Porsche 924 white

[inconsistant]

Hello all, was going to do a long overdue update but have found all my photos have become thumbnails.

 

Does anyone have any idea why and/or what can be done to put them back to normal please?

[Jim Bell]

2 minutes ago, inconsistant said:

Hello all, was going to do a long overdue update but have found all my photos have become thumbnails.

 

Does anyone have any idea why and/or what can be done to put them back to normal please?

Unfortunately all threads using board mounted photos suffered thumbnailing during THE GREAT CHANGE. 

Anything posted after TGC should show normal sized. 

[brownnova]

If you click on said photo it should show full size. I think... 

[inconsistant]

Despite saying the last few times that I’d keep updating this thread regularly and not in big chunks I’ve done it again, so here’s an irregular big chunk of update catching up with the last 18 months of hot 924 owning action. I’ll post month by month until I get to now. Last update was Sept 2018 so hold tight folks here we go with Oct 2018...

 

October 2018

Planned to meet some other 924 owners at Goodwood for a Porsche charity get together. The day before I had thoroughly cleaned and polished the car and then went to start it to check all OK ready for an early departure the following morning and it wouldn’t start. It turned over but wouldn't fire up. The battery was getting flat so jumped it from the other car and it just endlessly turned over. Tried pulling out the fuel pump relay and jumping the relay with a wire to force the fuel pump to run, and tried unplugging and replugging the green wire that comes out of the distributor, that I still don't really understand what it does except that it's something to do with speed retards and can help with poor running, but still wouldn’t start.

I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination, still very much a mechanical goon but I’m starting to know enough about engines to guess when it might be or fuel, or spark. This felt like there was no fuel because there was no smell of petrol but sort of because it wasn’t even trying to catch, like there was nothing in the cylinders to burn. It ended up being something mega straight forward but I’d never have guessed without help. The fuel pump fuse had blown.

A 2 minute job once I’d spotted it in the fusebox under the passenger footwell. Replaced with another colour coded one and started first turn of the key. Hurrah, I'm going to Goodwood in the morning!

Goodwood white 924 threesome:  A 924 (mine), a 924S and a 924 Turbo, tastefully done up to look like a Carrera GT.

 

Been to these charity days before and they're good fun, its of close up track day action to watch, and a start line photo line up then a parade lap. We purposefully held back to let all the eager beaver brand new and very expensive PCGB 911 and Boxster owners get down the front and be all prominent, more than happy to know our place in the scheme of things and lurk around in the very very background about an eighth of a mile back. So we pulled onto the start straight right at the back, and lo and behold got ushered along the pit lane right up to the front. So here's our 924s hob nobbing with the big boys:

Ooh, and here's what the front page of their website looks like now. Can you see the cheeky 924s?

Parade lap, and fun day ending way to soon. Hopefully back next year.

 

I had to put the car cover on because it's leaking somewhere, again. Here are some pix that demonstrate why car covers are a bad idea, this is the internal pattern of the cover that has rubbed itself onto the paintwork. Eventually came off with some teacup, and fortunately no damage at all to the new paint I did on the front end over the summer. 

 

Sealed up the sunroof again for winter as it had been leaking a bit in the rain. Disappointing after last winter where it didn’t need sealing. I thought I’d finally cracked the problem, but obis not, although I don’t think it is the sunroof, I think it’s leaking from somewhere else, and the moisture in the car is condensing on the glass sunroof and dripping into the trim around it, then spilling down the driver/front passengers neck and lap when it gets used after a couple of weeks by which time there’s a fair amount of water gathered in there. I'm getting really really good at sealing the sunroof for winter, and quite impressed by the elegance of this autumn's gafferwork:

[inconsistant]

November 2018

Driver's inner wing tiny corner of previous repair re-repaired, put in for MOT, passed MOT with only cracked tyres as an advisory. 

 

HURRAH!

 

It's MOTTED and ready for the annual drive up to the NEC classic car show, this year the drive was in terrible rain, we stopped on the M40 twice for cars that had spun off into centre armco and up onto the bank because they weren't driving at a speed to suit the conditions or their driving ability. They were driving at speeds that suit their ability to be pricks and endanger the rest of us poor buggers that were just trying to get from one end of the motorway to the other safely. It was so wet the rain was coming in the footwell through the heater and dripping onto my left foot. I drive in just socks because the heater is so amazingly good that my feet get too hot in shoes. So I felt every drip. got to Brum ok but the car really wasn't happy. It was the sort of rain that got absolutely everywhere, into all the electrical connections and everything. It would have been drier if I'd parked it under water. 

It did't run great for the rest of the weekend, hard to start, lumpy tick over, lots of hesitating at about 1500 revs, stalling when I came to a stop at junctions, and generally felt like it would rather have stayed at home for the weekend. Unlike me, I had a great time at the show, helped out on the 924 Owners Club stand again.

 ----

I fitted LEDs to the centre console dials. I now need to fit them to the main dash as they make a big difference. I  imagine getting the dials out of the dash will be a whole heap more bother than the centre console unit which comes away with only 2 screws once the stereo is removed.

Main dash dials:

Centre console with LEDs:

 

[inconsistant]

DECEMBER 2018

Went to go for a whizz in Boxing Day and noticed the passenger headlight had stopped working. I checked the fuses, swapped the fuses and replaced the fuses, but no change. I checked the bulbs, swapped them over and replaced them with the old working ones, but still not working. This is the limit of my ability to fix headlights, so I decided this was a job for the mechanic.

For Christmas I got a really unfunny Top Gear Crap Car book. Fortunately my mum had got it as a tongue in cheek present, she knows I hate TG, but she saw it in a charity shop for tuppence and noticed the 924 had just scrapped in at no49 out of the 50 cars featured. 

 

 

 

FFS.

Worst Christmas present ever, that'll be going straight back to the charity shop. Or maybe in the lovely roaring fire we're all sat around drinking too much sherry.

[somewhatfoolish]

To be fair a Tre Kronur is not a great match for an Afghan Hound, with or without mud. This kind of book tends to just be a lazy rehash of every urban automotive myth that ever existed and mostly bought, as in this case, by the ignorant as a present for recipients 'who like cars'.

[inconsistant]

I hope I get you for next year's Secret Santa!

[Roobarb]

Great update. I’d love a 924 one day. Such a great styled car. 

They aren’t cheap over here in the States. Finding one worth having under $3k is impossible. A nice one is $6-8k, so the secret is out over here. 

[mat_the_cat]

22 hours ago, inconsistant said:

 

Those gauges look rather familiar!

[supermellowman]

I love your perseverance and very personal journey of discovery and developing skills with this.

Keep the updates coming, however infrequent. In any event, it always feels like the last update was just weeks ago whenever you post a new one. Meant as a compliment,

[inconsistant]

JANUARY 2019

 

During the first drive of 2019 I noticed the brakes felt a bit funny, a very squishy pedal, but brakes worked ok if I pumped a couple of times. Took it slowly home, imagined total brake failure and rear ending someone and ruining the previous summer’s work on the front of the car. I've never had any problem with the brakes before so I have no idea what the problem might be and no idea how to sort it. I'd always said to myself that I wouldn't get involved in brakes or steering, I'd leave both of them to the experts. So with that in mind I thought I'd try to save a few quid by having a go at sorting it myself.

I read up on the internet and hopefully it's just the brake fluid needing replacing,  I imagine that’s the problem, because it’s been in the car for the 5+ years I've owned it. Oops, I didn’t know I had to change it regularly. After reading up countless how to’s on the interwebs I bought the right fluid, printed off the best how to's, borrowed some fluid extracting equipment, (some sort of sucking device), and decided the day before I'd find the bleeding nipples, douse them in wd40, and check I cold undo them. 

Here's the front bleeding nipples:

Here's the rear bleeding nipples:

And here's the bleeding rear bleeding nipple a couple of minutes later just after I sheered it off:

Cool. Good start. Usually things don't fuck up until it's nearly dark but this job hasn't wasted any time. Since getting to this point had taken all of January I decided this was now a job for the mechanic to sort, so I ordered a new pair of rear callipers (apparently the easiest way to sort the sheered nipple, and they weren’t too expensive) and booked him for a couple of weeks time when he was next free to come and sort them. So that would be February then.

====

Meanwhile the continuing boot leak fully revealed itself.

 

 

[inconsistant]

Great to see Banger Kenny is back and liking posts

 

 

!

[inconsistant]

FEBRUARY 2019

The mechanic got the old callipers off but the rear dust plate thingies fell apart in his hands when removing them, so I ordered a new pair of those, then waited a couple of weeks for him to be free again and he fitted all the new bits, bled the brakes and got it back and running and stopping nicely, just too late for me to make it to the 924o/c annual meeting at the Ace Cafe at the beginning of March. Yes, it had taken the best part of 2 months to do a brake fluid change. I had the car all washed and polished ready but with no rear brakes or wheels I decided probably best to give it a miss.

 

 

 

Once the job was all done I realised that I completely forgot to get him to do the headlight while he was here. Oops.

====

The headlight cover incompatibility paint job c*ck up is really coming on nicely now, with some really top quality crazing of the paint. It's so bad I'm almost proud of how much effort I put in relative to the outcome. 

====

Since the NEC show in November it’s been running really badly to the point I’ve not really been out much in it because it isn’t fun, I feel like it’s going to let me down, I sort of know there isn't going to be a quick fix for it, and I just don't like working on the car this time of year when it's cold and damp and horrible and I've got some really good games on the PS4 in the nice warm lounge. So it's been a bit ignored over winter.

This problem of hesitating and being a bit jolty at 1500ish revs has come and gone in my ownership, although it's never been this obvious, so I finally decided rather than ignore it or try driving around it I would try to methodically go through everything that it might be one by one until I find what it is and get it sorted. It’s a relatively straight forward engine and there’s bags of expertise and support in the owners Club so I really want to try to fix it once and for all.

I thought I’d start with replacing all service items and change fluids even though they don’t really need doing with the tiny mileage I put on it since the last time I did it, but at least I can do this job and it will rule these simple things out, because there's always the chance it might be something simple like a dodgy sparkle plug or something. So, fresh coolant & oil, air & fuel and oil filters, swapped in a lovely new set of sparkle plugs and fitted a new distributor cap.

Took the car out for a run, and it made no difference.

[inconsistant]

MARCH 2019

Helped my Brother in Law with some furniture making, which meant taking lots of tools round to their's but also keeping our other, practical car available for the other half to use when I could really have done with using it. Good thing the 924 is such an incredible swallower of loads , as long as they are squarish and relatively flat, at least at one end.

====

At the end of March, due to a Transit wanting to share road space with our v40 and turning it into an ex-Volvo, the 924 was joined by the Dark Beast, so we have now joined life’s winners as we are a 100% Autoshite car sourced household.

I also learned that people on Autoshite do some weird shit with their crumpets.

[inconsistant]

APRIL 2019

The centre silencer starting to sound noisier than usual, and very quickly got a lot noisier. It ended up sounding like a proper racing car, which was quite exciting for a bit and then got very boring. I had managed to create a split on the joint around the from of the silencer which is right next to the drivers seat. As well as sounding awesome for a bit, it also highlighted lots of angry popping and banging on over-run, especially free wheeling down steep hills in 2nd/3rd gear. 

 

 

 

Got a new silencer for about £50 delivered, and the mechanic fitted it for me because I didn't want to get dirty and cross.

[stripped fred]

Very much enjoying your updates ?

[inconsistant]

MAY 2019

I bought a new aluminium racing sds trolley jack, because my old Clarke one was starting to fall apart and was a bit shit. The SDS one is lovely, lifts the car way higher, and in fewer strokes so it actually makes it a pleasure to jack the car up, rather than the bother it felt like before. I can slide the jack pad onto the front cross member and jack it all the way up in one go until I can kick my ramps under the front wheels. I previously had to do it in 2 or 3 stages involving blocks of wood and axle stands half way. Def money well spend, hopefully lasts well too.

Some more investigations into the poor running. I suspect there are several issues, maybe connected maybe not.

Before I start to do stuff to the car here's a detailed overview of the problems:

Cold Start

Struggles to start from cold

Turns over quickly with the key so assume battery is ok

After several attempts to start there is a fuel smell & loud BANG from the exhaust, then it usually starts a couple of goes after that

Jerks

Seems to then run ok from cold but is jerky and stutters at 1500-1800 rpm

It's the same in all gears, always at the same revs, and it's especially noticeable  if driving gently and accelerating gently. Less of a problem if you floor it to accelerate, then the car accelerates strongly if you put your foot down with strong power right up to the red line.

There's lots of fairly muted  popping on the over run, this was very noticeable when the exhaust was split and once the engine was up to temperature the popping wha almost constant when foot off the accelerator.

Hot Start

Struggles to start when hot, needs lots of turning over, eventually catches and starts Typical hot start problems, but I do a test a while ago with the fuel pressure tester and ran through the procedure to monitor pressure drop and the results were ok. Maybe need to re-test.

Runs lumpy after a hot start, doesn’t seem to clear even with a bit of a thrash. Always lumpiest at lower speeds/revs, so ok on a motorway run but no fun in stop/start or town centre traffic..

Every time I'm coasting approaching traffic lights or stationary traffic I dip the clutch & brake  to stop and the revs drop and it feels like it’s going to stall. Revs seem to stay at about 900 but feels like its about to stall. Need to keep revving it as feels like its about to stall. It always seems worse when it's hot weather and/or the car is warm

Bizarrely, on any trip I take it always runs rougher on the return journey, The problem has come and gone over several years. Car ran noticeably badly after the run up to NEC in torrential rain. Next day was struggling to start, and was stalling as I pulled up at junctions or as I put my foot down to pull away.

The Autoshite outing to the Microcar museum was a typical journey, except I met and convoyed with RobT in his lovely Metro. Typical car issues… a few times the engine slowly stalled and could sometimes catch it with the accelerator but when coming to a stop don’t have enough legs to keep the revs up as well as brake and change gear too.

Then we came to leave the museum it wouldn’t start and took loads of turning over to the point of almost running the battery flat, and then leaving it for a few minutes before trying again, but as always, it started in the end.

REPLACED SO FAR (and made no difference)

Oil & Coolant change

New air filter

New oil filter

New spark plugs

New distributor cap

New distributor arm

I also splashed out on a new set of HT & king leads

 

I thought a to do list/plan of attack would be a good idea.

1. Put old ignition amplifier module back

2. clean fuses and contacts in fuse box

3. spray water over fuel injectors to check for leaks

4. same with inlet manifold check for leaks

5. bottle test injectors (need 4 small bottles the same for fuel) check all spraying ok

6. fuel pressure test

7.  Replace fuel pump as it’s been a bit grumbly recently

 

I had a couple of chats with people who's knowledge of 924s I totally trust as they've got me out of trouble before.

One suggested it sounded like a problem with the air metering head or maybe bad injectors

The other, who also races a 924, suggested:

Could be a faulty Warm Up Regulator on the fuel injection (WUR)

or maybe a faulty distributor

I decided to add these to my to do list near the top.

 

I took the ignition amplifier  module out and opened it up to see if thee was something obviously wrong with it, but it all looked OK.

 

I found a spare one in the shed, I think it was the one I had on the car before I did the head gasket. I put that one back on but then it wouldn’t start at all,  so I swapped the old one back on.

 

Other things I've done or checked:

Run a bottle of redex through it over a couple of tanks of fuel

Cleaned the earth point behind the dash and cleaned up all fuse contacts with a glass fibre pen thing and replaced all fuses in fuseboxes

None of this made any difference.

[inconsistant]

JUNE 2019

After the advice that I might have a faulty WUR I replaced it for the one that was on it before I did the head gasket, just to see if there was a difference. It's a bugger to get to and you have to undo the screws blind while fighting several hoses and electrical connectors, so it was a fairly hateful job.

It now starts great, first turn of the key after only a few seconds. I like this.

I went out the following day for a 25 mile drive. After only 3 miles/5 mins from home I got stuck in stationary traffic on a dual carriageway, it was hot weather, I did only a quarter mile in 40 mins and the car behaved very well, no stuttering or hesitation. Then the road cleared and I got up some A road speeds. The old stuttering came back as bad as before for the rest of the journey.

On the return journey, after being parked for an hour it didn’t start first crank, so I pumped the accelerator and it started after a couple of messy almost starts. It did the usual stuttering/hesitating at 1500-1800rpm right from the start and for the whole journey back.

I had to rev it a bit at junctions when I was about to pull away otherwise it felt like it was going to stall. At one point I had to do a sudden stop, without going down through gears, and the car stalled. It started again first crank though. Which was nice.

When I got home I pulled up on the drive, at tick over I revved it gently and it took a moment to pick up. I blipped the accelerator and instead of picking up the revs dropped so I took my foot off and it returned to tick over. I pressed the accelerator hard and kept my foot down, the revs dropped and the car stalled.

It then started first time, so I did the same thing with the accelerator and it stalled again.  There was possibly a funny electrical component type smell but not 100% sure. The exhaust is still popping a lot when the car has warmed up, especially on the overrun or when going steep downhill in 2nd/3rd with foot off accelerator. Not sure what this means, I assume unburned fuel igniting in the exhaust? So that would mean running too rich? 

Car also smells a bit too fuelly I reckon, which would also lead me to think it's running too rich. But I don't really know for sure because I'm not very good at this!

Sorry for no pictures from June. My sister got a dog in June, so here's a photo of him

 

CONCLUSION: Replacing the WUR has solved the starting problem but there is obvs something else up.  

Who's a good boy? 

[inconsistant]

JULY  2019

Sorry just more boring words this month.

I took off all the vacuum hoses and thoroughly checked them all for splits, I wiped over all joints with carb cleaner to make sure there was no dirt in the way of the jubilee clips

I cleaned the air metering flap with carb cleaner because it can get a bit sticky and gunked up with schmoo. But there was no schmoo.

I pulled the fuel injectors out, and the injector seals looked ok, but I split one seal trying to get the injector back in, because I was doing it wrong.

I put the split one back anyway, but it was probably not properly seated though as it wasn’t pushed right in. I thought I’d see what happened.

The car started ok from cold, revved nicely to start with then the revs slowly dropped until about 1 min after starting it stalled. It wouldn’t start straight away, then after a couple of mins it started and the same happened again after about a minute. The only way to stop it stalling is to constantly blip accelerator.

So I assume that’s an air leak from the not fitting injector, making it too lean so it stalls? (Ralph Wiggum voice) 'Look at me, I'm learning!'

[inconsistant]

AUGUST  2019

Replaced injector seals for a new set, also cleaned up injector seal seats, and injectors. I put it all back together, the car started immediately from cold as before, ran fine for a few minutes as it warned up.

I squirted carb cleaner at the injector seals and around all the connections on the vacuum hoses but no effect anywhere so I guess that means no air leaks.

Then as the engine got up to temp and the revs came down to normal tick over it became lumpy and needed accelerator blips to keep it running

There was some stuttering and hesitation and popping from the exhaust as I revved it and took my foot off the pedal

I turned the idle screw on the inlet manifold half turn anti-clockwise and it ticked over ok. It doesn’t sound like it’s idling smoothly though.

I replaced the U shaped hose that goes from the Auxiliary Air Value (AAV) to the inlet manifold as there was a tiny split at one end which I though may be a problem, and even if not I could at least cross it off the list.

I took these pipes off too and cleaned them up.

Took it for a 15 min drive, same hesitation once warmed up. By the time I got it home it needed blips on the accelerator to stop it stalling. Still lots of popping from the exhaust. If you floor it, it pulls cleanly and strongly up to rev limit, as it has always done.

CONCLUSION: No change

[inconsistant]

SEPTEMBER  2019

I replaced the distributor with the one that was on the car before I did the head gasket.

After I did the head gasket I couldn't get the car to start for ages and went through replacing several components, only to find it was a faulty connector on the ignition amp. So I may possibly have swapped a known good component that was already on the car for one that was t working so well.

Engine timing was set to TDC. It started ok, while warming up the engine was revving too high at about 2000rpm. Once warm the revs dropped but still a bit high, maybe 1200 when it should be 900-1000rpm. Engine still popping lots on the over run. Did a couple of 5 mile journeys and running ok with a little bit of hesitation at 1500rpm but way less than before and the car is actually quite drivable.

 

With the replacement distributor I set it to TDC, and knowing it should be +8Degs I twisted it a bit in that direction until it felt like it was running smoothly then went out for a short 3 mile drive in the pouring rain.

It started 1st/2nd turn of the key, It idled at 2000 while warming up

It was still idling high once warmed up and was a bit lumpy, like a misfire, so idling at about 1100-1200 rather than 900-100 but still feels like it’s going to stall. Hesitation and jerkiness at 1500rpm is still there.

Sorry the updates are so boring, this is me being really methodical, trying to change one thing at a time to see what, if anything, changes. I'm sort of learning stuff as I go along and my spectacular lack of diagnosing skills is the reason this is taking all of 2019 rather than the long weekend it would take someone who knew how a car works.

[inconsistant]

OCTOBER 2019

I got a known working coil and swapped that over to see if that did anything. The thing is it's a new coil I bought then broke as I was fitting it and then tried to fix it with sugru. So as a temporary fitting I don't mind but I'm going to buy another one to fit permanently. 

It starts 1st time, idles at 2000r revs when warming up, drops to 1200 when warm, sounds like misfire, popping from exhaust especially after revving.

So no change really.

I’m running out of ideas, other than the fuel pump or dirty injectors but the idle is so out and the fact it’s popping a lot on the over-run makes me think it really needs tuning and the mixture setting up properly again before I change anything else. So I’ve sort of given up with it and it’s sitting on the drive looking sad and disappointing. Gonna hand it over to someone who knows what they’re doing to get some help. The MOT is due in Nov, so I think I’m going to get our mechanic to have a look over it, to finally fix the headlight (oops!), and to (hopefully) get it an MOT.

[inconsistant]

NOVEMBER  2019

Our Mechanic picked up the car, and it went to an auto-electrician who fixed the headlight, it was apparently some disintegrated connections deep in the fusebox. It's a good thing I didn't drive it in the dark once since the beginning of the year!

 

MOT has been MOT'D,  and it passed with only an advisory again for the tyres.

The mechanic also flushed through the fuel lines from the tank all the way to the injectors. And it seems to have worked too, as the car now drives nice and smoothly, and doesn't seem to want to stall every time I slow down. So that's a bit of a result.

There's also a bit of rear sill rust on the horizon apparently, but that's fine, I do fancy a bit of welding, it's been a while..

[inconsistant]

DECEMBER 2019

So it's the end of the year and I finally  seem to have a car that runs ok, which is great. I still don’t 100% trust it not to stall as I slow down to stop though, but I suppose that's maybe just habit and I need to trust it a bit more..

I feel a bit of returning enthusiasm to deal with some of the other minor things that need doing now, even just silly little jobs like changing the oil pressure gauge or fixing the passenger electric window switch that I haven’t done because what’s the point when the car is mostly not being used?

 

Back to the big things though, and cracked tyres were an advisory for the last 2 years so while I’m throwing money at the car I thought I’d get a set of 4 new tyres. They're pretty bad really. Probably should have sorted them sooner.

There’s a very limited choice at this size (185/70/14) so I went for Uniroyal Rainexperts, the new version of the 12 years old Rainsports it’s currently wearing. They are round and black so I’m happy, and the mobile fitter came and did them on the drive which meant it was a zero effort job, which I liked.

There, all done and looking lovely.

[brownnova]

Excellent updates! Glad it is now running well again!  

[barefoot]

12 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Those gauges look rather familiar!

The 924/944 are total VW parts bin cars. You would probably recognise the trigger door handles & if you've ever looked under a 1302/3 Superbeetle, the entire suspension, front & rear!

[inconsistant]

12 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Those gauges look rather familiar!

 

On 2/15/2015 at 9:31 AM, mat_the_cat said:

 

Those dials look familiar!

 

 

Wish I'd known what car they came out of, as that would have been easier than simply searching for VDO gauges with a similar font to the existing ones. Mind you, if they'd been listed for a Porsche that would have bumped the price up...

 

Your post looks familiar too!

[dome]

Excellent updates, I do love these things and hanker after an early basic 924 after loving my square dash 944s.

I was looking at one of those SGS trolley jacks recently, is it still going strong?

[DaveDorson]

I'd love another Toofer.   Great car