1979 Porsche 924 Non-Turbo from North America - Comments

Everything!

This car had many problems! Here is a list of things I can remember having problems with:

The engine vibrated at 3000 RPM.

The Exhaust manifold gaskets fell apart.

The Car was very noisy with muffler system problems.

The gears all grind when you shift.

The clutch cable broke in traffic one day.

The clutch went out.

The fuel gauge sender went out.

It had numerous electrical problems. For example, when you crossed a railroad track, the wipers came on. The headlights would not always raise. The wiper motor was exceptionally slow.

The alternator went out.

The head gasket blew two times.

The drive shaft linkage stripped one day leaving me on the roadside.

The battery pan leaked badly putting water in the passenger side floorboard.

The door seal leaked putting more water in the passenger side floorboard.

The dashboard cracked.

The clock quit working.

The water pump failed.

I had lots of problems with irregular tire wear even though I bough Pirellis.

The Air conditioning quit working.

It was fun to drive, when it worked. The brakes were very very poor making it a scary ride at speed. I never wanted to sell it, but the amount of things wrong with it exceeded its value.

It was nothing like a Honda or Toyota, it always was unreliable and persnickety.

The handling was great and girls loved it. The best thing I can say about it was that I learned to work on cars while I had that vehicle because I could not afford to have it worked on.

It was a sharp looking car that was constantly broken or plagued with problems.

The car was also underpowered especially off the line. It did feel solid and good at 80 mph though.

I own a 924 and believe that this review give a very bad view on the car. The engine vibrating is likely to have caused many of the faults. This can be put down to the rate of wear on the right hand side mount which I admit isn't good, but if this was changed then I believe many of these problems would not have occurred. As for tire wear then you having fancy tires kind of suggests you might drive it harder than most and if you do tracks there are a lot more rights than lefts.

Even though I strongly disagree with the views the article is not badly written.

On my 1979 Porsche 924, the main problem is that the back right tire points inward, so it wears out much faster than the other.

It is very likely that you just had a lemon, or one that was in very poor repair from a previous abusive owner. Sometimes sports cars just get treated very badly and sold off to unsuspecting people.

This review seems at odds with others that I have read. Perhaps the car had been badly abused. Some people assume that because they have a sports car it will handle whatever they give it; this is not true, as most people will know.

Even a brand new Porsche can be killed in week at the hands of an unsympathetic owner.

Mechanical sympathy is all it takes to keep a car in good condition.

I had wanted a Porsche my entire childhood. Finally at age 18, I bought a 1979 924, it was chocolate brown, did a little body work to a few rust spots, had it painted red.

But let me tell you this car had so many problems with mass air flow sensor, trans axle and just about every thing else. I don't know if mine was a lemon, but this 924 drove me nuts and cost me a fortune. (very unreliable) but was fun to drive, loved the interior and girls loved it (everyone else either had a Camaro iroc Z-28 or a Mustang GT)...

Now I have Corvettes; easier to work on, cheaper parts!!!

ERIK.

Hello.

OK, most of the problems listed here are caused by low or no maintenance.

To keep a car alive and happy, you have to service it regularly and fix the "little" things before they cause major disasters. This rule applies to most cars, yet not all cars find an owner 20 years after they dropped from the assembly line.

Or said another way, not many cars survive more the 10 years in regular service.

The loved ones will stay with us and in the market, the unloved ones will go to the boneyard and melted into new cars. The fact that the 924 has a Porsche badge makes it a loved one, even if it is worn down beyond value even for a boneyard. It is just a dream for many, and also it is still a good handling car that has "spirit" and is fun while driving.

90% from the problems on the above list are caused by running the car in poor condition. Most from the expensive stuff that could be avoided if someone spent a buck and fixed a simple thing before it turned into a disaster.

Now if the engine mount is worn bad, the vibration will shake the CIS and the exhaust all the time, and the engine will work itself free under load until something gives up sooner or later.

The shaking will affect the alternator, which then overloads the battery way before it quits. The battery will fume hydrogen & acid, which normally gets vented via short plastic hose, yet if the hose is missing, the acid fumes will puddle up around the battery tray and then rust will eat through the sheet metal under it behind the dash.

As the battery is located in the water tray, and the water drain gets clogged without regular servicing, the water will always stay in the battery area and the acid loaded water will flow down into the car and start eating the copper from the wire loom. The nearby fresh air blower will always suck a little amount from the acid into the the heating system and vent it into the passenger cabin.

If the water pump fails, the head gasket will follow up within a mile or ten, depending on the way the overheat vented out.

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So to make clear, the following issues are "real" 924 problems:

Cracking dashtops; well most 20 year old cars with a dash in the sun will show cracks. Ripped up seat covers, mostly the vinyl (SKAI), will age and crack.

Some regular vinyl treatment (Armour All) on the seats and the dash will keep the parts alive longer, but failure comes sooner or later, yet garage queens with regular maintenance and car loving owners mostly don´t show excessive wear.

The same seats were also used in the period 911s, and hold a bit better on them as the 911's seating position is higher and people don´t tend to drop their full weight on the seat while entering the car. Yet 911s show the same wear. In 1981 the seat covers got an improvement, and in 1985 the new seats on all Porsches got a "Dehnfalte", which can be described as extension pocket, which also is fine to hold lots of coins invisible but on hand ;)

Clutch problem is caused by a rubber-hat, which is a vibration damper needed to keep the trans axle happy. Those rubbers rarely survive 20 years; even unused rubber just ages by the oxygen.

Broken clutch cables are rare, and you can feel them way before they break at a regular services. Good mechanics lube them and the clutch fork lever regularly, and avoid replacing forever. (lubing also avoids cracks in the firewall where the clutch cable runs through).

Some electric issues are caused by the aging spade connectors on the central mass point behind the dash, some are caused by rotting cables when the battery acid is sucked into the fresh air blower and pressed constantly into the car. Not to forget when the battery tray is rusted away.

The fuse box is a bit critical on running constantly higher than stock amperage though the circuits, especially if someone replaced the stock 55 watt light bulbs with some 100 watt units, or hooked up a 1000 watt killerstereo at just some place where he could find hot wires without fumbling or investing into separate wire looming.

The only factory killers are the electric windows and the electric heating system. Yet those circuits run complete separate with their own fuse boxes.

Most electric issues are simple fixes if you know where and how. Now such Gremlins are not typical 924, all 20 year high mileage cars develop electric issues, even the Japanese. Though some of the Japanese and the old Mercedes and Porsche 911/928 have very expensive MIL Spec connectors with silver coated contacts. As a matter of fact, the 924's electrics were made to VW Beetle standard from the 70´s. (Which is still above average compared to the mainstream)

Grinding gears where an issue up to 1978 when the 4 speed got revised by using the 5 speed internals ;) Until then it was just a regular FWD Audi unit.

After 1978, grinding in the gears is a problem from the clutch or even the drivestyle from the operator. The transaxle with the "speedshaft" has more mass hanging on the synchronizers. So a fast downshift needs a bit more time or a little "blip". Upshift on 924 is easy; just hold the throttle and smoothly pull the lever one gear upwards, no one needs a clutch on an upshift.

And the shift lever runs in bushings, which wear out and crack over the years.

If the shift lever is sloping around and rattling while driving, it only needs a rebushing and then it feels close to the Miata or a Toyota.

The automatic is a usual Audi unit, and has a separate oil chamber for the rear drive, which also needs a regular check and refreshment.

Tire wear is reflecting the way the car is used. A good driver wears all 4 evenly. People driving mostly slow and in the city will force the front tires to wear faster.

AutoXing at higher speeds mostly forces the rear tire to give more rubber away.

The 924 has a very "nervous" front end, and needs good balanced tires and perfect alignment.

The rear is not a simple cross beam construction like most FWD had, and needs also a regular check and alignment if the track is off the optimum.

Using bigger/fatter than stock tires is adding mostly unsprung wight and more load to the steering rack. So don´t be surprised if shocks, ball joints and steering rack show excessive wear.

Now the brakes on the 924 are good, and had been the best in the crowd in the 70´s, but until 1981 the rear drums need regular adjustment from the shoes. If not, the pedal travel enlarged and the brakes got a weak feeling.

Another thing is that the factory equipment Ate or Textar linings were high friction pads and a bit "harder" than average market. And those linings do age, even unused; they tend to glaze up, which then makes the brakes perform like on an average full size US car from the 70´s. It is just the "rubber stretch" feeling.

A bad thing on glazed brakes being forced too much, is that they kill the brake discs as well. Those parts and the cost for a good service mostly exceed the value from the car...

Don´t blame the 924 for using those linings; they also were standard on Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Lancias, BMW, Audi Jaguar, Ferrari some VW and german made Opels (GM).

Those linings are just a thing when a car should perform good on german Autobahn. Most german car manufacturers didn´t find that exported cars should receive lesser brake performance to gain longevity, but adding complexity in the warehouse.

Rust; 924 do rust as the pre 81 cars were only partly galvanized. Porsche needed up to 1980 to find out how to stick the paint to the galvanized sheet metal in a way that the paint would stay smooth and last more than 15 years.

So most from the rust is on the outer skin, while the structure rarely shows rust.

And if there is rust, it is mostly caused by accident repair or the follow up from some rust around the battery tray (now that is started by missing a simple 50 cent drainpipe, not cleaning the drain rubberflap and a broken engine mount).

So the key to driving a nice Porsche is to buy a good car, even if it doesn't looks like a bargain outright, but it will be on the long run. Then even if it is an old car, keep it serviced to the spec book and the car won't bite you, and will keep it's value or even raise value as all the cheap running cars will not survive.

If money on buying a nice car and keeping it alive is a issue, then stay away from an old worn out Porsche, buy another old worn out car and find out that physics applies to everything in life.

If a Boeing 707 drops from the sky, normally no one will blame the company keeping an old plane in service. If they find that someone couldn't afford the maintain the 707 to minimal specs, then the company has to improve or get out of the business. I wonder if a 707 pilot will start with a plane that has a rattling noise. I wonder if he would even step into a plane if the noise didn't get fixed to the best standards. Yet many car drivers think they can drive a car until something breaks and then blame the manufacturer for not making a car that survives 10 years service, plus another 10 years abuse.

Yeah I know the costs... Porsches were never constructed and built for people who have to think about running costs. Porsche left that market to companies like GM, Ford, VW, Yugo, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan...

So whoever thinks about running a Porsche, must think about owning an airplane for the street, which needs regular service by an expert who is approved on the specific type. Also using any parts not equal to the task might add more problems than it might save while shopping.

(Sorry for the vent)

Grüsse aus Deutschland IXXI. (broeselkasten at hotmail.com)