Jerry said:Almost forgot, LED replacements from Only944 Monday. Now maybe I'll be able to see at night, next up figure out fog lights. The old headlights were two different brands and seemed pretty dim, hope these work out. Like $70 for the glass housings and LED bulbs, simple plug-n-play, a few others on my Facebook owner groups liked them.
Any details you can share? I have a 944 turbo as well (in pieces so I've never driven it) and I assume the headlights will be inadequate.
In reply to dyintorace :
Went pretty smoothly, I was concerned about 36 year old fasteners and plugs but zero issues. Even for me. $78 plus s/h.
Awesome. Thank you!
I drove it home with the AC on for the first time, around 90F in the afternoon. For 36 years old & I'm assuming original system (don't remember seeing any mention of converting) it wasn't bad at all.
I did have a scare when I was almost home & glanced at the temp gauge and where it normally barely hit the first mark, it was at about the top mark before being "overheating". It stayed up there on the highway, moved back and forth a little but stayed high. 30 min 26mile drive it didn't overheat at least.
The middle two marks are the "normal" range. My memory is getting fuzzy on these but I think they shouldn't really be hanging out on the high end long term but the needle will definitely move around some. The usual culprit is some part of the fan system but that shouldn't be relevant at speed.
Are you missing any of the aero bits or anything? Maybe at speed there's a bubble forming and keeping good airflow away from the radiator?
In reply to wae :
Not sure, everything looks "normal" unless something underneath or inside the engine compartment.
Took this when I parked at work. It normally barely moves from that bottom white line. Last week it hit that top white line or just under, and moved a bit up and down. Today's first drive since then, being cool it stayed at that bottom line. See what happens going home, but I think it's only going to be like 79F so might not use the AC anyway.
(I need to do some dusting this weekend.)
In reply to Jerry :
I had the same problem with mine, a new thermostat fixed it. the white lines are supposed to be 176F and 212F BTW.
I didn't use the AC on the way home, but by the time I was getting off my exit I noticed the temp had gotten up to that top line again anyway. Came back down, while sitting at a light I watched it go back up again then when I started off it dropped again.
Guess I need to see about a thermostat, pretty sure that recent service included an electric fan of some sort.
Leaving Cars and Coffee Saturday two guys jumped out with cameras. Found one of their photos this morning.
A month ago I took it to the local shop to have them check/replace the thermostat for the bouncing temps while driving. The tech (with 20+ yrs exp w/ Porsche and a 944 of his own) drove it around the block and immediately parked it. Some of the highlights he told me about were the balance shaft 6 degrees off and a large hole in the turbo inlet hose.
Also it apparently needed a new air oil seperator & he wanted to use genuine OEM parts, having had issues with Pelican and other aftermarket. Ok fine. Then he called and said it was an estimated 4 week wait from Germany... Cool.
Tuesday he called and said good news, everything is here a bit early and we should be done by Friday. I thought sweet, just in time for the weekend and temps returning to human levels. Friday at lunch he called and said the part was packaged/labeled properly, but the part itself was the wrong one.
That extra elbow makes a big difference. He said he has everyone he can find involved on getting it replaced, various corporate managers and customer service alike. He said he could try to make something work but suggested waiting until Monday to see what Porsche says.
I later posted on a Facebook 944 group, which was full of comments about "just replace the o rings 'their' trying to rip you off" (it isn't the o rings) and "just block off the elbow find a new shop" (I need that elbow for the turbo). But one guy said he thought he had one in good shape. He messaged me late last night with 3 photos, I'm going to see what the shop has to say.
I am starting to regret buying this car.
Welcome to vintage daily driver ownership. Hope the part works out and you've got it back on the road soon.
On basically any old German car you need to be able to do almost all the wrenching yourself. Plus know where to buy parts and have a few sources for used parts that are no longer available. When you take them into a shop to get worked on, it always ends up costing a decent amount in both time and money.
In reply to Jerry :
That's par for the course with old German cars. They're worth it.
I will say that the OE supplied parts you can get from FCP Euro/RM Euro/Pelican are totally fine to use...
In reply to docwyte :
I told the shop to buy from Pelican since Porsche still had no feedback on their screwup. But the shop warned me that Pelican and others tend to take the order and then order from local dealers. My shop had tried 8 different places he can normally score parts for old Porsche's but nothing came up.
The guy that commented he had one is selling me his spare. An old rallycross/autocross friend named Eric knows the guy and says he's legit, so Eric is picking it up from the seller at 944Fest this coming weekend, and I'll grab it on Eric's way home Sunday (or Monday). Still faster than if Germany sent me anything, and way cheaper.
So I was all set to buy the AOS from the Facebook seller when the shop called me last Wednesday at lunch "You aren't going to believe this..."
The new one, the replacement for a turbo model, the one no one at Porsche anywhere could give any updates, magically appeared at my local dealership with no warning. We decided to go with it, and I still bought the part from Facebook guy. I figured this was a lesson in stocking up on assorted E36 M3 for this car when possible.
They replaced the thermostat as I initially requested, but also : replaced both balance shaft belts and timing belt, intake boot, upper boost hose, air oil separator, turbo outlet pipe, new vacuum lines, rerouted some vacuum hoses correctly, assorted gaskets and misc crap. Plus another oil change, I mean why not I guess. $4899 and he managed to keep it under $5K I guess.
I paid $225 for the AOS from Facebook guy, apparently he's pretty well-known and tends to keep a large selection of parts. He had an LS-swapped 944 at 944Fest and a second turbo I think.
I plan to drive it to work tomorrow, weather has cooled back down again so it should be a nice drive. Driving home from the shop last week I noticed the overhead light turning on/off randomly. The next morning I saw the trunk light also on. Hm hatch doesn't pop with the key, turn key and pull. Close hatch. No more lights. Finally something cheap!
You're going to need to have the belts retensioned in something like 1000 miles. Also, reach out to Luis Artiga on FB, he runs "Larts Parts", which is a 944 turbo recycling business basically
In many cases there is a vast world of difference in quality between brand name Euro parts and genuine Porsche parts for these cars: engine mounts. I ordered big name lifetime warranty mounts from a reputable vendor. They were so bad I threw them in the trash. I searched long and hard for low mileage used ones that were literally 1 million times better. New genuine ones are about $400 each but worth it.
They are very cool cars but they are expensive to feed and care for.
In reply to docwyte :
I found him on FB and followed, thanks. Something I noticed driving to work and back yesterday was a whine sound. I assumed the turbo was finally making some boost (see hole in tubing earlier) but someone on a FB group mentioned if the balance belt is too tight it makes "that famous whine sound".
Yes, belt is too tight or the pulley is bad. Go back to the shop and have them address it right away
Saturday the Ohio Valley PCA was having a cruise in about 20-30min south of me at a big window tint place. Nice weather, figured why not.
Out of 40ish cars I was the only 944, 3rd oldest after a '77 911 and 60s model I didn't know. Millions of dollars worth of new models and I was not in their tax bracket. I was ready to leave after 30min but someone complimented my SCCA shirt so we talked.
He's in the Cincinnati region and we talked autocross for about 15min. SWMBO texted me she was at my house because we had a D&D game at 3pm with friends so I left.
Did you have the whine taken care of?
In reply to Jerry :
That's a great shot of that beautiful car!
I haven't driven this since before my surgery a few weeks ago, I was almost afraid the battery might be dead. Thought I'd try the night gas station photos thing this morning.
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