Oshin11

Oh boy so I made the drive from Chicago to LA in 2 days about 1000 miles each day. Now my car is completely screwed. In Nebraska I noticed a rotten egg smell coming from my car and my mechanic said that it was probably just because I pumped some nasty fuel. Well around Colorado my cruise control stopped working but my car was driving fine. The lights would get a little bright and then would go back to normal in a flickering fashion but the car was fine, I even took her to 140 and steady as a rock. When I got home and turned off the engine and tried to turn it back on the car was dead, battery dead. Turns out the battery had been juiced and the car was running on the alternator. After days at my mechanics shop he informed me that the battery water level was empty and the battery was fried along with the grounding cable. Now the engines main computer is fried (costs 2020 dollars for a new computer) and I want to kill myself for buying this car. This is why.....when the mechanic opened up the computer he noticed that someone had already opened it and inserted a performance enhancing chip. Obviously the jackass who sold it to me, a dealer in Orange County California (he's respected in the PCA apparently), never told me the car was modified. The mechanic said that the strange part was that the two failsafes, one of which is a smaller computer, were NOT fried. He said possibly the alternator pumped too much juice and fried the engine from the rear. I dunno I am so pissed off now, I wish I could take action against the dealer who did this but I am pretty sure I am screwed with 3500 dollars in bills. Including the PPI and the immediate 120K service i had to do on the car right when I bought it thats 4600 dollars. I am thinking of calling a lawyer, he really should have mentioned that the car was modified with a performance chip, especially since he is a consignment dealer and claimed the last two owners were his friends. Bad, bad dealer!

RedShadow

You seem really upset about this (understandably) and looking for someone to blame. The dealer may not have known it had a performance chip and it's unlikely to be something they'd add to the car for re-sale. Rather than talking lawyers this sounds like it was really just bad luck. Before you throttle him, talk to the dealer and ask what he's prepared to do (if anything).

Dunno about the states but with PPI you have to be pretty specific here in the UK if you want them to go outside of looking at the usual. The engine management system is generally not something they check over here unless you specifically ask them to.

J. Brinkley

loren' s company can rebuild your motronic brain for cheap, also your CC brain if that's fried. That's the only other board in there that I know of.
http://www.systemsc.com/ He's very knowlegable and can help you over the phone.
Strange you didn't notice the signs, the surging and whatnot.
Associated fried wiring might be a problem but please don't hand over 2k for something that can get fixed for alot less

these books will save you thousands.
http://www.amazon.com/Porsche-Carrer...e=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-Fuel-Inj...e=UTF8&s=books
I feel for you, that's a whole lot of stuff to fix for the first month of ownership.. But I know you can get a bat, cable, ground strap, rebuilt alt VR, dme relay, dme brain rebuild, CC brain rebuild, Stock chip if you want (I have a stock 24 pin you can have if I can find it) some fuses and relays, all for less than 2k
You can get through it, There are lots of well trained people around here to help you. Good luck

Peter Zimmermann

Your rotten eggs were your first symptom - that's when the alternator began to boil the battery dry because the voltage regulator failed. If the situation was not happening during the PPI the problem could/would not have been found. It's a shame that you didn't find someone with experience to tell you about the overcharging, this failure is classic and very bad luck for you. I do not understand how the DME/Motronic could be "fried," after all, the car got you home. And why is your mechanic poking around inside it? That's the weirdest part of this story. As Jerry wrote, call Loren...
Pete

aveale

sorry to hear this as I am about to purchase (cross fingers) a good one.

let us know how it goes.

T

Edgy01

As Pete says, the rotten egg smell was the first sign. It was putting too much power BACK into the battery and ultimately it ran it out of fluids. In the future you can GET BY with a defective voltage regulator by pulling the plug on it so that you are running purely off the battery and not with it driven by the voltage regulator. As the battery loses its energy, reinsert the plug so that it overcharges it for a bit, and then pull the plug again. (You may have to repeat this cycle every 75 miles or so, depending upon the regulator's output).

With proper attention to smells and sounds you can nurse a Porsche a long way (ask me how I know!)

This is nothing that I would blame the seller on. It is just one of those things,--a bad volt. regulator. But, gas stations may not know what all those symptoms mean,--but any competent Porsche shop will know that.

If you're new to Porsches I don't recommend buying one some distance away and then driving it home. Have it trucked out and then you will have the time to sort things out and get to know it on your terms.

Make sure you have that trunk area (and carpet pieces) fully flushed with water as that battery was most likely steaming hot and putting out that acid laden stuff throughout the trunk.

Jay H

Also, once you have all these issues sorted with the alternator, voltage regulator, battery, grounding, etc., you'll probably never have to do anything to that charging system again for quite some time other than maybe buy a new battery every 5-7 years.

It's a bit of coin to have to spend, but take others advice and help above, save some money and know that your car's electrical system will be in top shape if all the problems are addressed now.

Brett San Diego

It's either now or later. Pay the money now and enjoy the car. I'm not sure how the computer is "fried" either. Voltage regulators failing are a common problem, and I haven't heard talk that it destroys the DME as a result. If this were the case, there would be a lot of talk about it, since voltage regulators fail regularly. Doesn't seem plausible, but I'm no expert. $4-5000 for repairs and reconditioning is not absurd for an old Porsche, if you ask me.

Brett

Jay H

I recently bought a 3.2 Carrera from a very trusted seller. The car was represented extremely fairly and I had zero suprises when the car arrived (long distance, sight unseen purchase). However, unknow to both the seller and me, one of the oil lines was crimped and that symptom didn't show up for months after the purchase until the weather got warmer. It cost me a hard oil line (have you priced one of those recently??), thermostat and the labor to replace it all. Not cheap. I could never be mad at the seller for this stuff since these things are to be expected on older performance cars. He had no idea that the line was crimped and never mis-represented the car based on his knowledge. How could I be mad or demand money back since he honestly didn't know that damage existed?

Now, 5 months after purchase, the pressure plate is failing at a rapid rate causing the car to be undriveable in certain conditions. Again, all part of the process of owning an older car and I expected the car to have this issue at some point even though the prior owner said the clutch was functioning well enough for an old car with 90k on the original clutch. As I said before and as others have said, fix it and move on. I'm dumping $3500 into this thing during the first 6 months of ownership on repairs. Big deal. We're all going through the same stuff with our cars that you're going through right now.

quattrorunner

Your pissed and I'm sorry to hear it. Don't call the dealer that way. Learn all that you need to know first.

rscredon

I've had my '87 for seven months now and the only surprise/disappointment is the A/C not blowing cold air. I think the dealer was acting in good faith as the car was represented to me. He is well known here in Florida and I doubt he would put his reputation on the line to move a car. And as I have become more educated about these cars, it's not unexpected to have air problems. The A/C aside, I absolutely love the car! Everything else works perfect. Being a realist, I can't be to surprised if something goes wrong tomorrow with a 20 year old sports car. Hopefully you are getting your issues out of the way now and will have many trouble free miles. Good luck!

Corrales911

I'll add one more little tidbit about buying and driving an older used car. A car that has been driven 100K miles in certain conditions and with a certain driving style may experience component failures more quickly when the driving conditions or style quickly change with a new owner.

I can recall several examples from the 80s when friends bought very low miles 1960s muscle cars from the stereotypical "little old lady" but then blew the motor or tranny the first time they wound it out on the freeway. These cars probably hadn't been driven more than 35 mph in years...

m491driver

The value of BBS is being displayed here once again. I know my wife thinks I spend too much time reading this stuff but one can get an excellent education here. A while back I read about this voltage regulator problem being common on these 911s. The list of symptoms included those described here along with fluxuations in A/C fan speed. Last summer I had my A/C recharged to use my A/C for a trip to keep my wife comfortable. I never use the A/C since I love the 911 sound with the windows open. Well starting out on the trip with the A/C on I noticed the fan speed surging. I immediately told my wife something was wrong with the voltage regulator. She said how can you tell with no symptoms. Surging A/C fan speed was a symptom I said. Took it by the shop and sure enough it was about to go. She was impressed that her mechanically inept husband was so well read. Knowledge is power so guess I'll keep reading.

joey c

i bought my car sight unseen and spent 5k in the 1st year..**** happens and i absolutely LOVE my car..i never would have bought it knowing that i would put 5k into it the 1st year..i could not be happier with my 87...get it fixed and you will soon forget about it..good luck,joey

g-50cab

#1 it's a 19 year old car
#2 many of these cars have performance chips - my DME has been open several times - doesn;t mean my car is messed up.
#3 PPI is a snapshot - that particular point in time. Did you have the PPI done at the dealership? My first p-car purchase the dealership did the PPI - My wallet was lightened by $225.00 and I learned nothing else about the car that I didn't know wlready by visually checking it out.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune - 1987 is a great year.