cehunsaker

I just completed the 120,000 mile maintenance on my 1992 964. I replaced the fuel filter, air filter, oil filter, adjusted the valves, replaced both distributor covers/rotors and the spark plugs. Once everything was back together I started the car and it purred. I had the car idling for about 20 min (as I added quarts 8 – 11 of oil) and then drove it around the block. Everything seemed fine.

This morning I was going to drive to a local military base to use the auto hobby shop to change the transmission fluid (the rest of the work I did with the rear of the car up on jack stands and I wanted it level to change the tranny fluid). I needed to get gas as my tank was just about empty. About a mile from my house the car missed once. Another ½ mile it missed again, and then things rapidly went downhill. The car died, but I was able initially to restart it and drive a little. It got to the point that I could start it but it would die right away. I called a tow truck and now it is back at my house.

I thought I’d start with disassembling the cat and muffler and the heat shields and make sure the plug wires are all seated properly. If that isn’t the problem I’ll pull the plugs and see if any of them look bad (after about 4 miles) and check out the distributor caps and rotors.

I guess I ought to add a couple of gallons of new gas (since I never made it to the station).

Does anyone have any other ideas? Has anyone else had a similar experience after doing this maintenance?

Thanks,

Chris

Frank 993 C4S

Has it been sitting with the old gas for a while?

cehunsaker

Since Dec or Jan (I can't remember) and it is almost empty.

A friend on the Dorkiphus website suggested I check the distributor rotors. In hindsite, it seemed one didn't give me that "snap" I expected, and the cap was a little harder to screw down. . .but I'm probably dreaming all this.

CT944

fill it up with gas and try to restart. could be as simple as that.

ian89C4

Might check O2 sensor as well. I had a bad O2 sensor a while back and she would just die. replaced it and have not had a problem since.

Indycam

I would look at that cap / rotor first . Check the distributor belt .

newsboy

Are you sure you didn't overfill the oil? Possibly getting into the intake.

cehunsaker

I pulled the new distributor caps to check both these and the rotors I replaced, and on one of the caps the center "pin" (which connects the coil to the distributor and is supposed to ride on the top of the rotor and I believe is spring activated) is stuck up in the cap. I'm hoping that my problem is this defective part and once I get a new one ordered and installed it will solve my problem.

Chris

hawk911

you could put the old back on and rule out that part

DWS964

I have a pair of old caps that were still performing fine at time of removal - if you want to try another one during the troubleshooting.
The price is right - Free.

AOW162435

+ 1.


Andreas

cehunsaker

Thanks for the offers, guys. I think the old caps are in my trash can (undoubtedly under a smelly pile) and I'm going to pull them out once I get home from work today and give that a try. Too many "honey do's" yesterday to try that fix.

elbeee964

Maybe it ain't your maintenance, but merely some failure coincident to your work...

Or, to quoteth the Great Ilko (now gone to 993's-ville, God rest his soul) re hiccuping motor behavior:

68CGPlt

In addition to what others have said, I would check the plugs/wires. I recently had an issue where the car drove just fine for an hour and on the subsequent drive (20 minutes later) the car would just surge and eventually stall. I checked all plugs wires for security (they all felt secure). After taking half the car apart I double checked previous work for the second time and found the #2 spark plug wire was not completely seated on the plug. No issues since. Good luck.

cehunsaker

My new distributor cap arrived yesterday. I installed it last night, but the engine turned over, caught, then died. I had yet to put gas in the car (I wanted to see if the distributor cap was the only problem) so this evening I put 5 gallons in. Now it starts, cycles from about 1,000 rpm back down to just about zero, the "check engine" light flickers, then it revs back up to about 1,000. After a few cycles it stalls. If I give it a little gas it starts backfiring (but mildly, not a very loud noise).

Loose plug wire, maybe? I'll recheck the wires on the distributors as well as I did the cap swap late after being up since 4:30.

Chris