Living With a 944

[IMPI]

As You all know from my Cape trip I bought an '83 944 last year. The car isnt perfect but gives quite a big smile on my face each time I drive it It has been due for a major service and like all good mechanics I know exactly when things are to be fixed: Well it is that time now The car left my wife stranded at Darius (my youngest) school, She was not impressed! The engine swings but no spark.
GOOGLE was my friend and three possibilities came out
DME relay (strangely we have lots of from the DMR which is the mining part of government Must have something in common.
This was easily bypassed using a jumper cable The pump ran so now its still not working
I then checked the speed and reference sensors they seemed to be working but when I touched the Cables the insulation and plugs Just crumbled. If they werent broken before they definitely are now. Quite Pricey but I will live with it They clearly are the originals to the car and having lasted 28 years I suppose its time (they cost R900 each and there is Two) I am still waiting for them from Porsche Guy.
Lastly it seems that the controll box for the FI also packs up and mostly deu to a dry joint on one of the transistors. I will find an electronics person to re solder the joints whilst I am at it.

The rest of the car has been giving good service And so far parts whilst quite expensive in terms of Aircooled prices seems to be on Par with and even slightly cheaper than my wifes real car: an Audi a4 1.8t.

Porsche as a factory (whether by design or not I dont Know) has allowed the factory manuals and parts books to remain in Public domain. This makes it very easy to find a picture of what you are looking for info ETC.

The agents are also very helpfull and will conduct bussiness by email and also send parts to your dorstep. I recieved parts from germany within 2 weeks every time while rebuilding my 924 turbo.

Next jobs will be timeng belts, Hoses and engine mounts.
http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww36 ... M_0148.jpg
Armand

[beetlefanatic]

That's a beautiful car! Hope you find the problem quickly.

[MINCE]

Awesome dude! I love 944's!

[Klaus]

Nice guards red porker. Looks lovely

[Porscheguy]

Parts on their way!

[IMPI]

Hi recieved the parts and fitted them car is now running well
the two reference sensors was not cheap but were not hideous either
Armand

[IMPI]

Ok it was running wel and then the Alternator belt broke damn
Seems I really need to do the service
Armand

[flatfourfan]

what's the going rate on a decent 944 now? I saw one the other day with FSH for 150K and it seemed like a pretty good buy.

[Porscheguy]

For R150K it should be a S2 or Turbo.
I've seen 2.5's up to about 90K 75K is not an uncommon price for a decent '84 2.5 N/A

[IMPI]

Hi I now own a 16 conrod porsche.
Had to go fetch a few parts from my machinist today Who says Porsches are not practical
Enjoy

Armand

[Tony Z]

Hi I now own a 16 conrod porsche.[/img]
Armand

8 in the engine and 8 in the boot?
or is it 12 in the boot, 4 in the engine

[Watercool]

Porsches are not practical

I will call BS on that one. I drove the hell out of my 944, it was my only car for a long time and not a lick of trouble. Not a really good car for winters here, but with planning you can get by. The 944 is one if not the best Porsche to live with on a day to day basis. They are just a fancy Audi, and if you do your regular maintenance it will be no different than driving an Audi. Here I see tons of daily driven 944's, they are great cars.

[IMPI]

Have been planning a major service since I bought the car and magically a year has passed before I got to it
The car has had some vibration since I have had it and a strange rattle from the bottom of the car.
The rattle turned out to be an improperly fitted silencer fixed that and it was better
Horror stories on the net warned about timing belts and this was on the list as well as idlers etc
I found the cause of the vibration the balance shaft belt was broken and has been for as long as I own the car (lots of racers remove the balance shafts with no il reported effects.

the parts I replaced

The tie rods were swopped for golf 2 parts which fitted surprisingly easy
I also had to make an engine support to be able to remove the engine mounts which turned out to be broken.

the headlight motor also took this time to pack up and I now drive with the headlights up all the time
Hope porsche guy or someone has a spare
Armand

[IMPI]

Hi its been awhile but the 944 is proving to be relatively reliable now. I removed all the wires from the fusebox (one by ole LOL) and cleaned as many connections i could find. this transformed the car. Ever since I bought it the temp gage was a little higher than I liked but it ran well. I looked into replacing the radiator as the one in the car seemed to be home made with a citi golf core way too small. Porsche SA wanted R6700 and as this was steep I started looking at other options Custom copper rad R2500 but no guarantees. custom Aluminium rad R4500 but again no guarantees. Dirk AKA Porsche guy sourced one from the states for R4500 and I saved up a bit. installed it this weekend and messed up a brand new water hose due to stupidity on my part (hos runs about a cm away from Alt and the fan cut a nice slot @#$%^&*() R500 down the tubes. But that fixed sho now runs cool and this has made a great inroad on my perception about the cars reliability.
Armand

[retrovan]

Sounds good Armand,

I think one enjoys a car more if you have the feeling of trust and understanding of the car with its quirks.

After all, it is a car to Drive.....

Herman