Picked it up last night, has it died already?

avante101 · Nov 17, 2009

Hi, this my first post and I only picked my 944 up last night...
I followed the usual advice and found a what I thought was a nice 944 Celebration with good s/h. It drove fine the 100miles home last night but when I checked the oil and water this morning before going to work I found the water bottle completely full of thick 'mayonnaise'.
Had to use it this morning and it still has good oil pressure (5bar), heater works and the water temp was in the low/normal range so I am hoping it is not a head gasket.
Any advice on what else it could be? Oil/water cooler maybe? Is it ok to drive like this?

Can anyone recomend a good independant near Chester?

Thanks

944 man · Nov 17, 2009

I wouldnt drive until you know whats wrong with it. Its possibly the oil-water heat exchanger, although this was more of a problem on series one cars.

Simon

robwright · Nov 17, 2009

If the contamination is as bad as you say then my money would also be on the oil cooler mate. I take it that it is non-turbo? The only reason ask is the turbo has an external air cooled oil cooler. Bad luck mate. hope things look up from here. keep smiling eh [

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Mike_Pollock · Nov 17, 2009

+1 For the oil cooler.
You can get the coolant checked for combustion products to check head gasket.
I had similar problem, gasket set for cooler is 35ish but fiddly to fit!
Good luck with it and persevere - its well worth it!
Mike

avante101 · Nov 17, 2009

Sorry, should have been clearer. Its an E reg non turbo. I think it has been sat unused in a garage since the last MOT.
I have had another look and it seems that the water reservoir is getting presurised and forcing the gunk out of the filler cap so it has left a nasty mess in the carpark.

Thanks for the advice, was going to get the belts done anyway so will add this to the work. Wife is saying 'told you so'...

DavidL · Nov 17, 2009

It sounds a bit more serious but these cars often have a good amount of mayonnaise in the filler tube. That's just condensation mixing with the oil on the tube. It looks dreadful and needs a really good blast to evaporate the condensation.
Hope you get to the bottom of it all and just remind your wife what she spends on shoes/clothes/hairdressers - delete as appropriate!

Diver944 · Nov 17, 2009

Here's a picture I regularly trawl out showing what the oil filler often looks like at this time of year if the car hasn't done too many long journeys lately. However your description of mayo in the coolant tank does sound potentially serious and should be looked at asap

supersport · Nov 17, 2009

ORIGINAL: avante101

Sorry, should have been clearer. Its an E reg non turbo. I think it has been sat unused in a garage since the last MOT.
I have had another look and it seems that the water reservoir is getting presurised and forcing the gunk out of the filler cap so it has left a nasty mess in the carpark.

Thanks for the advice, was going to get the belts done anyway so will add this to the work. Wife is saying 'told you so'...

This is exactly what my Mondeo V6 did six months before it started smelling lot a hot pan with no water in it. Was spuing crap around the header tank cap and looking very nasty. Changed the cap and it appeared normal for about a month, and then it lunched itself. Bit of an arse, but then the wife let me replace it with a 944, so silver lining and all that.

Hopefully the 944 won't do this, but at 22 years old, 183,000 miles and it cost under £2,000 who knows.

Hope you get it sorted, if you are in it for the long haul and you spent a reasonable amount on the car, then its worth getting fixed. They are fantastic cars so hopefully you will feel the love soon.