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Been away for a while and have sorely missed the humor of Crumpler and Dan.
Pleasantries aside....
Car was on liftbars all winter. Did absolutely nothing to her other than keep battery on a trickle charger, drain engine oil and drain tranny oil.
Brought her down, filled engine and tranny oil, tried to start her. Nothing.
Didn't remember if I left her mostly empty or full of fuel (my bad), so figured "Hey....I'll just put another couple of gallons in.".
Crank starter, engine would almost catch. Would try to start again, no hint of a catch.
Decided for the hell of it to leave the gas cap off over night (not sure why). Try next day, starts up fine.
Today, I try starting her up again. Starts right up. Yay! Drive around for a few miles with zero issue. Head home. Eat dinner
Go out to drive her to get some celebratory beer, drive to the liquor store. Do my shopping. Go out to the car, try starting it. Slight catch than dies.
Look into the trunk and there's some fuel at the top of the sender unit. Decide to unscrew it, fuel gushes out....totally fills up the top of the tank around the filler area. Get out all the fuel, try to start. Nothing. The guys at the store try push-starting me - nothing.
My wife is hovering over me saying "It's time to sell". My 13yo daughter is laughing.
You know the drill - start by doing the free stuff - clean every major ground point - rear strap, big on passenger side engine bay to lower block, the ones around the CE panel, the ones on top of the engine. Then look at the CE panel - pull and refit each relay and fuse, using deoxit or your favorite contact cleaner (I use CRC because that's what they sell where I live). Check the fuses. Also, swap the fuel pump relay with your horn relay. Maybe that's going bad.
You could also have bad gas. Put some gas treatment in it. Do all of those things and then drive it (assuming it starts) and see if it wakes up properly. If this does not work, then it's time for the fuel/air/spark analysis and a deeper dive.
Is it possible the gas cap has gone bad and won't let air into the tank so the fuel can be pumped out. You leaving the cap off and then it working the next time is what sent me down this path. If so, be careful as you can damage your fuel tank from the suction. What happens if you leave the cap a little loose?
I think Pete is onto something. I had a gas tank crush itself from suction on another car. There is a vent system involved somehow on the 928 that allows the tank to empty without crushing.
Good luck,
Dave
So an update:
Went back to the car this morning, put the key in, started up on the first try. I did loosen the gas cap before I tried, but I had also done that the night before (before I abandoned it) to no avail.
Drove home, no issue.
Parked in front of the house, tried starting her up an hour later to get her into my garage....started right up and drove her in.
Maintenance Points:
I did put Stabil in and drove around a bit before I put her up on the lift bars in October.
I did do a ground cleaning here in the spring, so all should be good there.
I cleaned up all the venting & hoses to/from the tank ~a month before I put her up, so all seemed to be OK there last year.
Could this be as simple as I grossly overfilled the tank and due to the volume of fuel that it's not venting properly?
I was also trying to decide if fuel vent system was a concern.
Is this similar to the start/ no start issue you had last year?
I remember something happening after a hard turn. Did you ever find the culprit?
I was also trying to decide if fuel vent system was a concern.
Is this similar to the start/ no start issue you had last year?
I remember something happening after a hard turn. Did you ever find the culprit?
Glad to see you back in the game.
Crumpler!!
Hard to say if they are similar/related, as last year it just didn't start that one time and I never figured out definitively what happened (although I suspect it was something electrical). After that, for the rest of the season, it ran just fine.
I'm going to run it with the cap a bit loose to see if the problem goes away. If that does happen, I'll continue driving until I've burned off a few gallons, will recap and see if things persist.
My hunch is you'll need a nearly full tank to reproduce the problem. The more air that's in the tank, the more easily that air pocket will expand to displace the fuel.
Left the gas cap a bit loose. Started right up and drove without issue. Burnt down some fuel in the tank, tightened up the cap, all good. Drove it a few more times, no issue with starting our driving.
So, I think my idiotical over filling of the tank lead to some venting issues. Will continue to monitor.
Thanks again for the input / suggestions, and happy Memorial Day to all.
05-24-2018, 10:06 PM
This car hates me.....fuel woes
