924Board.org

[bran88]

I just bought a 924S it's my second car. I love to drive this 924 but the thing they did not tell me when i bought it was it over heats and i mean it HEATS UP. Any ways after about 20 mins of less of driving theres a huge leak of water anf it is hot as it could be any one ever have this problem? Plz help after buying this car i dont have a ton of cash to pay for mechanic

My 2 Mean Machines
Nissan 300ZX
Porsche 924S
My 2 Mean Machines

[gohim]

Welcome to the club.

If you don't have a lot of money to spend on maintenance, then you probably just bought the wrong car. With a 924S/944 you need to budget a minimum of $1500 a year (and be able to put it away) to cover normal repairs and maintenance, and save towards the 3-year/30K mile "front of engine" service.

Your immediate problem could be something real simple, and relatively inexpensive, Or it could be $2K down the drain.

Let's start with the obvious symptoms...

You say that the car is dumping coolant? Where is it exiting the cooling system? What does the temperature gauge read? Do the cooling fans on the radiator turn on, and are they spinning in the right direction to draw air into the engine compartment past the radiator? Do the cooling fans turn on when you turn on the air conditioner? Could be a defective cooling fan relay.

When the engine is cool in the morning, try opening the coolant tank and looking inside. Is there a film of brown scum, or brown foamy bubbles inside the tank? If so, you have a blown headgasket. 87 924S engines are know for blowing the head gasket sometime/somewhere between 75K-100K miles. This appears to be an assembly problem, since the cars seldom have repeat a blown head gasket, after it has happened.

You could also have a simple problem like a stuck/defective thermostat.

Did you get any service records with the car? The waterpump is driven off of the timing belt. The timing and balance shaft belts must be replaced every 3 years or 30K miles as part of a comprehensive preventative maintenance procedure called "the front of engine service". Parts and labor to get the work done right are going to cost you between $1500-$2500, depending on where you get the work done. DO NOT GET FRED down at the corner gas station to try to replace the timing belt. Special tools are required to remove the belts, and retension them after they have been replaced. A mistake of being 2 teeth off when replacing the timing belt can cause bent valves. The Special Tools will cost you about $700, if you are going to try to replace the belts yourself.

During the front of engine service, the timing and balance shaft belts, waterpump, bearing equipped belt rollers and pulleys, and the front of engine oil seals are all replaced. They are all replaced at the same time because they all can affect the timing belt. To replace any of the items on the list requires the removal of most of the items on the list which is why it makes good economic sense to go ahead and replace everything at the same time. If the timing belt breaks, or skips a tooth, at the very least you are going to bend some valves, and in the worse case, the engine block itself is destroyed.

[andyfranqueira]

Edit

[bran88]

Bristol Virginia USA

That is the first thing to come to mind is thermastat But there is no brown scumbut i am going now to see about the stat thanks

[gohim]

The thermostat is located on the waterpump. Getting it out can be awkward because of limited access.

If you pull it out, you should just replace it. Don't buy a generic thermostat. Get a German-made one, they are better made. Be careful that you don't get one with a high heat range. Seems like the one that they hand you at most auto parts stores if you don't know any better has a high opening temperature. Try to get a 180-190 degree opening replacement.

Use caution if you are not going to change the thermostat yourself. Go to a shop that has mechanics with experienced working on 944/924S engines. Some shops will try to charge you $100 to change it. If that is going to be the case, you might as well save you money, and spend it on the "front of engine" service now, since the waterpump will come out anyway, if you cannot document when this critical service was last performed on the car, or if all of the items on the list were not replaced when the service was last done.