1 Fast Car

It appears that my 88 S4 has some type of electrical problem. I’m hoping that one of you has seen this before & can point me in the right direction before springing lots of $$ looking for a solution.

While driving the car one day my radio / CD reset. Right after that it started running rough on and off power lightly bucking. I was able to drive it home where it sat for a week. I brought it into my local mechanic & after driving a mile it was doing it again. On the 10 mile drive there is would reset the CD etc. so it now seemed like more of an electrical problem & not a vacuum problem as someone at work though it may be. When I got there I went to back up & it stalled. I tried to turn it over a couple of time but got nothing, starter did not turn, click, nothing…

The mechanic when out later & it started right up. He made some other repairs & drove it for 6 miles with no hiccups. I picket the car up & it started & idled fine. We checked the voltage with a ½ turn of the key & it was right around 10V or maybe below. We then thought that the cheap batter I bought last year had a short (plate dropped or bent after hitting a bump etc.). The battery was changed & I was on my way. I drove the car to & from work for a couple of days with no issues. Heading home the other night the CD reset & 10 seconds later it started running real rough again. When I got home & restarted the car a couple of times, the radio must have reset since it was trying to preset stations again. One time when I turned the key ½ way the internal fan started blowing at full blast but it was on low???

So far the only suggest I have is that there may be a grounding problem. Does this sound like something that would cause all of this? Any suggestions on possible key culprits?

I did have another problem with starting the car when it was hot but looks like a cold start temp switch from 928Sp took care of that one.

Any help would be appreciated!

Brad W.

Mike LaBranche

Sure sounds like a grounding issue. Most likely culprit is the ground strap at the battery. After a few years they get corroded and just won't flow the juice like a fresh one. You can clean it real well but ultimately you'll be better off with a new one. Had this problem on the 84. Unfortunately I was 500 miles from home. It would jump start and run fine from the front terminal, no joy jumping at the battery. So I kept it running for 500 miles since it wouldn't restart without a jump. Getting gas was easy. Hitting the head wasn't.

Anyway... I'd suggest a complete grounding point clean-up. Good luck.

1 Fast Car

Thanks for the advice. I pulled out my wiring diagram & have a list of ground points to check. This book was used & that page is tabed if that tells me something. Devek also mentioned that this may be the problem & it could be resetting the computer in the same way it resets my radio cuasing all kinds of problems.

Brad