New 964 Owner with Questions (1992 C2)

Hi everyone,

I just bought a 92 C2 with 36,000 miles. I love the car and had a few questions about it, mainly dealing with how to recognize when the known 964 problems occur.

My understanding is that the 92 has the cylinder head gaskets. I though it also did NOT have the dual mass fly wheel, but a previous message stated that these were used until May 1992 production.

Does anyone know how I can determine whether mine has the dual mass fly wheel? If my car does have this, how can I tell if it's failed when I'm driving?

The prior owner added the distributor vent kit update but only a year ago. How can I tell if the distributor belt has failed when I'm driving?

I wasn't aware of the gasket problems with the steering wheel pump. How can I check to see if I have this problem?

I knew about most of the potential 964 problems before I bought the car. My main concern is that if something fails, I don't recognize it and continue to drive the car, and then that leads to other damage.

Also, please feel free to post any other advice or useful information about the 964.

Thanks for any help!

Drew:

I'm the one who posted about the 964 problems..I didn't mean to scare you (or anyone else). I'm considering a 964s myself. Let me clarify a few things for you:

1. You DO have the modified cylinder head 964 with gaskets. The leaks only showed up on a small percentage of the early 964s. Eventually they will all leak, but on one of the "bad" 964s, you'd know it...you'll see oil dripping on the ground and when you turn the heat on you will smell oil. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you...and a carefull buyer of an early 964 probably won't need to worry about it either IF he gets the car checked out properly before buying it.

2. As far as the dual mass flywheel goes, ALL 964s have them (EXCEPT RS-America's and possibly the turbos and American Roadsters), but Porsche changed brands from Freudenberg to LUK, with the LUK being the more reliable of the two. If you have all the documentation on your car, you may have a receipt for what appears to be a clutch replacement, but it MAY mention something about an "RS America" upgrade. A common solution to get rid of the dual mass flywheel is to replace it with a "standard" flywheel and clutch from an RS-America...if this has happened to your car then you have little to worry about. Otherwise you likely have the LUK flywheel. For what it's worth the flywheel change was made in May of 1992 starting with engine number 62 N 01738 (which is a 1993 model code I think). The dual mass flywheel problem seems to be erratic...some cars failed within a few thousand miles of leaving the dealers lot for the first time, some have lasted much, much longer (I know of one with over 100K miles on it). A common sense approach (in my opinion) would be to go over the potential of a dual mass flywheel failure with a Porsche repair shop...they can explain it better than me, and find out what the symptoms are and how often they REALLY fail. You may very well luck out and just be able to replace the dual mass flywheel when the clutch needs to get replaced, but the RS-America option is a little noisy.

3. If the previous owner had the vent kit installed he probably did it because he was a good owner, it was done under warranty, or the belt did break. If you have the receipts, call the place up that did the service and see if they replaced the belt as part of the upgrade...I know I would. You could also have this checked or done at the time you get the car serviced..it's not major. If it fails when you drive it, it simply depends on what happens to the rotor in the belt driven distributor...I believe it can range from a slight loss of power (indicating the belt driven distributor has it's rotor AWAY from an electrical contact) to backfiring, surging, cutout, etc (indicating the rotor is sitting on top of a contact and continually firing a spark plug into a single cylinder for every single piston that would normally be fired). What I'm saying here is quite speculative. Talk to a Porsche service place as they will be able to describe it in better detail than I will (and this post is already getting too long).

4. The steering wheel pump problems are showing up on the older (90-91) cars with high miles. Just check the fluid occasionally and pay attention if it starts going down or you start seeing leaks. Rubber ages with time so it may be a problem but I was told this was showing up on cars with 80K or greater miles.

Good luck, and enjoy your car,

Bill Wagner

[This message has been edited by Bill Wagner (edited 09-12-2000).]