Should I get used to seeing this?

Z06C5R · 05-24-2008, 12:48 PM

Less than 24 hours after fixing the random clutch hydraulic failure this damn thing suffered, the starter decided to stop working entirely. I'm guessing the two problems are related since the "intelligent" engineers at Porsche decided to put the slave in a place such that I had to take the starter out to get at it. Fun fun fun.

Point is, I thought these cars were supposed to be reliable if well maintained... The records the car came with seem to indicate that it's been pretty well taken care of, plus it only has 78k on it. This thing is supposed to be my daily driver... I'm fortunate enough to have another car in case this thing fails, but I'd prefer not to drive a semi race-car on the road if I can avoid it.

Cking1975 · 05-24-2008, 01:56 PM

Sorry about your Porsche...It seems once you get used to your car, and fix the "gremlins", things will be much better. Eventhough your car only has 78k it was built in 1985. That means lot of time for the car to develop old age on all of it's components. In addition anyone who calls a Porsche reliable... is not running on all cylinders (if you know what I mean)...the ones that are reliable are the ones that the owners keep maintained. The best thing you can do is read as much as you can about these cars, and remember not one car is the same as another...they all have their own personalities...and don't stress !

Dave L · 05-24-2008, 04:16 PM

I agree, they are good cars but you arent going to get off scott free with any car that age. My car came with a bad DME relay and a bad starter although being excellenty maintained. I have also replaced the clutch master and slave when they failed but other than that the car has been good. I have replaced wheels, tires, shocks, sway bars, springs, stereo but those were all my choice

Z06C5R · 05-24-2008, 04:25 PM

Turned out to be a simple faulty connection, so a quick cleaning and re-connection of all the wires on the starter yielded positive results.

I guess it's going to be a case of keeping a proactive maintenance regimen with this car... I can get away with being down one car when it's warm and sunny, but the Z can't leave the garage if there's even a hint of road salt down during the winter - wouldn't make it more than a few miles before all that'd be left were the wheels and the engine block, LoL.

CJFusco · CJFusco's Garage

The problems tend to come in bunches. You will go 8 - 10 months with no worries and then all of a sudden have the clutch go, the head gasket blow, and the water pump go within a month (hopefully not, but you get the picture).

Aufgeladen944 · 05-24-2008, 07:26 PM

I think part of the problem with these cars is that the major stuff does seem to be reliable, but the rubber gaskets, window trim, and stuff like that are just getting old and brittle. Same goes for the interior.

The electrical system is over 20 years old at this point; even bulletproof systems will get corroded and the wiring will go bad. My starter went last year. I don't think it was anything Porsche did (well, not in that specific example anyways), but more of just the car getting old.

Good to hear you got it up and running. I gave mine a full 9-step detail this weekend, and it looks great!

v2rocket_aka944 · 05-25-2008, 06:31 AM

if anything, swapping starters is one of the easiest jobs on this car. a new/reman unit from Bosch is actually smaller and lighter than the original and sounds cool when you crank it.

Slam · 05-26-2008, 11:17 AM

Hey! Another 944 with ROH wheels! Looks good to me. (I've got a set on my car.)

ColoradoSteve · ColoradoSteve's Garage

Bad alternator.This happened on my first date with a woman I was trying to impress...Since then I've done a lot of work on the car but occasionally ***** happens. I've also taken the car on several road trips over 1000 mi. with zero problems. I do have AAA and it's been well worth it LOL! It's like everyone has said, once you get the bugs out , these are great cars. Good luck and welcome to the party!

Aufgeladen944 · 05-29-2008, 05:13 AM

^Ya know, I stopped driving my Porsche on *first* dates. I too liked to impress girls, but I found it often backfires. Girls can be shallow (well, guys can be, too!) I just finished college, but I've found if you show up in a car like ours, women think you have money. I don't.

But even if I did, I don't want a girl to like me for what I own. That's why I have my "Subaru" test-I show up in my beater, and then if the date goes well, I show up in the nice car. I usually avoid mentioning the two-car thing to people I just met, for the same reason.

pauloregon · 05-31-2008, 03:26 PM

Hey Z06C5R,
My 85.5 944 NA has just under 190k miles on it. It has been my daily driver since 1990 when I bought it from the original owner. As others have mentioned, these 944s break down now and then. I have been trying to keep up with repairs on my 944 as I notice them. The car has been towed only twice: once when the main DME relay failed and once when I sucked water into the air filter.

Once I started doing my own work on this car, I was able to more quickly diagnose what was failing on the car. I keep a list of repairs to do. The spreadsheet of repairs on the car so far is quite long!

I still prefer my 944 to my newer BMW 325ci (backup car)

Paul

HondaDustR · 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColoradoSteve

Bad alternator.

That was the closest I've ever gotten to ever having to get towed. The bearing went bad and seized up hard. I just took what was left of the belt off and made it 50 miles home with just the battery (in the dark with parking lights and headlights where needed!). The battery still had 12 volts when I got home.

I found out the next day that just the engine electronics draw only like 1.5 amps when calculating my range for venturing out to pick up a new alternator.
Haha, I had to take it out of the car and wrap the positive wire terminal in electrical tape so I could have a core to exchange! The fun of having a car on a student budget.

mattdavis11 · 05-31-2008, 06:26 PM

The two things that you can't neglect on these cars are the timing and balance belts. I pound mine into the ground and I'd still rather drive it than my Toyota because I think it's more reliable. These cars are a helluva lot better than most on the road these days.

I lost the tensioner strut for the alt and a/c (belt stayed with the car) on a road trip once and drove 165 miles where I then tensioned the belt with some cat 5 ethernet cable, it never died, and I continued on.

If there was a bridge to Europe.....