Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi all, hoping for some tips or advice on fixing a few problems with my 924.

1. The headlights lights, when switched off, turn off but dont go down unless I open the bonnet and move the connecor on the motor (connector or loose wire at connector?)

2. When the brake pedal is pushed anything other than gently, the car pulls to the right (I think i could be right rear sticking slightly as it can stick after being left sitting for a while with the handbrake on)

3. When driving in a straight line, it pulls to the left (think the rack may need refurbishing/ rebuilding?)

4. I also have a slight rust hole in the bottom of the left front wing, i was thinking about either welding in a patch or replacing with a fibreglass wing

Any advice, etc much apreciated

Matt

Hi Matt,

Firstly, all can easily and cheaply fixed

1) 30 yr old wiring! you will get lots of minor stuff like this. clean and wiggle connections

2)& 3) Brakes need a strip. Minimal cost, will then be good for years!

4) This is a known weakness. replace the wing with a new one and it will last 20 years . or buy 2nd hand will last less.

The headlight issue may start from the white connecting block at the back of the fuse/relay board. Its closest to the inner wing and often gets water/moisture on it. More so from any holes that have rusted through from the battery tray above or from the ariel hole on the inner wing. Pull the connector and clean with emery board and contact cleaner. Worth going through all the earth points around the car as well. There are two earth crowns above the fuse box. and as above clean up the connector and relay connections on the headlamp motor.

Brakes need a refurb on all calipers and new fluid, especially if you have no history on the last fluid change/bleed.

Pulling to left could be at least the road camber. At worst new bottom ball joints, steering arm ball joints or just an alignment check. When wiggling the steering you will likely feel some play in the system usually from the UJ's in the steering column itself, a very common occurance as the grease gets burned off by the exhaust right next to it.

You will not find a new OEM 924 wing for sale at a reasonable price ie. sub £350 each, not even pattern parts, which are really crap quality anyway and best avoided. I searched high and low for two good solid wings for my turbo rebuild earlier this year. Thought I found two good ones at £60 each only to find one was just as rusty at the bottom when the paint was removed and the other had accident damage and filler. In the end I made two good wings out of four rusty/damaged ones by cutting out rust and repairing.

Ref point 1, check also that the bonnet release cable isn't fouling against the headlamp mechanism. It moved and did this on mine, stopping the lights from going down

Sorry, I know its obvious, but just in case its been overlooked, have you checked the tyre pressures? It probably isn't this and some maintenance in the areas already mentioned is likely, but it costs nothing to check if you haven't already

Well, thanks for the replies so far guys, think I will possibly put up with the lights for now but will look into it, especially if mr mot man doesn't like it. It sounds like i may be in for some work on the brakes at least anyway, and as for the wing, i will keep a look out for some cheap ones on ebay (one on there at the moment from a turbo but they want £90 for it but looks better than mine anyway) i may be able to get repaired, if not will repair the one on the car.
Once agin, thanks for the replies and a happy new year to you all
Matt

I fixed my wings using an old washing machine, angle grinder, welder and some new paint (Including zinc oxide).
It was a fairly hard job but the end result is really good.
You would be hard pushed to notice that I have done any work at all.
The only thing that needs to be finished off it booking into a body shop for a professional final coat of paint.
If you have the skills, DIY all the way.

You can get fiberglass repair sections for the front wings for a 944 (no idea about 924). As mentioned, its not easy to do a real good job with new metal due to the compex shape of the wing behind the front wheel . I ended up welding in 3 different pieces of metal and a fair amount of filler to get the shape right. Thought I'd use the fiberglass sections for the other side (using pop rivets) and worked a treat - much easier than metal. Only downside is after a couple of years I can see a faint line where the metal and Fibreglass join - presumably caused by different expansion rates over time

Just a quick update on this, not long been back from a free brake check at my local halfords autocentre. The report i got back from them says rear shoes worn and contaminated, rear offside brake cylinder leaking, near side is siezed as are the adjusters. all that comes to just over £300 plus vat (i think thats just parts). I shall peruse t'interweb for parts and prices later

Matt

WHOA !! £300 in parts?????
I did mine with rear shoes and cylinders from GSF (About £40 the lot), adjusters off eBay (£7 each) and a spring/pin kit off eBay for £12-an awful lot less than £300.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brake-adjuste ... 1118wt_952

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160703564502? ... 688wt_1185

Rear brakes are easy to tackle yourself as long as you can get the hub nuts off-they use a 36mm socket and are stupidly tight !

+1 for what John W just said.

Rear brakes are as easy as it gets on a 924. Just take your time and do one side at a time. The hub nut will be the hardest part, you will need to knock out the split pin, put the wheel back on, take it off the jack, take center cap off the wheel, then a 36mm socket and a BIG breaker bar. Once loose, you should be OK.

Make sure you use good axle stands, safety first.

David