Just bought 951, have questions

[Oi-Punx]

This past weekend I finally picked up a 951 that I found several weeks ago after looking for quite a long time. You guys in California know what I am talking about. The owner and I had discussed the car in detail, negotiated a price on the phone, a carfax was ran (came back clean), and the car was delivered to the owner's mechanic where it was given a compression/leakdown test/pre-purchase inspection. The clutch was in need of replacing as disclosed in the owner's advertisement and was replaced (car was not driveable). The PPI came through fine, but showed the car needed rear brakes and new struts (both of which are BS based on my assessment of the vehicle since taking delivery). The experience was fairly positive except for the fact that the owner had been taking the car to a shop that was not only negligent, but grossly overcharged me for the job. Before I left I checked out everything to ensure a safe drive back and noticed the wheels were swapped (fronts on rear, rears on front), the air box was missing a couple of screws and the filter and they put only 4 quarts of oil in the car. Everything was fine after they took care of these few items (I helped using their tools). I still believe I a got a good deal on this car despite a slightly rougher body than I had anticipated and the fact that the shop was absolutely a nightmare to deal with (it is my belief that they put a significant paint chip on the hood, but there is no way I can prove it). Anyway if anyone could answer my questions I would really appreciate it.

1. I had the shop change the oil and filter. By the time I had driven from San Diego to San Jose (around 8 hours) I noticed on the invoice (in very fine print) that they had used 10W-30 instead of 20W-50. Should I change it again immediately? Could the car have sustained any engine damage? The weather was quite cold on the drive back.

2. Oil pressure at idle is around 3 bar, and moves up to nearly 5 when revved up to around 4-5k rpm is this normal?

3. Boost is around 1 bar when the ignition is first turned on (before the car is started) and under very hard acceleration goes up to 1.8 bar max. Is this normal?

4. Car vibrates slightly at idle (950 rpm) after being warmed up. Could this be a motor mount going bad? Wrong idle speed? The haynes manual doesn't list the idle speed.

5. I changed the plugs after arriving home and noticed that a couple of them had a very faint smell of gas and some black carbon deposits that were slightly oily, the others were normal. Is this anything to be worried about?

6. I will be changing plug wires, cap, rotor, rear pads and rotors soon, is there anything I should be aware of that is unique to the 951?

7. I need the two lower front airbox screws with washers and the two intake-to-airbox screws with washers, would any of you guys or gals who have installed an MAF be interested in selling these items?

8. Anyone know what sort of action I can take against the shop besides writing a letter to the Better Business Bureau?

Thanks!

-Ben

'84 944 NA Ruby Red Met/Tan
'87 951 Black/Black

[Lawrence Coppari]

Oil pressure sounds normal. Check manual for oil. I prefer synthetic because it is a track car.
Boost is normal. It reads in absolute pressure with 1 bar being roughly 1 atmosphere. 1.8 bar is normal factory setting for full boost.
Could be a beginning of bad motor mount. If it is motor mount, it should go away above idle.
Make sure you get rotor on properly when you change cap and rotor. It is difficult to get distributor cap back on once off. If you don't get little hooks in there right, thing will come off and damage itself when rotor hits contacts. Just make sure you get it back on securely. Don't strip little rotor bolt.

[97XRAY]

Just a quick note, I've been running with one of the screws in my airbox as well... as long as it's really tight, you're okay. BUT, the right thing to do is go out to a hardware store and compare some new bolts to the old and just spend the $1.00 or less they'd cost you.

I just changed the motor mount Sunday - what a difference. It's a fairly simple job. I had practically zero experience and did it, just read up in advance about spacers, etc. and try to get the good replacement mounts.