Is the 924S basically a 944 lite?

As I poke around CL looking for something to play with, I've come across a number of 924S. I know the first model introduced to the US in the early 80's had a 2L motor which I think was VW sourced (I know the cars' origin was that it was supposed to be a VW). It disappeared from the US and reappeared in '87 and '88 as the 924S. Those are the ones I'm talking about. From everything I can tell, mechanically they shared a ton of parts with the 944, including the motor.

So do they drive, etc...like the 944? Is maintenance easy? Looks like you need special, and very expensive, tools to do a timing belt? I remember driving a bunch of them back when I was a valet, but I never got to hoon them. Well, OK...I didn't get to hoon then beyond 25mph...

87-88 924s = 944 with out fender fairs. ALL the maintenance etc is the same as a 944. Go look up the care and feeding of a 944 and you will have your answer.

T belts every 30K and yes there are a couple special tools you need to make it easier. In particular the thin wrenches to tighten the tensioners. The flywheel lock is not really needed. A big screwdriver will work. Speed and reference sensors can be a PITA. DME"s need to be taken care of and often need to be re soldered. Rear hub bearings are a PITA. I would recommend an 87 as they have the later offset with the early front A arms making ball joint's easy and cheep. However the 87 interior is pre 85.5 944 where as the 88's got the post 85.5 944 interior that I think is much nicer. Typical 30-40 year old German wiring and rubber bits. Rod bearings are maintenance items every 100K. As with ANY Porsche it REALY REALY pais to get the best one you can and be prepared to spend on it. The were a performance car of the day and that came with a maintenance budget that was 2x that of most other cars.

I know I am sounding like downer on these cars and I am not just being realistic. I have put 350K on my 87 924s but I have been very good about maintenance / care and feeding. They are expensive mistresses for what they are but when running rite and on the rite road they are more than the sum of there parts.

I am at a crossroads with mine. I have low oil pressure in my motor caused by an overheat (the electric fan failed when I was idling it in the driveway this spring) Now it has really bad top end clatter and has about 1 bar of op above 1k rpm and 0 op below that. So replace motor with another Porsche motor or motor swap or just move on.. .

Yup, the 924S was built to use up the extra 924 bodywork after the 924 stopped in 83. The 944 and 924S are built off the 924 chassis with different crossmembers and motor mounts among other subtle changes throughout the run (mostly adding bracing and more and more sound padding, etc to make them more quiet).

Special tools for the timing belts aren't really necessary as long as you have a decent set of metric tools. In 88 the tensioner was automatic which makes it easier.

You can read up about it on Clarks-Garage.

One of the benefits of the narrow body is slightly better aerodynamics over the 944, makes them sneaky fast in 944Spec racing since they are limited on tire size so the 944's width is less important.

I've maintained my 944 Turbo in my garage using pretty basic handtools without issue. Even changed the rear wheel bearings myself. Though next time I think I'd just pull the arms and take them to a machine shop to do.

They are older, high-end German cars so there will be efforts put forth to repair their issues. Luckily if you repair them properly they will stay repaired for quite a while, but that initial amount of effort can put more than a few off of them.

Oddly enough, my buddy was looking at buying a 924S yesterday. Broken odometer, a\c didn't work, idle seemed to hunt a little bit, for $1000. I was trying to wave him off it, but he's a sucker for derelict German cars.

dean1484 wrote: 87-88 924s = 944 with out fender fairs.

And the older, pre 85.5 interior.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

88 had the the later interior also the 88 SE had the M030 suspension and the 160hp motor, best of the best.

calteg wrote: Oddly enough, my buddy was looking at buying a 924S yesterday. Broken odometer, a\c didn't work, idle seemed to hunt a little bit, for $1000. I was trying to wave him off it, but he's a sucker for derelict German cars.

Not sure about the hunting idle, but a broken odometer and non-functional a/c don't sound like major issues...especially for a grand?? In any older toy I buy, whether it's Miata or anything else, I have zero expectation to have working a/c and wouldn't bother to fix it.

calteg wrote: Oddly enough, my buddy was looking at buying a 924S yesterday. Broken odometer, a\c didn't work, idle seemed to hunt a little bit, for $1000. I was trying to wave him off it, but he's a sucker for derelict German cars.

Odometers always break the stupid internal gears, cheap to repair (thankfully since you get to do it more than once depending on how long you own the car).

Hunting idle is likely the ICV that is gummed upand/or a vacuum leak, both are relatively easy to resolve with some new hoses and some carb cleaner for the MAF and ICV.

A/C should be tossed because 20+ year old A/C is stupidly expensive to repair (not just because its German) and the sunroof popped out for warmer days. Though a set of O-rings and new charge might be enough to get it working.

When the A/C is working properly in these cars it works GREAT. These cars are ovens with the huge rear hatch, I'd never delete the A/C in mine unless I was ready to tow it every where

Here's a sunroof delete 87 924S:

http://portland.craigslist.org/grg/cto/4984241833.html

Great track day or spec racer starter.

I know the guy selling it, he's good people and would be willing to negotiate price a bit (I told him he's a bit high).

I take it the red is a single stage color, as a lot of them I've seen are fairly faded. A wet sand and wax/polish bring them back to life?

In reply to Klayfish:

Yup and yup.

Heck, Even before you wet sand. Rub in 3-4 coats of Mequirers #7 by hand.

Most of the time that will make it look great. It adds the oils back into the paint that the single stage paints need to keep the rich color.

The first Porsche I ever drove was a 924S. It was a fun car and I wish I had the money then to buy it and maintain it.

Unfortunately when I had my 951 it was 8+ years ago and I didn't know squat about detailing. That paint (Guards Red single-stage) was very tired, so I just kept hitting it over and over with my $30 Craftsman random-orbit buffer and Turtle Wax polishing compound. The paint did come back some, but I was never happy with it, and I spent forever on it.

Yet another reason I wish I had that car back.

In reply to turboswede: I never noticed that the '88 got the newer interior. I always thought it was peculiar that Porsche brought back the 924S with the old-style interior for 1987. It was as if they had discovered a warehouse full of 924 body shells and old-style dashboards that had to be used up.

In reply to Danny Shields:

You aren't far off. Porsche did indeed have a bunch of left over 924 parts to use up and the 924S sold well enough that they decided to use the later style dash in it for the last year.

Keep in mind, the 924 was sold loner overseas after it stopped being sold here in the US due to the advantages of the smaller displacement and lowered price point.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

Sell ya mine :)