of Stevens Creek do that?

[Loren]

Thanks Loren. I assume you're talking about an alignment from Porsche of Stevens Creek. As it stands, the car drives straight, so I will probably not get an alignment done.

As far as milling a key, does Porsche of Stevens Creek do that?

I haven't been there in a few years but they did a few years ago.

[Reborn996]

Yep, they still do this at Stevens Creek Porsche. I had a new key cut for my 2001 996 there since I only received one old key with the car when I bought it. They had to program it in so I think the total labor was $125 plus the cost of the key itself. FYI

[Christopher Caraway]

Yep, they still do this at Stevens Creek Porsche. I had a new key cut for my 2001 996 there since I only received one old key with the car when I bought it. They had to program it in so I think the total labor was $125 plus the cost of the key itself. FYI

Do you by any chance know how the cost broke down. I have the blank already and I don't need the key fob programmed (if that's what you're referring to when you say programmed). Or was it $125 for the key cutting where they have to "program" the key pattern?

[Loren]

I read it as the labor was $125 (without the key cost).

[Dharn55]

My local dealer sold me a key blank cut to match mine for about $40, they did the cutting in the shop. This did not include the pill of the remote. Those I bought from Sunset and the dealer charged me 1 hour ($159) to program them. They said it was the same charge whether they did one or several as the minimum charge was one hour and it really only took about 15 minutes.

[Christopher Caraway]

Thanks for the reply, but I'm still a little confused. So the dealer sold you the key blank and cut it for $40? or was just the key blank $40? My dilemma is that I already have the alarm transmitter programmed, and I have a key blank. All I need is the key blank milled to match my current key. I have two working transmitters. Porsche of Monterey does not do key cutting. If anybody knows a local shop in the Monterey area that can mill key blanks please let me know, as the Porsche dealership would also like to know.

[flxzcat]

BMW uses a very similar key. The key cutting machine may be the same.

Paul