David Honl Cargo Cover

When I was driving the 944 back from Florida, I really hated that the entire cargo area was exposed and visible through the glass. I did use the car cover the PO gave me as a sort of cover but it was very obvious I had stuff like luggage back there and that made me very uncomfortable. You can't really buy the OEM car cover anymore. You can try to find a used one that will likely need replacement cloth or other repairs. David Honl makes a replacement cargo cover that is made of a better material that won't sag, mounts to the OEM mount points, and doesn't have a retracting mechanism to break.It doesn't cover every inch of the cargo area but it's good enough to add quite a bit of much needed privacy without having to resort to tinting the rear glass. 

New plugs and wires, OPVR leak fix, ESCO jack stands

I couldn't find any records of when the spark plugs and ignition wires on the 944 were last changed so that was next on the list of maintenance items. The car had OEM Beru spark plug wires in pretty good condition and Bosch platinum plugs so the car was taken care of. 

Clewett Engineering Spark Plug Wires

I decided to switch to NGK Iridium plugs since I've always generally had good experience with Iridium plugs. The old plugs looked to be in good shape but I think the BR9EIX Irdium plugs should be better and longer lasting. I went with Clewett Engineering ignition wires. These seem to have really good reviews and a bit cheaper than the OEM stuff. I actually have the same wires on my 911 so if it's good enough for that, it's definitely good enough for a 944. The wires are a bit thicker than stock though so the factoring spacers don't fit so for now they're zip tied together. I'll probably find something cleaner solution in the future. Since the old wires were still good, I'm keeping them as spares in case something goes wrong with these wires.

New versus old plugs

NGK Iridium BR9EIX plugs

New plugs and ignition wires installed

I actually did this work a few weeks ago. I noticed that the undertray was a bit wet from oil so I got under there to take a look. It seems I didn't tighten my oil filter enough so it was leaking a bit from the oil filter and I also saw some oil coming from the oil pressure relieve valve (OPRV). The oil filter is in a bit of an awkward position so I used a proper oil filter wrench to double check and sure enough it was not tightened to spec (my fault since I'm the one who put this on after my last oil change) so I torqued it down properly (14 lb-ft). I then ordered a new aluminum crush washer (N-043-815-3-OEM) and rubber O-ring (999-707-144-40-M100) for the OPRV and went ahead and replaced those. Since I had the car sitting for weeks now there wasn't a lot of oil that came out after removing the valve (maybe an ounce or two at most). The old O-ring snapped right off as I was trying to remove it. It had gotten quite hard so the new one was definitely needed. I put it back in and torqued it down (24mm socket - 33 lb-ft), cleaned up the area then let the car run for a few minute. So far so good, no more leaks from this area.

OPRV is the 25mm head in the middle

OPRV removed with new washer and O-ring ready to go in
NOTE: Got two of each in case I screwed up :D

Old O-ring removed, new O-ring installed and lubricated
New aluminum crush washer added

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These valves to go bad but I saw no symptoms of it being a problem. There was no out of range oil pressure or odd oil pressure gauge behavior so I think trying to fix it by replacing a few seals is the best first attempt here. It's less than 10 bucks in seals and a quick and easy job so it's a no brainer. If I continue to find issues I may replaced the entire valve as there's an internal O-ring I can't replace easily in this but since a new OPRV costs several hundred dollars I'll cross that path when I need to.

I also picked up new jack stands. The offset nature of the approved jackstand points on a 944 make it not ideal for Quick Jack use so I need to jack it up and support it with jack stands traditionally. I don't trust my old ratcheting jack stands and wanted something really solid with secure locking pins and these ESCO performance shorty jack stands fit the bill perfectly. They're beefy, go from 11" to 17" in height, have thick flat rubber pads on top for securely holding up the car against the frame. I definitely felt safe under the car with these jack stands in place.

ESCO 3-Tons performance shorty jack stands

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 96,629

- New NGK Iridium BR9EIX spark plugs (4)

- New Clewett Engineering ignition wires

- New seals for OPRV

Rear Wiper Delete

I get why some people may want rear wipers but I've found it pretty useless on cars that don't actually see any time in extremely inclement weather. I decided to delete the rear wiper on the 944 even though I just replaced the wiper blade recently since it's just frankly so much cleaner looking with the small bonus of reducing some weight on the hatch assembly which is never a bad thing.

Rear wiper deleted

I got a wiper delete plug from Only944.com. Removing the rear wiper on the S2 is as simple as taking off a 10mm and 17mm nut, unplugging the connector off the motor and removing two screws that hold the motor in place. Once removed, you just clean the glass and screw in the plug and you're all set. 

Wiper blade removed

Motor electrically disconnected

Before shot

911 Maintenance - Oil Change

With snow on the ground again, it was pretty clear that the 911 was going to be in hibernation for the rest of the winter so it's time for another oil change so any contaminants in the oil don't just linger in the engine for a few months.

Oil change time

The unmistakable blue-ish/green color of the Driven GP1 oil is still the oil really isn't very contaminated at all.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 171,801

- 11.5 quarts Driven GP-1 20W-50

- Mahle OC54 oil filter

Replaced Central Air Vent

I've had a broken central vent in the 911 since I bought it. The left to right adjustment is loose so it flops around all the time not staying in the same direction and one of the vent fins was just broken completely and doing whatever it felt like. I got a replacement OEM vent last year but procrastinated putting it on even though it literally takes a minute and I finally did it today. I'm not sure why I waited but it's nice when broken things are fixed.

New Vent

Old vent (top) vs New vent (bottom)

New vent installed