Mike LaBranche

If it liked a new battery, it will love having all the grounds cleaned. Wally has a very comprehensive list, search and you shall find.

JohnnyV

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, Mike. That's happening tomorrow if it doesn't rain!

jbrob007

Welcome to the Shark Tank!!! Sounds like your old battery was... well, old... and the ground probably wasnt good to start with - not uncommon at all. As you've already found out, there is a bunch of really talented guys on here and all willing to share thier time, experience, knowledge, etc... If you look around you may find a 928 Club in your area. Just like everyone on here, they are an invaluable asset to anyone who owns/drives a 928 and everyone in the club helps everyone in the club work on thier cars, share tools, torque wrenchs, service covers, etc... Its alot of fun wrenching on eachother's cars & I've learned a TON from my local club members. Porsche people are the BEST and the 928 guys are even BETTER - most will drop EVERYTHING in order to help out another 928 owner.

Again, welcome to the tank! Joel

JohnnyV

Thanks, Joe! Yea, I've been eager to find Porsche guys around here

JohnnyV

Finally got the rear bumper cover off, cleaned, and replaced with factory lights. That concludes replacing parking lights, blinkers, front sidemarkers, rear sidemarkers, and taillights

BEFORE:




AFTER:

yardpro

nice progress
remember not to get too bogged down on cosmetics until you have done the post purchase checklist...
clean grounds, etc...
doing these all at once will save you mucho headaches later...

oh yea, forgot to ask.. how's snookie?

JohnnyV

lol, luckily I keep my distance from all that mess.

Grounds, etc..are the very next thing on my list!

yardpro

so how are liking driving it?

Landseer

When you do the grounds, look carefully, there are two on the passenger cam cover. One is hidden under a valve. You have to take part of the emissions system and valve off in order to reach it. But its for engine management electronics, so its important. And its actually easier than it seems at first.

The grounds won't match the junk posted in the first timer thread, which deals with later cars.

Barry Chan

i too put most of my money on mechanical to bring it back to its original condition first then...but if changing the tail light motivate the project, by all means, just keep the changes coming, cheers!

Landseer

He's a compliance target in NJ with blacked out lights. Expensive ticket.

Am with you though, reliability first!

jeff spahn

Why would you black out the lights anyway?

JohnnyV

I love driving it. One thing that has surprised me is that I love the auto. I'm a manual guy, but this car is so nice with the auto.

JohnnyV

Good question. The PO blacked out everything

JohnnyV

UPDATE:

I've made alot of advancements over this weekend

Cleaned all of the fuse contacts and did new fuses. In doing so, i found many faulty ones as well as a massive short that was causing my battery to drain overnight. Cleaned battery contacts thoroughly and cleaned the ground strap as well as used a new grounding bolt. Cleaned the ground points inside the car as well as in the engine bay. Still have to get the ones underneath.

The result of all that was that all my interior lights now work! My central locking system is up and running perfectly now as well. After this awesomeness though, my car wouldn't start, lol. Turns out after moving the 14 pin connector in the engine bay, the yellow starter cable slipped out. I cleaned and fixed the connectors and BINGO, started right up.

I then lifted the rear and cleaned a TON of gunk off the tranny. Looks SO much better and I topped up with atf fluid. It was very very low. I also added fresh engine oil.

The car now starts up perfectly, has all working interior lights, central locking, etc, and is topped up with fluids. WOW, what a difference in smoothness and drive. I took her out for a ride and was smiling the whole time.