Purchasing a 89 Carrera and have some questions about the undercarriage w/PICS

[rxtrom]

Hey Pelicans,

I have been a long time lurker and am about to pull the trigger on my first air cooled Porsche. I was looking for a short time for a 3.2 and stumbled upon this G50. It is a CA car for its entire life and I am going to get a PPI done out there.

I am wondering about the black patches under the car. Attached are pictures of the undercarriage and some of the engine bay. It recently had a ton of work done on it. Is this normal? I am assuming it is from an oil leak which has since been fixed but I have no idea. Let me know if you see any other glaring issues too please.

Thanks in advance and if everything goes well I hope to see you at future meets.

[rxtrom]

This was my first thread so it kinda fell onto the second page due to a delay in approval...
Bump.

[3literpwr]

Old cosmoline?

[rxtrom]

Originally Posted by Black 993

Sure looks like a straight car to me. Engine and gearbox look especially clean, so double-check to make sure that wasn't an attempt to conceal an oil leak. The front is normal -- what you're seeing is old cosmoline, a factory-applied waxy protective coating.

Only other thing that sticks out is the RR trailing arm is nice clean aluminum while the LR looks like it's got 30 years of road grime on it. Maybe someone stopped cleaning after just one, or maybe the RR was replaced. Looks to me like an abandoned cleaning job, but worth a second look.

Good eye on the trailing arm. I did not see that. Thanks. I am assuming the oil leak would be detected if any during a PPI?

[Cory M]

all of the black residue on the front of the car is strange, maybe a fuel leak but I would expect it to evaporate and not leave such a mess

[LUFTKUL]

Unusual place for that kind of stain. At first, I thought a fire, like parking under dry grass, but that doesn't make sense with the skid plate covering the fuel pump and the definitive stain lines kind of rule that out.

Or, the whole pan was really dirty and they just gave up on cleaning the entire pan. Looks like same stain beginning at the trans mounts.

I would not expect clutch/brake fluid or fuel to stain like that.

[billh1963]

Car looks very straight to me.

That black around the front wouldn't bother me...I think it's cosmoline

The trailing arm is interesting. I agree that it's probably a half hearted detailing attempt.

The tires look old...that have that "shine" on the tread that tires get when they get old and hard

[McLovin]

The black residue is normal. Like said above by a few, it's a protective undercoating applied at the factory, Cosmoline or something similar.

It's been removed from several places in the rear of the car. It normally would have been on the transmission and other places.

It's odd that one trailing arm still has it and the other doesn't. It's possible the clean one is a replacement, but I think more likely someone spent a few hours cleaning one of them, came to their senses, and gave up.

[A horse with no name]

Originally Posted by rxtrom

Good eye on the trailing arm. I did not see that. Thanks. I am assuming the oil leak would be detected if any during a PPI?

I would say that you have found a very clean car. It's a very Californian looking car by the looks of its undercarriage.


I would go with what most have stated - Cosmoline. When I detailed the rear suspension and motor of our Carrera, it was not oily, it just had lots of Cosmoline on everything, such as the banana arms. Being that you have one that is clean, as already stated, either someone gave up on cleaning the other one or it has been replaced.

By the looks of the motor and transmission, I would tend to think that he may have gave up on it as it is not a very easy product to remove. Lots of scraping was invoved to remove the stuff. After using solvents, including using a SS wire brush attachment on a drill, I finished ours off with 400 wet & dry.

[rxtrom]

Thank you all for your help and feedback. I scheduled the PPI for next week and hope to gain more positive feedback overall and pull the trigger on this.. I will update the thread in the coming days.

[DRACO A5OG]

Whoa, super clean. Do not worry about the black area. Heck I painted mine white to match the paint.

I am intrigued by that bar on the gear box to exhaust cross over pipe. anyone else have that?

[A horse with no name]

Hi J...Are you referring to the aluminum cross bar for the transmission?
If so, I also was unaware that the newer Carrera's had them...Interesting.


Ops!...I have never seen that small support bar by the heat shield before either. It appears to be a support for the...Exhaust?

[Bill Douglas]

Yes it's a nice looking car, but I also would be concerned about what the recent steam cleaning is hiding.

A spirited drive of 50 miles then get it up on a hoist and look to see where it's leaking.

[Discseven]

Good luck with that RX! Good looking car. Agree with Bill ^^^ that it looks steamed and needs a run & lift-to-see.

[amg463]

About to buy this from Rob, thanks for letting me know about it!

[tholyoak]

Cross bar from the exhaust to the trans is stock on a G50 Carrera. I assume it helps support the weight of the exhaust system.

Todd

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Whoa, super clean. Do not worry about the black area. Heck I painted mine white to match the paint.

I am intrigued by that bar on the gear box to exhaust cross over pipe. anyone else have that?

[TargaTony]

Originally Posted by tholyoak

Cross bar from the exhaust to the trans is stock on a G50 Carrera. I assume it helps support the weight of the exhaust system.

Todd

I have an '87 with the G50 and I don't have that bar. Maybe that was only an '88-'89 item? I do however have the same black spots on the undercarriage.

[kuba_kuba]

No support bar on my '88... black areas are the same though.

[spyerx]

Underbody looks normal. That's cosmoline
Engine and trans have none which means either detailed really well OR they've been opened. But case has split tubes so probably not split case.
Not that it's a bad thing.
Car looks really clean, like mine after I had it steam cleaned at Dr. Detail in Costa Mesa.
AC compresser is replaced it looks like and running 134. Just FYI, not necessarily bad.
Good luck!

[MaRu]

It looks that good because it was dry ice cleaned.