EB338

Unless I am mistaken it sure seems like our 928s burn more frequently than other cars. Is there a particular reason or group of reasons for this? Is the one or more common cause? Any particular upgrades or modifications to correct this?

AO

old cracking rubber fuel lines... replace them.

John Veninger

Lets see. Drive an 88S4 with an insurance value of around $8K. The car needs a few things like paint, newsteering rack, shocks and has a cracked interior. THEN the timing belt breaks. There is a $5K bill for the repair.

A few days later.... Mr. insurance company, my car just caught on fire while I was warming it up in front of the house this morning. When can I get my check.


Now, there is an issue with the car losing half of the ignition, filling the cats with fuel and causing a fire. Porsche "fixed" this by cyl. temp. monitoring on the 89. Puts the car in 4cyl. mode to prevent a fire.

heinrich

We had loosely talked before about retrofitting that 89 dealie to the earlier cars .... never went anywhere. Cat fires and I think more often, cracked old fuel lines.

MGW-Fla

So deleting the cats & replacing the fuel lines on the pre 89 cars cures most potential fire hazards??

heinrich

crect.

Alan '79 928

Also the electrical system is unnecessarily complicated and many 928 electrical systems have been butchered over the years by people without the knowledge/resources to fix it right.

Every time I look behind my fuse panel and see miles of ALL BLACK wire I curse Porsche. What could they have been thinking?

Alan

heinrich

I wonder if they realised there weren't enough colours in the natural spetrum to have a colour for every wire LOL.

BC

Apart from the later cars, there are 18 channel aftermarket electrical system you can buy for 350.00 dollars and install yourself. No more problems. Even more abject usefullness on earlier cars with less "stuff".

That board under your feet as a passenger is preposterous. Heavy, overly complex, and totally confusuing.

Then you turn it over to find the 1000 black wires.

Today's cars are more complex, however. Mulitple boards like ours in different places, but with more engineering.

Buy and work on 928s, lease new cars. Thats my new motto. I don't have time to learn another car like I have learned the 928.

You gain about 10 inches of leg room without that board there in the passenger footwell.

jpitman2

And watch out for the condition of the power steering pressure hose down by the LHS exhaust header. It has been suggested that wrapping this section in something heat proof to prevent spraying oil on the exhaust would be easy to do, and would just produce a visible oil pool underneath, which should be noticed before too long. When mine started to leak, fortunately it just ran down the body and onto the ground without spraying.
jp 83 Euro S AT 49k

heinrich

Brendan I think most of us would love to dump that mess ... humungous job though.

BC

It becomes less humungous when you factor in simply removing the entire thing and starting over. Keeping the plugs though, whenever you can and they are in good shape.

Garth S

The much simpler, and I think equally effective design, is found in my '88 S4 euro: there is a thermal well and sensor fitted to the outlet end of each cat chamber. If excessive temperature is sensed, a warning icon lights up on the pod. There is an assumption that the driver can then turn the key off ....

heinrich

Yes Garth I fully agree, and I'd love that in my car. I'd forgotten about that discussion.

928autobahndreamer

Isn't there an issue when updating the A/C to a non Freon ie hydrocarbon refrigerant? If you have a small leak in the A/C system this introduces a very flammable gas under the hood with the potential for a very serious fire/explosion. I guess the hydrocarbon refrigerent is a cheap alternative to replacing with a non flammable alternative, so beware of the risks if you are updating your A/C and are offered a cheaper alternative.