924Board.org

[ROGERSM3]

Just had my first full sevice on my 82 924 which went well apart from the rear brakes are well and truley knackered, the reports lists the following.
Rear Drums Groved & Cracked
Rear Back Plates Cracked
Rear Shoes Very Worn
Rear Master Cylinders in need replacing
Rear fuel hose perished
Enging Fuel Hoses, not high pressure and cracking.
Rear Baffles noisey at 3000 rpm

Apart from that the mechanic says the car is in excellent condition for a 20 year old vehicle.

Me thinks this is going to be expensive.

[ltgland]

"Rear Drums Groved & Cracked
Rear Back Plates Cracked
Rear Shoes Very Worn
Rear Master Cylinders in need replacing "

The parts themselves should be bad, check out the list of parts www address I posted earlier. Im sure its about £60 at the most for each piece (so £240 for the lot). Fitting on the other hand...

"Rear fuel hose perished
Enging Fuel Hoses, not high pressure and cracking. "

Common problem on an old car, mine get checked out on the 8th. I will update you when I know more.

These cars have a fuel accumulator, which keeps the pressure, yours may be shagged. If this is the case, best to get it replaced ASAP or carry a fire extinguisher with you.

How is your rear fuel pump? Is it noisy, and do you blow fuel fuses every now and then? You could check by leaving the car in idle, 5 mins later touching the fuel fuse (fuse 2 on panel, 2, above and to the front of the fuse box proper, near the thingy to open the bonnet). Mine is bastardly hot.

[gohim]

Did you see the rear brake parts on the car yourself?

Most 924s have drum rear brakes. The rear brakes are not self adjusting. When the rear brake shoes wear (500-1500 miles), the brake pedal becomes soft, requiring the brake pedal to be pumped inorder to stop the car reliably. When this happens, the unknowledgeable 924 owner takes his car to a mechanic, who claims that the brakes are worn-out. The mechanic may claim that the shoes are worn-out, the rear wheel cylinders are leaking, the drums are worn-out, or a number of other things, all of which mean expensive repairs. In actuality, all that is usually required is re-adjustment of the rear brake shoe clearances. I know this happens for a fact. In a period of six months, I had three different authorized Porsche Dealers try to tell me that I needed a $1000 rear brake job (Downtown LA Porsche, Rusnak Porsche, Pasadena, Bozanni Porsche, West Covina). I never paid any of them the $1000, and I when I had them lift the car, and knock off the brake drum to show me the worn-out parts, I proved that none of the parts were worn-out, that their mechanics were trying to rip me off.

It is not common for the backing plates to crack. In fact, I haver never seen the rear brake backing plates on a 924 crack, when on my 77, which had over 300K miles on it when I sold it, the backing plates were in condition.

The wheel cylinders do go bad over time (especially if the car owner does not replace the brake fluid per the maintenance schedule) so it would not surprise me if yours were leaking. However, the wheel cylinders on my 81 (the car had 95K miles on it when they were removed were still in perfect condition), and served their new own fine when I so the rear complete brakes to the owner of an 80 924.

The engine fuel lines under the hood that run from the fuel distributor to the individual fuel injectors are a flexible plastic, covered by rubber hose (just insulates the plastic hose). The rubber cover cracks and will eventually fall off. The complete fuel lines are VERY EXPENSIVE (on the order of $100-$120) each). There was a company in Nothern California that sold the replacement plastic tubing/hose and the tool that you would need to reuse the metal ends of the fuel lines along with new plasitc tubing, and new rubber hose. This way recomditioning the fuel lines would cost less than $10 per line.

You could simply remove the cracking rubber from each fuel line, and replace it with a piece of fuel line that has been slit open, and either use a "instant bonding" glue (use by women on their finger nails, to build plastic models, and remote controlled aircraft), self-vulcanizing electrical tape to rejoin the hose after slipping it onto/over the plactic hose/tubing.

From the way that you have written, it is obvious that you don't know that much about the mechanical of your car yet. DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE THAT THE OWNER OF THE 82 924 THAT LET AN INEXPERIENCE MECHANIC WORK ON HIS 924 MADE. See HEADGASKET in the General Discussions Section.

Good Luck


[ This Message was edited by: gohim on 2002-07-02 19:28 ]

[ltgland]

Gohim is right, take whatever a mechanic says with a pinch of salt. I knew close to fekk all about cars when I bought mine, but have learnt heaps since then.
I dont know what resources you have in Bristol, but I will be taking my car into a specialist that charges £37/hr near Watford on Monday. I will tell you how I rate them.

The price so far is good. The local garage charges £40/hr...
I dont mind driving to Watford to see a specialist now!

[ROGERSM3]

The Mechanic I use is very reliable and a friend of the family who has been in business for 20 years he actually took the wheel off and showed me how bad it was, the drum looked like it had been on there for a very, very long time. I noticed the other day when i got home from only a 20 mile drive that my rear o/s beakes were smoking really bad i thought the car was on fire at the time and its the same side as the fuel filler cap. Looking under the bonnet it seams the last owner of my car was a bit of a DIY mechanic and not took good a one at that. He has replaced all the easy bits ok but really fone a few hap hazard things with the fuel hoses and has never sorted the back brakes. I bought the car for £1,200 uk pounds so it was bound not to be prestine, my aim is to get it back to its former glory. After those bits are done i will then get the passenger eletric window working. After managing to get part of the door trim off (Porsche really go mental with the amount of screws they use) i noticed that only one wire is connected to the motor so it may be a simple fix or it may have been disconnected for a reason.

[ltgland]

"I bought the car for £1,200 uk pounds so it was bound not to be prestine, my aim is to get it back to its former glory"

ditto, price and plan. Mine was an 1985 with 70000 miles on the clock. Needs work, but I figure it will cost a total of £3000 when Im done.

[ltgland]

Just had a thought. Burt Gear is down your end of the world (Bristol/Cornwall, same place), he has a good rep, you should be able to get parts etc off him.

[gohim]

If the rear brakes are all that bad... now might be a good time to convert to four wheel disc brakes.

The rear drum brakes on the 924 are not self adjusting, which means you have to crawl under the car every month or two to adjust the dual brake shoe adjusters on each brake drum, or (all) of the brakes will not work properly.

The four wheel disc brakes from a 924T, or a 82-85/1 944 (944 parts preferred) will bolt right on, without any modifications to your car. Of course you would have to replace the wheels (and the tires if you car has 14" tires).

Here in the US, you can usually get all of the parts necessary for less than $500 (not including the wheels and tires, if necessary) from a salvage yard or parts car.