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Hello all! Not quite sure how to start this. Just thought I'd get some info and insights on my very responsible financial decision and thought this would be the best place.
I've wanted one of these cars for quite a while and the right car came up at the right time. Picking up the car. Trailering it back. Parked beside my friend's 740 Turbo. In my opinion, quite the 80s two car solution.
It also came with a ton of interesting documents, all the manuals, a somewhat complete tool kit, the compressor, and original sunroof bag. The manual for the original stereo (unfortunately not still with the car). Some kind of paper in German. Not quite sure what it is except that it has loads of option codes (some of which don't match the sticker in the trunk). Hopefully someone on here can tell me more about it!
Seeing as it is both my first Porsche and first project car, I'm pretty excited to get started.
That being said, it does have some electrical issues that I hope I can get some pointers on sorting out. The interior lights, radio, front wipers, and sunroof (which is stuck open) don't work but their fuses seem to be fine. I haven't pulled off the trunk carpet to get at the sunroof mechanism quite yet but the motor doesn't sound like its moving.
Looking forward to seeing what people have to say!
Clarks-Garage.com is your best source for how to instructions.
There is a tool mounted next to the sunroof motor that will allow you to close it manually. I think that is discussed in the owners manual
Electrical troubleshooting is not too bad once you understand the basics. You will love the full size wiring diagrams that come in Vol 5 of the manuals. There are some tutorials around that will get you up to speed on how to read them. Most of your electrical problems will probably be corrosion related, versus the actual failure of a component. Get a can of Deoxit.
It is pretty standard to change the timing belt as soon as possible unless you have positive proof that it has been replaced in the last 5 years (car running or not).
I took a look at the schematic and can't find a common point of failure for all the things you mention, meaning you have multiple electrical issues. Another item to keep in mind is that previous owners may have re-wired things, making debugging more difficult (though given the original documentation you received, it seems less likely that your car was hacked up.)
If the radio relay (aka sunroof relay) is removed, both your radio and sunroof will not operate. The relay is located in the center console by the driver's right foot. I think there are two relays near this location. The radio relay has 9 pins, so if you find an empty 9 pin connector there you'll know what happened.
FYI, your car is essentially an '84 model, which is handy to know if you are ordering parts from someplace that does not distinguish between the early and late 85 models. If there is only a selection for 85, it will be the late 85 so you should select 84.
Wow what nice find! Glad to see something other than Red [Sorry for that ] but theres alot out there. Im with Harvey the corrosion on wiring tends to be a issue. But its all doable. One of the wonders of the roaring 2000s is cell phones. Take pic before just in case. The ground from the battery goes to the firewall and stops! a litte further towards the center of the firewall another ground lead connects and goes down to a bolt on top of the block. As clean as that car looks Ill assume that itt all there but worth a undu scub, scrape and clean just for starters. Pardon the pun Im dealing with something starter related but have it on the burner till the weekend. good luck and get after it.
Welcome to the forum and to 944 ownership!! Seems like you picked a great car! The things it came with are incredible! Do you know any of the car's history? How's the interior? What options are present on the options sticker?
The paper you have that's written in German is the vehicle's build sheet. The car could have been custom ordered and as it was assembled, each option and feature was accounted for and checked off.
Since I last posted I've done some digging on the history of the car. I know it was sold at Performance Cars in St Catharines (near Niagara falls) from the business cards in the service book. I'm the 6th owner of the car (although the guy I bought it from only had it for a few months). The first owner owned some kind of auto service center and for whatever reason didn't keep any maintenance records he had with the car. Considering the tires are from '93, I'm not incredibly confident in the maintenance since that first owner. What I do know is that roughly 94,000 of the 94,500 km it has on it were put on before 2010 by the original owner and the past two owners have mostly just left it to sit in their garages.
Originally Posted by mazdaverx7
What options are present on the options sticker?
Here is the options sticker for reference.
I know it has the M018 steering wheel with the 30mm spacer, Headlamp washers (M288), M401 15" staggered Fuchs (total pain to find tires for but they look so good), M650 Sunroof, M715 (which I think just means its an early 85), and M990 (full script seats). The one I don't know anything about is the L10 code but I assume it includes the optional rear sway which the car does have.
Originally Posted by mazdaverx7
How's the interior?
The interior is surprisingly good for how old it is (Image quality might not be the best because of bad lighting in my garage). The seats are somewhat sun faded and splotchy but I think they'll clean up nicely with a good extraction cleaning.
Originally Posted by orig944
I took a look at the schematic and can't find a common point of failure for all the things you mention, meaning you have multiple electrical issues.
I also started digging into the electrical issues and it seems one of the main causes could be a really bad battery. The battery that came with the car was 3 years old and looked pretty decent (if just flat from sitting). I left it on a trickle charger for 3 days and it still wouldn't hold a charge. When I tested it in the car again, I did hear something like the sunroof motor briefly try to work when I tried the button although there probably wasn't enough power for it. I took it to my local auto parts store where they tested it and determined a cell had died, so I'll be replacing that this weekend.
As for the sunroof, one of the previous owners replaced the switch and put it upside down in the dash.
It really bugged me so I decided to pop it out and put it the other way around. When I did, I noticed that they didn't just put the switch in upside down, they forced the switch onto the connector the wrong way.
I might have effectively been pressing the wrong button the whole time! I'll definitely test that once the new battery is in and see if that was the extent of my sunroof issue. The radio is a 90s Kenwood unit which is probably hooked up directly to the battery which explains why I recently discovered the cabin light does work after I fiddled with the switch a bit.
Originally Posted by harveyf
It is pretty standard to change the timing belt as soon as possible unless you have positive proof that it has been replaced in the last 5 years (car running or not).
Timing belt and water pump are first on the list for engine maintenance! I'm going to try and order everything in one go once I figure out everything it needs because of how expensive shipping to Canada can get. Until the parts get here, the car will probably stay off and in the garage, while I try to fix as many electrical issues as I can and just generally start cleaning things up.
My plan for this weekend is to replace the battery, and try to deep clean the car. Fortunately I have access to an extraction cleaner and a steam cleaner so it should come out fairly nicely. I'll be sure to get good before and after shots! My only concern is that the passenger side has loose captive nuts so it'll be a pain to pull the seat. Any tips on dealing with the seat bolts would be greatly appreciated!
I've taken off the rear "euro" style valence since I didn't like it that much and made an unfortunate discovery. The valence must have rubbed the paint off or something as both sides of the car have damaged paintwork where it was fitted.
The passenger side is the worse of the two, going through the rock guard paint down to bare metal with about a dime sized area of surface rust.
The driver's side is much better, and might just need some paint where the original stuff was scraped off. (the lighting and silver color make it hard to make out)
In all, I shouldn't be complaining considering this and the slightly surface rusted battery area are the worst rust I've found on the car so far. For a Canadian car, its pretty amazing!
My plan going forward will probably be to use some naval jelly on the rust spot before priming, spraying on some rocker guard, and repainting the area (I was going to get color matched spray paint to do the battery tray anyways).
The car seems to have an interesting and somewhat mysterious history, which only serves to make the car even better in my opinion.
I love the all cloth Porsche script seats. I have the same all cloth scrip seats in my 85.2 and love them. I feel as though they are extremely comfortable, though mine need a good extracting.
Your car does have a very good set of options. It very well may have been customer ordered! im with you on the real valance. I don't quite care for the look of them personally and im sorry to see that the paint had rubbed through. Naval jelly will definitely work on the rust. Color matched spray paint will work just fine and should blend in ok.
Your car does have a very good set of options. It very well may have been customer ordered!
I thought it may be the case as well considering the combination of high value options and cloth seats (which seems to be unusual in cars here).
In other news, I've bought the things needed for rust repair which I'll hopefully start on tomorrow. I also installed the new battery today and made some discoveries with regards to my electrical issues. The interior lights and radio do in fact work for the most part. I just didn't know how to turn the radio on. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in the digital age!
More annoyingly, the sunroof didn't work, but that seems to be more of a mechanical issue than an electrical one. Whenever the switch was pressed, the motor would try to work but get nowhere and the draw was enough to impact the way the car idles. I decided to try and crank the sunroof manually but couldn't get it to budge at all as it seems to have seized.
Any advice or resources on how I can un-seize my sunroof would be greatly appreciated! At present I think I'll have to pull, clean out, and re-lube the gearbox for the sunroof although I'm not entirely sure on how to go about doing that.
04-04-2022, 12:19 AM
Early '85 944 Project.
