Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Today has not been a good day.

To start with, I’m hungover. I had a meeting with a client arranged for half-ten this morning at his farmhouse in Ayrshire. About an hour’s drive from Glasgow. I packed up the car with wife and dog so that we could stop by a friends’ neighbouring farm for a visit.

The weather up here is pretty bad this weekend. Horrendous, even. About twenty minutes away from the farm, I was forced to drive through a flooded section of road—there was a lot of traffic coming the other way, so I couldn’t avoid it. I dropped to twenty-odd mph and crawled through it, but a Transit behind me took offense and sent a wave splashing forward around us.

A few yards further along the road, my ABS warning light came on. Then every warning light on the dash, all at once. Then the engine cut out.

I coasted to a halt, put the flashers on and tried to restart the engine. No chance. Got out in the pissing rain, moved my wife to the driving seat for steering, and pushed the car (uphill) into a driveway up ahead, just to get it out of the road as fast as possible.

Phoned the AA, who arrived after an hour or so. To their credit, they were good guys—but they couldn’t help. Opened up and emptied the air box, put the filter on their dashboard heater to dry out, took out all the plugs and attempted to start the engine, thus flushing out as much water as possible. Didn’t help. Led to a sickening crunch, which I assume was at least one piston rod crumpling as it tried to compress water in the cylinder.

The AA towed us to the nearest car park and got me a quote for a tow truck. A hundred quid to get us on the flatbed and take us to my usual garage, because it was in completely the wrong direction all the way back to Glasgow and another half-hour out the other side. The truck turned up after another hour in the rain and wind.

It took about another hour and a half to get to the garage, who had been fantastic and agreed to stay open for us.

This is where my faith in humanity is restored—I took the car to Peter at Motortune in Shotts. As I say, he and his son had stayed on at the garage to wait for us. First off, Peter drives me across the town to a bank so that I can pay the tow truck bloke. Then he makes my wife a cup of coffee and gets the dog a bowl of water, before getting his wife to drive me twelve miles up the road to the next town, where my other 944 is in the bodyshop being repaired by one of his mates. That car’s ready for collection, so I drive it back to Motortune, where Peter’s already under the bonnet trying to dry things out. We transfer all our stuff into the older car and head home.

Great, home. Eight hours after setting off this morning, and all we have to show for it is looming financial doom if the damage to my car is terminal. I sit down to try and relax, and hear a drip behind me. The flat is leaking. There’s a pool of dirty water behind the sofa, from water dripping inside our glass wall.

Things can only get better from here, right?

To cap things off, I can’t do anything about either of these problems now. I want to find out whether my car insurance covers this sort of accidental damage, but all I can get is the out of hours phone line, and a girl who won’t even take a note of my call so that I can prove I reported the incident within 24 hours. For the leak in my flat I need to call the factors and they don’t even have an out of hours line.

I’m unable to get anything done until Monday …

I’m going to go walk the dog in the torrential rain now. That’s sure to help my mood!

Firstly commiserations Tony, obviously a shite day...
Yup car insurance should cover the dead 944, I know someone who did 7K worth of damage to a Merc E class doing exactly the same thing....

That’s a positive thought then, thanks!

Walking the dog actually cheered me up. This dog-owning malarkey is brilliant.

I’m not sure what ground I’ll be on with the insurance for claiming back the towing expenses mind you—the nearest thing I could get to a receipt was a scribbled-on Post-it note.

Also on the plus side is that I needed a suspected head gasket oil leak sorting out anyway. If I end up with a whole new engine, that should be sorted.

Thought my luck was bad '44s air intake is under the engine so if you want to go wading better to take the top off the air filter first! Hope your covered. (Transits are also famous for this problem as they have a low air intake too.) '44s are tough. Once the head is off it may not be so bad. Thought mine was goosed. £200 & it's better than new.

Sorry to hear that Poprock When we had the floods here last year it happened to a friend of mine and he had to strip down and rebiuld the engine on his Saab.He did it himself so I dont know about the insurance angle.

thats a bummer, hope the insurance covers you

Earlier 944 breathes through the N/S wheel arch, the later cars pick up under the front panel. So later cars more prone to this problem.

It’s alive!

In need of a bit of work, but alive. Firing up, running … but not healthily.

I’m relieved. No water in the cylinders after all.

New plugs, new air filter, dried-out intercooler, and now it starts again. The starter motor sounds like a bag of rattling bolts though, so that needs replacing. As the engine warms up, it runs worse and worse … so a new AFM is on the cards too. Looks like the insurance are even going to cover it (and hopefully the tow expense too).

Good news for a Friday afternoon.

Pleased to hear the insurance company are going to cough up for the repairs.

I hope you get her back on the road soon.

If all goes to plan I’ll finally get the Lux sold off next week too. November could be a good month!

glad to hear its running, and good news about the lux, rock on !!

Told you didn't I :wink

Glad it'snot as bad as it could've been!

That's a relief Tony

Adam