New to Community, looking at buying 924s

[aredhemi]

Hi all,
I am new on here and wanted to educate myself a bit before i buy a Porsche I';m interested in. If you all can chime in with your two cents I would appreciate it. I just want to make sure I don't get ripped off, or end up with more work than its worth.

Heres the car i'm looking at:

1987 924s 5 spd


Goods:
-Body in great shape (painted profesionally)
-some cracks on dash
-new windshield
-newer tires
-interior in good shape



Bads:
-The guy selling it was going to rebuild it so the valve cover is off (all belts off, intake manifold off, ect)
-He SAID it ran before he started to tear it apart
-168k miles
-there is a lot of caked grease on the transmission (no stain on driveway though)

He has a lot of extra parts for it, two repair manuals, and plenty of service records from when it was running. it has been sitting for about 5 months.

He wants $500 for it.

If I pick it up I would like to get it back together and running for a bit and then rebuild the whole drive-train later on. Does this sound like a fair price for the car? thanks in advance guys; if it is i'll pick it up and move over here from the subaru forums

[jcommin]

The car parted is worth more than $500. I'm sure others will chime in here but:

Don't know you wrench skills
Don't know your money resources
If it isn't running you really don't know what's wrong except for the owners opnion.
Having said this you could :
fix it
part it and take the proceeds and buy the car running
swap out the drive train

I'd buy it for $500.

[Rasta Monsta]

I would totally buy that for $500. . .but I am up to my arse in 2.5 spares, time, and luvtawrenchability.

[mikepellegrini]

+1 Go for it. $500 for a good interior and exterior is a great price.

I'd want to know why he was tearing the engine apart. Depending on what was wrong, it might be simpler to find a donor engine.

Even if you're not able to use the engine in it, it's still a good price. You see used engines go for as little as $200-300.

That sounds like a fun project.

[emoore924]

Pretty car.

However...

I'd guess he has the belts off because the timing belt failed and he bent the valves. Costs a bunch to fix this and if indeed this is the case, sadly, it probably relegates this vehicle to parts status.

Absolutely do a compression check before you buy. Then at least you'll have an idea whether there's something there to rebuild or its toast and parts only...

[aredhemi]

Originally Posted by emoore924

Pretty car.

However...

I'd guess he has the belts off because the timing belt failed and he bent the valves. Costs a bunch to fix this and if indeed this is the case, sadly, it probably relegates this vehicle to parts status.

Absolutely do a compression check before you buy. Then at least you'll have an idea whether there's something there to rebuild or its toast and parts only...

I think the timing belt was ok; when I went to see it the cover was off and all but the timing belt was there and intact. it looks like it was just taken off.

I'm hearing good things so I think i'm going to pick it up! Thanks you all

[Schumi]

Car is beautiful. Please don't part it out.

The skills involved in wrenching on the 944 series of cars is very specific to those cars. However it is not something that cannot be done by someone with the right amount of tools and time.

[Rasta Monsta]

Originally Posted by emoore924

parts status...

Wha? For $500? No way man, even if the motor is destroyed, good 2.5s are everywhere if you look.

Bring that baby back, and drive her silly!!

[ideola]

$500 is a good deal for that car and even if the valves are bent it should be recoverable. As Rasta says, 2.5L motors are pretty easy to come by. In fact, I have two I'd like to get rid of.

Where are you located?

[The Glademister]

Be sure to check the option codes. Looks like factory window tint in good condition. LSD? Sports option? I just picked up a non-running '88 924S for the same price. Those cars have some valuable parts and if you get it running proper - they make great daily drivers with good gas milage.

[Icey1174]

$500 is a great deal for that car.

If you can do basic work on a car and you can turn a wrench then you should be fine with the repairs yourself.

I have found my car to be very easy to work on. Just give your self some time, be patient, don;t try to do a 3 hour job in 2 hours. For that fact, if it is a 3 hour job, allow yourself 6 hours. This is a great forum to help you with pretty much everything you need.

[John_AZ]

aredhemi,

Many of the replys above are from highly skilled 924S/944/951 mechanics or track addics. They would salvage any roller they could. They are Porsche junkies-intoxicated in a good way .

The only thing I know about you is your login name--------aredhemi.

This may give me a clue that you may have mechanical ability.

If your ability is like mine, more theory than experience.......Pass and take a long hard look at your local and surrounding state Craigslist. If like AZ, you will find many operating 924S/944s -will less mileage!--being dumped for $2000 to $4000 or less.

Do you have the extra $3000 to $5000 required for parts and labor for this car to get it on the road the first year? I spent over $1500 in parts this year on my '87 924S for a clutch, complete AC conversion, and every bad small switch, tie rod end, power steering part ++++. No labor expense included.

The above members are pros on these cars. Years and years of experiece that you will have to learn the very hard and expensive way.

My vote------keep looking or buy it as a parts car for your 2nd 924S/944 you can drive.

GL & welcome
John_AZ
1988 924S 60K + 1987 924S 113K

[Icey1174]

I am far from a pro. I can turn a wrench. I never did repairs on any car other then brakes and an alternator. I did pay to have my clutch done. That cost me $1800. I went though Clark's Garage Home Page and did pretty much all of the work on the car myself. Between Clark's and this site I have learned a lot and I have a great car at what I consider to be a cheap price.

For $500 you are getting a very clean car by the looks of the body and what you say the interior looks like. I think this would be a good car to have some fun with, buy some parts, and enjoy the labor of love. The cost of parts for these cars has dropped dramatically in the past couple years and there are many good used parts on this site.

Anyone crazy enough to buy a 20+ year old car as a perfect daily driver is crazy if you ask me. Any car that age will require some work. You are looking at a Porsche for a reason. With some work and maintenance you can bring these cars to a very strong daily driver. Mine has been a daily driver for the past two years with no real unexpected problems.

John_AZ has been great with his posts on here. It's just very hard to pass up such a clean car. If you don't mind some work and take pride in the fact that you did it yourself I would say buy it.

If you do buy it and it is more then you bargained for the PLEASE contact me! I will buy it for everything you have into it.

[Eric 951]

500 is a pretty good deal--if you can wrench.

If it is an original gold color from the factory--that was the "rarest" 924S color ordered--not that it adds too much to the value--as we all know--unless it is a GTR or GTS, 924s in general are not considered "collectible" which is unfortunate.

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by aredhemi

Icey1174,

The car has a Texas plate. The road trip alone will cost more than $500 in food, gas and beverage to get it to the NE.

The picture shown should have hundreds of parts surrounding the car and a pair of legs sticking out of the front.

NOW, someone living in Texas like SolReaver would buy it.

[emoore924]

All I was trying to emphasize is that you should try to know as much about what you're getting before you buy.

If you think you're getting an easy-peezie repair for no other reason that the car *looks* nice (sorry, I can't find the coorelation between good looks and running right...) and it turns out you have bent valves (which is *common* to these cars, easy to diagnose and know about beforehand, and a bit of a $$$ job to fix), that would be a bit of an unpleasant surprise, no?

If a surprise repair bill is what you want, then go ahead and buy, don't do something simple like check compression.

And I have a no-money-down, no interest, no payment mortgage for you too...

[mikepellegrini]

At least for me, i wouldn't consider bent valves a big deal. If you do the work yourself, costs are pretty minimal.

That's all dependent on your level of expertise.

I'm a pretty decent mechanic but suck bigtime at paint and body so if i find a car that looks good but has mechanical problems, that's just perfect.

This car at $500 would be perfect for me.

Of course the thing would hinge on exactly how good it looked, inside and out, and if there were other problems.

But if ut was just a few bent valves, then no big deal.

This car, supposedly, was running before the guy tore it apart.

The fact that he tore it apart when it was supposedly running does make me suspicious - i'd want to know precisely what the problem was. A big oil leak? Cooling problem (blown HG?). What?

But even with all that, it could still be a good deal if the int/ext condition is good.

You just don't part out something that looks that good.

[aredhemi]

Thanks for all the replies; The guy is the second owner, he told me his intent was to rebuild it (since it was getting up there in miles) and started to do it, but then ran into financial problems. Is there enough room to see if the valves are bent with the manifolds off?

As for myself, I need a project that will take me longer than a couple months. I would like to think I'm decent with a wrench, albeit I've never torn an engine totally apart before. The guy has two repair manuals that go with it so I'll just get my head in those and on here. Nothing I don't think I can tackle. I'm taking my wife to see it this weekend to "sell" her on another toy...

Thanks for all the advice, keep it coming!!!

oh, is there like a short list of things that have a habit of taking a dump on these cars? So far I've gathered that the sunroof can leak and that the timing belt can be hard to replace. Anything else?

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by aredhemi

oh, is there like a short list of things that have a habit of taking a dump on these cars? So far I've gathered that the sunroof can leak and that the timing belt can be hard to replace. Anything else?

Nope, thats about it.

Well.................Icey1174 mentioned the clutch. Ask if he replaced the rubber center clutch disc.

Power steering rack may leak.
AC may need conversion
Silver flakes in transaxle could cause problems
Motor mounts rot along with the rubber on all the suspension.
The DME computer is very sensitive to low voltage.
Rod bearings were due for replacement at 100K to 125K or sooner if coolant entered engine.
Overheats very easy if you do not do maintenance
Water pump bearing fails occasionally

Just a couple of things that may be due for repair

GL
John_AZ

[aredhemi]

Originally Posted by John_AZ

Nope, thats about it.

Well.................Icey1174 mentioned the clutch. Ask if he replaced the rubber center clutch disc.

Power steering rack may leak.
AC may need conversion
Silver flakes in transaxle could cause problems
Motor mounts rot along with the rubber on all the suspension.
The DME computer is very sensitive to low voltage.
Rod bearings were due for replacement at 100K to 125K or sooner if coolant entered engine.
Overheats very easy if you do not do maintenance
Water pump bearing fails occasionally

Just a couple of things that may be due for repair

GL
John_AZ

Good show, i'll jot these down for when I take the wife on saturday, thanks!