Buying a strange Porsche 944

[Warren1317]

Hello everyone, I found a Porsche 944 at a bargain (under 2800€). The owner said that the car doesn't start, but it's a problem with the ECU, that the alarm prevent the fuel to go into the engine. This is above my knowledge. Is it a tiny problem or should I run away?

Also pics of the car:

 

[PaulHere]

Impossible to call.

I would say it's too expensive for a non runner. You quote the price in Euros so I assume it is not a UK vehicle.

If you know a good auto electrician and are prepared to put time and money into it.

Don't neglect the condition of the rest of the car, you may get it running then find a catalogue of other work

If you have the time, space, patience and money then it may be good. Otherwise it will sit outside your house for years to come...

 

[bmnelsc]

I agree with Paul here. If the current owner know its an ECU and he won't fix in order to fetch a higher price then you should be a bit leery of the deal. You really need to do a fair bit of the repair/maintenance yourself to make this kind of deal work...labor cost to work on any Porsche is high - these are old but still a Porsche and qualified mechanics are still expensive. Parts are also expensive so you want to know what needs fixing rather than throwing parts at problem until its solved.
Then you have the missing bodywork and extremely poor paintwork... expensive to set right. So tot up an ECU replacement, body parts and paint and see where you sit against a good example. You might find you can buy one for equal or less money...

 

[Warren1317]

thanks for the reply, I got a really good friend mechanic and electrician who will visit the car with me, I've watch other forums and someone gave me a link to bypass the alarm system. I plan of customizing the whole car, so my plan is to restaure some part like seats, carpet and stuff like that and sell them to buy more recent and perfomant component. I will go and see the car, might even post some pic here, maybe it's a scam or not. I will negociate the price between 1800 and 2000, above it wont be worth it. I've also saw a 924 from 77, 41000km, slept in a garage. This one might be safer

 

[Peter_Bull]

What counttry is the car in?

 

[Warren1317]

the car is in La Ciotat (South France)

 

[944Turbo]

Very risky purchase, offer 500Euro if you fancy a project! If it doesn't start you don't know if it has any other engine / gearbox / driving / suspension / wheel bearing etc issues.
Tony

 

[pse_SC]

caveat emptor

 

[peanut]

Hello everyone, I found a Porsche 944 at a bargain (under 2800€). The owner said that the car doesn't start, but it's a problem with the ECU, that the alarm prevent the fuel to go into the engine. This is above my knowledge. Is it a tiny problem or should I run away?

Also pics of the car:

Alarms and immobilisers essentially immobilise the 944 by cutting into a loop on the underside of the fuse /relay board which is provided for that purpose. The alarm or immobiliser introduces an electronic switch to close and open the loop which supplies power to the DME relay which powers your ECU fuel and ignition system.

Lift the fuse relay board and find connector E and disconnect it. Look for a very fine wire loop coming out of the bottom of the E connector. If it has been cut through and there are wires connected to the tails then all you need to do is to cut off the 2x added extension wires and re-connect the 2x original black yellow loop wires and power will be restored to the DME relay ECU. sensors fuel pump injectors ignition etc .

Take a 3x wire DME relay bypass with you to replace the DME relay which is on the main fuse relay board . its just 3x pieces of wire joined together to replace the DME relay. Look on the Parragon or Clarkes garage website or do a search on this forum. https://youtu.be/H4y_tdyuhdE

 

[Peter_Bull]

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It will be a money pit.

 

[Eldavo]

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It will be a money pit.

This should be the strap line for the 944 forum, bang on the (considerable amounts of necessary spending) money.

 

[peanut]

in my experience the reason owners spend a lot of money on their 944's is because instead of carrying out a proper troubleshoot check and testing procedure they simply buy a whole load of completely unnecessary and expensive components until hopefully at some point , the non-start or poor running condition miraculously corrects itself . I speak from experience of helping other owners on 3x Porsche forums on both sides of the pond for the past 20+ years.

Many 944's over the years have been abandoned to go rusty for years only to be sent to the breakers or eventually sold for parts because owners have been unable to rectify starting and running faults and could not afford to have the car repaired at a garage. There are 2x such abandoned 944's in villages local to me that have stood rusting away for the past 5-8+years .

The 944 is a very easy car to troubleshoot and work on compared to most modern sports cars like Mercedes SLK and the jaguar XK8 etc everything is so accessible and easy to access. What we have always needed is for someone to write a really good troubleshooting guide for the 944

 

[blade7]

The 944 is a very easy car to troubleshoot and work on

Really?

 

[peanut]

sure is [].... but I have spent a good few hundred hours working on them and had an extensive library of technical reference books to refer to .

There isn't a single component that is difficult to access on a 944 that I can think of except perhaps the reference sensors .
There are dozens of dedicated technical books , electrical schematics, workshop manuals available and extensive Worldwide enthusiast owners and clubs to help with any issues and there are extensive used and new spare parts available.

 

[blade7]

You must have more patience than me. I've lost count of the times I've cursed the 944 designers, while working on mine. The front engine covers are a good example, having to dismantle unrelated parts to access to water pump is nuts. At least Porsche modified the bell housing on the 968, Vauxhall did that years earlier.

 

[peanut]

yes that is a good example of restrictive access and I'm sure that there are others but I can't think of any relatively modern sports car I've owned that doesn't need items removing to access the water pump and cam belt tensioners etc. There is very little room to the front of most front engine'd sports cars.
Thankfully these jobs are a once in the lifetime of ownership of a car and most cars give many thousands of trouble free miles.

 

[blade7]

You may be right. I changed the cambelt and water pump on my daughters mk7 1.6 Fiesta Zetec recently, and it was a faff. I could pull out a Pinto or Essex engine in around an hour in the good old days.

 

[jonnyporsche]

AOS on a Turbo [][][]

 

[dlknight]

AOS on a Turbo [][][]

I concur - did this last year, what a hell of a job.... might be taking the turbo off again as well if I can't find my exhaust leak...