Living with a Porsche 944

A dry day in the middle of winter can only mean one thing. A last blast in the 944. Here's to 2011.

I like simple cost effective solutions to common problems. Such as the sunroof leak common to these old Porsches. I had my sunroof drains cleared last year when I bought the 944 and for the most part only experienced water ingress through the sunroof in very heavy showers - just like the ones we had the past week. As my '44 leads a privileged life in a warm, cozy garage this is not something I worry to much about. As a precaution I had begun to investigate replacement sunroof seals, and if you've ever done that you may agree that the Porsche items are over-priced IMO so I was looking into alternatives, particularly from VW. I compared a number of different profiles to that on my 944 and concluded that while the inner seal was easy to obtain for very little money per meter, the profile of the outer seal had no alternative that I could easily source. While I prodded around the sunroof opening I began to wonder just how the water was making it's way in, over the lip and ...

When your 944 is going on 25 the MOT feels a little like a lottery. However I'm really pleased that "The Hoff", as my 944 has become to be known as, passed without one advisory! My friendly tester proved once again that having the test done at a garage known personally by you has it's benefits: he noticed that the front drivers side spring had become poorly seated on the strut and promptly corrected it FOC. Had he not it would have been a fail for sure. My '44 is going wonderfully and I'm enjoying it immensely.

In my quest to tighten up the handling on the 944, I bought a new Needle Bearing from Porsche in an attempt to eliminate the fore-aft play in the steering at the top universal joint. The part number for the replacement is 477.419.059 and costs £88.86 posted from an OPC. Nothing like the effort required to actually remove the old one... I began the process by reading section 48 of Porsche Workshop manual. It appeared a simple enough process but two things bothered me: firstly, it required a chisel to remove a shear bolt (which in my limited experience never "shear"; and secondly a drill to remove two screws from the ignition lock. I was bothered because a quick look under the dashboard made it quite obvious that whoever had written the manual hadn't performed this task - well not without a dashboard in place that's for sure. I was bothered before I'd even started. Furthermore, the manual doesn't detail the replacement of this bearing at all - just the rem...

It's been an interesting and somewhat confusing week with the 944. Some severe clutch slip coincided with my wife driving the car... I'm not saying that my Lovely is to blame, but there has been no sign of the clutch going up until this point. I've been hesitant to drive the last few days as the clutch may just be the most expensive part to replace besides the engine! However I was out and about today and there's no sign of clutch slip. Granted I didn't tackle the traffic on the school run as before - I used a different route avoiding the slow climb up a hill. So all seems well for now and hopefully I'll not need to fork out for that anytime soon.

Tucked away in North Devon I found this intriguing garage. A fairly tasty selection of old Porsche cars scattered about, including some in various states of restoration. How about some lovely 911s? Or an old 944 or 928? There can't be many garages like this about, but clearly these chaps have cornered the market in this neck of the English woods. Can you see the vintage 911 racer stuffed into the corner beneath the 944 getting a full rear end rebuild? Cool.

I dropped my 944 of at my friendly local garage this morning for them to adjust the rear trailing blade and fit a new wheel bearing to the NS rear wheel. Hopefully all will go well. I found this procedure on the web that shows just how the trailing arm can be adjusted to effect a 20-25mm drop on the rear of the 944 without reindexing the torsion bars - which is a major job best avoided I'm told. I had tried to have the bolts undone when I had my tyres changed recently but the impact wrench at the tyre shop couldn't budge them, and as I don't have a torch to heat them up I figure it best be left with people who do. Thankfully these chaps have a penchant for restoring classics themselves so my 944 should be in good hands. With that done I'll be ready to lower the front by fitting new springs. Not many 944 owners like the idea of lowering their car but I think with the 16" Turbo alloys slightly tucked under the arches it will be a marked improvement in the stan...