A nice Christmas present

One of the presents from my wife this year is a set of stainless braided brake lines for the Porsche!

In perfect disguise, black covered. With all paperwork to use it legally!

Top service from AZEV

The Azev wheels I bought a while ago were initially designed for the Porsche 928. I contacted Azev to ask for paperwork which allows to legally use this set of rims on a 944 as well. They provide excellent service, I received a copy of a "Teilegutachten" for the Porsche 944 - with a lot of different tyre sizes and combinations!

Here are the options for the 8"x17" and 9,5"x17" rims:
Front: 205/50/17 Rear: 255/40/17
or
Front: 205/50/17 Rear: 265/40/17
or
Front: 215/50/17 Rear: 255/40/17
or
Front: 215/50/17 Rear: 265/40/17
or
Front: 225/45/17 Rear: 255/40/17
or
Front: 225/45/17 Rear: 265/40/17

I tend to use the 215/50/17 up front (no power steering!) and the 255/40/17 in the back.
These sizes are available from so many tyre companies - it is difficult to chose from...
Luckily I have plenty of time before these wheels will be mounted!

Of course, good service doesn't come for free, but I was happy to pay the requested 39,00 € for a trouble free TÜV visit!

The best part: As the paperwork is issued 1994, I can even use the tire/rim combo if I chose the H-registration!

Fixing the hot-as-hell heater

Almost every 944 owner will sooner or later face this problem: The heater is only providing hot air, no matter how you set the dial...

The previous owner of my car had the same problem, so he purchased a used heater regulator mechanism for the dashboard - these usually cost between 60€ and 100€. He never got time to replace it - but it would have been worthless - the issue is far more simple to fix!  The spares you need will throw you back a whooping  1,44€!
Under the dash is a servo motor which moves the heater regulator flap via a rod continuously variable between hot and cold. This rod is coupled to the flap with a plastic retainer, secured by a spring clip.

This is a really good picture which explains the problem perfectly, found on another cool blog:
crankydriver.com

This is the annoying article:

 
Over the years the clip becomes brittle and splits. Now the flap falls down to the full-on hot position and stays there. The clip is accessable easily under the dash and it takes less than 5 minutes to replace the retainer and secure it with the spring clip. You only need to synchronize the flap and dial positions. The Part numbers are: 944 572 217 00 for the spring clip and 944 572 314 00 for the plastic retainer.

 Note: Both parts were made in Japan!

Wheels Wheels Wheels...

If you know me, you know I am a wheel whore... I guess this will never change... I already have 4 different sets of wheels for the Volksback - only half of them were mounted so far!
So I purchased yet another set of wheels even before I bought the car!
I am a big fan of the Azez A wheel - On the right car the perfect wheel, a golf Mk II on 16" or 17" Azev A rims: perfect! The same goes for a BMW E30 - a wheel which fits cars of this era. The 944 is no exception. On one of my favorite uk-based forums: retro rides is a top notch example from a chap called Sumpcracker: Here is a pic of his rad 944 Turbo, found on retro rides:

There are tons of pics of this car, just type "944" and "Azev A" in google picture search!

I also found a white one with 17" Azev A wheels: picture found on carandclassic.co.uk

The set I bought has a little less dish, but nevertheless I think this is a very nice wheel for any 944.
I already organized a nice set of center logo's as the original Azev logo's on mine are missing:

So, expect another set of wheels on car from time to time - did I mention that it came with a set of Ronal 16" mesh rims as well? But there is some elbow grease required before they can get mounted... More of that later!

Ebay and Porsche parts... big time rip-off!

Well, if you look for bargains of all sorts, usually ebay is the first - and today sometimes the only - source. If you are looking for Porsche parts - Watch out! Just a few examples:

the rubber ring on the rear lock, part number 477 827 529 A:

ebay price: between 6,90€ incl. shipping  and 13,89€  + 18,29€ shipping from the UK!
Porsche Zentrum Essen: 1,70€ + tax = 2,02€

gasket under rear view mirror, part number 945 731 506 01:

ebay price: between 12,00€ + 2,20€ shipping for a used part!  and new 26,16€ incl. shipping from the UK!
Porsche Zentrum Essen: 3,38€ + tax = 4,02€

... one more example:
the rear hatch lock rubber, part number 944 512 365 01:

ebay: no matches found - pelican parts in the US: 61 $
Porsche Zentrum Essen:  36,19€ + tax =  43,07€

So, it is always worth to check Porsche first! Today we also got a little freebee:

a small chocolate bite for Toby and myself!

I ordered the parts yesterday and picked everything up today - top service!

Even though + 100 € for some rubber seals is not exactly cheap - but compared to the classic VW part prices of today, the quick delivery and the fact that all parts are genuine Porsche - I am happy!

Enjoy your weekend!

The odds of modern online purchases...

Today I received some parts which I ordered 2 weeks ago - from Germany! I ordered parts in the US later which took only 10 days including customs - this is a new record for the longest shipment time within Germany I have heard of - except the world war 2 postcards which show up some +70 years later from time to time... Infact the parts had only 150 km to travel!
But finally, here they are:

The clips for the sun visors - maybe they appear not so important, but during the first tour, on the way home the sun visor fell down several times on the Autobahn - which left me blind folded again and again. So, it is really important to exchange the old clips for the new! This will be one of many easy (and some not so easy) fixes as soon as I start working on the car!

More parts arriving!

After I bought the car, on the way home it became very obvious that the shock absorbers were done, so I ordered the non-arguable best choice for any Porsche, Bilstein B6. Also the struts for the rear hatch, as they are too weak to push the hatch up. And some parts to restore the brake calipers:

So, busy days to come!

Sloppy shifter...

After more than 250.000 km you cannot expect a perfect gear change anymore. The 944 uses a poly bushing for the shifter which bottoms out and gives a real sloppy shifter feeling, because at the same time the shifter shaft wears out, too..
Luckily, the American company only944.com comes to the rescue. They redesigned the shifter linkage and support the poly bushing and shaft with axial bearings. A lot of customers are really satisfied with this set up and for 60 USD I gave it a shot:

The quality of this laser cut part is really nice and it even comes with some loctite threadlocker!
You can learn more about this kit on their website - on the bottom of the page is a nice illustration how it works :
http://only944.com/partscatalog/only/shifter/

In fact, they also offer high quality seals for the Targa roof  and lots more...

The Porsche is currently stored in a garage, but I will start working on it as soon as the other projects are finished!

A few pictures...

This is the state I bought it in...

The interior is still in overall good condition:

The drivers seat is cracked - which is a usual problem on all Porsches...

The outside is also o.k. - the paint is really matt, it needs a good rub with the polisher and some cutting compound - another issue is the 16V style antenna...

 The dash has some cracks, but that's o.k.

The rear bumper is an aftermarket Strossek part, which is unfortunately bonded onto the body. I have original bumpers as well, maybe I will change back to OEM look later...

Ordering parts...

As always, before the new purchase can be used, a lot of repairs, some small, some bigger need to be tackled. Surprisingly, the spares for the transaxle Porsche's are not that crazy expensive - from what I've seen so far - but there is a lot of things to do. After browsing a few forums I found some good sources for parts, original and performance level. On the right side are some links.

Another car - another blog!

After I started my first Blog in August 2010  and the next one in February 2013, it is almost a tradition to start another blog, now I have yet another car, my first Porsche - even though it was built by Audi for Porsche...