Jfrahm

I suppose someone has long-ago suggested the common DME relay problem?

lsejnoha

It seems as though i have found the culprit and the problem the has caused me so much grief. I hate to blame the people or person who did my clutch job but for whatever reason they forgot to tighten one of the main ground wires to the bell housing which sits behind the motor. I was able to tighten it with a long extension and a socket, now my car runs again. But who would have ever of guessed that a ground wire can cause so much headache.

lsejnoha

Your first thought was obviously correct, but who would have guessed that a loose ground wire could cause so much headache. So whoever did my clutch job forgot to tighten the ground wire that connects to the top of the bell housing which sits back behind the motor and not too easy to get too either, sucker was dug in deeper than a Alabama wood tick on a Georgia blood hound. But i got it and now my car runs again. So obviously a loose ground can cause all kinds of problems if not tightened down properly. The wire was just literally hanging on the stud with the bolt barely attached. let me know if any of you guys have ever experienced anything like this. I can only imagine what other people have gone through because of something like this.

KuHL 951

Actually 'check your grounds' is one of the most common 944/951 comments when one has starting issues after repairs.

odurandina

to the op, I'm sorry to hear about your issues.

some might offer that you're driving a car that was neglected, or stuff was put off... or come up with some other explanation.

a solid argument can be made that we're in the post-944 era.

the techs that even know how to properly work on 944Ts, and do it well, are few and far between.

consider taking your 944T in for service at the dealer.

half them will turn you away.


is the 944 the proprietor of a classic 4 cylinder engine to go to all ends of the earth for???

or is it a kit car tub??

at this stage, many engines are inching closer and closer to the time when they will grenade.

the engines are old, tired, worn out, and obscenely expensive to replace.

many of the brightest, well-to-do, intelligent, deep-pocketed members of this forum have sought out the best help

to mitigate these circumstances via engine updates, partial and complete overhauls.... and have failed.

there are some individuals who've mastered the craft.

there's also the odd bloke who's holding his own.... confident that life will continue tomorrow the same as yesterday.

it's a fools paradise.

and many super-astronauts have still nearly thrown up their hands at 1 time or another......

granted, many of these rare individuals sojourn on.....

for the rest of the world, THIS IS THE ONE you all insist on running...... the most well-documented half nifty/half ****box/half lemon, petulant, snarky, over-worked, doted on, over-loved, hated, fawned over, spoiled, seriously expensive motors of all time.

you all are messing with the forces of nature..... the 944 engine is a disposable junkbox powerplant. no more.

and sooner or later you'll be called before the judge to atone. every damn one of you.

don't believe that to your heart's content. join the cult....

many of you will be through the spin cycle, near-divorced, and gone in just a couple/few years.....

guys spend half the time they're driving these old beaters wondering if they should change the oil tomorrow
or if they can put it off until the next day.

we've had 167 oil threads. put frigging diesel truck oil in there....

better still, our modern synthetic oils can go 15 k miles or even longer. even with these snarky motors.

been there, done that.

it doesn't matter. your lower blocks will still be pristine the last day you insert your keys in the ignitions.

YOUR FRIGGING MOTOR OIL AIN'T THE GOD DAMNED PROBLEM.

fresh oil or garbage sludge, oil starvation to the rod bearings occurs easily and often.

(oil to the valvetrain pretty much sucks donkey ***** too).

there is no engine on earth with more failed rebuilds divided by the # of total rebuilds.

NOT ONE. what does this situation tell you?

there is no mystery about this powerplant. the carnage is well documented here... (please read post #48).

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...f-trust-4.html

and if you go without the damn thing blowing up, that's absolutely great.

you've still got an '80s, belt-driven, interference motor with junk '80s/engine management
that just as likely, will nickel and dime you to a slow, painful, torturous death.

tempest411

No, these motors are not that bad...I was thinking about this earlier today. 99% of the problems we see people writing about have more to do with how old these are, how much they've been neglected, and how much screwball tinkering has been done to them. On top of that, I notice people in this country lack common sense. They pick up a vehicle for X$ and assume the cost of certain repairs will always be some fraction of X$, which makes no sense at all. You could pick up a beater 1984 Toyota Corolla, and it will cost probably not too much less in labor to rebuild that than it will a 944 engine.

porscharu

Don't guess you have ever heard of the Subaru EJ engine.

JimV8

Late to the party and was going to say it was a bad ground but you know that already.Just a point though. If you repaired something and suddenly other problems appear then somebody forgot something or damaged something during the assembly. Sometimes it's very complicated but usually not. After a clutch job on my 85.5 na the car would often just stall when coming to a stop. I discovered the connector to the ref sensor had a bent pin and wasn't making proper contact. It took a magnifying glass to find that one. Years ago I repaired bank vault alarm systems and was the guy of last resort after many other had gone before me. I often found that during the repair of an initial problem the serviceman created other problems. One in particular kept showing up and presented during thunderstorms. I discovered a break of the solid copper inside the plastic sleeve usually an inch or so from the terminal. Over time the copper gets brittle and breaks, but keeps in contact until a vibration, as in thunder, causes a slight shift and a momentary open. The reason for the problem was over servicing and each guy would push the wiring out of the way creating hidden problems. I recommended stranded wiring for all installations.

Cole

Yep. They all sound like the same issue.



No spark can be caused by a stripped timing belt too(teeth get stripped off and it's hard to solve unless you look to see if the belt is actually turning while cranking. )

If you're in Denver and need a place to work on it or maybe a little guidance to working on it, there are plenty of us around that would be happy to help.

Most of us have been the "poor college kid" at one point and would be happy to help you learn to fix it on your own if you want.

Or....I've got a 1999 Camry with only 90k on it for sale. Owned by two little old ladies and always a SoCal car

raleighBahn

OP, when lots of unrelated systems start acting up, check for one cause. Grounds are required to complete the circuit. If you don't have the workshop manuals, be sure to get them. There are more than a half dozen grounds in the car (the one you had loose is the really hard one to reach).

The 951 engine is great - yes they will all let go sooner or later - i am not certain there are any perpetual engines in existence. Certainly we'll outlast all the 1997-2008 porsches whose IMS will give up the ghost

What has hastened most 951 blow-ups is deferred maintenance. It's an inexpensive car with exotic maintenance cost. Everyone from struggling students to fry line fast food workers have owned a lot of these cars. They drop the majority of their money up front looking for 350 rwhp - nothing left to do maintenance and finally unloaded - hopefully to Lart who gives them proper burial

The same will happen with all the early boxster/cayman/996 cars. They will always have bargain prices that offer supercar performance to the masses - but similarly high maintenance.

944Ross

So is it starting and running properly now?? Not totally clear. I hope so!

And even tho it wasn't the source of your problems, I have to agree with John_AZ, driving on salt can't come to any good.

carlege

never seen a 944 with a tramp stamp. Interesting

Cole

This is a perfect example of these cars.

People have a tiny issue and then blow it up to "car from hell"

All this from a loose ground. Something ANY car in the world could suffer from.


Colorado doesn't salt the roads. We are a high desert climate with very little moisture most of the year so rust isn't really a concern here.

Along the Front Range (Denver), you might drive in snow 4-7 days a year total. It usually melts the next day.

Otto Mechanic

Now that Od has properly introduced himself, consider yourself officially baptized as a list member

In addition to the Job like suffering already described, blood will begin to pour from every pore of your body and your fields will be ravaged by locusts. You have, through this profane act of purchasing a 944, become an abomination on the face of the Earth and sentenced to be persecuted by the Brotherhood of Porsche dealers for that sin for all the days of your life and unto seven generations of your offspring. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Your only chance for salvation lies in dropping an LS1 motor in it and pleading Od's blessing and forgiveness

I'm surprised it wasn't the reference sensor. That's what usually gets screwed up during a clutch job and it's the first thing I'd have checked. One good way to go about diagnosing problems like this is to follow the clutch replacement procedure in the WSM and check all the places they had to disconnect and reconnect something.

I gotta admit that was a truly epic rant.