ian

I am back in Charlotte tonight and should have the head off the car and a prognosis of the damage. Fingers are crossed there are not any nasty surprises. I should also have most of the parts to get it back together, so I hope to have good news on the little SE soon.

As for the notion that these are expensive cars to fix and maintain, well all old cars are expensive to keep in perfect working order. But I like the 944 family of cars because I think they are relatively easy to work on, and cheap to keep going for most of the repairs. Now if you pay shop labor that all changes, but basic wear parts on a 924/44/51/68 are easy to source still and mostly on par with other stuff from the era. And as mentioned the 944 has a good build quality so when we'll maintenance these can be reliable car with few issues. The problem comes from years of neglect, and many of the 44s have been abused and basic maintenance ignored.

I mean if you neglected your own body by never seeing a dr and lived on a diet of cheetos and Mr pib would you be shocked if you had a huge medical bill some day? Same concept here but when you get a neglected car you are buying someone else's medical problems.

odurandina

i don't want to cause hard feelings but i believe that's an extemely common theme about the 944. "years of neglect...." "the car was neglected." i don't believe this is true nearly as often as everyone makes this out to be... in my opinion, it's Porsche that always gets a pass.... and the people's neglect of the cars that causes them to be in such ill repair and non-driveability status. hogwash ! i don't think that's true for one moment. the first thing almost every new Porsche owner becomes — is a zealot to get all the proper maintenance done and keep it up. and the cars are such a joy to drive that everyone gets the bug, and they do the maintenance..... and then they love their cars to the bitter end... but in the real world, it's always going to be a hardship when antifreeze starts showing up in the oil... or when a head gasket or clutch fails... as there's very little preventative maintenance that prevents many of these repairs (or electrical gremlins from hell) from coming.... but when it does and the owner doesn't have substantial $$$$ on hand... or he gets sick, or needs a to focus more of his attention on paying the way for his daily car (and the cars sit) — the belts, H20 pump, plastic rollers and rubber seals all get old at the same time..... YET, this situation becomes misinterpreted as grounds for calling a 944 neglected... there's dozens of little rubber bits, (not to mention the fuel lines, brake lines, fluids, and rubber suspension bushings that go bad over a fairly short time period)... the real world moves on... and can't always be at the beck and call of the Porsche 944.

but to be fair, with the Xth generation of owners, and the passing of time, somebody's bound to let some things go.



no way.... the Porsche 944 is one of the most expensive cars from the 1980s to maintain. exceeded by the very few even from it's pricey upper middle-class on up.... the only 4 cylinder cars in history more expensive to maintain than the Porsche 944s, are the Lotus Esprits.




ownership on this very forum ends after months/years of love and care for these cars....

but, in the end the cars blow up anyway.




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moorepower

The upkeep on these cars is very labor intensive, so if you're paying a shop to do maintenance or repairs, then yes, they're very expensive to run. But if you turn your own wrenches, they're pretty cheap to keep on the road. New parts are actually pretty reasonably priced, and dirt cheap parts cars are plentiful (for now).

moorepower

By the way OD, what exactly are you trying to achieve by posting this same crap over and over on any thread you participate in?

Are you trying to get us all to buy Boxsters, or are you just stirring up some sh*t?

CyCloNe!

Personally I find the 944 pretty cheap to keep running. My biggest issue was getting the maintenance up to date, and I'm all most done with that about 3k later. Which my 951 wasn't in the best shape, you'll know what I mean when I say it cost me $2,800 with 185k on the odometer. Mine 951 was basically a running parts car, now it's a well running parts car ... Parts aren't really more expensive than any other import car, I find a lot of honda parts more expensive, of course you have to wait for the mail man to find the deals

Now if you have serious mechanical issues, like needing to rebuild the engine then heck ya it's expensive but most engines are.... (waiting on OD to mention chevy 350) jk

CyCloNe!

Hey now don't bring my Cheetos into this... atleast you didn't mention my daily 5lb intake of bacon.

odurandina

i'm hoping you all will expect that the labor intensive repairs will come, but won't result in someone throwing their hands up and quitting—like so many people do. on the bright side, a lot of performance parts, transmissions, etc, are plentiful and cheap. i just got a semi-new, complete, to-the-bones suspension for my 968 for only $700 (including strut mounts, control arms, cv joints, etc). that's something that keeps me excited about my present and future ownership....

what i'd love to see is you all thinking of the engine that came with the car @ 25 years old, to be somewhat temporary.... and rebuilding or replacing with oem Porsche, to be the antithesis of a cost-effective repair... why ? because it involves big-money in, and a near net-zero hp gain coming out (first law of hot-rodding unless we're talking about a Jaguar E-type)... but by all means, keep the old beaters running and improve the rest of the cars — because your 944s have serious potential (as you all know).

in the classic sense, every old performance car is a hot-rod but instead of attempting to hot-rod your cars with off-the-charts expensive Porsche equipment that does not deliver in the bang-for-buck equation.... instead — start stocking up on LSx conversion parts now, so when the end comes, you'll already be halfway there.... and the only thing you'll be needing is an LS motor, your wrenches, a bunch of hoses and very little more.... when you're done, intead of wondering about the next time your beater is going to break, you'll be ****ting yourselves every time you turn the key of your low-cost supercar and giggling.... and there will no-longer be any doubts (guilt?) as to why you spent all that time and effort installing a stiff suspension just in time for the original motor to keel over.


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xschop

If my hobby was polishing turds, I would buy another 94....4

Butters944

I don't see how this is even REMOTELY true. On a high schooler budget, I've managed to keep my 944 running like a clock and constantly improving...

The car was what you'd consider a "parts car" that you'd consider a "ripoff" for the $1600 I spent on it. $2000 later and the car is an extremely reliable daily driver that has taken me on journeys for hundreds of miles at a time - all the while getting 30 mpg. Over 7,000 miles and counting and no problems whatsoever.

The only people who can't afford a 944 are pussies who are afraid to get their hands dirty or let the car sit in their own garage for a few days at a time while they invest blood sweat and tears towards a worthwhile cause.

In all seriousness, I want an LS1 in my 944 someday. For the fun of it. NOT for the thousands of dollars I can apparently save according to Odu's daily anti-944 propaganda. It costs anywhere around $10000 to do a decent v8 engine swap. I'm NEVER going to reach the point where I have $10000 invested in my 944. That is, unless you count every cent I've spent on fuel, and every hard worked hour I've put into the car.

Ian, please excuse us for bringing your thread off the topic.

odurandina

overall the cars aren't that bad,

but if you charged yourself $80 an hour for your time you'd a been out of a job by now.




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CyCloNe!

I think most of us would be broke if we charged that kind of money, except for the fat chicks riding on the 928

ian

So after a good bit of work on the SE over the weekend I think I am going to keep it for now, and sell the other sunroof delete car instead, hopefully someone wants a project / track car.

Butters944

Good decision I'd feel pretty special if I had an SE...

odurandina

924s make killer track cars for sure..... re-writing my last post; the documentation we have (threads),on the cost in man hours for keeping these cars going for another 30, 40, 50 k miles is hundreds of miles is extremely long... people getting in, spending significant $$$, dedicating to be able to daily drive them, and getting out (carnage), only a couple of years (or months) later, is even longer.... overall the cars aren't that bad, but if you charged yourself $80 an hour for your time you'd a been out of a job by now. (sad to see anyone writing their i'm gettin' out thread). but, if someone does have an engine failure, it's cool to see them with a Goodwrench motor not long after, and the cars running for years instead of the alternative... hopefully, no one will ever be getting rid of their cars. when people can make gradual improvements to the interior, paint, suspension—with no worries that $$$ in could be for naught—but not only—that there might be a huge upgrade, but something ten times mas chevere than one of these stamped out cars driven by the masses..... and once again i defer to something i've heard Jerry Pelegrino of EPE, (overseen/performed more than 12,000 Porsche repairs in the past 30 years) repeat almost verbatim;



one of the things that may skew the perception is the availability of used parts. and there, whether staying all-Porsche or not, we all benefit. it's also been explained a few times that the factory used to tell the dealers back as far as the early '80s, that much of the money lost when they sold a 924/944 instead of a 911, 'could be re-couped in the service bay...'




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EliteThink

These are great cars. someone here is really negative .