Makmov

pull off the cap next to the primary and inspect. See if there is a burn spot inside the cap. Not a big deal two screws hold the cap on the dist. loosen and pull up cap and push over to the side out of the way. No need to pull in wires off.

You can also turn the motor over and see if the rotor is turning.

I would have been more than happy to help but I am in Denver.


There is a pretty easy to follow TSB on the wire loom problem.

sghost

I can't find the cap you're talking about. Is it possible to show a picture?

I did find these two tubes really loose. The right one doesn't quite fit all the way; I'm not sure if they could at all be related to the problem I'm having --

klasmartin

I believe what Makmov is suggesting is to pull the secondary distributor cap off and check the drive belt. The following illustration might help:

http://www.964uk.com/Images/964_Engi..._Annotated.gif

Incidentally, I just came back from a short drive after having replaced the alternator yesterday and experienced possibly similar symptoms. I was driving along and all of the sudden when I tried to accelerate there was no response. The car would idle but when I tried to accelerate it hesitated and RPM's dropped. I limped the car to a car park and had a poke around the engine bay. I swapped the DME relay with a new unit, with same symptoms. Put old DME relay back in. Checked all fuses in front fuse box, all good. Not knowing how to check the distributor drive belt I pulled the primary dist. cover off and had a look there but didn't see anything. Out of desperation, disconnected battery and waited about 15 minutes. Put distributor back together and reconnected battery. Started car and no hesitation or stalling. Got the car home about 20 minutes ago and here I am. Will have a look at the MAF sensor harness and secondary dist. drive belt but considering the problem went away (for the time being) would it be safe to assume the drive belt is good?

Anyhow, didn't mean to hijack the thread but seems we are having the same issues.

sghost

Any luck figuring out what happened, HK?

My $100 bounty remains unclaimed ...

Makmov

That diagrams it better,



what is being pointed at is just the fan duct.

the other one goes the the crossover pipe for heat. There is no clamps on it and probably why it's loose. It should have two clamps, but I highly doubt that is your problem.

Down below is the caps. It's the ones with all the "tubes" coming out.

sghost

I pulled off the top -- no burn marks are present. I guess I'll attempt to take apart both distributors to see if the belt has snapped.

Makmov

You dont need to do that.

I would manually turn the engine crank CW and see if the rotor is turning.

You could also try turning the rotot slightly and see if it turns free.

If the rotor doesn't turn with the motor or the rotor turns freely by hand then the belt has probably not snapped but stripped the cogs off.

If no then we need to look else where.

Like possibly TSB 9005 AFM wiring fault.

http://www.pcarworkshop.com/images/b...0590geolab.pdf

But there is a bunch of things it could be, from a bad or broken spark plug, dead coil, dead ingnitor, failing DME relay, fuel pump/filter issue.

sghost

Mak, thanks a ton for finding that service bulletin. Before you posted it, I actually did the wiring fault fix with the text-only instructions posted earlier, as well as disconnected the battery for an hour. Behold, the car started up and ran fine, so I celebrated and went to bed. Half way through my drive to work this morning, the symptoms returned and the car barely limped into the parking lot.

So, I think we can rule out a belt failure and either blame this on an incomplete or improper wiring fault adjustment on my part, or some sort of DME relay problem?

sghost

Mak, thanks a ton for finding that service bulletin. Before you posted it, I actually did the wiring fault fix with the text-only instructions posted earlier, as well as disconnected the battery for an hour. Behold, the car started up and ran fine, so I celebrated and went to bed. Half way through my drive to work this morning, the symptoms returned and the car barely limped into the parking lot.

So, I think we can rule out a belt failure and either blame this on an incomplete or improper wiring fault adjustment on my part, or some sort of DME relay problem?

Makmov

That is very interesting.

Yes I would say the belt is probably okay.

A DME relay is easy nor terribly expensive and you should always carry a spare.

Now will it repeate if you disconnect the batt again. Could be another clue

sghost

Disconnected the battery again, this time for only about 10 minutes. Car started up fine, made it about 500 ft before it started sputtering again. Didn't even make it a quarter mile to the garage at work before it went completely bonkers and had trouble idling again.

So, whatever is happening, it seems to deteriorate over time after the battery has been reset.

sghost

Is it worth suspecting the smog test, which was run on a rear wheel drive dyno, as a cause for this?

The guy doing the test spun the back wheels for a few seconds while I wasn't paying attention, then ran the rest of the test without spinning the wheel.

Laker

It's bad news for a C4 to be on a 2 wheel dyno, but can't comment if that is the cause.
Did you have a chance to hook your car up to a Scantool to read any faults? I know a guy in Silicon valley with one, and I'll be out there and can bring mine on May 14th.

sghost

Thanks, Laker - I'd love to hook it up to see the results. The car is parked in Mountain View for now and I probably don't want to risk moving it until I can get this sorted. I'll be around in May, or can meet your friend next week, if it's convenient for him/her.

Makmov

I would start checking wiring, starting with engine grounds.

Yeah, it would be nice to have a scan of the car right now.