Re: My UrQ Can't Swim

[Brett Dikeman <brett@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net>]

What you describe happened to my father's 944 turbo in the middle of a
track event(luckily, he was able to get off to the side and some helpful
people helped him push it off the track quickly.)  He came around a corner,
into a straightaway, floored it, and the car choked; he let up immediately,
and it ran for a few seconds, dying out slowly, then gave out completely.

Surrounded by Porsche mechanics(it was a Porsche Club of Amer. meet) they
poured over everything they could think of; they had fuel, they had spark,
yet when they turned the car over...nothing.

The car was flat-bedded back home, and the mechanics found the problem;
apparently, on 944's, the rotor is held in position by a set screw.  The
set screw had loosened, throwing the rotor arm _way_ out of whack.

I doubt this is your problem, since I thought Audi rotors had to be
_broken_ off to remove, and the post is keyed?

Oh well.  The symptoms sounded eerily familiar; initial failure under
boost, then engine dies out slowly.

Brett


>The roads are wet, but no standing water.  About 3 miles down the road,
>with the car warmed up normally, I accelerate from a stop light.  As
>soon as boost comes on, the car kicks violently. Seemed to run okay
>without boost.  Another few hundred yards down the road, it dies. Not
>suddenly (like an electrical problem) and not missing like a fuel
>problem, but it just seemed to lose power gradually until it died.
>
>So, I'm sitting by the side of the road in a tremendous storm. All the
>gauges read normally.  Car turns over fine, but won't "catch".
>
>I check under the hood.  Distributor and wires are dry.  Really not much
>water under the hood at all.  The fuel pump fuse was fine. Connections
>at the fuel pump look okay.
>
>For the next 15-20 minutes, every few minutes I try starting it. No
>good, just tuns over, occasionally trying to start, but never really
>catching.  Throttle position doesn't seem to have any effect.
>
>Then it stumbles to life (like my occasional hot start problem) and runs
>fine, including at full boost.
>
>My question: what was the problem?  I would really like for this _not_
>not to happen again.  I'm assuming this may be signaling a forthcoming
>failure... or is it just water-related?  Any ideas would be appreciated.

------
Brett Dikeman
brett@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net
~)-|
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Te audire non possum.  Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Ita, scio hunc 'sig file' veterem fieri.
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