88 Porsche 944 na, engine fire with out warning had call fire dept, was in motion doing about 45 mph saw smoke made to gas station engine fire under hood
Engine & cooling
Porsche 944 Engine problems by year
5 complaints filed with NHTSA about the Porsche 944's engine & cooling. Stalling, loss of power, oil consumption, overheating, head gaskets, timing chains and engine failure.
Engine complaints by model year
Latest 944 engine complaints
I was driving along in my recently purchased porsche 944, and suddenly the car lost all power and the engine compartment burst into flames without any warning. Needless to say, the entire underhood area is a complete loss. There were no leaks, and the wiring did not have any visible problems. Until you experience something like this, you do not realize just how terrifying it is. *Tr
I contacted the local dealer as well as porsche(atlanta office). Almost everyone with a 944s or 1989-91 944s2 has reported this failure or defect. The cam chain tensioner has a plastic ramp which cracks and fails causing catastrophic engine failure. Please look on www.Rennlist.Com under 944 site. Do a search on cam tensioner and you will see how many people are having this problem. Porsche says there is no problem and will not issue a service bulletin for an inspection interval. The plastic runner begins to...
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crack and then fails causing the chain to catch and come apart. Valves/pistons collide causing catastophic failure. Part replacement cost $300. Plastic guide is not available separately so you must buy the entire hydrolic tensioner. Another model, porsche 928s and 928 s4 use the same tensioner so they are affected as well. The problem seems to be arising at about 60-100,000 miles. This makes most of the cars about 8-11 yrs old so the problem is based on time/use issue. I cannot understand why porsche will not address the problem. I have the tensioner available for review and can probably get more from other owners as we all communicate regularly on www.Rennlist.Com. *Ak
While driving the vehicle burst into flames in the engine compartment. The owner will notify the manufacturer. *Ak
ENGINE OIL FILTER BLEW OUT.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked daily. Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data