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Porsche Post Magazine repository for 2020

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If you would like to forward something to be included in the 911 Carrera 3.2 magazine column, or online here, email us at: 911carrera32@porscheclubgb.com

January 2020 --- back to Top
Register Secretaries
Steve and Sue Edwards
020 8366 7770
911carrera32@porscheclubgb.com
Technical Advisor
Charles Marsland
01732 848323

     This month we are featuring a couple of cars, their owners initially contacted us for advice and I thought you may like to hear about it and see their cars.
     The first is a white Targa, since last summer it's been in the care of Tony. He tells me it's an itch he wanted to scratch, loves the car along with its 'iconic styling', bought with his heart and, unfortunately, it came without a service book. He has been able to purchase a replacement from his helpful local specialist that provides him with parts, servicing and offers repairs. The service books are also available from your local PC, they have them reprinted in batches as per the originals. (See more tips online on our 'Miscellaneous' page here). The speedo also needed a new cog in the trip mechanism, these are getting delicate due to age and from what I've heard resetting while travelling can trigger a breakage. Regular readers of this column will know these two points! Tony says the car is high mileage, around 175,000 miles now, so if you have any knowledge of the car history, perhaps as NIL 1815 and VIN ending 26, please let me know. Some help with the Targa top would also be appreciated, Tony is looking to re-cover it and would also like views on using mohair as an alternative. I have suggested using the Club Forum, but can you give a personal recommendation in the Southeast of England?
     And now, conversely, a low mileage, under 16,000km, black example (non-standard S1 Blue-Black metallic) with Pearl Grey hood and interior, 1989 Special Edition Anniversary model; C00 for Germany, (Special Edition Option Code 097, there was also a Silver metallic bodied Silk Grey interior alternative Option Code 098). Tony had wondered what the current value may be and, also, why over the years everyone has said he has a special Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet example. When Tony sent me the Option Codes, I could identify why! Have a look at the interior where most differences can be seen. Full leather with ruffled leather heated seats, air conditioning, walnut dash, short gear lever, outside temperature gauge and more. There are a couple of surprises, no top tint to the screen and no spoilers. There you are, you have your Porsche as you want it, even if it is a (very) limited edition. As for a valuation, I passed on details of the free to members insurance valuation service on the Club website here (or find it under Membership on the Home page). Tony explained the low mileage is due to the first owner using the car sparingly, and then it being professionally stored for a few years. During Tony's ownership, he has had a busy work life and wishes he could have driven the car more. You know the feeling, how it is after having been out for a run and what joy it brings. He now has more time to himself, so his options are open.
     Thank you both for sharing your treasured cars with us, see photos of their cars in the Register Gallery here. We are looking forward to the coming Club season of events (here) when we will be able to catch up with so many of you.

     Member, Graham, writes Part II: 'May I bother you again with some more Porsche pandering. With the rear end of my 911 all tidied up I immediately turned my attention to a small job I wanted to address for quite a few months. Nothing terribly important or urgent, just bothersome at infrequent times. It was the horn and I say in the singular because that is all that was working where I know there should have been two making their presence heard. And the meagre toot from one horn is rather an embarrassment and any onlookers would turn and expect to see something akin to an Austin 7, certainly not a bright red 911. So I had a quick check in my excellent Bentley workshop manual which stated to access horns remove indicators, remove bumper bellows and remove bumper. Unfortunately the front two 8 mil nuts on the nearside bellows are almost impossible to reach and all the four nuts holding the offside bellows are totally hidden behind the oil cooler. The upshot of these findings meant that an estimated two hour job suddenly became a two day job, at least. Anyway after using a universal attachment with a wobble bit then the 8 mil socket I did get the nearside bellows off and was able to prise back the oil cooler enough to access the offside bellows and I was nearly there apart from the pipes for the headlight washers. These were horrible, as stiff as anything with seized clips securing them. The pipes connect to plastic fittings which are the actual bumper mounted washers so I couldn’t get too angry in removing them for fear of breaking them. I had to slice off the clips as they would not unscrew then put the heat gun on the pipes to soften them up in order for them to release their grip on the plastic fittings. Finally all sundry items were successfully removed and the bumper was released. The horns were held on by a couple of 10 mil nuts and were unbolted in short order. The first thing to check was power to both horns and gladly there was so the fault had to rest with the horns themselves and one of them was certainly dormant. It did look like it was well beyond its sell by date but I removed the four screws holding it together. Inside there is a coil affair and the two meetings plates were rather corroded, a quick rub over with some emery and wire wool got them shiny again but on test still no sounds. There is a 7 mil nut on the back of the horn and I thought I should give this a turn or two and, voila, I got a good blast out of the previously silent tooter. Putting the two horns together brought about a much more Porsche sounding song, a goodly – get out of my way, now – type blast, just what the doctor ordered. It’s always easier putting the stuff back and after replacing all the nuts with stainless items and washing the indicators lenses and bodies we are looking and sounding very much better. Graham's car and horn access photos here
     One small job to go and that is the radio aerial amplifier which by the disappearing radio reception signal doesn’t seem to be amplifying much, but it’s tucked away under the dash somewhere so I shall have to trim the fingers a bit for that job.'
     Thanks again Graham, looks like Part III coming up! It was over 10 years ago when I had the front bumper off our car. I don't remember having to dismantle so much to get it on the floor. I don't remember removing indicators or stripping down so much of the washer pipework, I think I released a short length of pipe near the left hand indicator (working under the front cutting the old clip off) and the rest of the washer tubing came away with the bumper, perhaps I was lucky with our '89 Sport.
     The Governments introduction of E10 petrol looks like going ahead next year and our Porsche classics can’t run on E10. Go online at gov.uk and search ‘Introducing E10 Petrol’. See their pdf document, here, Section 3 in particular has good information. Basically, it looks like Standard 95 (Ron) would go over to E10 leaving our option of E5 available at the ‘super’ pumps. A few quotes from the informative pdf: 'With E10 petrol providing an opportunity for the UK to further reduce the CO2 emissions from road vehicles, and the number of incompatible vehicles falling steadily, the argument for the widespread availability of this greener fuel has become stronger since our 2018 call for evidence.' And: 'Responses indicated that, for the introduction of E10 to achieve the best outcomes, it should be rolled out as a replacement for the current 95 E5 "premium" grade. This would be accompanied by a requirement to keep E5 available in the higher octane super grade (98 E5).' And: 'We therefore propose that the standard 95 octane premium petrol should change to become E10 across the UK. We would require all filling stations (with exceptions for some remote areas and specialist/low volume retailers) to ensure their standard petrol is E10.' And: 'We therefore propose that the standard 95 octane premium petrol should change to become E10 across the UK. My final extract: '...Experience from other countries suggests that a comprehensive communications campaign is important to ensure motorists are well informed ahead of the change in grade.' At least this approach seems better than when unleaded petrol was introduced, the promised option for some availability of leaded just evaporated.

     Keep the Passion

     Member, Graham, writes Part III. [SE edit: If at all unsure about electical workings, please consult an auto electrician]. I finished off the last little job that I wanted to do on my wide body and that was to check out the radio signal amplifier which had a detached co-ax cable. It certainly was a fiddle to remove the amplifier tucked up behind the dashboard and I facilitated its’ removal by firstly unbolting the central locking module that was in front of it and taking off an elbow part of the ventilation pipework. I cut the remains of the old co-ax cable off near to the amplifier. There wasn’t any plug for the radio fitted on this existing old cable but I did have a length of co-ax in my ‘spares’ box which did have a plug on it. I carefully stripped back the insulation of the tiny central wire and the shielding wire then soldered them onto the remaining stub of wire on the amplifier. I did check continuity to ensure my soldering was correct then beefed up the join with a couple of sleeves of shrink wrap. Now there was a small black wire also coming out of the amplifier and on checking the wiring diagram it looked like it should go to earth in fact to G105 which is ‘Electric antenna (right front fender inner panel)’. The nca wire was a small plug which went to the antenna in the screen and the diagram showed a white wire to the radio. This was all a bit strange but I plugged the new co-ax into the radio with the result being rather poor reception. I realised the amplifier must require a power source to effectively make it work so I gingerly hooked this black wire up to power and voila, brilliant radio reception. I did find the correct link-up on the radio which was to the blue and white lead – I’m guessing all radios have similar colour coding- and this is power only when the radio is in use. So at last I have excellent reception but unfortunately we are still left with it must be said, a dreadfully poor selection of available music coming through the airwaves. What I shall be doing in the near future is purchasing a rather excellent device which will give me all the DAB available stations. This is a Pace unit I bought to go into my wife’s Cayenne and this is great for uninterrupted music of her choice which I’m somewhat reluctant to say is techno 80’s and 90’s. Oh well, Planet Rock for me.
     Fitting it all back in I noticed that I wasn’t completely finished yet, the fibreboard dash cover had in the past been repeatedly bent when being manoeuvred over the master cylinder/servo unit. There was little I could do here except pop rivet a supporting piece of aluminium to the rear of the bend which toughened up the whole affair. Then I noticed the section of carpet on the nearside of the trunk area where it goes over the fuse box had lost its’ stitching so an hour with needle and thread carefully repaired this problem. And that is all the jobs done, at least for now that is so now just looking forward to some better weather and looking forward to driving the car again.
     Thank you for the trilogy, very interesting to hear about the jobs you have been progressing in your garage over the winter. Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
     In these uncertain times we are looking to provide flexible options to how, as a Club, we do things. So, around the end of April, you should have received a MailChimp offering to join our Register video conference. If you didn’t please update your details on your Club profile, https://www.porscheclubgb.com/my-account. If you can’t do this online please email cluboffice@porscheclubgb.com or call Clubhouse on 01608 652911 to make amendments.

We experienced a home telephone problem this summer, so if you tried to call us and didn't get an answer, not even from our answerphone, I'm sorry, and hope you emailed us or tried the Club Forum. If you still have a question, please try again.
     After holding a number of Zoom calls, I wonder if there are any technical terms or an aspect of the car we discussed that wasn't familiar to you. Please let me know if we can help getting to grips with Porsche terminology, or even more everyday terms that we use on calls or the Forum, we are here to help.
     Having not gone on holiday in the car this year, we found ourselves with something like 450 miles of fuel in the tank, and it has been there since late September 2019! I've been told it will be fine to use, but I'm aware that it will be past it's ‘sell by’ date. However, I believe it should still be within its ‘use by’ date, I guess so long as I don't stress the engine any minor loss in octane will not be an issue. We are about to attend a Regional event that will use some of the fuel, and maybe a few days away this autumn will use up the remainder.
     Our car’s MoT was due a few weeks into the Government’s lockdown extension period. This left me with the option to push the MoT down the calendar to coincide more with the anniversary of our original purchase month, its UK registration month, and around the insurance renewal date. If I don't like it, I can always switch the MoT back to the beginning of the driving season if that proves to be best.
     Talking of insurance, we have been with Chubb through Lockton since they first offered the Club scheme. This year, Lockton has moved the vehicle cover to AXA XL. Although I still liked the policy for around the same price, I had some questions after reading through it. Lockton was happy to talk me through them, and Richard was very helpful answering my questions. Unfortunately, the changes needed to the policy documents were not completed as seamlessly as I had expected, and I had to renew before they were corrected. This is the first time Lockton has caused me any angst, I must add that they did offer to carry over cover until I was happy with their amended documents. We had a change of holiday plans last year and didn't take our traditional September trip to Europe, plus the cancellation of this year’s summer trip due to lockdown meant the mileage difference I had to advise Lockton of was only about 50 miles, thus it stayed practically the same as after last year’s renewal. Gives the impression the car is turning into a garage queen, plans are already underway to rectify that!

If you would like to forward something to be included in the 911 Carrera 3.2 magazine column, or online here, email: 911carrera32@porscheclubgb.com