1983 Porsche 944 - SOLD!

Email me at shoden@shoden.org if interested. Located in Gardner, KS.

Black on black, 5 speed, Fuchs wheels, sunroof, and cold A/C. I bought this car a couple of years ago, and although I've done a bit of work on it and enjoy driving it, I don't have enough time to give it the attention it deserves, so I'm putting it up for sale. Plus, I've got too many cars and can't get anything new until I make some room.

Here's a quick list of the good and bad with the car, and details and pictures follow.

The good:

• Runs great.
• Seats recovered and in excellent condition.
• Car repainted and looks good from over 10 feet.
• Cold A/C
• Sunroof
• New clutch - replaced by previous owner approximatly 2 1/2 years ago, less than 5,000 miles on it. Same goes for the water pump and thermostat
• New water pump
• New thermostat
• New left rear brake caliper
• Several spare DME relays
• Rear seat removed and replaced with speaker enclosure

The bad:

• Mileage unknown. Odometer doesn't work.
• Won't start sometimes. Appears to be due to loose wiring to the ECU.
• Battery drains if the car isn't driven every day. I've added a quick release clamp to the negative battery cable and disconnect it if the car is going to be parked for more than a few hours.
• Firewall is ripped where the clutch master cylinder bolts on. Will need braced or welded. Results in the clutch pedal being low, but still shift and drives fine.
• Car repainted and up close you can see it wasn't very well done.
• Left rear has some body damage that was repaired, but not very well. Looks okay from outside the car, but you can see the damaged area from the inside.
• Dash cracked and recovered by plastic cap which is loose.
• Power windows work, but can be difficult to raise or lower, due to worn switches I believe.
• Rear wiper blows fuses so has been disconnected
• Windshield washer resevoir cracked and won't hold fluid. I have a replacement that just hasn't been installed.
• Motor mounts need replaced. I have replacements, just need to be installed.
• Door panels cut for 6" speakers, I have replacement panels that need cleaned and installed, or keep using the existing ones and just mount new speakers.
• Power antenna doesn't work
• Rear seat removed and replaced with speaker enclosure (Yes, I know I have this listed under "The Good" too)

When I bought the car, the main problem were with it running hot, the low clutch pedal, and the battery draining overnight. I've worked on all these issues, corrected some of them. The running hot turned out to be a combination of poor grounds showing false readings on the temp gauge and the cooling system having not been bled properly. The previous owner replaced the water pump and thermostat and had the radiator flushed before giving up with trying to correct the problem.

The low clutch pedal was a mystery for quite some time. While trying to fix it, I checked the slave cylinder and also found a return spring was missing from the clutch pedal. After replacing the spring, bleeding the system, and adjusting the clutch pedal, it was still not at the proper height, and that's when I found the rip in the firewall (see pics). The car still shifts just fine, and I actually prefer the feel of low clutch pedal to the correct 944 height.

With the battery draining problem, my solution has been to just disconnect the negative cable from the battery when parking the car for any extened period of time (6+ hours). I installed a quick release clamp to make this easier. I also carry a portable jump pack just in case, but that isn't for sale with the car. I've check all the circuits for shorts and haven't been able to find anything, so my current guess is that the drain is from the speakers installed where the rear seat used to be.

The worn engine mounts result in some pretty heavy vibration while the car is idling, but it smooths out nicely once you get on the gas. I have a pair of aftermarket engine mounts to replace the worn ones just waiting to be installed.

Finally, there's the starting problem. At first it was acting like a bad DME relay, so I bought a couple new ones (figured I'd get a spare in advance, since this is a common problem with 944s). When replacing it didn't work (well, it worked once, and then wouldn't restart, or even try to crank), I had to do some more troubleshooting. After some research, I read about loose connections to the ECU causing problems that matched my symptoms, and it just so happens that on the early 944s, the ECU is right next to the DME relay. I'm guessing that while either working on the clutch pedal (same area) or replacing the DME relay, I bumped the wiring to the ECU and loosened a connection. When the car won't start, just wiggling the connections around and diconnecting/reconnecting the battery fixes the problem.

Seats

Dash

Back Seat Area

Ripped Firewall

Battery Quick Disconnect

Engine

LeftFront

Right Rear #1

Right Rear #2

Rear

Autocrossing the 944

Left Rear, close up.

Damage visible inside left rear quarter panel.

Undamaged right rear inside for comparison.

And if you really feel like watching it, here's a video of me autocrossing the 944 back in October 2004 (2.7Mb WMV).