e90steve

I thoroughly have enjoyed reading through this thread. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with your beautiful 964. Hoping to be back in a Porsche soon myself. This thread may have pushed me over the top.

Enso

you'll enjoy the ride!

HiWind

Is that what an 64RS wheel looks like?? I didn't think that was it.
But I might've thinking of the 993 RS wheel 993 RSwheel

Can't believe they go for $1k+ ... Might sell mine at that price

Babalouie

I think you're right, the 964RS wheel is like the stock 4 spoke item, except with a RS-embossed horn pad, and the 993RS is a 3 spoke wheel that was totally different to the C2/C4 ones.

f3nr15

Hey Baba, have you taken custody of the alu bonnet yet?

Can't believe you won't even have to paint it

Babalouie

I can't believe I scored a real one But no, it's still in my friend's house in Melbourne. They've just had a baby, so I figure I can be patient

f3nr15

Whilst I think of it - I had been wanting to ask you if your car has a VIN decal on the inside of the passenger door sill, like this (example apparently from the Bad Boys turbo!) -



I've only got a barcode sticker, similar to this -

jody stowitts

Sorry f3, made in Taiwan !

Babalouie

I don't have anything there...you're talking about the bit along the door shut on the b-pillar, right?

On my end, I just got the 964 back, after its 2-day major service at Autohaus Hamilton. I've been getting into bicycling lately, and haven't had the spare time to do a few jobs I've been planning for months, like sorting out the leaking power steering housing o-ring. The annual service was coming up, so I handed the car over to them, along with a bag of parts that I'd accumulated.

13hrs of labour, plus $600 of parts Also...an interesting note at the bottom. I'd asked them to perform an idle adaptation, and appartently their tester wouldn't talk to the DME. I'll take out the DME, and see if the case has been tampered with. The previous owner didn't mention any chipping, but he did get a K&N filter and cup pipe fitted, so maybe there is a chip in there.

I have a spare DME that looks unopened, so if that is the same part number, I might use that instead, if I can't verify the provenance of whatever is in the current DME.


I'm not sure how many hours the power steering pump seals are responsible for, but since they had to remove the heat exchanger and the pump belt housing, it's possibly 4-5hrs out of the 13.

It's also interesting that they retorqued the head studs while the rocker covers were off for the valve clearances (at least we know they're not broken). Apparently, 3 of the valves were tight and 2 were loose, and Hamiltons recommend doing them every 20,000kms. It sounds like mine really needed it, but then again I really don't know when they were done last. I've owned the car for 20,000kms, but in the 3 yrs before I bought it, it only did 2000kms, so quite possibly the valves haven't been done since 2007.

The oil leak from the power steering drive seems to be sorted now, with a new o-ring and cam seal, which is great...no more wisps of smoke curling out of the back of the car at traffic lights as the oil drips onto the exhaust, and it's noticeably less tappety at idle.

ozmatt964

Hey Kev, did you see my poor C4 in there getting the gear box and clutch done.......I finally pulled the pin and having the guys do the work. Cant wait to get it back.

Babalouie

Well, one of the Hamiltons staff is actually my neighbour, so what happens is I leave the car at his house, and he takes it to work the next day for servicing I haven't been to the actual workshop in ages!

So what are you getting done? I think you made the right choice, they do good work.

ozmatt964

That's service for you!

I'm getting the 2nd and 3rd gear syncro's done as they were a bit "notchy" during change of gears. They were worn and have been sent to the US to be refurb'd as the local company here in Oz that usually does the work is flat out building gear boxes for the new V8 Supercars.

Also whilst they are in there they are also going to replace the clutch. Looking forward to it's return. Also thinking about changing back the rims to stock silver this year.

sml

no .. black looks great.

were you selling your car a few months ago? did you change your mind?

Coz

Great thread! Subscribed.

Babalouie

Like a Christopher Nolan movie, I'm gonna start at the end, and then work back to the beginning. Hmm...what do we have here, an aftermarket chip, with a rather...er... "colourful" reputation here in Australia: LINK



Now, as we ponder the sequence of events that led to this shocking discovery, I'll have to take you back....to three weeks ago. The 964 has always had an unsteady idle. So the common forum wisdom, is to perform an idle-adaptation. It's basically like a hard-reset for the idle function, and can only be done via a diagnostic tester. So I'd asked Autohaus Hamilton to have a go at this, at the recent major service. But their tester couldn't talk to the DME, and Hamiltons suggested that maybe there's an aftermarket chip in there (which might also explain the poor idling).


So, out comes the DME, to see what's in there. Firstly, it lives under the passenger seat, where it's secured by 4 easily-reached nuts.


Undo the nuts, and the DME slides out, and you can unclip the plug.


Interestingly...the DME doesn't look like it's been tampered with.


And the clips that crimp onto the cover don't look like they've ever been prised apart.


But just to be sure...let's have a look.


First you notice that the unit is of a double-decker configuration. And the first step it to separate the pillar-shaped clips on the left side.


Then prise these clips in the plug iself...


Whereupon the top deck slides back, and opens like a book.


...where the main chip is held in with a plastic clip...


..where underneath, the chip doesn't look aftermarket, but I google that number on the chip, and find a few links to euro chip tuning joints: http://www.prorace.cl/autossoportado...1-carrera2.htm and http://www.tecnosport.to/mappe/tabella010.htm


But I suspect that those sites are just referencing the stock Porsche chip number, and I put the DME back together. But that's not all...the DME in the car is part number 964.618.124.03, which is consistent with my car being a later 964 with the plastic inlet manifold.


However...I do have a spare DME, which came with an early, alloy 964 manifold, and that has an older part number of 911.618.124.04. At first I thought that the 911 prefix might mean that this is actually a Carrera 3.2 DME, but it turns out that this is simply the strange numbering that Porsche used for the first year or two of production.


And interestingly...this DOES look like it's been tampered with!


I take it apart...to reveal its dark secret within


So, what do we know now. Ironically I think I don't have an aftermarket chip in the car, but I DO have a chip...buried in my spare DME which I've never used.

But oh yes. Hamiltons also said that the cruise control is busted. It hasn't worked for years, and the penny dropped when a few guys mentioned that my brake lights flickered on and off, even though it didn't look like I was braking. So I think that narrows it down quite a bit


The brake light switch is a plunger which operates off the brake pedal, and the freeplay in the pedal was enough to go past the click-point of the switch. So the natural wobbling of the brake pedal would trigger the brake lights as you drove over bumps and stuff...which would then disengage the cruise control. I guess I've take the pedal cluster apart so many times, maybe something's out of alignment, but the switch doesn't look adjustable.


So I backed out the pushrod for the brake pedal half a turn, which moved the pedal forward a few mm, enough to close the brake light switch. So now it won't switch on the brake lights until you actually press the pedal, and the cruise control works again!

Hmm...anyone wanna buy a DME?