Speedo bulb replacement

I noticed that the left side of my speedo wasn’t as bright as the right side, so I did a bit of research and asked a few friends (all 993 owners of course ;-) on how best to go about changing an instrument bulb. 

In short, it’s best to check what bulb is blown first. The fitting type is B8.4D, and it’s likely to be either 12V 0.9W or 12V 1.5W. Both bulbs are available from Porsche (96464192000 and 99963102790, Fits: Porsche 964 1989-94 and Porsche 993 1995-98). 
Lots of people have upgraded to LED bulbs (given their brighter and whiter appearance) but I wanted to keep the gauges stock as I actually quite like the retro look! Superbrightled.com comes highly recommended though if you're into the modern look.
 
First things first - removing the speedo. They can be pressed in quite tightly so you’ll need to carefully work them out - I bought myself a Car Trim Removal Tool Kit so as not to damage the dash or the gauge. Simply get behind the rubber seal and apply some pressure to ease it out. Take your time, and like me you'll probably work your way through a few tools before you find the right one. Once loose, you can simply unclip the wiring block at the back of the speedo to fully release it. 
The culprit was a 1.5W bulb (ALBA) - in fact all 3 bulbs were exactly the same. So instead of ordering from Porsche (minimum order of 5 is £50.88 inc VAT!!!) I spotted these Osram equivalents for a fraction of the price. Bargain! I took the opportunity to change all 3. 
One tip - I’d advise against using a small flat head screwdriver to turn the bulb, as the plastic base isn’t all that hard so the head of the screwdriver will cut into it. Instead use a 6mm socket on a straight handle, push down and then turn - it makes life so much easier. 
Another little job done! And I’ve got enough spare bulbs to last me a lifetime ;-)

Blip time!

Sometimes you just have to scratch an itch. I've always wanted a set of these. Once again inspired by Singer and what they use in their cars, I went for the 3-piece Rennline Rev2 pedals with fully adjustable accelerator. In black billet aluminium / stainless steel, to match my black Prototipo steering wheel.

The accelerator is described as an "industry first" solving the problem of the 911 pedal being located on a much lower plane than the brake - improving heel-and-toe and stopping your shoe catching on the edge of the brake pedal. They also come with these neat little colour-coded extensions (removable and adjustable) to increase the width of the pedal, making it easier to ‘blip’ the throttle.  

Time to now practice my heel-and-toe technique! And it's good to know that I can make my own adjustments as I see fit - the pedal can be adjusted in any direction, not only for height and depth, but also laterally and angularly. Handy!

Supplied by Design 911 (UK)

RENNLINE REV2 3 PIECE PEDAL SET RUBBER GRIP / MAN / BLACK

A122P60BLKBLK 

Was £300.00 Now £285.00

Things I learnt. 

Be prepared to buy a couple factory bits, which don't come in the set. The instructions state that ‘for 993 cars, remove the ball socket from the factory linkage and install on supplied unit’. That said, the ball socket on my car (the white plastic bit) was NOT removable from the original linkage and therefore not compatible with the new one. The bits you’ll need are as follows (circled below): 

P91142314700 N/STK BALL SOCKET £3.96

P90016901401 N/STK SECURING CLIP £2.92

The accelerator, brake and clutch are the same for LHD and RHD (when you can't find RHD sets on Design 911 website ;-). 

Not a DIY job for me - not the sort of thing you want to go wrong, so strongly advise to get them fitted by a qualified technician.

Matching Dead Pedal and Floorboard looked a bit too extreme for me in a relatively stock car, so I went for the 3-piece pedal set only. 

Given it rains a lot in the UK, the rubber grips will come into use - that said, they can be removed to give a smooth pedal surface, if you’re into that sort of thing ;-)

And, thanks to Ray at Northway Porsche and the Technical Support Specialists at Rennline Automotive (US) who were super responsive on email and very helpful (orders@rennline.com).

Finally, Centre Gravity…

There’s something to be said about people who spend their life dedicated to one thing. Chris is one of those people, and his thing is suspension. He’s also a Porsche guy and primarily works on Porsches. Bonus. I’ve been meaning to visit Centre Gravity ever since I got my car in 2013, so it was a pleasure to finally meet him, and his number 2, and son-in-law, Pete. Not to mention his daughter Holly and wife Jane, who work on the office side of things - a truly family run business!

My first visit consisted of a Health Check - the objective is to benchmark the car’s handling against the original factory set-up, which inevitably changes after all the years of works, and wear/tear to components like the bushes and ball joints. It includes a full mechanical inspection, a road test where Chris drives the car under a variety of conditions, and of course the use of their state of the art geometry kit. Once all the tests are complete you discuss what needs replacing and what geometry adjustments are required to suit your driving style. Even though my car was already running Bilsteins with H&R springs, and was riding lower than standard ride height, I learnt that my car was far from where it should be - a bit erratic, a bit ‘darty’, prone to oversteer, due to geometry, and with some unnecessary ‘play’ in the suspension, due to worn components. So, it wasn't bad, but there was definitely room for some improvements. I booked in for the full treatment!

For more information of the Health Check check Renn Eleven’s vlog; ‘The best Porsche suspension maestros in the UK?’

Here's the list of works for my return visit and since part of the experience is being able to watch and learn whilst the work is being carried out, I jumped at the chance of sticking around for the day...

1) (Approx 1hr) Remove front wishbones, de-bush front forward bushes and replace with Super Pro’s (which have a lifetime guarantee by the way!) to eliminate ‘play’ in the front of the car. 

2) (Approx 1hr) Replace rear right control arm with a refurbished Hartech one - in essence, they are OEM arms that have been re-bushed and re-ball jointed and are 'like new'. In Chris’ experience they are the same quality as a 'new' OEM arm, but at a fraction of the price.

3) (Approx 1hr) Remove and strengthen 2x steering dampers (on the ZF steering rack - which Chris describes as a “Jewel” of engineering). Over time, these rubber isolated parts will deteriorate again, so this is an upgrade to 'RS-fy' the steering, by welding the existing rod ends, removing any play from the steering system.

Before / After:

4) (Approx 3-5hr) Full geometry. Chris was open to discuss requirements and explained to me the pros and cons of lowering my car further - I've always wanted to lose the 'air' between the top of the tyre and bottom of the arch. The brief was to achieve that aesthetic, one which closely related to RS, whilst maintaining a geometry that is optimised for road use. Obviously, the lower you go the more it negatively affects the camber - which is great for racing drivers, but not optimal for my road use, so I had to make a slight compromise on the rear camber. Below is my final geometry, with factory specs for comparison. I'm running RS-1mm on the front and RS-10mm on the rear, with a rear camber of -2deg, compared to a factory standard maximum camber on the rear of -1.25deg. Judging by the car’s performance on the test drive the rear grip seems perfect and Chris says won’t adversely affect stability on roads. Admittedly the ride is a tad bumpier than before, primarily due to the loss of front ride height and the limiting travel to the internal bump stops - this in effect increases the front spring rate. And there's noteably a little increase in the rear tyre stiffness as the extra negative camber places extra load on the inner side wall and shoulder as well as increasing the lateral camber thrust. So over bumps I can expect a little more thud and wiggle, and perhaps some accelerated wear on the inner edges of those rear tyres - but, all in all, I love the lowered look on 993s and it’s also reassuring to know that if I get the chance to push the car to its limits, whether that's an advanced driving course or track day, it will be more than capable ;-)

Worth noting, that we decided to avoid anything unnecessarily costly - for example, some people like to get into replacing the 'wheel carriers' (with RS front uprights + Tie Rods) to eliminate bump steer, but for my requirements Chris advised against this. And it wasn't necessary to replace the other rear control arm to match the new one. Since only the ball joint had failed, Chris replaces the new bush in the Hartech arm with the old bush to eliminate bias on the other side of the car. 

It was a long day in the end. I arrived at 8.30am and left about 10pm. But what a thoroughly enjoyable and educational experience. I loved seeing the improvements being made to my car and learning about the science of geometry in the meantime. The test drive after all the work had been done was awesome - it felt like a different car - smooth, tight, direct, predictable, planted and for sure stickier on hard cornering. And it looked great too. Thanks to Chris and his 10,000 hours experience. A true expert. I highly recommend Centre Gravity. Just be prepared to make tea for him - white, one sugar ;-)

Sadly, the drive home was dark, wet and windy, so I didn't get the chance to take any decent photos or have a proper drive - can't wait for the next time I'm out...

Blowing cold...(part 2)

I heard a nasty whirring sound from the air-con unit when blowing cold. But those Denso compressors cost a small fortune from Porsche so went to Andy at A.C.R. in Chertsey to have the unit refurbished for a fraction of the cost - £150, which is a bargain! He said that the black oil wasn’t a good sign and that the entire system would need flushing to ensure there's no debris left in it. He also recommended changing the filter drier / accumulator, and to check the expansion values. Off to Northways to refit and regas :-)

Short Shift + Shift Rod

The gear shift on the 993 is okay, but not great, and I've always liked the idea of upgrading to an RS short shift, so I went ahead and did it. I stumbled across this great write up from The Jackel here. 

I spoke to Gert about it and he said that the RS shifter will only reduce the throw, so for more precise shifting it's best to install new bushings in the shifter mechanism and change the shifter rod to one with a steel joint like the one from the 993RS.

Worth noting that the RS shift lever is longer downwards from its pivot point, so it can protrude below the underside of the car - but by simply turning the plastic bush through 180 degree (see pic below from Jackel's post), everything lines up again, avoiding any cutting of the transmission tunnel undertray. Paul at Northway opted not to do this, as he knew I didn't want the gear shifter to sit higher inside the car - for me it feels nicer to shift when it's squat. That's why some people like to cut approx. an inch off the gear shifter to retain the original height and not mess up the look of the leather boot. But instead of cutting the shifter, we left it as is and had Tyrone modify the undertray to cover the exposed ball joint, making it less vulnerable to being struck, and to help keep the water out. Neat job!

As expected, it feels good - it's subtle, but it definitively makes a difference to the precision, feel, throw (approx. 20%) and overall feel you get from the shifting, and in the grand scheme of things isn't that expensive to do. Below is the part list from Carnewal...

P93104-C2 short shift kit C2/C2S : 145 euro4x  999.924.002.40 Bush : 2 euro/ea = 8 euro964.424.020.82  Gear shift rod RS : 600 euroP93012 Cup strut brace : 225 euroShipping  ; 15 euroTotal : 993+21%vat = 1201,53 euro

Oh, and I took the opportunity to get a Cup Strut Brace too, so had that fitted at the same time :-)

Bad boys...

Jamie's new toy. 9 6 4, 3 . 6, T U R B O in B L A C K. Say no more...

Spacers...

...I started to wonder if my front wheels could do with some spacers...just to nudge them out a bit. Having investigated, my front wheels are actually 18" X 7.5" (ET 50mm) - so likely to have been taken off a 996 as the standard width for a 993 from factory was 8", and my rear wheels are 18" X 10" (ET 50mm) which are as they should be. I spoke to Gert and Chris at Centre Gravity and the general consensus is not to exceed 5mm spacers without having to change the studs. Some are happy to run 7mm, but apparently not advisable as doesn't leave much on the thread. Anything more than that, then you're looking into changing studs, which means you'll need to remove discs and calipers - obviously a bigger job, which I wasn't keen on doing. So to keep things simple I gave the 5mm spacers a whirl and they worked out pretty well - a small nudge but definitely noticeable!

4x 5mm spacers at 40 euro each  = 160 euro

Shipping is 15 euro

Total : 175+21%vat = 211,75 euro