Dan87951

I have had a 944 turbo since 99' and its been one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned. If you treat the car right it will treat you right in my opinion! However when something does need servicing clutch, t-belt it can be extremely expensive if you have a dealer do the work so its better to learn the car and do the work yourself if you can.

black944 turbo

I agree they are reliable if you keep up with them. Parts are extremely expensive and labor even more, this is the reason why there are so many bad examples. Find a good one and keep up with maintance (do it yourself if possible) and it will be great. I have had mine for 7 years it has had tons of little problems, but it is a 23 year old car and that is to be expected. Overall it has been great and I am one that likes everything to work and to work properly. Half the stuff that has gone wrong on my car would be stuff most people would not mess with.

JohnKoaWood

All things considered, I have had less surprises and problems with my 200K mile 87 951 than my 2000 Audi, still haven't spen nearly as much for or on the 951 as the Audi, and the 951 is WAY more fun...

Cole

I finally got out of my 2000 B5 Audi S4.

Talk about expensive to maintian!!!!


Tons of mods to the car that were never the issue. It was the little parts that added up fast. Everything was $1,000 and the engine had to come out damn near yearly. (to fix leaks, turbos, etc etc etc). LOVED the car, but it could eat a way at your soul repairing it.

(and just started working on a project 951 so can't comment on it)

CPR

From my experience the 951 is a reliable, solid car.

Patchwork repairs or those looking for a "quick" fix/just to get by type repair are the examples of horror stories associated with these cars. A well maintained (in the beginning as well as now) 951 will last you another 20 years. Unfortunately alot of owners (yes...some Listers as well ) prefer to dump money into mod's first, instead of getting the car upto spec first. IMO this is where the problem begins and ends.

Either find one that is well sorted OR find one and GET IT well sorted before doing anything else, and you will enjoy it for many years to come. Listed below are some of the moe common issues to make sure are resolved first (assuming they have not been performed yet) and a rough estimate of parts and labor:

-timing belt AND rollers-$425
-updated water pump (complete kit)-$535
-new speed and reference sensors AND connectors-$290
-new fuel lines-$85 (under hood)

Some of these cars (70%?) have developed misc leaks around the balance shaft seals, cam tower gasket and power steering pump to name a few common areas. Factor in about $400 to address one, or about $800 to $1000 to address all of them (excluding rear main). Well maintained or not, chances are yours will have one, unless they have already been repaired.

Clutch is another $2500, so try to find one that has had recent clutch service OR a low miler that won't need one for awhile.


Once the "usual" maintenance issues are taken care of plan on $2500 for some mild mods (MAF-chip-injectors-tuner) to keep you interested.....followed by another $3000 (turbo, exhaust, misc) 6 months later to make you happy for quite a while. Keep in mind adding the mods will require a more diligent maintenance effort to avoid any unnecessary issues AND also that the amount of issues is directly relevant to the amount of mods you perform.

It is better to pay to have it done RIGHT the first time.

PEvans

Keep several k in your pocket for the first year or 18 months, even if you find a great example. You will get hit by one or two of the big ticket items noted here.

In addition to these, in CA, plan on replacing the catalytic converter to pass the dyno NOx test for smog. The originals just don't much more than 20 years, and the aftermarkets only last about 4-5 years.

Rob 3

All of the above is good advice. Buy the best one you can afford as there is nothing so expensive as a cheap Porsche (turbo). Time and money: if you have the time, you won't need as much money, less time means more money, if you don't have either, don't go there. CPR (beautiful splitter guys!) really hit the nail on the head. You will be amazed at how helpful people are on this board though with thoughtful, well articulated questions. Mods disease is what really eats you once you have a solid platform. Its kind of like herpes or racing, once its in your blood, you can supress it, but you are never cured and you will have periodic outbreaks. But this is the best support group you will find.

fourside

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. I was wondering, who can I have do a PPI for me in San Diego and how much would it cost and how would it work? I definitely want to invest in one before buying the car.

Cole

IMO any decent shop will do a look through, walk around and inspection of the car for you without charge. They need to build a trustworthy relationship if they want the long term business.

3Zero3 here in Denver will do an inspection and tell you exactly what they find(and show you). They know that by being up front, honest and reasonable with you, you will come back to them for years.

hp18racer

When I bought my car it was in fantastic shape, all professional maintenance up to date, absolutely everything working. In about 15K miles I've only had to rebuild the motor once, replace it once. I've had the turbo rebuilt (I think 4 times?) and replaced it once. Had a fire but not a big one. Differential disintegrated, every gear and shaft in the LSD broke, replaced the transmission. A couple of wheel bearing failures, a stuck front caliper, A/C failed, rear hatch quit opening, sunroof switches failed twice, one front strut had to be rebuilt. Replaced water pump, belts, clutch, headers cracked twice, blown a head gasket. Alternator has died, wastegate replaced once, repaired twice. Other than that it's been pretty reliable.

black944 turbo

hp, sorry but you are definetly the exception not the rule. Sorry to here about your troubles.

m73m95

Is it alright if I ask a question in relation to this?

What would be an acceptable boost pressure to keep a 951 a reliable DD? Could you run 20psi (or more), and still put 200,000 miles on a 951 with no abnormal trouble?

hp18racer

No doubt I am the exception. I think I've soaked up enough bad Karma to protect dozens of 944 turbo owners from any problems at all. It's been a learning experience, I've met a lot of great people and had a blast along the way. So much fun I had to buy another. Now I really need to turn off the computer and get back to fixing the fire damage on my other car.

And in answer to m73m95's question, the car I described above was running 20psi on the street. Your results may vary.

fbgh2o

I spent 10K to buy mine about 18 months ago. Reasonably well sorted and well maintained - all records (except for a missing 6 months in the mid-1990s). I have spent about $12K on the car over the past year to address the following

Maintenance
Belts (done by a professional)
Cooling issues (part me, part professional)
All new fluids (done by a professional)
New rear shocks (me)
Full tune up - plugs, cap, rotor, wire, K&N filter (me)

Upgrades
CPR Splitter, 968 replica wing, and lenses (me)
New dash with carbon fibre trim (me)
LED lighting (me)
Lindsey 3" exhaust (professional)
Hella H4 Headlights (me)
Vitesse MAF (me)
New windshield washer system - pump, lines, nozzles (me)
New stereo, speaker and subwoofer (me)

Have also bought and sold three sets of wheels (not included in the $10K)

I purposely bought the car to work on it and learn how to turn a wrench. As I gain confidence I will continue to do more. My advice is if you want to go down this path, you will either have to have deep pockets to pay someone to do this work or want to do it yourself. I highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun.

CPR

The amount of boost pressure you would safely run would coincide with the other supporting mods, but more so with the overall general "health" of the car.

IMO, a well-sorted car with a solid AND safe management system, say like Vitesse or the LINK system CEP has, or TEC system (Chris White), you could run19-21psi all day with no issue. But remember the key here is to have everything else in check first.