Randy_J

WHY is working space so LIMITED in these cars!?!!?!? I’ve wrenched a lot of cars in my time, but these 944/951’s take the prize for REALLY TIGHT working space!

I just replaced the ground cables tonight with the ICESHARK negative cables. What I thought should be a 45 minute job turned out to be a 2.5 hour exercise in jiggling things 1mm one way or another to get it all apart and back together! But at least the cables look like a very nice setup! Now my positive clamp looks “positively” old and small compared to the negative clamp and cables.

The cable installation was easy – what takes time is getting at all the nuts and bolts that hold this car together! No wonder these cars cost so much when new! Must have taken production line workers a lot longer to assemble this car than a regular production model; either that or they have the smallest hands in the business! When you have to use a magnetic pick-up to spin nuts into place, you know that is a tight fit! I’m finding that I have to improvise tools with even basic maintenance and access.

IceShark

Yeah, it is amazing how tight these cars are though the early NAs are a little easier. I had Ryan D. stop over and we put in the upgraded ground in his early NA ... I think it took us nearly an hour by the time everything was done.

And you are right, it is sort of funny to compare my new cables to the OEM. Well, no one has ever accused Porsche of being wiring Gurus.

Travis - sflraver

I have gotten used to it by now but you are right. The working space on these things is about as tight as it gets. I just started working on my Turbo and its even tighter in there.

ahofam123

Although my car is not very easy to work on, it also isn't very hard. My brother's sentra se-r is the worst car that I've worked on. With it being front wheel drive and having the sr20de engine, there is virtually no room in that engine bay to even change the oil. The things that annoy me with the 944 engine are that you have to drop the front crossmember before you can drop the oil pan, and you need all of the specialized tools.

Robert D

Our Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 was the tightest working space I have ever seen. You have to pretty much remove the intake manifold to replace spark plugs. It is amazing to me that the car didn't run hotter then it did (of course, as with many Turbos you have to give it a cool-down before you turn it off). That car was a beast......I use the term WAS as it is a dead auto now. The little brother took it out and was hit by a Chevy truck, it lifted the front end of the car and spun it around (talk about a hit).

slinky

Last weekend, I attempted to fix the heater clip on my 951 (you know, that stupid little plastic clip that breaks, letting hot air into the car, even when the A/C is on).

Well, you must have to be a midget to get under the dash! I spent a couple hours working on it. I had to use a mirror and a flashlight to even figure out how to get the plastic cover off, only to find out that the clip wasn't even broken. I thought removing that plastic cover was hard, but it was next to impossible to get back on. I only had success in getting one of the three screws back in, so the damn thing is hanging on by one screw. After all that, I just gave up. My neck and back were killing me!

dave120

Wow I don't really have many complaints about working space on the S2...working on Japanese cars is a hell of a lot tighter I think..I hate those! I never mind working on this one at all.

You wanna talk about tight working space, try getting in the engine bay of a 993TT Intercooler has to come off to even see inside...

dave120

Hey at least our crossmember comes off! It's pretty common to have to pull the whole motor on some cars to get the pan off.

Robert D

Imagine working on the Cayenne, there looks to be a plastic cover over every piece of the engine. How annoying will that make things.

SidViscous

Worked on a Pontiac years ago. Had coil packs. 4. Replaced those. Was a trasversly mounted engine and the coil packs were on the backside under the exhaust manifold.

I never even saw the screws in thier homes. The entire operation was done by feel.

Techno Duck

I concour....i especially hate working under the dash as the amount of stretching i need to do is not fun at all. I think the most annoying bolt i have been faced with to date is from the stock airbox on my 924S. I was trying to remove this bolt only to find my ratchet wouldnt even fit in the space it was located, i moved to the wrench and that barley fit, and then i could only move it about 1/8 of a turn before i hit the side of the airbox. It took me over 10 minutes to get one damn screw out.

dualblade

ratchet wrenches are god's gift to porsche mechanics. mine have save me soooo much time in wrenching on the car.

robert d is definately right about the 3000gt vr4 being the tightest car ever. see what i mean? and you thought our cars were tight

pete944

I had a friend that had a 300ZX. You couldn't slide a piece of paper in that engine bay!

elf89

From pictures I've seen, the later 928s look like everything is packed very tightly into the engine compartment too.

JoeyMac

The one by the brake lines??? YES, that was the best one to get out.