Yesterday I became the proud owner of a 1984 944 with 114,000 miles on it. The car belonged to my Father and he bought it new when I was six years old. He just bought a new Porsche and I couldn't let him sell the 944 I had grown up watching him drive.

I spent some time with the car last night and have come up with a short list of initial issues. If anyone has experience with these symptoms before I spend hours reading through threads please feel free to jump in.


- Telescopic Radio Antenna does not rise and lower, it is stuck 1 length up (broken motor or blown fuse?)
- Steering feels very heavy (power steering issue? Fluid level is okay)
- Idles below 1,000 rpm (~800rpm)
- Washer fluid pump makes noise but nothing squirts (possible clogged line, will check)
- Hydraulic Pistons shot under both hood and trunk (replace or repair?)
- Instrument lighting very dim when full up (new bulbs needed or something else?)
- Shifter feels pretty loose (something to tighten or is it simply an old car)
- Hot air comes through the vents when no fan is on despite thermo on coolest setting

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. Excited to be a part of Rennlist.

 

welcome to the early 944 family.

1 - check the fuse, if its good, then the motor is bad lol

2 - on the throttle body, just to the left of the throttle cam and below it there is a threaded stud with a nut on it. iirc it is an 8mm nut. with the car running, loosen it a little bit and use a screwdriver in the end of the stud and turn the stud to the right, you should be able to hear the engine speed rising. do it little bits until you see on the tach about 1000rpm idle, and then while holding the stud still, tighten the nut down.

3 - definitely check the lines for clogs, although oftentimes i have seen the plastic nipples on the washer pump have broken off so water just squirts into the engine bay lol. also, simple, but does it have enough water? the lines in the washer tank dont always reach all the way down. fill it like half way.

4 - replace them, here: http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/...pg9.htm#item48

5 - have you played with the dimmer wheel? if they are still dim with the wheel on full bright, the bulbs are easy to replace. remove the steering wheel (24mm nut), remove the turn switch assembly (3 screws and some wires), the column surround (2 screws), and then remove the gauge cluster (two screws and then youll have to reach behind to unscrew the speedo cable). once that is free enough youll see the bulbs and they are easy to find.

6 - the shifter lever has a pin that goes into a hole in the shifter rod (which goes to the trans in the back). over time the pin and the hole wear against eachother alot. pull up the shifter boot and the rubber boot underneath and see if you have wiggle room. you can buy a new lever but that wont fix the whole problem; what i did was grind off the original pin's welding and knocking it out, drilling the lever hole to 3/8" and drilling out the shifter rod to 3/8" as well and then taking a piece of 3/8" steel rod, cutting a new pin and welding it to the rod. it is now very tight. while youre in there check the little plastic bushing at the bottom of the shift lever, it may need to be replaced.

7 - the heater valve may be stuck open, the easier way to check this is removing the plate on the heater controls; it just has two screws above the radio and then two tabs that pop out. you have to remove all the ***** first but just pull on them. with the plate off see if any of the cables are broken; if they aren't, you can peek behind the engine and see the heater valve and see if the cables are even hooked up to it.

 

Looks like I have my plans for the weekend V2Rocket_aka944. Thanks for the thorough response!

 

i have owned an early for 5 years and have gone through everything you have now and more....


while youre taking the gauge cluster out, could i interest you in the nice-looking black-and-white gauges?
https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...0-shipped.html

 

5 - Are the gauges dirty? Mine had about 25 years of grime on them. Cleaning them off help brighten the dash up somewhat. Also did this to the headlights

7 - I had the same issue. My problem was that the bowden cable had a kink in it. Everytime I would move the heater selector back n' forth the cable would just bend, but it didn't translate that motion to the heater control valve in the engine. The work around is to adjust the heater control at the valve in the engine. I currently have two settings. One for the summer and one for the fall.

On a side note, I have not been able to locate a new bowden cable. However, I stumbled upon a cheap fix that I need to try out. Lowes sells lawnmower throttle replacement kits for around $10. The end conditions on the bowden cable are the same as our cars. Assuming it is long enough I may try replacing it with that unless anyone on this board knows where to buy a new cable.

 

Regrettably part of taking ownership of this car was a deal with my wife not to spend any money on it beyond enabling it to run. As I already have a Honda S2000 that I maintain as a track car, I'm inclined to honor the commitment to her. This is now the 2nd of 3 cars in the stable that cannot transport my kids ;-) Besides, the black wouldn't match my brown/tan interior ;-)

 

Welcome Ajjra, I see you have NY plates, where abouts?good luck with the car.
James

 

NYC (Brooklyn)

 

Nice lookin wheels man. The hood and trunk shocks just gotta be replaced for things to be on the up and up. Welcome to Rennlist!

 

Kids LOVE 944s.. and without airbags, they can sit up front! cmon know.. all 944 owners know that

Silly thought.. does the car actually have powersteering? I recall many "early" cars not having it.

Love the blue.. looks like a nice color combo. The fact that it was your father's should exempt you from the "# of cars clause" anyway. If your wife inherited her mothers and grandmothers china... well, you get the idea...

 

LOL.

The car has a power steering fluid, so I dare say yes.

My kids are both under three, too young to appreciate the car. To your point, I still have less cars than my wife has shoes by a factor of ten!

 

First off, the recommendation to clean the headlights was, well, the photo speaks for itself (left side dirty / right side clean)

I also took a look in the air box at the paper filter. It actually looked fairly clean. Looks dirtier in the photo than in person. No reason to change that out, right?

 

I am in lower CT/NY so if you ever want to get out this way for a drive let me know

 

Cool

 

Mahle air filter is cheap.. change it out... BASELINE the car if you can't be sure when things were last done.. Filters, Oil, Oil Filter, Brake fluid. Might consider fuel lines (rubber fails with time/heat).

I just replaced my hood and hatch stuts and can't believe how much nicer it makes the car.