Customer Reviews

Porsche 944: Automotive Repair Manual--1983 thru 1989, All Models Including Turbo (Haynes Manuals)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Haynes manual is the first I bought for my 944, way back in 1986. It brought me no insight as to what makes this vehicle unique, and what special tools would allow me to work on the car myself. After I suffered a timing belt failure (all too common to this series), I discovered that there was not nearly enough information for me to fix this problem myself.

I purchased the factory service manual (for $250 at the time) and was able to fix my problems, and to prevent many other problems. There is no substitute for the factory service manual, and it is now generally available on CDrom.

If you have a 944 turbo or 944S or 944s2, this book is absolutely worthless to you, as it has no wiring diagrams or real information that is covered in the factory manual.

I just bought a 1983 944 and I was hoping to get some information on timing belt replacement from this book, but it is way too general. In my quest for an adequate manual I could only find one alternative: The factory repair manual at the "bargain price" of $225.00 My advice: before you buy this book, spend the money in phone calls to find a used factory manual!

This manual explains in good detail the things you can figure out for yourself. When it comes to information about details, that real help is needed with, they repeatedly tell you to take the car to the dealer or other shops. I feel I wasted my money on this book. (I should have known - I had a Haynes manual for a Ford van previously)

Unless you own the exact model and year (1983 944) Haynes used as the sample for this manual (and not even then, according to at least one reviewer) this book is mainly useless. That goes double if you own a turbo version of the 944, as there is not a single reference, example, or illustration of anyting specific to the turbo (and there are many) that I could find, even though Haynes claims it is covered by this edition.

Robert Bentley, please, please, please bless the poor 944 owner with one of your excellent reference works... until that happens, save your money.

general knowledge very good but was weak on fuel system and automatic transmission information. still searching for good manual. let me know if you find one.

I bought an '85 944 and it was my first Porsche. The information on basic tune-up and simple jobs was excellent but it advised too much stuff to be done by a dealer. Also, some areas were a little hard to follow, but pictures were helpful.

I found this book disappointing. It offered no insights into the quirks which are specific to this car. There are many common problems which plague this model. None of these are described.

An adequate manual for performing most routine
maintenance and repairs on the 944. Very sketchy
in the area of cam and balance belt replacement
but certainly contains enough useful information
to allow the home mechanic to change fluids,
brake pads, service CV joints, wheel bearings, etc.
I used it as a basic reference to change a head
gasket!

After reading reviews & recommendations from various sites, I decided that this was the book that I needed for my 924S. It is right on the money! Even though there is very little mention of the 924 in this book, the photos presented, could be of my car. If you are looking for a repair manual for the '87-'88 924S, this is what you want.

For $15 this book is an excellent help with lots of pictures for most (but not all) the jobs you'll have to do on your 944. It's based on an early (pre 85.5) n/a 944 so some things have obviously changed on later cars, but for my 84 it is a perfect companion to helpful places such as clarks-garage.com. I highly recommend it for any 944 home mechanics.