Hello everybody,

This is a day to remember: I bought a 928 GTS 1995 today (the car was advertised on Ebay nr24290743376).

We visited the owner, the car was OK and a testdrive was done. The car drove nice but as it rained no powertest could be done.

The former-owner agreed to drive the car from Germany to Brussels where I live.

We parked the car, shook hands with the former owner and he returned.

No way of getting he car started anymore

The start motor turns, the engine fires, there is a rough idle for some seconds and then the engine dies. I tried to contact the former owner who says I have to let the car cool down (from a 300 km journey)

BTW: fuel consumption on the 300 km journey 60 l.

On the dash the message "Schlussleuchte ausfall" appears.

Well, that is it... I hoped to annonce the new car with more fanfare but now there is panic in the air here. I plan to sleep on it and then tomorrow try to get the car to a Porsche center for a checkup.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thx for any replys.

Tom (Brussels, Belgium)

 

Tom,
Congratulation with your new found -
Can I ask how mush you paid for such car in Germany?
How are the condition the the total mileage (Km)?
Regards from Erik in Denmark

 

I think that Porsche should bring back it's flagship car, the 928. Porsche needs a car to compete against the Ferrari 550 and Aston Martin Vanquish. As long as they don't water down the desing(ala 996), it's okay by me.

 

Thanks for the support, I hope it's a minor failure and will try again. Prosche is closed for the week-end but we will bring the car on Monday.

At Eric: I paid 22000 Eur , the car has 94000 km.

It's the same as Weissach's picture but black on black and says GTS on the rear. I'll post some pictures soon

Tom

 

Could be a vacuum leak too. When I had a split rubber intake boot, the car would start but couldn't hold an idle. If I took my foot off the gas while the car was stopped, it would stall.

 

Update.

I tried to start the car again and it fired. I kept RPM above 2000 and everything went more or less fine: acceleration is decent -I think- but the fuel meter on the dash gives rather high figures: 40 liter/100 km up to 80 l/100km when accelerating.

If the RPM went below 2000, trouble was there again. The engine fell and died.

This evening I tried again: no starter noise only clicks => flat battery, I mesured 10.1 V on the circuit. Even after charging it refused to hold its tension.

Could it be that a bad battery is the cause of all this trouble? Below 2000 RPM I suspect the alternator not giving 12V anymore as for the electronics: if the tension for which they are designed is 12 V, then sure they will not like 10V, more over the ignitioncoils will give a lower spark tension and the alternator will pump out a high current because the battery takes only 10 V instead of 12...

I looked in the owner manual and saw that Porsche stresses the need for a Porsche battery. Apparently it even has its own special Porsche-number.

Does anybody know what's so special about this battery and what precautions I should take when swapping it with a new one?

Thank for the reply, moral is going up now

Tom

 

When my battery got weak (one cell went South), the engine still ran normally - it was just hard for the starter to crank it.

Does the voltage meter show different when the engine is running, and when it's not? Have you checked your ground strap from the battery to the body, and from the body to the engine?

 

the bad battery wouldn't have caused the car not to run under 2000 rpm, I could see maybe under say 700rpm, I would check for vaccuum leaks as was already suggested, also I would check the spark and plugs and do a basic tune up on the vehicle

 

Is this the blk/blk 5 speed from hamburg?
Might be on limp-home mode?
Thought about buying that one myself.
Good luck, you'll be fine.

 

At Elemental,

Not the one in Hamburg, I bought it from a gentleman in Hagen (near Dortmund).

At Lizard931
Those vacuum leaks : would they be possible through the inlet ducts which run from a kind of airscoop (front) to the filter element?

One of them (the left side) is cracked and taped up.


And now to the shop: new battery, new air filter, new round filter (air pump =?= airco) and 8 new spark plugs.

I'll keep you posted, thx for all replies until now.

Tom

 

Tom:

You are referring to the air intake tubes. They are not part of the vacuum system, but if they are cracked, I'd have them replaced.

The vacuum lines are those thin plastic tubes - I believe the original ones are black - that go underneath the intake manifold, and to the brake booster, some of these rund thingies (fuel pressure regulators?), as well as to a splitter under the air filter box, and from there to the automatic transmission, Climate Control, etc.

The vacuum system is notorious for developing leaks, and if you ever need to have the intake removed, make sure all those old and brittle vacuum lines are replaced at the same time. Also, if hte intake ever has to come off, have the idle valve, knock sensors and throttle postition switch replaced - then you can be sure you won't have to do any more labor intensive work in that area. Ask me how I know...

I hope you'll find out soon, what the problem is. Best of luck, and please keep us posted!

 

Tom,

It’s possible that your alternator has gone bad. Measure it’s voltage supply. It should be 13,8V minimum. A low tension could get the car to act weird, although I don’t think that’s the case here. You could reset the computer by taking off the battery poles, let it sit for about 10 minutes and hold the two together, so that the power is completely drained. This way the computers will reset. (I can’t take any responsibility when something goes wrong with that, because I don’t know you’re car well enough (audio installation with condensor maybe?).
It can’t be the Idle stabiliser either, because it would only stall as you would rev the engine and let go. Checking the vacuum would be a good guess. Has the car been sitting around doing nothing for a while? Not using the car could have dried out the vacuum lines.
It could also be the MAF (mass air flow sensor) has gone bad, although I haven’t heard off this causing the exact same problems as you have. Was the car running OK when you collected it? Did it start OK?
Changing the round filter won’t do a lot. It is the big orange filter which needs to be changed when changing is needed. It’s easy to take it off and check for bugs, cats and junk that could be sucked in. Take off the 4 clips and pull up the cap. You can now take the filter off. You will see a big round hole in the middle, which is your inlet of the MAF.. Shortly try to start the car without the filter. See what it does. Make sure you put the filter in the correct way (it has top/oben printed on it.)

The use of an original Porsche battery is just as necessary as using the original Porsche lightbulbs and original Porsche fuel for that matter. Just make sure the Ah is OK and the Voltage.


Oh, and Tom, make sure that the car has it’s time belt changed. (Not related to your problem)


And congratulations of course!

 

It sounds to me like it's running VERY rich - is there any signs of smoke/fuel smell? If it's running rich, it won't be able to idle properly but will probably drive OK.

My car started to run rich after a long high-speed drive, it ran great, but couldn't maintain idle and smelled really bad. Turned out to be a burned MAF, but I guess it could be anything else related to the fuel mixture.

 

>Not the one in Hamburg, I bought it from a gentleman in Hagen (near Dortmund).

Tom, my bad, I assumed the HA plate was Hamburg. Looks like a nice example, congrats. What's happened with the problem? Any success?

 

At Elemental,

As far as optical things are concerned the car is perfect: no stone chips, as new interior, optical mechanical state of engine and hoses very good, etc

The problem however is still there: I now have a dead battery and suspect are the alternator and vacuumlines.

When dismounting the battery I noticed that the battery problem was not new: it is a non-Porsche Battery (which doesn't bother me) but the battery is about 2 cm too high. I do not like the tapes on the plus-side to keep it from short circuit to the lid.

Now ordering filters and small stuff at Devek

Haven't looked in the messages how to detect vacuum leaks, first fix the battery and test it.

Cheers,

Tom