Sentinelist

Hoooo boy... unplugged #1 and left it on top of the manifold, cranked it up, nothing... got out to inspect, went to grab it, and it started sparking all over the place from the base of the plug wire boot! Gads! Went and shut it down before it killed me- tear in the boot, can see straight in to the core element inside. Bad wire. Now we're really getting somewhere. So much for 'recent wires'! Hell, let's see what the other two have got...

#3 (next down toward the front)... unplugged... started... cold dead... this one didn't try to kill me, but testing #1 and #3 undone both haven't changed the state of how the engine runs... next!

#4... exact same as #3.

All signs point to the distributor and/or rotor but obviously have at least one bad wire and un-optimal new plugs. Thanks for everything so far and adding value to the thread. Good call on the ignition coil as well- I might as well grab that too. I agree and think I'm just going to replace the plugs/wires/distributor/rotor/coil with all the BOSCH and genuine stuff possible and make sure that resolves. It now really seems like it should. I'll stop there for a week or two and then go ahead with the fuel stuff for good measure. I'll consider the standard air filter, but think that may have been more of an annoying coincidence and bad timing that has thrown off my troubleshooting initially. I'll update later this week after I get all this stuff in! I didn't fix anything tonight, but am cautiously optimistic this simple stuff will put me back on track for now. Thrilled my weary dread at 2:00am last night researching DME resoldering will likely be unnecessary.

Bonster

WHY would you grab any part of your electrical system still anchored TO your electrical system with your bare hands? PLEASE be careful!!! The last thing we'd want to hear about is you getting hurt like that. Yikes.

Bonster

Chris . . . if one wire is bad, please presume the rest of them are bad, too. Don't even mess with testing them. Just do you and your baby a favor and get new wires. Plugs, too, most likely. Your car is worth that much, at the VERY least.

Sentinelist

Thanks, Bonster- believe me, no trouble listening and taking advice from 99.9% of the folks here. Only trouble is with seemingly incomprehensible trolls here who spam my PM box. And no power loss on bumps here, not sure where that came from. I immediately stopped driving the car after getting a general feel for what was going on while it was out and about- have been in the S8 for the last several days. And I didn't grab the hot wire with my bare hands, lol, should have mentioned I was wearing rubber tipped mechanic gloves and just tapped the boot to see if it did anything... and it sure did! I didn't electrocute myself or nearly kill myself. Probably was useless to test the rest of the wires if one was obviously bad, though that also singled out a bad distributor and/or rotor.

I may be new here, but I'm no(t much of a) fool. I do appreciate the response.

Bonster

Cool, Chris. Hey . . . do you have a timing light? An induction type? You could find out which wire (s) are failing that way. The timing gun won't light up if there's no juice in the wire. Does that sound right? I'm definitely not always the best at describing stuff that I do routinely or even all the time. Hope that helps, and thanks for clearing some stuff up. You had me afraid to go to sleep, lol.

Bonster

You all probably didn't need that last bit of advice, but hope it helps anyone reading who might need a suggestion for testing wires. Glad to hear you're just going to replace them and that you weren't bare-handed. Bummer about the S8. You have cruddy luck.

Sentinelist

Haha, yeah no worries- not a manic teenager jumping up and down yelling 'FIRE! FIRE! YES! MOAR!' or anything. You may go to sleep! I will be after my nightcap. Ah, no I do not have a timing light- that probably would have come in handy. I'll add that to my parts-want list (hey, stocking stuffer idea...) but think this event will probably pass through OK without it. Hopefully I won't have to do any more electrical work for a long time after this, especially if I get the coil, and the new battery I put in last week! Strong cranks and starts otherwise. So goes it.

The S8, wait what? No it's doing great! It's my flagship! Unless you're making a snide comment against its un-Porscheness.

Bonster

NOW I know where I got confused! SO SORRY CHRIS!!! I was somehow reading Stew-gart's stuff, interchanging it with yours. OMGosh I'm so sorry. That's why the emails are weird, too. It WASN'T a different thread . . . it was this Stew guy totally messing up my brain. Sorry man.

Sentinelist

Bonster

You shaddup, dang it. Damn, that Stew-gart is really THAT confusing. So much gibberish and b.s. that it totally fried my brain. ACK! STHU Stew-goop! Lol.

ernie9468

Lol stormy here rigth now,don't despair prediction for tomorow are great.

Bonster

Okay . . . now that I have taken a few breaths . . . back to our normal thing. And Stew -- please -- no more gibberish that goes on and on. I still can't believe I got that confused that quickly. STOP. Sorry again, Chris. But what a huge LOL on me. Sheesh.

Bonster

I swear, Ernie, I'll just delete those posts. I am no brainiac, but I'm not known, to the best of my knowledge, to get that confused in so short of a time. ACK!

EDIT: Those deleted posts, btw, would be referring to Stew-gibberish. Oh, my BRAIN!!! It hurts so MUCH! HELP ME!!! I swear, I need a day off after this. Lol.

Sentinelist

Now you know how we felt! Thanks for responding and the assist, drunken as it appeared. But you got the job done and saved us all from peril. I remember similar episodes when I was a mod in another life on VWvortex, 36,xxx posts ago in college, ha.

Alright, so I'm ordering all my electrical goodies tonight and should be putting them in Friday! Next update then.

Bonster

Eegads. Yeah, he got his dang warning alright. And while my replies were not drunken, I kind of wish I'd have a few before reading them!!! Lol! Any more of those zany posts, please tell us/me. I gave the fellow a warning/infraction. Somebody else gave him one for insulting other members recently. He'll be out of here soon enough if he keeps this crud up.

Meanwhile . . .back on topic, I hope!