Cracked firewall
 

I'm looking for advice for welding the crack.
Who has done it and how long have you had a fixed wall?
Did you weld the engine side or did you do the interior side too?

Three hours later I was able to expose the whole area

A welder I am not. But after you do get it welded, I would suggest that you do the brace modification at the clutch master cylinder location to prevent this from happening in the future. I did mine when I replaced the clutch slave, clutch master and the hose. Now is the time since you have plenty of room to work.

Doug

Cracked at the clutch master, huh? Same thing here. I like working on my car, but my welding skills are childish at best (and I lack any actual welding equipment). I had the best Porsche guy in South Florida reinforce and weld it up for me. This is one area where even I'm not going to suggest DIY.

Add my car to the crack list. I found several screws had been inserted into the area by the PO! The "fixes" people think of.....

Hmmm... This is starting to make me nervous. A couple of years ago, I was trying to sell the car, and a PPI revealed, among other things (many of which were completely bogus) an "eight-inch gash on the firewall near the clutch master." I decided to keep the car and turn it into a track car, and pulled the engine to rebuild it as part of the project. While the engine was out, I crawled under there and took a long, hard look for the crack, which I had anticipated needing welded. Couldn't see a thing - everything looks solid and rust-free. I had the guy who helped me pull the engine take a look, and he couldn't see anything resembling a crack, either. Now, my firewall did flex noticeably, which to me looked like it was caused by a spot weld at the intersection of the firewall and the fender well that had given way, so I decided to install the (horrors!) D1R firewall brace and be done with it. Is it possible that I missed the crack? For those of you who have recently discovered one on their cars, is it hard to find? I looked for a really, really long time, and really stuck my head up in there. Thanks.

No, the crack sticks out like a sore thumb.
With our cars the area around the clutch master and brake booster is the high wear area.
There are 3-4 holes cut in the wall which decreases the integrity.
While we are on the subject of D1R brace, I bought and installed one a few days ago. I used it to allow me to drive the car to the body shop and get a quote. The stress from using just the brace is causing more failures......
I do recommend anyone who does not have a brace on +100k 968's to consider trying to make one or buy one. FRPorscheman designed a simpler brace that does not require you to have a strut tower brace but you will need to drill a hole in the wheel well. I believe this is a small sacrifice to prevent firewall failure.

At any rate, I have had: one welding friend, a 944 friend, and my "I have a lift at my house" friend look at my car and the consensus is that once the wall is welded, the brace should prevent re-cracking.

PS Anyone who is thinking about removing their brake booster, be prepared to basically remove your intake manifold. The metal brake lines prevent the booster from being pulled straight out. I had to "shift" the intake manifold over about a foot to be able to rotate the booster out. :to_order:

Mine was not obvious.

So how did you find it? I could move the firewall by placing a pry bar behind the clutch master cylinder and pulling forward, but the movement is isolated to the intersection of the firewall and the inner left fender. Now that the brace is in place, nothing moves. I think the shop that did the PPI noticed the movement, assumed it was due to a crack, and threw a $2000 repair estimate into the PPI.

remind me to never let this guy near my car.

btw, i wanna race ya down Bee Caves Rd. at 3:00 am sometime.

especially since it looks like we'll be neighbors. :thumbup:

Yeah, that wasn't the only thing they "diagnosed". They also found "loose" fuel lines - can't for the life of me see where they're loose, so I showed it to the same guy who helped me remove my engine (one of the smartest car guys I've ever met), and he said they feel perfect to him. And they said the clutches in my LSD are getting weak, because when they turned one rear wheel with the car in the air, the other one turned in the opposite direction (iirc). But they neglected to ask me what type of differential I have - it's a Guard torque-biasing diff, so it doesn't contain any clutches. They're supposedly a reputable Porsche shop, too.

Are you moving to Austin? If so, or anywhere near it, better reconsider that AC ;)

Check out the link below on the Firewall Repair page 3. or Search 968 Cracked Firewall.

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...acked+firewall

Cheers,
Larry

ahhh jeez, now I gotta go run to the garage to try & look at mine, keep your fingers crossed!

Body shop said they would try and tackle it, so the car will be sent out sometime today. I just need to remove the intake manifold and disconnect the grounds to be safe.

Ok from what very little I could see, I didn't see anything, which I know means nothing!:( I'll have to look from underneath too. Are there any other symptoms other than a hard clutch pedal or a squeak when its depressed? I don't have either of those. I guess as a potential bright side, my father in law was a master welder in his younger days so if it does develop I'd have an expert potentially available to fix it right.