Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Ive just returned from dropping off my car at my local specialist (http://www.neilgarner.co.uk/) as the brake pad warning light has come on. Looking through the history of the car the pads and brake discs were last changed in 2005 and some 30k miles ago. Alasdair did me a good deal on a set of drilled discs and pads.

When i bought the car, i was told that the compression in cylinder four was slightly less than the others. On driving the car, everything seemed fine and the deal was done.

Recently the car has started to drink coolant. I can find no sign of emulsion either on the dip stick or on the filler cap. The coolant is nice and blue so no sign of oil there either and the car doesn't blow white smoke either. The header tank will go from top limit mark to bottom limit mark in a few hundred miles, which is shocking.

Neil has already mentioned that a head gasket will be very labour intensive and therefore costly. So i am left waiting until next week when they perform the tests, pondering how much money i want to spend on this car. For a garage to warn me, im guessing that they are looking at £1500 plus.

It seems that a decent 968 sport is now about £6k and a Lotus Elise not that much more. Then considering that this is the third car in our family, i wonder, would i be better suited to buy a more fun daily car instead of having the third car? Fuel prices will not be getting any cheaper either.

Sorry for the babbling, im just thinking out loud.

Thats tough Rav. But these cars arnt new & you have to expect this when running a classic. If it's just a head gasket it will not cost anything like £1500. The job takes about 3 hours & I would pay around £300 + gasket & belts. However if the head is coming off it should really be rebuilt & crack tested. Skimmed at the least. I would go for a cometic cam box gasket & either cometic or wide fire head gasket as well. Still should be around the £500 mark. Asuming the block is good & there are no other issues!!
As to a 968 you can soon spend loads on one of these. Less power as well. You could get an elise & it will cost less to run as it's much newer. But there a different type of car & not comfortable to drive very far. Horrendous on the motorway. Pretty gutless as well. Depends what you like.
I would take a hard look at the overall condition of the car & decide what you really want to drive. But then I'm still spending on my lux so maybe I'm a bit biased..

Thanks JJ. Its the old torment, is the money worth spending?

If it is just the headgasket (which i suspect as the car was running 290bhp not long ago), then i agree it will be about the £500 - £600 mark. But its the associated costs, water pump, belts, suspension etc etc.

If i really sit and weigh it up, its not a economical car to run or spend any money on, but at the same time, i love it.

Go with Heart or Head?

Alternative (which im trying to sell to Mrs Rav) is to sell my daily oil burner and buy a 968 sport. We would then be a two car family with one Porsche car and one sensible euorbox.

Everyone who is a proper driver or enthusiast needs a weekend toy.
A fun car that you drive everyday will get boring very quickly.
Where as a weekend toy that is gorgeous, fun to drive and as fun to look after will always give you a reason to live when the sun comes out and you are on the open road.

You don't want to be on your death bed thinking "Shit I wish I never sold that Porsche" do you?

You are here for a good time, not a long time.

I agree with Hitman...

Ask yourself why you bought the Porsche in the first place.

And have you loved driving it, cleaning it, admiring it, even talking about it to your friends and colleagues?

If it's a 'yes' to all the above - keep it dude!

You know it makes sense

I agree with JJ too - A Porsche to a Lotus?

These cars are worth around 10-20 % of their new price but the maintenance costs can still be Porsche like, which means if you don't do most of the spannering yourself it's easy to spend more than the car is worth, if you like the car and intend to keep it spend the money and fix it, if you aren't sure get rid.

I'm with Pauly, if Ididnt do most of the work myself I couldnt afford the car.

Rich

I have been having a similar Dilemma Rav , re buying my next Porsche. Do I buy a Boxster and drive it more or do I buy an S2 ( for my supercharger project dream) or a 968 Sport. However I have to say the Boxster in no classic and I think the Elise is not a patch on a 944 or 968, I fid it boring and naff ( no offence to any owners please). I'd say either give up fun cars altogether and spend on something else or have the car you love even if it doesnt come out other than in the sunshine. As mentioned , drive her every day and she wont be your fun / hobby car.

Re the 968 Sport though I am with you as I do want one. However fairly good S2's are going for 3,000 at the mo and 968 Sports 6,000 upwards, is the 968 really that much better ??, or do I get an S2 and supercharge it so it blows 968's away Depends on your point of view.

Hope you get good news re the turbo anyway.

Mas

Are you really sure it is the head gasket? Is it perhaps the old car/worst case scenario paranoia creeping in? There are tones of places coolant cold be coming from. I was losing coolant on my S2 a while back and Alasdair spotted the source fixed it with a half turn on one of the clips. If the coolant and oil all look good then it may just be that simple. Take the drip tray off and run the car on your drive/garage for a while and look for drops of coolant. It will look oily as the water will evaporate leaving concentrated coolant.

If it is the head gasket I'm not sure that it will cost that much. I don't know how many hours is it going to take to change but at 10 hours at say £50 then you're taking £500 labour plus the cost of parts.

Not going to talk you out of buying a 968 but check out the cost of new camshafts before buying one of them as they seem to be bad for losing teeth

Still got the same headgasket on a 968!!

Not sure you can get a good 968 sport for £6k unless you are fortunate, I prefer the shape of them over a 944 but the turbo feels faster. One way of finding coolant leaks is to run the engine in complete darkness and use a torch to look for traces of steam.

The metal pipe that runs over the exhaust manifold carrying coolant can get pin prick holes and leak, straight on to the exhaust manifold and evaporate take a look, they are dead cheap to replace headgasket should be no where near £1500.
If you have been quoted that they are "having you off" Big style.
Remember headgaskets are a wear and tear item and do not last forever.
A 6k 968 will need money !

I loved my Lotus, now thats something that is a weekend car. Although pricing of anything decent hasn't really fallen below the £10k bracket, performance is pretty good remember these cars are well under a ton, not nearly a ton and half of German engineering. BHP per ton, a S1 Sport 160 (160bhp) isn't far off a 944T with 300bhp



I love chopping and changing cars, always good to try something else as you never know what you're missing.

Me, I'd get it repaired and then look for something new - plenty of choice out there.

I have to agree about 968, if you spend £6k on one expect the next £2k of spending to come along very, very quickly.

I've had my moments over the last year since I took on a 944, but better the devil you know, sounds to me like the garage owner is planning his Holidays at your expense for that kind of money.

These cars have 20 year old technology and are no way as scary now as people make out, to many people still use the irritating bloody quote of "well its a Porsche so its not going to be cheap", sorry but that Bo***cks, its more complicated working on a 10 year old Mondeo.

Wow, thats sounds more like a rant than I intended Just my 2p worth