Some of you may remember the saga of how my silver 87 S4 (my first 928) burned up in a shop fire last month within a few weeks of my purchase.

For a brief update (no pics yet), I picked up its replacement today in Burbank and drove it home to Fresno. My second 928 is a 1988 S4 in Venetian Blue.

The silver car was not in a drivable condition when I bought it, hence the shop fire tragedy. I paid about $5K more for this blue car, and it is more than drivable, it is in pretty awesome shape overall. I looked at several cars in California in the 13-16K price range, and this was the best of the bunch by a long shot in spite of having 132K miles (the greatest of the lot). The PO put plenty of money into this car in the past few years, it has numerous important rebuilds and upgrades including the LH (with Autothority chips, they certainly make the car livelier than the other one I tested), Porkensioner and clamp, torque tube, Cup II 18" wheels, a parallel kick-down switch for that rocket-man feeling, and on and on. No other car I read about or checked out had all this work, and the PO clearly loved this car. The paint is apparently original but still looks brand new except for chips below the front bumper line.

I am happy to be able to drive this car immediately without worrying about shop visits, but there are a few electrical issues and gremlins (of course). The most notable interesting thing is that the automatic door locks keep locking themselves every hour or so on the highway ?? not sure what could be causing that. Also interesting is the false belt tension alarm whenever the engine gets pushed into higher rpms. This has to be meaningless because the Porkensioner does not use the sensor for it. Loose wire? PO warned me of this issue but does not know why it happens.

Thanks to all on the Rennlist who offered tips and such, I would never have found this car without my contacts from this forum. I once posted wondering why pay to be a member, well now I know and I have benefited from my membership far beyond the $18 it cost.

Cheers,

Sean

 

Congrats on the new purchase Sean. The point you make is an important one, having a nice drive-able car which has had most of the work done already makes far more sense than buying a beater and then spending an unknown crazy amount of money trying to bring it back.

Enjoy the new ride and......

THIS THREAD.......

 

Congrats! Good job on finding the right one for you.

You mention mileage but honestly unless you're planning to put it in a bubble I think there's such a thing as too FEW miles as well as too many. These cars love to be driven and if they sit for long periods of time all kinds of things tend to start going wrong and can be a major headache when they all present at once.

JMO

Oh and.




IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT...

 

Very cool. Can't wait to see it.
Umm but we can't without.

PICS.

 

This tread...

The general trend for cars is that more miles spell more trouble these cars if well maintained proof to be the opposite of that over and over again!

Enjoy

 

the other upside to one car with many POs is that each one will spend as much as they can to fix the many issues .
if you get in the line of owners at the right time you can find a gem

 

Congratulations! Herman K said. These cars tend to do the opposite of most cars if taken care of. I just clicked over 160,000 K. Strong runner.

 

Is useless

 

Congrats. I don't think these cars really hit their stride until they have 100k on the clock. Great find, now go drive the **** out of it.

 

\
160,000 K is 160 million miles. Strong runner indeed.

 

The car that Sean chose is an excellent, well-loved and certainly well cared for example. PO was religious about keeping it nice and doing whatever it takes to that end. All in all a good match for the new owner.

In my opinion and looking at this philosphically, there's an interesting 'compressed' ownership lesson buried here. Sean found a 'nice' car originally that had a known needs list and undoubtedly an unknown lists at least as large. Hence the presence in the shop there that unfortunately led to its tragic and premature death. In that brief period, it became obvious that a relatively pristine car with up-to-date everything, driveable (and insurable...) today, would be a much better choice. I can speculate the the first-year costs of ownership on the first car would have been a BIT more than those of the new car will be. Plus it's more fun t have toys you can actually play with. In my limited experience anyway.

So congratulations Sean! Great car choice! I trust you'll see fit to keep it car with the same spirit and enthusiasm that it has enjoyed previously. I'm a little disappointed though. I had hoped to meet you when you picked it up. Next time maybe. I have a couple-day project in Firebaugh in mid January that might be a good time. I'll be in a rental car though.

 

WITHOUT PICTURES!!!

 

Check that there is a short brown wire from the dipstick mounting stud to the 8mm bolt which goes through the cover over the tensioner bracket. If this ground wire is missing/disconnected, you will get symptoms like this. If it is missing, I can mail you one.

 

CONGRATS!!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing the PHOTOS!

Since fire is so bad, please check your fuel lines have been replaced recently!