Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Have to agree with Chas - your 924 is stunning, one of the nicest out there imo.

All the years I have lusted after 944's I always looked past the 924, mainly due to the narrow body (I'm a sucker for flared arches!), but of late I have seen a number of 924's that have really caught my eye. I'd love to have a nice S1 924 Turbo alongside my 944 now!

Don't worry Simon, no plans to remove the badge panel vents even if using a 951 IC air duct. That's intrinsic to a 924 turbo look. I did trial the reg plate on the badge panel in lieu of the Porsche emblem. Having considered both options I have returned the plate to stock position and removed the CS decal. Nice to trial things and seek opinion.

Thanks for the kind words for my 924. I quite enjoy the more positive views of the narrow body option. I was originally looking for a CGT or rep of one. In fact I originally bought this car to fit a CGT kit. Now I am more than glad I didn't do it. I think there will be more ongoing interest in the skinny sister of the 944 and 968 family. Their numbers are depleting rapidly, especially turbos. I think with just minimal tweaks all 924's can look cool.

Today I hopefully put my water ingress issues to bed.

I've mentioned it on here recently, but basically I had a reasonable amount of water gathering in the passenger rear footwell. I found minor ingress at the rear hatch seal, detatched fuel filler drain, tail lights and hatch latch seals - but it was none of these. The sunroof drains were good, and the sunroof seal has recently been done.

After a bit of watering & waiting, I was certain it was getting in around the blower unit. As they often are, my cowling was cracked and mishapen, but when removed I could see that water and mulch had gathered around the blower. One of the rear mounting bolts had rusted away to nothing as well.

So, with the sunny spells we have had I found the time to get the blower unit out. Thankfully the rusted bolt was so rusty that what was left of the head just crumbled away as I pulled the blower out:


AHalls_20140201_0001 by Hallsy01, on Flickr

There were no obvious water marks or tracks around the sealant, but you could see water had been running into the ventilation duct:


AHalls_20140201_0002 by Hallsy01, on Flickr

A rusty stud, just the head was rusty so I needed nothing more than my fingers to remove!:


AHalls_20140201_0003 by Hallsy01, on Flickr

I stripped the blower unit down to give it a good clean up then replaced the seal. I already had some 8mm butyl tape that I had used for the rear lights, I'm not what the original size/section would have been, but one layer of 8mm seemed like it may have been a bit shallow for the rebate, so I added a second layer to be sure:


AHalls_20140202_0004 by Hallsy01, on Flickr

While I was there I added some pikey pollen filters (Miele motor exhaust filters that I had going spare) with a splash of my favourite after shave, lol!:


AHalls_20140202_0005 by Hallsy01, on Flickr

And so today I repaired my cowling for the second time (I had already refitted it once) and refitted it using double sided foam tape. Even though the cracks are repaired, the cowling is warped around the passengers wiper arm mount and so wouldn't stay stuck down. This would allow water to run straight down here, and even though the blower unit is well sealed again, I still don't want water to stand here if I can help it, so I added a bit of silicone to seal the gap.

I think when I have a quiet month (in terms of 944 expenditure!) I will replace the cowling with a new one.

I am going to wash her tomorrow, so fingers crossed I have finally sorted the issue!!

Next job - inlet removal to clean/inspect the ICV and replace the vac lines and a cracked oil breather...

I need to get the blower unit off to replace my screaming windscreen wiper motor so your pictures were really useful. I also have some 8mm tape from re sealing my rear light clusters so am very interested to know if your use of it here was a success.

My cowl is cracked over the wiper motor (hence the ruined motor) but elsewhere is fine. I may try to fix it glueing the two parts onto another sheet of similar plastic. Yes a bodge but at £70 for a replacement I'm loath to buy one on principal due to the vastly higher price to production cost.

I remember vacuum molding plastic like this in CDT at school. There must be a place in the uk that could knock a few out for much less.

I agree that vacuum moulding should be quite cheap, although a buck would need to be made.

With mine I did consider repairing the cracks then wrapping with a matt/satin black vinyl, but as I say, part of the problem with mine is that it has deformed along the top line. If I heated it, it could maybe be straightened, but the plastic is that thin I was worried it would melt.

In the end I used duct tape and super glue to cover the cracks, and then where it had cracked around the centre wiper mount I smeared silicone over it.

As for blower removal, it is easy enough, unplug the two electrical connectors on the passenger side, remove the 6 8mm headed screws holding the blower down, then starting at one end gently lever it up to break the seal. Once you can lift one end up you should be able to pull the whole thing loose. Then there will be a vacuum pipe connected underneath that is used to control the recirc flaps, remove this, then the blower will come out.

We were due heavy rain today, but right now it looks nice & sunny so I will go out this morning and run some water over the car and check back on whether the 2 x 8mm butyl tape has done the trick!

It sounds like you found the source of your leak Hallsy. When I removed the blower from my S2 even a screwdriver was not enough (or two) to break the seal. I was advised by a specialist to 'Yank it like an American' Surely enough, when it got close to where I thought where something may snap, the seal did indeed start to break free. I was surprised at just how tough the unit was held in.

Saying that, my rear lights were the same on the 951 (so much such that the bodyshop was worried about breaking them!). In the end I went down and put my foot relatively evenly behind the lights and gave them a firm push which broke the seal (again, with simply hands they would not budge). Surprisingly, the sealant looked fairly new! I shall have to get a photo of the Porker sealant stuff I acquired as a comparison for aftermarket seals (and to hopefully get a better match .

Bow Runner - hold fire on the 8mm sealant, we had some rain in the night, and unfortunately I was still blessed with a pool of water in the rear footwell

Before I admit almost total defeat and start looking for yet another leak path from the same area, I will just put an endoscope into the fan blower to see if it looks like the seal is not doing it's job. I know when I looked it up before most people were using 3/8" butyl, which is around 10mm, so I'd have thought a double layer of 8mm should be plenty.

To say I am getting fed up with this water leak is an understatement!!

Seeing your superb car at Harpenden's 'Classics on the Common' started me looking at 924s. As I'm another sucker for the 944s wheel arches I'd not always appreciated the 924s clean lines.

Regards 924, number plate to be in the original place, apart from that,.......... schweeeeeeet !
Cheers Jim.

Swept some bolts up from the garage floor,cant remember what they are for its been so long since i took the engine out.
Opened the boot to look for my bike rack.

Dodged the raindrops to fit my 'spare' starter motor as the existing one was making an awful screeching noise when disengaging. The spare is much better although it had been sitting on the shelf for about 4 years! . I think I will get the old one completely reconditioned now at a local specialist. Went up to Pie Performance to see the guys there and talk about 'pork' in general. Lots to see, a good way to spend a couple of hours

fixed the rear hatch unlocking mechanism.The cast alloy lever on top of the motor had sheared and having replaced last year with a secondhand one decided to make my own lever.Much better, won't become weak with age .Re-adjusted everything and operates great.
Porsche wanted approx. £80 !!!! if they could get one.

Nick

My wiper linkage fell to bits on the 924, and it developed an odd electrical surprise in the form of occasional random wipes... I am scowling at it through the window.

My heated screen err didn't heat
One wire broken off cut and re solder, one wire loose, attack with pliers and hey presto demisting returns.

Such a lovely day, dry roads 1st outing after weeks of crap weather, just 30 miles but most enjoyable to feel the Boost again.