walks

I recently bought an '83 944. It's a one owner car, with all service records (The OP changed the oil every 1500 miles!) and has been really well-maintained. It's never been wrecked or repainted, and is in great shape. That said, though, it WAS driven. It's got around 122K on it, so while it's nice - really nice - it certainly isn't perfect.
I'm currently cleaning/detailing/looking for issues, while I search for a mechanic. When I pulled the front bumper to remove the license plate bracket (the holes of which I'll cover with a laser-cut logo I made), I noticed a rubber curtain on the right side. There isn't one on the left, and never has been - there's no holes or anything there.
Any idea what it's for, or why there's only one?
The horn is on the left side - Maybe there's nothing there so the sound isn't dampened?


Passenger side


Driver's side


Laser-Cut Logo

pfarah7

Interesting... My 84 doesn't have the rubber apron or the countersunk screw holes either. I wonder if it was an early fix before the 84's came out.

walks

A fix for what, though?
Mine's a pretty early build - 10/82.

Incidentally,

If anybody else in the US wants a laser cut logo to cover the plate holes, lmk.

V2Rocket

My early 85 came with that rubber thing too. I figured it was an air guide of some kind because of the air intake just behind it in the fender.

pfarah7

Hmmm... Something to further research.

mrgreenjeans

I own an '82 built 944 ( July / '82 ) and mine is the same as your '83 is described.

Could it be a sort of airfoil/finisher meant to keep driving rain from entering this area and wicking up to and around the area of the distributor cap, rotor, and wiring, which is located in this area and somewhat vulnerable to a 'short' ?

jhowell371

Checked my 84, it's got one. Can anybody check a 924 for the same? Maybe a carryover from that model. I love a good mystery

mrgreenjeans

I have four of my '84s out in the garage right now, but am 45 miles away at the moment.
I will check all of them along with the later built cars I own and see what they display.

In regard to useful trivial information getting answered:

I remember an earlier thread about the little metal guard at the back of the hood next to the battery. That mystery was solved a bit like this one is going to be. Of that I am confident ......

( and the answer to the little metal plate was found to be: ONLY the cars with a security system installed at the factory, had this little metal piece. It was designed to thwart the attempts at prying up one or both of the terminals on the battery to defeat the alarm and thus make it available to 'thieve said unit from the owner', Only the alarmed cars had this feature. )

So, once again this forum has leant itself to providing answers for inquiring minds. All good.

By the way, what does the Porsche PET claim this thing is ?

mikehayes

My '84 is the same. Can't find it listed anywhere on the PET. I assumed the same as Spencer; be aerodynamic on the pass. side and let in cool air for the intake on the driver side.

V2Rocket

Nevermind, I thought I remembered that thing being on the driver side.
I remember my car had the rubber thing though.

I removed my NA bumper for last time over 7 years ago so details are fuzzy now...

Dwizle

Just my thoughts but on the left side fender is where the airbox draws air so they prob left out the boot to allow the air to flow into that cavity to be used by the engine...

Turbodan

my 88 924s has the rubber thing on both sides.

walks

The airbox theory makes sense to me -
I love this kind of stuff!

MAGK944

I’m quite sure it is #477807347 and simply described as “End Cap” in PET. Item #2 below.