not to be rude but.. if steve wants to tell us his story he can.. and if everyone decides that his story is 'bad luck' and that his is the most compelling story.. and he wins the majority of the votes.. he will be awarded the prize and all of that. personally i do not feel that selling your car for personal reasons is bad luck. we could all sell our cars for more money. it is a sad day when we are forced to do that, but this fund was set up more for the month to month bad luck affairs and mishaps.. if everyone wants to set up a seperate fund for steve that would be great. i urge steve to just post his story here if he feels it belongs. thats all.

 

Ok, I will post my bad luck story and you can count me in for the $5

First of all I have an '87 924S. I bought the car off a former boss because I have always loved Porsches. ...anyway...

bad luck episode 1: I left work one afternoon with the idea of heading to school, ....I got in the car, turned the key, battery dead. So I jumped it and drove home, while driving home i noticed the temp rising to dangerous levels, next morning I come out to the car and find the rad fan still turning and the battery weak. So I replace the fan switch in the radiator and the thermostat. I needn't describe what kind of job this was, suffice it to say it took a day and a half.

bad luck episode 2: After replacing thermostat I replace the baffle plate under the engine compartment and am happy to be finished with the job. My father asks me as I am climbing out from under the car why my right side marker lights were on. Well they shouldnt have been and I couldnt get them off so I pulled the fuse so as not to drain the battery (by the way, I forgot to mention I replaced the battery after it had gone dead). Next morning I put the fuse back in and went to work. Problem persited. I got to work and took the fuse out again. After work I replaced the fuse and low and behold the problem was fixed. It has not resurfaced yet, but I can guarantee there is some latent electrical problem just waiting to rear its ugly head. (In fact I suspect that the drained battery and malfunctioning fan are connected and my thermostat and fan switch were good all along) At any rate, I say to myself please no electrical problems, give me ten mechanical problems, but no electrical problems (I know from experience, I once had a VW Jetta!).

Bad luck episode 3: last week I was driving home from school and while shifting from 4th to 5th getting on the highway I hear a clunk and I can't get 5th to engage. I get it into 5th by matching rpms and drive it the 40 miles home. All the way home the car is vibrating like crazy and there is a loud clunk and backlash through the drivetrain upon every acceleration, deceleration and shift. It seems that the rubber center of the clutch pressure plate exploded and I have to replace my clutch. So I guess I got the first of my mechanical problems, I hope the next nine arent so pricey.

to add insult to injury I have a slight exhaust leak and it seems silly to remove the existing exaust to replace the clutch and not replace it.

So the money the car has cost me this month:

thermostat .... $6
fan switch ..... $17
battery .......$85
clutch .....$1,600
exhaust ......$600 (?)
installation of shift kit I got for christmas.....$65(?) (I figure I might as well as long as they have to remove the entire drive train)

for a grand total of .... $2373

problem is I don't have any money, and what I do have is going towards 1) my wedding in July, 2) my honeymoon in July, 3) my graduate school in September.

To add insult to injury, I am moving to England in the fall as I am attending graduate school there. I will be there for at least 1 year if I only do a masters, and probably three to four years if I do my PhD in England. This means that I am shelling $2000 into a car that I will have to park and won't even be able to drive for maybe four years. Needless to say my fiance' hates Porsches.

Thats my bad luck story. cheers

 

Count me in as a contributor this month.

Mike D.
<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/madmike/" target="_blank">85.5 944NA LM6Y</a>

 

Simon/Operator,
You just pissed me off. Sorry but.... I would appreciate your sending me the part of the agreement that says the BLF is only for mechanical breakdowns or dents.

I don't think you realize the impact of what you wrote but.... I have a $3,000 a month mortgage payment and a payment on my wife's new Aurora. Should bad times come for me the first thing that would go is the 944 and the RX7 convert which is for **** in the wet or snow becomes my daily driver (simply cuz the porsche is worth more even with 30k more miles on it). the next thing that would go is my Firebird that I've owned since '76. Do you see where I'm taking this Simon?

I also wouldnt go on a bulletin board to brag about my misfortune. Steve's statement was a reply to a comment I made. I think it was Max that said he didn't know the situation either. BTW there is a guy missing from my train lately. I overheard him talking about layoffs in the bank he works/ed for. He lives in my neighborhood and has a mortgage and kids too.

Lets chalk what I will call your misstatement to youth, and continue the process of defining the terms of the BLF.

I for one think the submission can be made by anyone on the board for anyone on the board. Lets get a consensus on that. What is the definition of "our" community?

 

no need to get pissed off. we are all friends here. what i stated was my opinion, nothing more, there are no rules about who can post what.. and as far as im concerned i think anyone can post anything they want for this BLF.. and let the people voting/contributing decide what is what.

aside from that, i still dont think selling a car is bad luck.. life is full of misfortunes.. if this thing becomes as broad as needing to sell your porsche for life saving surgery and the like then there will truly be no end. but, that isn't for me to decide. also, Steve has the right to decide how much pity and charity attention he gets for his personal problems, i think we should all stop meddling in that for exactly the reasons you already stated.

cant we all just get along? im going to email steve: i would like steve to take a look at this thread and give us his comments about what, if anything, he wants from this BLF. thanks.

 

Operator,
Think about what you're thinking about asking Steve. Would you divulge your personal issues on this board for about $100? Let the man have his dignity.
All that's trying to be said is to help a guy when he's down. Not because he asked for it, but because he needs it. More than someone needs to fix his/her car.

 

OK. Heres goes nothing. As many of you may know from posts dating back a few months, my troubles started a while back. I will try to condense everything as not to waste all of your time.
Easter of last year (2001), my 944 I had only had a few months, was vandalized. The back glass was broken out and it was keyed from the hood to the tail lights on the passenger side. I had to fight with the insurance company just to pay for the back glass. After paying for the back glass, there was no money left for re-painting so I had to leave it that way. The person who did this was never caught.
December 20th, 2001, I walked into work and was told my serviced were not needed any longer. Merry Christmas huh? They said that since sales were down, they had to make some cuts and they were starting with getting rid of their only sales person; me. That put a damper on Christmas and on our whole family budget. In less than 3 months, I had fallen so far behind on my house payments that the mortage company decided to forclose on my home. I thought most companies gave you more time but this comany was very aggressive and non-compassionate. Well, to avoid more bills, we let our family van get reposessed. This helped but not totally. To help things more, since my 944 is payed for, I am in the process of selling it. I still have no job (I am indeed looking but I live in a very rural area) so I need no car. We did however get a replacement car so I could get the kids could get to school and my wife to work. With selling the car and all the parts I had purchased to put on the car, it has bailed us out for the present. I know that God will provide me another job. I just wish he would hurry up! (LOL).
Oh, since i'm on a roll now, i'll tell you of our most current dilema. We had a pipe come loose in our bathroom and when we came home fromchurch last week, my bedroom and both of the other bedrooms were flooded along with the hall and partialy the den. All the carpet in the house was ruined (we tried extraction but couldn't get it all out) so were in the process of tearing it out. Currently, my children are sleeping on a mattress on the den floor, my wife on the couch and me in the recliner. The adjuster finally came yesterdayand said it would be 2 weeks before we get a check for damage. We have $1000 deductible so he said it wouldn't be much of a check. In the mean time, were trying to get the insurance company to pay for a motel, at least to get my children out of here, but they are refusing.
I think thats enough for one sitting here. I am not a good typer and my fingers and eyes are really tired.
I am in no way writing this to win some contest or ask for donations. I will accept NO DONATIONS!! It's not that i'm too proud, it's just that I now the Lord will provide for my family.
I was asked by a couple of people to tell my 'hard luck' story so there it is. Mainly I wanted to let you all know how blessed you are, even with your car problems. God will see me through this my fine Porsche brothers!
As for any money given for a hard luck story, I think it should go to someone with a 100% car hard lock story. My car was just a part of mine.
Mine is mostly family problems for which I does not qualify for the 'contest'.
I will keep in touch with ya'll to keep you updated on how thing are going.
Dont worry though, we'll be just fine and i'll be back in a Porsche in time!!

Take care,

Steve

P.S. We're going to have to eliminate AOL after this month so i'll have to find a cheap or free server. I'll have to change my login name here but i'll let y'all know it's me. <img src="graemlins/xyxwave.gif" border="0" alt="[bigbye]" />

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but lots of my friends have been laid off lately. None of them have families yet. I can't imagine what Steve is going through. I'm just thankful to have a job.

Here's what I'm going to do:
I'll match what you guys can pool together up to $100. I'm not exactly rolling in money myself, so I know a lot of you guys could afford a few dollars in a spirit of goodwill toward a brother in need.

 

Sorry about the previous post. Must have wrote it while Steve was writing his. If he wants no donations, I can respect that.

If he changes his mind my offer still stands, however.

 

see. we're all friends here. i appologize to anyone who may have taken my opinions/comments the wrong way.

and everyone should commend steve for opening up to us about his personal problems, he could use all of our support, in whichever form it may come.

 

Jonathan,
I'll match with you to $100.
We can always offer it as a loan that he can pay back when he gets on his feet.

 

I'm in then.

 

P.S.S. I am sorry for being so long in my post but it felt kinda good to get it off my chest. Also, please don't think i'm destitute. I broke my back in 1997 in an auto accident so I receive a little money per month for partial disability.

BTW. Thanks Jonathan for the thought! It was much appreciated!!

 

...And ram_one! thanks, but we'll make it!

 

Simon,

Do me a favor please. Print this thread and put it away somewhere so you will stumble on it in about 10 years. Thats all I ask. Also, make sure you say hello to me at the next autox so we can shake hands.

I'll put the $5 in this month, and go in with the others on the $100 loan (per capita), but don't think I want to be part of this contest after this month. Maybe because it's my job to read between the lines I got turned off, I dunno.

I say having to take a shellakin on parts bought for the car because of circumstances other than driver error should be part of this BLF!

Is there a line in the BLF charter that says the decision of the judges is final?

And Steve, I'm far (very far) from being a bible scholar but isnt there a line in the good book that reads something like "the lord works in mysterious ways"?

I better get off my soapbox now.

<img src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" border="0" alt="[soapbox]" />