Advice for a 928 Newbie

Hi all,

First of all, I can't begin to say how great this forum is and how helpful people here seems. Please keep it going!

I joined the ranks of 928 owners last August. I have to admit that I kinda just jumped right into it without knowing what I was getting myself into. I have a '85 928S, Manual, 150k miles. The body and interior are in excellent condition, but I have already had to replace the belt, the radiator and water pump. The oil pan and valve cover gaskets are also leaking oil and will have to be replaced soon.

I absolutely love the car, but I'm starting to have doubts whether the fun is worth the money and hassle. Owning my 928 is a bit like having a super hot but bipolar girlfriend - everything is great until she decides to flip out. What I would like to ask you seasoned 928 owners out there is how much can I expect to have to spend on maintenance to keep my shark happy? What sort of repair can I look forward to in the next few years?

P.S. Any shark owners out here in the Puget Sound area?

Cheers,
Julian

Julian,
Owning a 928 is like having a high maintenance girlfriend:You have to figure out ahead of time what will make her happy. Get all the deferred maintenance caught up before that maintenance item bites you, and she can make you happy in return.

You can look through www.928oc.org/regional_information.htm for a local regional contact (if nobody on this forum responds directly).

With regard to the 928, the key issue is how much deferred maintenance you have to catch up. Once the maintenance is caught up, keeping the car in good running order should not be too expensive, particularly if you are able and willing to work on it yourself.

928's are GREAT cars, they can even make GREAT Daily Drivers. That said, most of the cars that you find for sale (especially if they are cheap) have issues that need to be ironed out before they will be that SUPER COOL DD car you can rely on every day. It is just the way it is. How many Honda's or ANY OTHER CAR with 150k miles and 25+ years old are as good as a 928...PERIOD?! The answer is NOT MANY and fewer still will reward with the driving and ownership experience of a 928!

I am fairly new (December) myself. So far I have lucked out (although the A/C is looming before me;;
The seller (whom I work with) did some preventative maint before I bought it. New, coil, new battery, some new boots, a new battery ground strap and a new Bosch alternator. Some other general things like checking all the ground points you can get to, flushing the radiator, getting a (CORRECTLY) done alignment, see other postings about that. I have very few small leaks on the engine and trans, so I think I got a relatively good specimen to start with.

Now I am spending money on little things inside to update it mostly, but in a couple of weeks I am going to swap out the battery cable to the engine with size 0 and have fuel/air mix and 02 sensor checked/replaced, replace the fuel sending unit and a few other smaller things.

Once that is done, the next on the list is fixing the A/C which was broken when I got it, some people disable them on purpose. That one can get expensive depending on what is wrong.

So if I had to take a guess (and it could vary widly!) you are talking about 1-3k including what you might also want to upgrade cosmetically. That can be doen over time of course. I am also hoping, as Stan mentioned, that once it is stable and in shape, it should not take much to keep it up. Preventative maintenance is definitely the key...spend a little to save a lot.

There are some very good papers on general maintenance out the forums to give you an idea. A lot has to do with what year you have. Having an 83 16v, saves me a few headaches it seems. I have less power though but that will come later.

I hope you enjoy your fairly rare, exceptional Porsche, I think you are getting the fever like us!

The majority of 928 owners do not have the luxury of having a local mechanic familiar to 928s to perform the work for them. Even if you are that fortunate to locate a mechanic who is willing and able to work on it, it's usually going to cost you a fortune to let someone else catch up all of the deferred maintenance on your car for you.

I'd bet, conservatively, that better than 75% of all 928s with current registrations are maintained 100% by their owners. With that said, it really isn't that difficult to spin wrenches on these things IMO. There is an infinite amount of resources available to 928 owners, via the internet, that no one should really ever need to take their car to let someone else work on it for almost any reason. All you need is tools and a patient mind.