Looking at a Carrera in a few days..

[Bo]

... and I have a few questions that I wonder if someone's got answers to:

The car in question is a US 1986 Cabriolet, with 75K miles on it.

- Did Carreras in 1986 have stainless steel exhaust systems and heat exchangers? Or should I be on the lookout for rust?

- Any particular spots on the body I should worry about corrosion on? (except for around the fuel filler and under the battery)

- Are worn valve guides easily detected?

- Should I be concerned if I see white smoke on a 3.2 engine? (the owner say there's none..)

Anything else that is Cabriolet-related I should know? It's my first Cabriolet, so I'm kind of a novice there

[Stuttgart951]

If a stainless steel exhaust system is installed, its aftermarket. Rust on the exhaust is one thing, but you shouldnt find any on the body, I'd walk if you do.

Common spots for corrosion are the headlight surrounds and under the rubber "smile" on the nose.

Worn valve guides are a hit or miss kind of thing. A car with 75,000 miles would probably have had this situation found by now if it exists. I good way to check is to look for smoke out th eback of the car under engine braking (slowing down - car in gear).

A little smoke on startup is nothing to worry about, prolonged smoke on startup may be problematic, and smoke while on the road is an indicator to find another car.

Good luck!

[dickster]

a couple of other spots i found rust on some cars:

sill kick plate area
door lock striker plate area
jack up point (sill)
around repeater lights on front fenders

look for damage in front of luggage compartment (creases) and damage to rear bumper shocks/mounts

make sure hood doesnt leak - give it a hose down.

[Rot 911]

Uh some good and some bad information there Michael. First the heat exchangers are a stainless steel alloy, just not up to SSI quality and the muffler can either be aluminum coated or a stainless alloy. In any event I would be greatly surprised for an '86 Carrera to have rust on either the exchanges or the muffler. However they will probably be pretty stained from oil, dirt, etc. And as Michael pointed out points for corrosion on the SC's and Carreras are the headlight surrounds and the rubber smile under the front of the hood lid, if you see rust there that means somewhere along the line the zinc coating on the body was compromised, possibly from a wreck. Actually if you see rust anywhere on an '86 body you should be very cautious about purchasing the car. Also as Michael pointed out, smoke on start up is normal. Without pulling the valve covers and actually trying to move the valves from side to side you can't easily tell if you have guide wear. Try running the car up to 4000 rpm in 4th gear going down a hill and let off the gas and look in the rear view mirror. If you see smoke you probably have guide wear on one or more of the INTAKE valve guides. You can have guide wear on an EXHAUST guide and never know it by running the engine as the excess oil is just pumped out with the exhaust and not burned.

[ChrisL]

I think the original heat exchangers had steel pipes but stainless surrounds. This picture shows pretty well what corrodes and what just gets dirty (new hardware, but otherwise original). It's a 3.2 Carrera btw.

Chris.

[Paul Franssen]

I didn't catch where you are from, or rather... the car (and if it spent all it's life "there"). But, over and in addition to what others already wrote, I would add just a few pointers:

1- Zinc coating has a finite life. The original Porsche anti-rust guarantee for a Carrera was 10 years. And beyond that, it's any one's guess.

2- Porsches have a very good to excellent reputation as regards resistance to rust. But if the Carrera spent it's life in a salt-in-winter part of the world, or was parked outside...beware. After all, the car's more'n 15 years old.

3- Jack points, doorsills: good points to check. Jack the car up and see if the jack point seems sturdy.

4-Scare story: (After having experienced rust around the jack points) I removed both front wings, and there were actual (big) rust holes in the steelsheet sides of the luggage compartment. Nothing most "structural", but ...verrry disturbing, you know. I had it fixed, at great expense. Such rust damage cannot be spotted without first physically removing the wings, so...rust is a scary matter, be warned!

My car with 130G miles is running just fine. Lovely car. Oh year, there's some noise from the valves, but no smoke, and all appears well.

Good luck and "check before you fix"!

[Sonic dB]

I recently purchased an 86 that had a few tiny rust spots. The most obvious was at the bottom of the windshield post on the passenger side. There were also 2 spots inside the passenger side door panel and one on the drivers side door panel. I ground all of these out and primed and repainted over the weekend. It doesnt look perfect, but its better than before and the rust is gone.

My car lived most of its life in Hawaii...salt air.