Jim bailey - 928 International

Sax tell me that that is not the case ...As I recall you posted that you originally agreed to pay about $8,500 for the car around September of last year ? That would mean nearly ANY new car would have cost you far less to drive for 11 months . Perhaps you need to re-evaluate your criteria for selecting a car ? If repairs to a car are going to possibly alter your life style , your education and maybe your future . Maybe you need an "appliance" , a basic transportation car something NOT FUN , not fast , not expensive and not TOO OLD but that will get you from point A to point B . You already have on piece of immobile Italian sculpture parked in the yard back home . Now that the sermon is over you still need to get that S-4 running . Are you capable of unpluging the mass air flow sensor it requires removing the airfilter and lower filter housing to carefully remove the electrical plug . By unplugging the mass air meter the injection brain should go to a stored "limp home" mode where it can run but not well or fast . See how it runs with the mass air meter unplugged . That would help to determine what your problem might be .

saxapeeel

I'm trying to sell my car to buy an appliance. I will check the mass air meter right now.

saxapeeel

ok i unplugged it and it made no difference at all. still would not start. is this a good or bad thing?

John Speake

Good that it probably not the MAF, bad because it's something else..............

When you crank the engine, does the rev counter move ?

Have you checked the LH relay, the EZK relay and the fuel pump relay ?

Jim bailey - 928 International

John ....relay ,relay ,relay that is my line !! but always a good place to start ......literally

saxapeeel

i tried to check the relay's, but i can't get them out, i quickly gave up because they hurt my fingers. is there a special trick to get them out? and what do i look for when i do? i hope this is the problem, this will make my day 10 thousand times over.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Sax if the top row left relay is number one count over to the right the 8th position this one is Ignition , 10th spot fuel pump , 12 th spot is LH brain ........all three are the same you can borrow the horn relay position 6 and one by one replace the first three . They can be hard to pull out you may need to use plyers but avoid crushing them try to wiggle them back and forth a bit to free them then pull . It is a commonly used relay and the local VW dealer has a substitute if you damage one of yours . If that does not work maybe the fuel pump has seized ? with your head under the right rear on the car have someone crank the engine , you should hear the fuel pump when the engine is craning on the starter motor . If it is not running and you have checked the fuses and moved the relays then it may be the injection brain . Next step is to plug your L H brain into another S-4 to see if it will run .

Barry Johnson

Sax, I've heard of these problems so many times before, that I'd just say its the LH brain. If you know anyone somewhat local with an S4, get them over to your car and swap brains. If you feel like checking, listen for the fuel pump buzz when you have the ignition switched over to on. You should hear it when you try to start it. When you crank it, does it just not fire? My guess, being that its an S4 with over 120k on it, the LH is dead. Its going to happen eventually. I'd just ship it off to John Speake in England. Hes an expert LH brain rebuilder, and I've sent 4 or so guys to him and they've all been fixed immediately and worked perfectly. His email is info@jdsporsche.com . I hope you do that and your car runs again; it would be sad to see your car go! You wont get jack **** for it if it doesn't run though, keep that in mind. Best to fix that problem and then make a decision. Just my educated advice.

Rich9928p

Chris,

I have an LH injection module that we can plug in to test your car. I'll call you on Saturday. If it isn't that, I'll show you how to remove relays and do some additional testing.

saxapeeel

alright totally cool, i'm not doing anything at all on saturday, in fact i'll be home all day.

saxapeeel

btw, i don't have to sell the car after all, my sister just bought a new jetta and she is giving me the volvo. my mom is going to tow the porsche back to petaluma with the Expedtition and im going to store it in the garage till i can accumulate enough money to get it going again. I still want to get this problem fixed though so it can still be taken out for a leg stretch every week or so.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Rich very nice of you to offer to help Sax . Once again just shows how many really nice people own 928s ........

Rich9928p

Jim,

I've found that 928 owners are a friendly lot. I had a fuel pump die on my track car. I called local a friend who has an '78 OB waiting for a paint job sitting next to his '88 daily driver. He lent the use of the OB fuel pump so I could continue my weekend.

I planned to take a spare LH module to the OC-IC meet incase anyone had trouble. A few days before departing, this same shark owner had been out of town for several weeks and found when he returned his shark had clattering injectors. Needless to say there was no spare for the trip, that LH found a new home! All that I had to show at the OC-IC was a dead module, and I'm seeing many more of them.

SharkSkin

I found that this worked fantastic, just get the short end under the relay and gently work it out of the socket:



Be sure to pull the ground off the battery before using one of these, unless you have a fire extinguisher handy and/or it's July 4th.

John Speake

""John ....relay ,relay ,relay that is my line !! but always a good place to start ......literally- Jim""

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Jim ! :-)

I see the "MAF disconnect - limp home mode" line from my web site quoted many times..........

Regards