Living with a Porsche 944

After receiving the full set of bushes from Guildford OPC I decided this afternoon to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather and get under the car again. After jacking up both sides of the 944 I set about loosening the droplink bolts after removing the front wheels. Access is good and a breaker bar came in handy getting those bolts to budge. There's no chance of getting them off with a standard ratchet that's for sure. I found that after removing the droplink from the driver side control arm (wishbone) I needed to use a  jack to raise the wishbone on the other side in order to get enough space between the strut and bolt to loosen it with the 17mm socket. Once all the bolts were removed the anti-roll bar just drops out from under the car. It took a few taps with the hammer to get the old bushes to budge and quite some muscle to remove them from the ARB. I started to get worried about installing the new ones, them being significantly more compact to the eye than th...

With a clear diary and sunny skies I decided that I would tackle my front brakes - the Pagid discs and Girling pads have been taunting me from my workbench for a week now. Thankfully removing the two 19mm bolts that hold on the caliper was an easy task - probably in part to the overhaul I did on the calipers back in October when I bought that car. What I learned after the first wheel was that it was easier to remove the pads before the caliper was off. This way it was easier to push back the piston using the old brake pad instead of the edge of the new disc. I'd also like to point out that the Haynes manual is completely useless - when it comes to my 1986 model. It didn't even make mention of the fact that the rotor was behind the hub; and that the hub-rotor assembly should be removed as a whole and then separated. I learned the hard way on the first hub. You have been forewarned and redirected to Clark's Garage for more accurate instructions. The dirt and muck that ...

A passenger pointed out to me that they thought I had exhaust fumes making their way into my cabin. So as a matter of course I decided to tighten up the hatch latch pins. Which would have been simple if they weren't rusted solid. I have a new set on the way from Porscheapart due to one shearing off! To be on the safe side I also dropped the car round my local garage - who fitted the new fuel line in November - for a fuel line check. Thankfully the whole fuel line delivery system is A- ok. We'll see what the new hatch pins bring about.

There's certainly never a dull moment with a 24 year old classic. After doing such a great job on the service and fully enjoying the effects of new found oomph, I notice I now have a small puddle of coolant under the radiator. A quick call to Porsche and a few searches on the net reveal a rather expensive bit to replace at upwards of £200 all the way to £360 from an OPC. This is not what this mechanic ordered! I guess I'll need to take a closer to look at the newly fitted temp sensor I installed in the radiator last week and make sure the pipes are securely attached. I would much rather spend that money on an upgrade of some kind!

After a good cuppa it was time to do the oil change and air filter replacement. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped to begin with as the oil filter is a rather difficult thing to remove - if you don't have the correct tools. After discovering the the oil drain plug is a 15mm nut, followed by a trip into Machine Mart to purchase one as my socket set was of course missing this vital tool. I then discovered much to my chagrin that the oil filter removal tool that I planned to use, the kind with the chain, was too cumbersome to use in such a compact space and it wouldn't budge the oil filter at all. The only solution was a clever multi-sizing contraption from Halfords that clamps on the end of the filter much like a socket - as seen below attached to the end of the extension - a clever bit of kit: Once removed, the rest of the oil change went without incident or challenge. I decided to remove the airbox so as to clean the connections on the temperature sens...

Today was the day to tackle the ignition service. I knew the car had an ill-fitting distributor cap, and having checked the plugs a couple months back I knew they were past their best too by now. Furthermore, JM Garage had pointed out that the leads were past their best also. Essentially the whole shebang had to be changed, and in my pursuit of recovering all my BHP this was a vital service to perform on my 944 at 200,584 miles. It didn't take a genius to see that the condition of the existing parts was appalling. Since my last inspection of these bits & bobs at the onset of winter, the dizzy was now very loose and the rotor had obviously been smacking the sides of the distributor cap as it flopped around. Both had visible signs of damage! The new Beru on the left and old Bosch Distributor Cap on the right - just look at the damage and dirt inside that dizzy: Take a look at that knackered rotor on the left - the striking edge has been bent back from hitting the ignition p...

Apparently the Porsche 944 has a characteristic whine to the rear mounted gearbox in the transaxle. I've always wondered if an oil change in the gearbox would make a difference to mine. Searching through my service history didn't reveal any receipts for gear box oil changes in the last 10 years - which was quite disturbing. The chaps at Opie Oils have an extensive range of oils on offer, plus a 10% discount for members of the various forums/clubs on top of their already very good prices, and if you contact them they'll recommend a good oil for your car. I selected a Castrol TAF-X for manual gearboxes and set about getting ready to do the oil change. (This blog post gave me the confidence to do this myself - thanks!) On the left of the gearbox under the back of the car you'll find two 17mm hex bolts. The top is the filler access and the bottom the drain plug. You don't need to raise the car like I did but it makes access a little easier. As you can see from the ...

Boxes of goodies have arrived from various sources to tackle a number of servicing jobs this weekend. Castrol Oil for the engine and gearbox: Mahle filters for the air and oil: Pagid discs, Lucas Girling pads, Beru Dizzy and Rotor, plus Bosch plugs: Let's get to it.