K, a few questions..problems..

[Zlatko]

Wassup guys.

Ok, i bougt a Porsche 944 A week ago...because quite frankly..i wanted to be original.

And i am

But i have a few problems..and a few questions abou the car in general.

Are there many electrical issues with this car? cause my electronics seem to be very badly degraded..

-Oil Pressure guage goes up and down when i flick on the headlight switch to the middle position..so the headlights arents up..but just the interiour lights

-My oil and E-brake light turn on AT THE SAME TIME when i push the clutch to stop the car at a red light..This always happens when my rpm is below 1k.

-My RPM is bouncing...Normally..under the hood..the car's idle rpm should be between 850 and 950. My car idles at 1k. Also the rpm bounces like 50 rpm when the clutch is down...And also this stops happening when the electrical fan turns on :|

-My car gets TERRIBLE gas mileage. :| I put in 55 liters of gas..and im gonna get about 280-300 miles on it at MOST :| Is this normal? I used Penzoil fuel injector cleaner..and it HAS gotten a BIT better..but it's still really bad...and i dont drive the car hard..my consumption meter is always at around 30 MPG.

-My fog lights seem to be not working. I dont know if the light bulbs are burnt out..our my fuse is blown...I checked out the fuse..it seems to be in good condition..When i press the foglight button..i can hear the relay click in the background..

Id appreciate ANY help guys

[esanmiguel]

For electrical problems I would check and clean your grounds first.
RPM bouncing may be a vacuum leak. Check all emission hoses.
Also, replace your O2 sensor. It may be causing you mileage problems.

[Dark Skies]

Originally posted by Zlatko
Wassup guys.


Are there many electrical issues with this car? cause my electronics seem to be very badly degraded..

-Oil Pressure guage goes up and down when i flick on the headlight switch to the middle position..so the headlights arents up..but just the interiour lights

-My oil and E-brake light turn on AT THE SAME TIME when i push the clutch to stop the car at a red light..This always happens when my rpm is below 1k.

-My RPM is bouncing...Normally..under the hood..the car's idle rpm should be between 850 and 950. My car idles at 1k. Also the rpm bounces like 50 rpm when the clutch is down...And also this stops happening when the electrical fan turns on :|

-My car gets TERRIBLE gas mileage. :| I put in 55 liters of gas..and im gonna get about 280-300 miles on it at MOST :| Is this normal? I used Penzoil fuel injector cleaner..and it HAS gotten a BIT better..but it's still really bad...and i dont drive the car hard..my consumption meter is always at around 30 MPG.

-My fog lights seem to be not working. I dont know if the light bulbs are burnt out..our my fuse is blown...I checked out the fuse..it seems to be in good condition..When i press the foglight button..i can hear the relay click in the background..

Id appreciate ANY help guys

In no particular order some answers that may point you in the right direction.

Electrics are a little under par for a German prestige car. The wires are so thin that I thought they were silver wires when I first got the car. Electrics do suffer. Grounds are a particular cause of woe. The grounds from the rear of the engine area (thick brown wires) that mount to the firewall frequently give grief and often require a supplementary earth. Poor tick over and starting are symptomatic of this problem.

I'm wondering if your tick over problem is down to this. If the ground starts to deteriorate the tick over often begins to stumble (stalling even). To compensate for rough tick over people (like maybe the previous owner) sometimes adjust the tick over screw (brass screw on the throttle body) to get the tick over past the stumble - say at 1,000 rpm.

This may work in mild earth problems but as soon as you put a heavy load on the electrical system (your fans coming on, for example) it'll drag everything down and your tick over will lower noticeably (becomes very rough).

The battery earth and the headlight earths often need replacing / cleaning too.

The oil and brake warning lights coming on together could be down to a short somewhere or, and you should check this right now, it could be two faults occurring at once:

If your oil is very low, below the minimum level say, then it could be that the scavenger is just about sucking up oil under even driving conditions but failing to under surge - hence the warning light coming on when you hit the brakes. If your brake pads are badly worn then it's no coincidence that the warning light comes on when you brake. You need to check this right this second for the sake of safety and your engine.

Fog lights. Check the bulbs and then the grounds and work back from there. It's also worth chucking out all the fuses and sticking in new ones right from the get go as their conductive surfaces often tarnish. Horrible fuses they are too.

Not sure about US imports but when you put the light switch on the middle position on a Brit car the parking lights come on - irrespective of whether the key is in the ignition.

Hope that's of some use.

[Moneyguy1]

If you do not own one, buy an inexpensive volt-ohmmeter and learn how to use it. As was said above, the electrical system is sub par on most Porsche products, moreso on the 944. But, with a little attention, you should be able to get everything working. There are wiring diagrams on the Pelican site that might be of some assistance. And, when all else fails, see if anyone in the local Porsche Club of America has the shop manuals. Grounds are generally the first and most common failure. Read past posts on electrical problems. Lots of insight there.

[Roger Hall]

The idle issue can be a PM issue do a tune up and post back.

The electrical issue is probably grounds. However the clock and oil pressure guage on my 81 924 are also subject to a voltage drop when the headlights are turned on. It seems to be a poor design.

[Moneyguy1]

Roger...I replaced the lead on my clock by using a 16 gauge wire with an in line fuse directly to the b+ line. Eliminated the undervoltage problem that way. Can't tell you how many (it seems like miles) of undersize wire I have replaced from power windows to rear wiper and lights.

What I did was to fabricate a nylon block that is adjacent to the battery. A short lead goes from the battery to this block which has a thick piece of solid copper (1/2 " wide x 1/4" thick x 2"long)with copper screws every 3/8 or so threaded into the copper. The nylon acts as an insulator and is mounted adjacent to the vacuum cannister next to the battery but on the vertical engine side of the shelf. It gave me places remote from the battery terminal to attach the aux lines that are attached to the battery post in the original design (very poor). This got rid of nearly every non ground related glitch in the system. Then I added a heavy braided ground between the stud on the firewall on the exhaust side and ran that to the engine. Forgot what bolt I attached it to...

[scheistermeiste]

dont forget to do your belts! god kills a kitten everytime you dont tension your belts or one breaks!

[1.2gees]

Moneyguy1, I would be interested in some pictures of your current set up, if you don't mind.
Ahmet

[Moneyguy1]

If my wife who is the electronic computer guru shows me how, I will take a picture of the battery setup within the next week and post it.