Very promising! Have your PPI guy tell you the source of the leak.

 

I havent had any luck with someone being kind enough to run a CarFax report on this car for me in the 944/951 forum. The VIN is:

WP0JB0933JS050134

Anyone here with a leftover report or two still in the hopper they could spare? My email is:

chris@udpride.com

 

Thanks to the bloke for running the VIN on CarFax for me.

The owner is scheduling a PPI along with a compression test at my request on this bad boy to see if its the real bacon. Hopefully I will hear from him on when it is so I can stop in and rubberneck behind the mechanics. I'll post the compression #s and you can give me a thumbs up or down on the results.

 

I just bought my first 930, it was in Indiana, and I live Oregon. After much email back and forth and a PPI done by the only local shop, copies of all the work history, and plenty of photos I decided to make an adventure of it. Cashed in some frequent flyer miles, talked my good friend and Porsche expert in to joining me, and flew to Chicago- good food, plenty of music, and a nice drive to South Bend Indiana to checkout the car.
Spent 2 hours crawling around underneath and inside, found a blown cv boot (suffice it say the PPI was lame- I would suggest using a dealer not a local shop unless you can have a 3rd party verify it- the owner did tell me that he was not happy witht the service from the shop, the work was good, the service was bad, unfortunately the nearest dealer was 90 miles away.)
Drove it, bought it- minus $100 for the cv boot- and shipped it via Passport Auto Transport for $1700. They were about $200-$300 more expensive than the rest, but their schedule worked out much better so it was worth it to me.
It should be delivered tomorrow and I can't tell you how stoked I am!

My advice would be get to know the owner- I felt comfortable enough to take the trip because he was up front and honest with his assesments of the car. Plus he had pretty much the entire work history of the car so the unknowns were minimized.

Make an adventure of it, even if I didn't buy the car my friend and I would still be able to laugh about the fun trip so that in itself was worth it.

 

I just bought my first 930, it was in Indiana, and I live Oregon. After much email back and forth and a PPI done by the only local shop, copies of all the work history, and plenty of photos I decided to make an adventure of it. Cashed in some frequent flyer miles, talked my good friend and Porsche expert in to joining me, and flew to Chicago- good food, plenty of music, and a nice drive to South Bend Indiana to checkout the car.
Spent 2 hours crawling around underneath and inside, found a blown cv boot (suffice it say the PPI was lame- I would suggest using a dealer not a local shop unless you can have a 3rd party verify it- the owner did tell me that he was not happy witht the service from the shop, the work was good, the service was bad, unfortunately the nearest dealer was 90 miles away.)
Drove it, bought it- minus $100 for the cv boot- and shipped it via Passport Auto Transport for $1700. They were about $200-$300 more expensive than the rest, but their schedule worked out much better so it was worth it to me.
It should be delivered tomorrow and I can't tell you how stoked I am!

My advice would be get to know the owner- I felt comfortable enough to take the trip because he was up front and honest with his assesments of the car. Plus he had pretty much the entire work history of the car so the unknowns were minimized.

Make an adventure of it, even if I didn't buy the car my friend and I would still be able to laugh about the fun trip so that in itself was worth it.

 

Good advice. I spoke w/the owner of the 930 today. Weather permitting the PPI and compression test will take place Monday. It will be done at the shop the car gets serviced at which is the same shop I take my 951 to. I trust their judgment and they PPId several 951s before I settled on the one I have so I feel comfortable w/their opinions.

The owner also told me there was a compression test done 3yrs ago on the car when he bought it (which is 1000 miles ago). Its hardly any mileage but in three years something might have happened so Im getting it done again just to be sure and I'll compare the numbers with the test that was run 3yrs/1000 miles ago. For this much money I think its a small insurance policy well worth paying for.

The owner seems to love this car. If its raining on Monday, hes going to reschedule it. The car cannot see rain. I like owners like this. Hopefully Monday I'll know everything I need to know and we can settle on a price and become each others new best friend.

 

Yes - a compression test and leakdown is a must - even more so for a car that has only seen 1000 miles in 3 years. These cars are heavily dependent on the oil flowing to keep all seals, gaskets, rings, etc. prperly lubricated. Cars that sit tend to have gaskets and such dry out and go bad.

 

Well Im stopping by my mechanic today to see how the PPI and compression test went. Someone give me a heads up on how to decipher this compression test. Ive seen % ranges and stuff on these compression tests and could use a quickie spiel on what hes going to be telling me.

 

The most important stat, by far, is the spread between the cylinders. I've had different compression test results administered by competent mechanics on the same car, but the spreads have been rock steady.

 

I'll post the results of the test here tonight and if anything sour checked out on the PPI. I know theres a couple small oil leaks. Hopefully minor..

 

I just came from the mechanic. He had very good things to say about the vehicle. Overall its one of the nicest 930s theyve serviced in the last 10 years or so. Car is very straight and true. No major hidden gremlins like bondo, frame damage/repair, etc etc etc. All the major pieces are in very good shape

The minor areas of concern were, as noted above, the small oil leaks. Overall he said the leaks were about average for a 911, but nonetheless they were there. About 4-5 of them total. Not faucet leaks, but minor ones that would leave a couple drops at engine turnoff time. He said 2-3 of the leaks were pretty easy to fix. Maybe $30 a piece. Another necessitated the removing of the exhaust and a couple other components at maybe $500-700 and one remaining minor leak, if you wanted to make the car completely oil tight in every respect, would probably necessitate the engine being removed at $2000. Not that any of these leaks are major and half of them are cheap fixes at that. Overall its oil tightness is right in line with most other 911s.

The compression test says it had a "PSI at 125" with the margin of error at +/- 3 PSI. I dont know the lingo but he said it looked great and was right in line with that the compression test was 3yrs/1000 miles ago on the car.

Interestingly, after the owner took the car and left he asked me about whether we'd been talking price. Considering he sold the car to the owner 3yrs ago at $34,500 (minus the BBS LM rims), I told him asking price was $35,500. We both agreed thats a bit high. I mentioned $30,000 and he said it wasnt likely in that he tried brokering the car for him at one time earlier and he almost took a $32,000 offer but w/o the BBS rims. But there was a $1000-1500 broker fee in there the shop was going to collect too.

I know my high price in this but Im keeping that tight lipped for now. If someone explains to me what the "125 PSI" means I will feel a lot better. I may call the owner tonight and see if we can wrap it up. The selling price is the price anyone is willing to sell and anyone is willing to buy it for. If I get under a certain # in my head I will feel very very good. Under another price and I will feel satsified but not the "I really bagged one" feeling. Over that price and I will have to reconsider this vehicle altogether.

Minus those oil leaks its a great car though. The paint job is bona fide 100% flawless. It was like the car was painted 3 months ago. Interior is excellent. Its got the 17" BBS LM rims that have less than probably 500 miles on them, Momo wood wheel, R134A conversion, clutch 3K miles ago, etc.

 

Again, that spread is what you care about. And +/- 3 psi is excellent. I don't know what the stock reading was out of the factory, but the fact that the cylinders have stayed so close together is good news. It reassures me, at least, that you aren't dealing with an engine lemon, assuming the test was done correctly.

Early on, I said the car feels like a $32,000-ish car, if the PPI checks out. Still do. Wouldn't feel badly if I had to stretch that number a bit, either. The number of engine-trashed 930s out there is not insignificant...

 

Its a done deal. $31,800. To be honest I probably could have done a little better. Maybe shaved another $500 off, but with what everyone has said here, I think Im getting a lot of car for $31,800. I mean the BBS wheels are practically right off the showroom floor so if you subtract $2500-3000 from the normal price of a 930, we're really talking $28,500-29,000 for this car with the stock Fuchs on it (which I am getting too). I think considering the 86s and 88s are so similar, getting an 88 at this price is probably that much better too just in terms of age.

The wheeler and dealer in me says man, perhaps you coulda milked another $500, but I just need to keep telling myself I did pretty well. Hopefully I will pick it up tonight weather permitting. Its kind of yucky out now but if I get it home Ill snap a few photos for all of you.

I want to thank everyone in this forum for helping me in this saga. I know some of my questions were stupid but you helped me avoid a few mistakes along the way. And to think this advice comes for just $17/yr.

 

Congrats! Next come the inevitable questions about mods. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but some day....

 

Oh man, Im going to be eating bread and crackers for a while. The mods will come, but not for a couple years. My 951 is going to get treated to a new paint job first.

My wallet is not going to speak to me the rest of the week!!