Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi all,

My 944 runs fine when it starts but it sometimes struggles to start, any common problems that anyone knows of please let me know

Thanks Ryan

Explain more, struggles to turn over, turns over a lot before it starts?

turns over a lot before starting and its the same if its cold or if I am out in it and it is warm

thanks Ryan

Assuming the ignition system is kosher like plugs & leads, then it could be fuel pump or pressure regulator. Does it run OK when it does start? Could also be Air Flow Meter

yes the car drives fine once started

Ryan

Hello mate. Mine had the same problem until couple weeks ago. It was really lazy start. I replaced spark plugs, rotor arm and dizzy cap and now it starts lovely, cost around £100 all in. You could also get your battery checked out as mine had a fault to that too and was causing slow start. Hope this helps.
Lee.

Take your distributor cap off and take a look inside it . If the terminals and cap etc. are tarnished, it's new cap time.

On an S2 though, the rotor arm and cap are not what you would call cheap.

I feel as if it is lack of fuel, I have checked the wiring round the car I did notice that one of the terminals on the plug to the ecu looks to have got hot at one point, Am I right in thinking that when you turn the key to start the car the feed comes via the ecu and then switches back to the main loom feed when you are not cracking the car over

Cheers Ryan

Nope the only power part of the DME is the injectors. The fuel pump & ignition are lived up through the DME relay.

Might swap the dme relay then see if that helps

Good first move.

All good advice.

At this time of year, and when the weather notches up to the next level of coldness around december/january we do so an influx of people needing a new coolant temperature sensor for the ecu (not the gauge one)... in warmer weather they are quite happy with a duff one, as the engine assumes a set temperature.. But once it gets colder and the engine really needs a much richer mixture, people start getting a problem starting their cars from cold.

I did have one 944 S2 once which was a bugger to diagnose, it had a spark, fuel, compression, good fuel pressures, good sensors and absolutely would refuse to cold start... Odd thing is, it had a spark when tested with a plug in free air.. turned out to be the king lead on the distributor cap, changed this and everything was fine... tested the lead and the resistance had gone up... The only assumption I could make was that spark was just too weak to jump the plug gap under compression or was being flooded.

Funny things these cars..