Inherited 87 944

[jsin617]

I have recently had the honor of having a 1987 944 N/A passed on to me..It was bought brand new in late 86 and has just under 60k...it was taken off the road in 2002 and has not seen daylight since then..upon research of the old service records at 48k(2002) there was some extensive work done..the timing belt broke,which resulted in a new cylinder head,replacement of bent valves..etc..also the waterpump was rebuilt..the bill was over 3k...which brings us to the present day...1st step was to find new tires so i could roll it out of garage and onto flatbed..during this process I met a gentleman who referred me to Stuttgart Northeast,a certified mechanic up on the North Shore....Jim took great care of me knowing that i was working with a budget of about 2k...he checked and adjusted all belts and rollers,new sparkplugs,cap and wires,new battery,oil and filter services......the car is running beautifully and am looking forward to making this my everyday driver for years to come..below are some pics from garage to driveway....












Any advice on any other regular upkeep???..also the light that indicated if im in P R N D 1 2..., does not work..i noticed it was stuck on nutruel,then when i shifted to reverse it went out....looking forward to keeping you guys updated....

[Catamax944]

Congratulations ,it looks great , i'm sure you will enjoy it ,it's a great car to drive.
Welcome to the forum , i suggest you read as much as possible about these cars ,you will need all the knoledge you can get.

If belts were last changed in 2002 they are way to old to be just checked ,they need to be changed asap. If for 2k the only thing he did is service it i am sorry to say you were ripped of big time.

[ernie9944]

Welcome & congrats look like a real nice N/A,got to agree with Catamax 944 belts are way to old & should be change ASAP otherwise you migth end up with head damage.If you didn't change the coolant (anti-freeze)it also should be done as well. If you are a little mechanically incline & have tools there is lot of maintenance on a 944 you can do yourself.Check Clark's Garage Home Page and learn more about your car.Have fun

[mytrplseven]

By all means, don't drive the car until the belts are REPLACED. Re-tensioning 9 year old belts is a no-no. Service life should never exceed 5 years and preferrably around 4 and 40k miles. You'll hear different opinions here on the "net" but your's are way to old to trust. My '87 has 120k+ miles and the belts are old enough to replace. Since I have the front opened up, I'm also doing the water pump, crank shaft front seal and the oil pump sleeve (you'll hear more about these things if you start reading all the posts) and new belts rollers. I do recommend that you read these posts regularly to educate yourself on these fun, albeit somewhat fragile little cars. I'm on my 3rd and I love'em. Is your's a manual or auto?

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by Catamax944

Congratulations ,it looks great , i'm sure you will enjoy it ,it's a great car to drive.
Welcome to the forum , i suggest you read as much as possible about these cars ,you will need all the knoledge you can get.

If belts were last changed in 2002 they are way to old to be just checked ,they need to be changed asap. If for 2k the only thing he did is service it i am sorry to say you were ripped of big time.

+PLUS

John

[vdubr928]

Awesome car. Sorry for your loss.

Change the timing belt. The reason yours first broke at 40k is because they are crap. 4 years max life. Its no joke. And you probably wont get it fixed fir less than 3k if it breaks again. Not worth it.