996 C4S - small rust patches, normal?
Discussion
So my search for the right car continues, and i am back looking at a nice 996 C4S cabriolet.
One thing that's made me concerned is two very small patches of rust, one in the wheel arch, where perhaps a stone has chipped the paint and water has ingress and caused some rust, and the second is paint bubbling type rust by the door sill plate / kick plate
Is this normal, ie. not a problem, or does it suggest something worse?
I haven't seen any others with rust tbh
One thing that's made me concerned is two very small patches of rust, one in the wheel arch, where perhaps a stone has chipped the paint and water has ingress and caused some rust, and the second is paint bubbling type rust by the door sill plate / kick plate
Is this normal, ie. not a problem, or does it suggest something worse?
I haven't seen any others with rust tbh
My main worry would be if the current owner can't be bothered to look after things like this, what else has'nt he bothered with. If it was me, as soon as I get a paint chip, I'll attempt to touch it in to prevent rust; if this was'nt possible, I'd get the rust treated professionally.
I had bubbling paint/rust on my 2002 996 by the kickpanels (the long length stainless kick panels were a cost option!), A design fault IMHO. Spotted it when the car was 8 years old. Porsche wouldn't cover it under the 10 year bodywork warranty........ I got the area treated by the local porsche approved bodyshop. 3 years on not found rust anywhere else on the car. Car has been garaged since buying it new in 2002, so more than a little surprised to have found any rust on the car. Alloys have needed repainting a few times over the 11 years though.
dank said:
So my search for the right car continues, and i am back looking at a nice 996 C4S cabriolet.
One thing that's made me concerned is two very small patches of rust, one in the wheel arch, where perhaps a stone has chipped the paint and water has ingress and caused some rust, and the second is paint bubbling type rust by the door sill plate / kick plate
Is this normal, ie. not a problem, or does it suggest something worse?
I haven't seen any others with rust tbh
Rust is quite uncommon with these cars.One thing that's made me concerned is two very small patches of rust, one in the wheel arch, where perhaps a stone has chipped the paint and water has ingress and caused some rust, and the second is paint bubbling type rust by the door sill plate / kick plate
Is this normal, ie. not a problem, or does it suggest something worse?
I haven't seen any others with rust tbh
The only problem area I'm aware of is where the door latch/catch plate is bolted to the body. This plate flexes and can damage the paint and give rust a foothold. The fix is to place a thin durable plastic gasket between this plate and the body -- but after repairing any corrosion that might have started -- which protects the body from further damage.
The rust you report seeing on the car you are looking at suggests to me the car has had some body damage/paint damage repairs and the rust arises from this.
This suggests the repairs are not of high quality.
Which suggests then you should look elsewhere for a car.
The rust around the metal kick plates is common just like I told you ages ago. Porsche will cover this under there paint guarrantee as long as the car has all the condition report stamps in the service book. I know that for fact as they did mine earlier in the year. If rust has been caused by a stonechip then that's life easy to get sorted. why you let others influence you from making a decision amazes me.
steve singh said:
Seen loads of 996s with rust - typically daily drivers and the around 2000 plates.
Normally around the arches and b pillar door latch plate thing.
The door latches went rusty within 2 years. I can remember looking at a couple of year old 996 back in 2001 with rusty latches.Normally around the arches and b pillar door latch plate thing.
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