Over the last year or I've seen the same questions asked over and over again. I'm not saying that this is annoying or anything like that. But people needing the information might get to it quicker where a FAQ is readily available. Hopefully, Adrian's forthcoming book will be at least a partial compendium of such Q&A's.

I'm suggesting this for the more-or-less static information that is pretty much accepted in most corners:
- wheel sizes
- AC probs and cures
- oil leaks
- reading the oil dipstick/level gauge
- synthetic oil questions
- chipping/not-chipping
- distributor belt
- fuel quality
- coil/damper combo's
- airbox drilling, mods
- stereo upgrades
- etc.
Plus things like option lists, color decoder, etc. All the stuff that gets dredged up over and over. I know there are FAQs for the 924/944/968 for example and the "classic" 911, but other than the brief partial list of Q&As at titanic.co.uk, I've never run across one specific to the 964.

Whaddya'all think?

Jon

 

Dear Jon,
All but the stereo upgrades are covered in my book in great depth. As a result of this I am afraid I cannot contribute to the FAQ idea. A basic problem with FAQs is accuracy. You are quite correct there are many on the internet but most contain false information which can cause people serious problems.
Accuracy and cost go hand in hand. Somebody has to take some level of responsibility when establishing such things. You need a core of data as well. If you wish to attempt such a thing good luck and I wish you well. However I am afraid I cannot contribute in any way or form.
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

 

Dear Jon,
One reason I actually did the book was to provide one source of data covering all the questions I spend a lot of time answering. Plus a lot more of course. The basic problem with the 964, 993 and 996s is that the options and variations are endless. You cannot write a FAQ unless you install all these options. An example is the airconditioning control units. On this forum much has been written about the 993 replacements. Okay but none of this applies to RHD 964s. I will not go into details here but believe me it is a nightmare. In a book you can research this and write it up. I have actually had to call people up at home and say, hey guy do not purchase that part because it works in the USA but not in the UK. Or it works on a Japanese version RHD 964 but not a United Kingdom delivery RHD version. If you scroll down to the post I just made on the 993TT seats in 964 you will see what I am talking about.
In the end you write a book,
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

 

Jon,

I think there are several, including myself, who would contribute to an FAQ. While Adrian makes some good points about potential complexity and correctness, there's a subset of the worlds data that we can gather, especially, as you note, for those questions that keep coming around and around. When I wrote the 911SC FAQ, while much was based on first hand experience, I did research various topics to fill out the breadth of coverage.

 

Guys,
Please do not get me wrong. If you want to write up a FAQ go for it. I just cannot participate that is all. The last time this was tried it did fall into a heap because of the huge amount of workload. I am also writing a book about the 911SC and believe me it is a breeze compared to the 964. If you are going to take the job on Jon I wish you genuinely, the best of luck. I also agree that archive searching needs to be a little better. However this is also tough to achieve. It all takes such a huge amount of time to sort out,
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

 

According to me, as we have a "search" section which works well, a FAQ section is quite useless.
We may promote the usage of "search" before posting a topic indeed, maybe with a specific banner.

 

[quote]<strong>According to me, as we have a "search" section which works well, a FAQ section is quite useless.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

A search tool is useful to hunt for specific answers to specific questions. An FAQ can be useful to those who want a collection of information in one place. Imagine you're new to Porsche's and you know 964's hit your price point - an FAQ could be very useful, as you might not even know what searches to use. That said, I agree that we should encourage the rennlist community to search the archives when they have questions.

 

For the newbies out there, I think that the 911 and Porsche World article did a very nice job summarizing high level issues for some one looking to get into a 964.

I actually brought the article down to my PPI and used it on the spot. Did someone (John Miles?) get permission to post the article. Can we post it here to meet some of Bill's suggestions? Just a thought.

 

One more thought.

I think that in lieu of an FAQ, if you just direct someone to search under my username, I asked all those questions over the past 3 months.

Thanks for the reminder Jon...

 

Let's rock n roll!

 

Gentlemen:

If I can offer a suggestion, you could go ahead and put some links in a faq pointing to some of the articles on Rennlists technical section. I assume they're accurate or they wouldn't be there

The search engine is too slow, and often provides too many posts that end up just mentioning the targetted information as a side bar. I don't think a FAQ is a replacement for a book by any means...just a way to pre-answer some of the more obvious questions that keep popping up, and in fact are the reason why I've quit visiting some web sites all together. One of the reasons I originally started the (sad and incomplete) web site I have (I haven't been able to work on it for weeks, FWIW) was because I was tired of constantly writing up instructions on how to use the check engine light on US cars.

Another question I got tired of answering is when the production changeover dates were for the gasketted vs. non-gasketted engines, and the introduction of the LUK DMF. At least I learned to cut-n-paste that though. This could be another FAQ topic, and here's the info:

Engine serial numbers where the changeover from non-gasketted to gasketted heads occured in 1991 as follows:

Manual Transmission: any number beyond 62 M 06836, M64.01
Tiptronic Transmisson: any number beyond 62 M 52757, M64.02

This change most likely took place in the fall of 1990 (unconfirmed by me).
----------------------------------------------------------
Engine serial numbers where the LUK dual mass flywheel was used instead of the Freudenberg flywheel began with engine number 62 N 07138. The change took place on May 13, 1992.

Serial number for the early LUK flywheels (maybe even later) is:

964 114 012 02


That information has been asked at least 20 times in the last year.


CHEERIO!!! <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

 

Jon,

What you have out there so far looks awesome. Here's suggestion for one of the empty sots sections;

What questions to ask when buying a car,

1. Has the flywheel been changed ?
2. Has the distributer kit been fitted ?
3. etc, etc

 

Jon:

Feel free to link the page on my site that has the check engine light write up. I haven't had much time to do anything with the site, so at least (hopefully) someone can get something out of what little is there.

The list looks really good. Some other information regarding item 1-6 that may be helpful (particularly to potential buyers) would be the following:

- Interpretting the serial number of the car and where to find it (you know, stuff like the codes for ROW vs. North America, year codes, etc)

- Where to find the engine serial number

- Paint codes, where to find them, what they mean

- Maintenance schedules

- The number produced per year, and serial number ranges

- How to tell if the car has been wrecked and how to check the title

- What's the meaning of a leak down test

- What's a PPI and why is one needed?


Here's some other stuff that I thought up:

- Repairing a leaky targa top

- Reconditioning a targa top

- Improving understeer (particularly in the C4)

These are just suggestions and most of them are things I started asking myself when I was still in the purchasing process.

<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

 

Jon-

It's great that you're doing this and it looks really good so far. Additional topics:
C2 v. C4
964 v. 3.2
964 v. 993
C4 specific issues
List of service books/manuals (e.g. Bentley, Adrian, etc.)

I'll post more as soon as I think of them!

 

First I want to say, FAQ or no FAQ, I'm buying Adrian's book as soon as possible.

Now on the topic of the FAQ, I really think it's a great idea. I took a look at the shell and didn't even realize I should be asking some of these questions. I'm not new to the world of Porsches but I haven't had a 964 for long. I guess I'm exactly the kind of person these FAQ's are for. So, I'm all for this idea.

Here's some topics that you might add. I don't think they're in there already although I may have missed them:
1. Removing dash gauges
2. Testing oil cooler Fan operation & why that's important
3. AC system common failures (including replacing the ballast resistor)
4. Heater acting irratically (including heating only half the cabin and servo failures)
5. Warning lights... What they mean and what it means when they don't go on.
6. Smoke on start up. Is this OK? Why does it happen?

That's all I have for now. I apologize if this stuff has already been covered. I'll add more as I find more stuff wrong with my car since I seem to be hitting all the biggies/common problems.