The Houston 04 SE

[10/10ths]

Saw your car in Grassroots Motorsports. Nice.

[78F350]

I had planned to drive it with the leak in the power steering rack for a while. At first, it didn't look too bad. After a couple drives, it seemed like I was just pouring the fluid straight through to my driveway. A few drips of PS fluid on the under carriage, I thought was okay. A few pints, not so good.

I stopped driving the car.
I wanted to fix it quickly and get back to driving the car, but life got busy. I covered the car and it sat for a few weeks. Eventually everything aligned – decent weather, decent health, time off, and space in the garage.

• Installed the steering rack from the '01 S parts car in the SE.
• Replaced the rear drop links and control arms.
• New rear tires (Firestone Firehawk Indy 500).
• Repaired some plastic panels.
• Rear spoiler was a little misaligned – fixed it.
• Installed a custom dashboard cover as a temporary cosmetic fix. (Hate it, poor fit and cheap looking).
• General cleaning.

Plastic repair. Plastic weld the cracks, but not worried about a smooth finish.
I used a Polyvance welding kit (Thanks to Oldcarguy)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsBPZAUZWE



I have the replacement SE muffler now, but I don't plan to install it until I take the rear bumper off for repair. No rush to get that done.
The cars needs an alignment after the work I did. Everything looks good and feels right when I drive. I was careful to mark everything and install the new parts to the same position, but I know that's not 'good enough' for long term. The shop in town is not comfortable doing a Porsche. I've learned that if a shop tells you that they are not comfortable working on your car, it's best to walk away rather than ask them to give it a try anyway. I'll probably have to drive an hour to Tulsa to get it done. That means setting up an appointment somewhere and using the better part of a day off to get it done.
Tomorrow there's a PCA event (Car Detailing Clinic) in Tulsa. I plan on going and driving the SE as it is. I drove it to work this evening and the check engine light came on. I have no way to check it until I get home in the morning. It's running smooth and sounds good, so hopefully it's a quick, easy fix.

[78F350]

I had a good drive today. Put over 150 miles on it. It felt good. My daughter and I went to the car detailing clinic with the Porsche club, then visited my son and grand daughter near Tulsa. The only problem with the car was that the heater was blowing cold air and the outside temperature was in the high 30s. The best remedy for that was closing the vents and turning on the heated seats. I think the mixing door for the heater is jammed.
The check engine light from last night was legit, but easy to fix. The bank 2 primary O2 sensor was failing. Maybe residual from the flooding – I don't think I ever cleaned that sensor. It took less than 15 minutes to jack up the car and replace with a 'gently used' one that I had on the shelf.

My daughter and I refueling the SE and THAT:


I am starting to feel that the basics of this car are sound now, but there is still a long way to go to consider it recovered. I still have lots of simple things to do, like replace the wheel center caps and reinstall the original steering wheel. As I continue to clean the car, areas I have not addressed yet really stand out. I also have some major things to take car of such as the dashboard and pulling the carpet out to dry it completely (underneath).

[78F350]

I've been daily driving the car for the last couple weeks. Today I did some minor cosmetic fixes. The 'S' badge on the trunk was damaged - cracked with the top of the S coming off. I replaced it today with a red S using some 3M tape.



I also replaced the center caps that were missing the Porsche crest with some silver ones. I don't like the result. The center caps with a plastic crest have more relief than the metal crests. I'm going to pull a faded set off one of my other cars and paint them Seal Gray including the crest and see how that looks.


My garage is occupied by another car at the moment, but when I get that project done, the SE is going back in for some major work. I plan to fix the rear bumper, install the correct muffler, pull and completely dry the carpet padding, fix the heater, and replace the dashboard. I bought a dashboard from an '03 996 that is 'Natural Brown Leather'. I'm going to attempt to dye that darker to match the Cocoa Brown and install it.

[78F350]

Trouble?


Driving to work yesterday and again on the way home, it felt like the engine shut off just for a moment. There was no check engine light, it didn't miss, or run rough. It was as though I had turned the ignition off, but only for a few seconds. I don't think that it fully stalled out, but there was no throttle response. Then it was normal again with smooth power through the full range, no hesitation.
Given that the car was submerged and left to rot for months with no care, I can't say that I'm surprised or worried. It's just part of the process of resurrecting a car like this. The first thought when it happened was a quick, "Oh ********************!", but when it quickly came back on and ran normal, my heart rate returned to normal as well.
What do I think is wrong? Umm... something electrical. Those pesky electrons can make all sorts of mischief. In this case electrical could be fuel, ignition, or engine control ($5 bet it's electrical-fuel). Bad ground, power, or signal. The thing that I don't like about troubleshooting intermittent problems is that they are hard to find when they are not occurring. I'm going to go for a few laps of the bypass around town and see if it happens again. Probably by this weekend, I'll 'pull the car offline' for a few weeks and put it in the garage for it's next major disassembly and servicing. In doing that I can trace through the systems and clean them up some more.

[911monty]

Originally Posted by 78F350

Trouble?

Driving to work yesterday and again on the way home, it felt like the engine shut off just for a moment. There was no check engine light, it didn't miss, or run rough. It was as though I had turned the ignition off, but only for a few seconds. I don't think that it fully stalled out, but there was no throttle response. Then it was normal again with smooth power through the full range, no hesitation.
Given that the car was submerged and left to rot for months with no care, I can't say that I'm surprised or worried. It's just part of the process of resurrecting a car like this. The first thought when it happened was a quick, "Oh ********************!", but when it quickly came back on and ran normal, my heart rate returned to normal as well.
What do I think is wrong? Umm... something electrical. Those pesky electrons can make all sorts of mischief. In this case electrical could be fuel, ignition, or engine control ($5 bet it's electrical-fuel). Bad ground, power, or signal. The thing that I don't like about troubleshooting intermittent problems is that they are hard to find when they are not occurring. I'm going to go for a few laps of the bypass around town and see if it happens again. Probably by this weekend, I'll 'pull the car offline' for a few weeks and put it in the garage for it's next major disassembly and servicing. In doing that I can trace through the systems and clean them up some more.

Top notch gut feeling........I carry a new fuel pump relay just for these situations. Typically they leave you sitting for about 30 minutes.