29th May 2008, 17:27

I've owned my 84 944 for a few years, and love it also. This is also a very clean well previous maintained car. Need help though; I am a mechanically inclined mechanic/car restorer. Can the timing belt be changed without the special tool, or do I have to swallow my pride and bring it to Porsche.

One more problem the dealer can't fix. My car stops revving at 4500 like it has a rev limiter; any ideas?

4th Jun 2008, 11:20

Yes, you can get a 944 for $4k. You should be able to get a nice one if you shop around. The problem would be when it breaks its on an average of my experience it's a roughly a $1k a year in maintenance depending on the mileage. 75k- 100k be prepaired to be doing some work.

26th Jun 2008, 22:25

Just recently bought a 84 944 coupe (non turbo), nice car, 69,000 miles. However no service records unfortunately. Seems to run fine, need to get the timing belt checked. 2 things I was wondering about: When I take it on extended drives I hear a knocking noise in the back left, not sure what that is. Second, passenger side window will not power down, any suggestions. Thanks, Shaun.

30th Jun 2008, 23:12

I've owned a 1984 944 for a year and a half now, and it was in poor condition on the interior and engine, but the body was in good shape. It cost me 2700, and I put about 2000 into it, and now it is really a great daily driver.

The only things that can't be diagnosed easily are annoying electrical problems like one I'm having now where when I turn on the windshield wipers and AC they both cut out! Probably a short somewhere along the line, but there's so many wires in this car that it may require a hard wiring job with better gauge wire than stock this time.

Timing belt and most all jobs can be done at home with non-OEM tools, such as the $400 belt tool, which is not necessary for the home mechanic.

I changed the water pump, timing belt, and balance shaft belt all at once, and it cost me about $280. Most expensive bits were refab water pump $100 and balance belt $50.

Since I've changed a lot of the parts, it's been running great. I'm going to reseal and clean up the injectors soon hopefully, to perhaps get a bit better response. I think the old '84 computer just is slow in sending signals to the injectors.

Anyway, if anyone has a question, I've done a lot of work to the car myself, and have never brought it in for service. I would recommend this car to someone who can do their own work, but not to someone planning on bringing it into a shop.

27th Nov 2009, 10:43

I have also owned one 1984 944 N/A (normally aspirated) and I agree about the cost to maintain these cars. The basic design is very simple and straightforward and the degree of "packing" is very low. Still the car is very impractical to work on. (Think old Citroën-ish...)

Special tools are required for many ordinary jobs, drive train and rear suspension work can drive a professional car tech (like myself) nuts, and the electrical components could be taken from a kit car or a 1976 Golf. (One of the main sources for 944 parts, actually...)

The genuine spare part prices are insane. It would have been easier to accept if the quality was there but it is not. The N/A 944 clutch must be 3 times as expensive as any other clutch for a 160hp car.

Road noise is terrible, too. It will almost drown out the final drive pinion bearing noise you so often find in these cars.

Brake design... Well people complaining about old SAAB 96, 99 and 900 brakes should look at this car. Cast iron, swiveling brake housing and huge steel caliper plates.

Porsche's "off the shelf" design also means that the rear brakes incidentally are larger than the front ones, making the car very prone to locking up the rear end in hard driving.

I could go on forever.

I owned one. Nice handling, great looks, good body corrosion protection.

The rest was not so fun.

/Alexander

29th Nov 2009, 10:41

I bought a 1983 944 in the late 1990's, still have it. I paid $3500.00 for it then and that was way too much for the condition it was in, I knew no better.

Over $20,000.00 has been spent on the car over 10+ years, and actually, I do not see that as being hat bad, $2000.00 a year is still less than a car payment, although the car is not what I would consider to be a daily driver.

These days, I drive it as much as possible, a lot even - but they have issues, as discussed.

Almost all of the maintenance and repairs were performed by myself, and there was a fairly significant invest in tools (included in the $20K+). If I would have had to have a shop do the work required, double the prices and probably more, and my parts were bought at near wholesale prices.

There are a lot of dedicated web sites for the car out there, search and do your research prior to buying one of these cars - they do look good, handle incredible and I think they ride really well, but they are "high maintenance" to say the least.

Again, mine is a 1983 in Sienna Red Metallic with 16" Fuch allows, sport suspension, I have the original invoice for $18,500.00, as well as as much original documentation as anyone could want, as well as a set of 914 and 944 factory repair manuals.

Yes, you need both sets.

Cha-Ching.

10th May 2010, 13:40

I bought a sable brown metallic 1984 944 a year ago. It was not meant to be a daily driver, but rather a toy I could mess with and still look good in.

I have been a RX-7 owner for almost 15 years, and have also owned like 12 since 1990. I was looking for something a little different and was always into 944's too. So I picked this one up and was immediately impressed with the build quality of the car.

However the transmission is whiny and the passenger side wheel bearings need to be replaced; these parts came with the car.

The only downfall I have with mine is the maintenance costs are ridiculous! I am impressed with the style and the handling. But, the costs at a shop to maintain is high, so if you are not inclined mechanically, you need to shy away from this car.

My only major gripe is that the dash in the early 944 is hideous. So try to to get the 86 and after, and they also have a better motor with more power.