Henry964

today I picked up my 964 after 2 weeks in the mechanic (new starter, new rear discs, new plugs, valves adjustement and oil leaks solution)
after having a short ride (with my mechanic as a passenger) and finding everything fine I took the highway to go back to my work.
I was doing around 110 miles/h with A/C on (it`s very hot in december here) and my lights also on when suddenly all warning lights went on - and i mean every one, but the engine seemed to be normal
I took the first exit and parked in a gas station nearby, then I waited around half an hour trying to reach my mechanic by phone to no avail.
After that I tried to start the car again and it started perfectly and normal, then I went straight to the official service but they were close (for inventory) and back to my mechanic shop to find that he started his week end early today
So I parked the 964 and went to work with my DD
I am really annoyed and puzzled with this malfunction

darth

Sounds like the dreaded Christmas Tree affect! Since the spark plug wires were worked on I suspect one may have come loose and the resulting spark to ground cause the affect. Check that all the spark plug wires are securely fastened at the dirstributor caps, coils then spark plugs in that order of difficulty.

hope this helps
Bill
90C2

Henry964

thasnks Bill
I also noticed that the acceleration wasn`t as healthy as before so maybe the problem lies there

springer3

I had the same thing a year ago. The sluggish operation is "limp home mode". The DME limits the spark advance to protect the engine until you find the problem. Mine was a bad coil sparking internally. I could hear it on the radio, but could not find the source. Replacing both coils fixed the problem.

Henry964

thanks Springer,I have to do a search to identify the spanish name for coils

Indycam

Bobina de encendido

http://www.100autoguias.com/parts/automotive/a-z/i.htm

Henry964

gracias amigo!!!!

bpras@msn.com

I had the same issue but ended up getting it towed home because it would not run. When I pulled one of the coil wires off (after I got it home) it would run fine. Replaced both coils and it runs fine.

Henry964

tried to use the 964 today, and it did again,the whole christmas tree effect,only this time did it with no A/C on and no lights on.
what I noticed is that warning lights went on after the car shacked a bit from road imperfections (something loose??)
Same solution: parked the car, waited for around 10 minutes and went home

Richard Curtis

Before you start throwing parts (and $$$) at the problem, try disconnecting the battery, remove the negative (also known as a ground cable) cable completely from the battery and the car. Clean both ends of the cable with a wire brush, clean the negative battery post, and throughly clean the area of the body where the negative cable was bolted to the body.

I had a problem with mine somewhat similar in nature to yours, and this cured my problems. My experience with German cars is that they're very susceptible to "ground" problems.

Henry964

thanks Richard, I hope the solution is as simple as that in your car

Indycam

I would look for a bad connection on the spark plug wires and or the coil wires .

newsboy

I had a similar thing happen last week. 1st a few blinks of the Christmas tree, didn't pay too much attention.
A few days later more Christmas tree, followed by a few decreases in power( like the car wanted to stall).
This was followed by The tree and warning buzzer.
I replaced the DME relay and cleaned the battery strap to firewall ground and + and - battery terminals with abrasive cloth cloth and applied some Di-Electric grease. This seems to have fixed the problem.
Some other things you might want to check, are transmission and starter ground strap, ground on DME under drives seat, check coil wire and spark plug boots, check for wires sparking. Check Ignition coils.

Indycam

Henry964
Hows your car ?

Henry964

Thanks for asking Indycam, the problem isn´t solved yet, it always happens after running 10-15 minutes but it goes away as soon as I stop and restart the engine