Here’s a important maintenance bulletin for Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera owners.
Later Carrera models have jacking points fitted front and rear, to help get the car off the ground at tyre depots and on two-post garage lifts. Those jacking points were useful in the early life of the cars but nowadays are a rust trap. A quick look at their locations tells you why.
The picture above shows the front jacking point. Here we can see that the road debris thrown up by the front wheels blasts the undercoat and stone chip protection from the metal, with obvious rusty consequences. This is also an area where mud and grit can collect inside, with the trapped mud rusting out the leading edge of the floor. It’s a tedious and time-consuming repair: best to ensure it never needs doing.
The rear points (seen below) are ahead of the rear wheels, so slightly better off, but you can see that even on this very late and low-ish mile 3.2, rot has already set in. The anti-roll bar mount above has already been weld repaired but is again looking rusty. Rear arb mounts are a classic weak spot on impact bumper 911s.
Best way of looking after these areas is scraping off any loose underseal, getting back to nice clean metal and then rust proofing, zinc primering, and paint/epoxy primering with a good dose of fresh underseal. A regular protective coat of Waxoyl or similar around the internal surfaces does them no harm at all.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Best to avoid using them as jacking points, too. Often see ones that have caved in.
If they are solid then I think use them: jacking up an impact bumper 911 is a pain in the arse otherwise. But have a good look at them first.
It's easy to get a rubber pad for your trolley jack, which protects the protection!