parts lost/falling off while driving your 914??, damn, what was that noise??? Options

[Mueller]

So I get a phone call a few days ago from Mike Rose, the fella that graciously lent me his 914 for the WCC a month ago..."hey Mike, I was under my car and noticed a dent on the heatexchangers that looked odd, then I noticed the pass. side flapper box was gone"

ummm, I knew I didn't take the car off road or run anything over that I knew of and then I remembered that while driving down on hwy 101 to the breakfast that Friday of the WCC, my wife and I had been cruising at about 70 or so (indicated 80+ mph, but he has smaller than norm tires on the car) when I heard a bunch of noise like under the car and then saw something in my mirror bouncing/sliding on the freeway behind us until the object was no longer in my view due to the cars behind us........Well, now I'm 99% sure what the racket was (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

I still have no idea if we did run something over and it popped up and took off the valve or just vibration did it in......

What else have people "lost" while driving their 914?? I know a few people have "donated" their targa tops to the convicts cleaning up the side of the road, anything else??

[Toast]

Options:
- It disintegrated upon impact
- Some one stopped and picked it up.
- God was trying to take me and only got my Targa top.

- Dave

It was sucked up in the smog and disappeared from sight of the neked eye. It eventualy landed in some M yard and was used as a new roof for the shack.

[brant]

wow, I've had some of the same experiences...

- the magnetic CB antanea will not stay on the roof of a 924 turbo above 120mph and makes a BIG bang as it swings by the cable into your door glass...

- I lost the balls out of the cv joint in the middle of a tight corner #7 at SCR, when the flex in the swing -arm mounting point allowed the arm to flex so much that it pulled the CV joint (outboard) cage apart. This was PRE- suspension bracing on my car and required a new ear be welded in.... (car spun out too, imagine that)

brant

[tdgray]

Don't think I can beat Dave (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Also NPC - My 1972 VW Beetle when I was 18... had it for about three days at this point. I was climbing up a hill in gorge country all of a sudden POP and the exhaust gets really LOUD. I look back to see my chrome exhaust tip rolling down the hill. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

So what do I do.... Pull the car over to the side of the road. Run back to get it and.... here comes the "Here's your sign part" I reach down and pick the F'in thing up with my bare hand. Of course as the thing is burning a hole through my hand I intellegently throw it down only to have it go over the guardrail and into the gorge.

OK Buddy >>>> Here's your sign (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[GaroldShaffer]

Don't feel alone. My "here's your sign moment" didn't happen on the road but in my back yard. I was cutting the grass with the rider (aka the old pile of Sh!t) when it got real loud. I shut it down and seen that the muffler on the front had came lose yet again. Went and got the wrenchs and yup tried to hold it in place with my bare hand, 2nd degree burns on 4 fingers and the plam of my hand.

here's your sign (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Howard]

Hmm..

[GaroldShaffer]

My other "Here's you sign" moment came 6 years ago when I bought my 6 x 8 utility open tilt bed trailer. I load the POS rider mower on it and started to head to my mothers house about 6 miles away. I had a F150 then and could just barely see the top of the mower. People were honking at me, pulled over and yes I forgot to put the pin back in to keep the bed from tilting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) at least I was smart enough to strap the mower down or I would have lost it, not that would have been a bad thing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif)

[tdgray]

OK Buddy Here's your Sign >>> (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[mightyohm]

When I was around 6 years old I remember my grandparent's VW bug losing the exhaust one day. I don't think my grandmother realized what had happened (I certainly had no idea) but my grandfather drove around and found the exhaust later that night. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) What is it with aircooled VW engines losing their tailpipes?

[Jenny]

lol.. I was wondering when Dave Bell was going to speak up about the Targa Top Incident. I actually wasn't sure if it was him or Sammy. Oh, yeah, we all figured the reason he couldn't find the top was Sammy picked it up already. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Man, I miss the SoCal gang. When are you guys going to do another fun run??

Jen

[aircooledboy]

Statue of limitations has run, I can safely tell this one:

1984, my very first 914. I'm driving home from work one night and getting on it pretty hard on a nice little inside curve, all the sudden car loses power, and I hear this popping noise from the engine. I'm on a pretty busy road, so I pull over onto the first side street about 1/4 mile down the road. The car was such a basket case that I had previously taken the engine lid cover off because it was only siting on the broken reminant of the one lid cover hinge bracket it had left. So, I get out, look at engine in the dark, and eventually figure out that I have shot the rearmost passenger side spark plug clean out of the engine, and because the engine lid is off, it is gone. I rifle through a bunch of crap the PO left in a box in the front, and sure enough I find some old plugs. Screw one in, thighten up with a pair of pliers from the box o' crap, drive home. 2 days later I read a story in the paper about a guy driving in the same area in the opposite direction on the same street on the same date and time, who's Bentley was damaged when a small hard object hit his hood and windshield, denting his hood and cracking his windshield. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) Police suspected neighborhood kids were probably throwing rocks.

Ya, that's it, neighborhood kids, rocks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[Dave Bell]

Burr Patterson isn't on this site... so I will tell one for him... not losing stuff from the 914, but losing stuff with the 914...

As Burr tells it, he was traveling home on a dark road out in the So. Cal. desert and had some dip stick tailgaiting him for a couple of miles. So rather than slow down, he speeds up... the guy tries to keep up in his less agile car.... Unfortunately, for the tailgaiter, Burr knows the road much better and realizes the road is coming to a "T" intersection shortly. He times himself for a late as possible fast 914 corner and gets to watch the guy behind him bouncing off road into the desert. At this point Burr starts roaring in laughter as he tells the story.... Have Burr tell it to you himself if you ever meet him.

As to future So. Cal. runs... Mike Dodgen is thinking about something in October in Santa Clarita area. I would like to set up a local run and mini swap from the house in Canyon Country sometime. I still got pictures of Burr in the pool with a rubber duck and Jeff Shyu surfing on a boogie board. Maybe we can get Steve Malm to set up a run... and there is always the trip up to Ventura in the fall to see the Porsche event up there.

- Dave
- Dave

[Katmanken]

NPC but.....

My worst moment was driving my Karmann Ghia convertible with the most powerful aircooled engine I have ever had. Had two speeds- lumpy idle and GO-OOOOOOOOOOOOMYGOD!!!!!!!!.

Hit the gas at the light, laid a buncha rubber and the engine stumbles, stutters and begins to rattle. Oh crap, sounds just like a loose rod knocking around back there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Pull off on the beach and it's idling fine and still knocking like crazy. I was a couple of blocks from the house so I revved it up and did a U-turn. It wouldn't accelerate, and the engine was coughing, bucking, knocking and was putting out black smoke. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Pulled up to a light and waited, feeling embarrased with the nasty knock. Light turned green and I drove to the turn off into my housing area, did a hard right and the knocking stopped. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Still ran like crap though. Did a two hour autopsy in the driveway and couldn't find anything. No knock, idled great, no acceleration, and black smoke. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

Finally I took the top off the carb. Noticed the "U" shaped brass spatzel tube for the accelerator circuit was missing. Then I realized the rod knock must have been the brass tube rattling in between the head and cylinder. When I went around the corner, it flew out the tailpipe of the header. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol2.gif)

Put a spare accelerator spatzel in place and motored on for many more years. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Ken

[jim_hoyland]

I lost one of the bolts that attach the front calipers. When i head the "sound", i pulled over and found the little bugger. This was helped by my mechanic who forgot to tighten the new calipers he just installed.

I also lost the rear tail light lens. They were removed for cleaning and the teflon nuts were screwed onto the incorrect stud. That was an expensive mistake; I take credit for that one.

[TonyAKAVW]

lol.. I was wondering when Dave Bell was going to speak up about the Targa Top Incident. I actually wasn't sure if it was him or Sammy. Oh, yeah, we all figured the reason he couldn't find the top was Sammy picked it up already.  

Man, I miss the SoCal gang. When are you guys going to do another fun run??

Jen

Yeah, I agree. One of my first 914 experiences (had owned my car for only a couple months) was on a run that Dave put together. That was in summer of 2001, 3 years ago already! Then there was the run after the German Autofest that year which was also a nice drive. I'd volunteer to put on a run, but I don't exactly live real close to any of the fun roads. (the only fun roads around here have a lot of traffic)

http://www.tunadog.com/topdon/dave-bell/index.html - pictures from that run on Don's website.

[jarbuthnot]

In my first 914, I had unloaded a bunch of stuff from the front trunk and evidentally didn't fasten it tightly. As I'm tootling down the highway, the front trunk lid flies open and off, over the top of the car.

I stopped, went back, but had no way to put it back on or in the car. Left it there, got a friend to go back for it in a bigger car; it was still there.

[Jenny]

That was in summer of 2001, 3 years ago already!

Man, if I'd known then what I know now.... I'd have bought a lot more gas. $1.49/gal, that's crazy!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif)

At the WCC, Mike D had mentioned intentions of getting a fun run together. I'll keep my fingers crossed...

Anyhoo, sorry for hijacking the thread. Lost a pizza from the top of another car. Classic case of setting it down to open car doors, and then hearing it plop on the parking lot after a speed bump. Nothing yet in the 914... unless you count losing paint when I spanked the guard rail... <_<

Jen

[horizontally-opposed]

Yep, can't keep up with the frisbee story above, but in the interest of keeping this thread going...

-Left rear tire (stupid high-school mechanic -- me -- forgot to tighten the wheel)

-heater box x2 (forever shaking my wife's trust in the car)

-various metal particles holding lower Bilstein shock mounting eye to the rest of the shock (hmmnnn... that's odd, why does my car still go straight but the horizon is tilted funny and the steering wheel is not so straight...)

pete

[newdeal2]

When I was a kid in the car with my sister my dad took a turn in his Packard and she fell out. The door let go.

No damage to my sister (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

From the age of about 3-5 I spent a lot of time in the luggage compartment in our VW [it was my only option since we were a family of 6].

To this day I can here a VW a mile away! Hmmm....914 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[bondo]

Haha, geez. My dad used to take the dog to the vet in the trunk of his Mercedes because he didn't want it to mess up the interior.. and I thought THAT was cruel (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(My love of 914s is probably me trying to compensate for years of riding around in a slow-ass early 70s 220D)

[horizontally-opposed]

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

-Various aluminum particles when my driver's side axle came loose, swung around, and knocked the starter (and a chunk of its mounting boss) clean off the bell housing. Not so nice to get handed your started with a chunk of transmission still attached to it.

Incredibly, I thought about trying to reuse that starter, but thought better of it. As for my car's original transmission, it went on to the great gear-cruncher in the sky. Pity.

12 years later I finally know why the above happened. Brad's advice about having to remove the flange and replace it after you have an axle get loose is dead on. Mine had come loose and I simply retightened it to the proper specs, not realizing the flange surface was, well, toast.

cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

pete