92 968 black/grey LSD 6-speed

Took the kid to school this morning (30 miles away) and found the odometer wasn't working, further up the road the sunroof opens by itself due to wind suction (lowering the drivers door window closes the sunroof), I think a gear in the sunroof is broken... suddenly the "check engine" light comes on, gas gauge drops to "empty", and temp is normal, so I proceed down the road...

About a mile before the School, gas gauge jumps back up to 3/4, and the check engine light goes off... I park the car and shut it off... wait for Rocky to wave from his classroom window...

Turn ignition to start and starter turns real slow, and kills the battery... I get a jump from the Principal, car starts right up... drive home with gas gauge and check engine light goin on and off like they had loose wires... get home and check Altenator, and it's chargin the battery (Optima) a little over 14 volts...

I read awhile back about removing the starter and cleaning, I think it is a common problem these cars, even had it's own syndrome, DSS "Dirty Starter Syndrome" or something like that... There is a procedure somewhere, I just can't find it...

Is it possible to remove the dash pod without removing the steering wheel? (Odometer Gear, check gas gauge)

I imagine I'll have to clean the gas sending unit again...

Crap, I guess its time to put the Bitch on Jackstands and start fixin...

Sorry for the rant...

 

I have done it before. Not easy, but not impossible. This was in a 944 turbo, but I don't think there is any difference between the two as far as the dash is concerned. You might also want to check you grounds while your at it.

 

Definitely start with all your grounds, there are a lot of them. Also check the condition of the battery. There is a recent thread in the 968 specific forum about grounds in the instrument cluster. But I would pull and clean all the grounds in the car, I recently did this and it really helped out..


94 968 Cab

 

+1 for the Cluster grounds. -First thing that I thought when I read your post.

Keith

 

+1 for the grounds, just did all mine, cars runs like new, everything works now, turns and starts quicker and got xtra hp also (the dme ground was badly corroded).

Remove and clean all the terminals and bolts with wet/dry, also around the tapped hole. Reassemble and cover with a thin layer of silicon grease or vasaline to prevent corrosion.

 

Youll have to replace the gears in your sunroof lifters. Clark's garage has a writeup on this and Pelican should have the parts. If you dont get it all just right, the gears will strip again as soon as you try to use it. Somebody could make a killing offerering metal instead of plastic replacement parts for the sunroof. This would probably fry the motor though when it jammed!

 

loosen the clutch alittle and it will slip instead of stripping the gears

did you think that maybe your alt. is charging alittle too much ? like the thing should charge 12.5v and its at 14v??

 

The altenator should charge at 13.8 volts, so you should be good there, I'm betting the difference is grounding. To verify, put a VOM across the battery and measure the volts while the car is running. +25 on cleaning the grounds, it makes a big difference.

The instrument cluster can come out with the steering wheel in place, and its not that hard to do it. If you pull the steering wheel, there's a decent chance your airbag light will stay on afterwards, unless you have access to a Bosch Hammer Diagnostic tool to turn it off.

Regards,

 

I'm going to say check the main ground going to the battery. I had issues from that and a bunch of sensors at once when it happened in my VW. Take some sand paper and clean up the contacts.

Becuase of the spread of issues, I would NOT start under the dash, but at the main ground off the battery.

 

If you have an airbag wheel, yes, the instrument cluster can come out without removing the wheel but getting it back in is complicated because the right harness connector hangs on the dash.

I ended up removing the wheel instead of scratching the dash any more.

 

Checked it with a VOM instead of a battery checker, and it's at 13.7volts... If I remember right, charging at 14v and over means the Battery is toast.

Now to lookup where the floor jack points are...

Thanks for all the advice so far... Someting tells me this will take awhile... I'm also doin the Motor mounts, and A/C Compressor...

 

If the motor cranked slowly , and with the guage issues, methinks its a big ground problem. Check the top back of the engine for the two big wires.

 

Yep, I believe I may have more than one or two ground problems... I'm gonna pull the starter and clean it anyway...

 

You dare shoot a horse just because its lame?

 

all that stuff has been fixed on my 944

will trade

I love gray on black!

pics?