Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Evening all

My low (80k) mileage 1985 944 that has been hugely reliable in the 3000 miles and 10 months of ownership so far started spluttering yesterday and I am after some advice on what it may be as I ended up limping home and putting it back in the garage.

Without any advance notice the car started spluttering and kind of 'kangarooing' and lurching somewhat. It then drove perfectly for a mile before starting again. I slowed down and it stalled and this then happened a further 3 times in the next 5 miles.

Oil pressure is fine, it had a full service and timing belt done less than 6 months ago from a local specialist (Loe Bank in Edenfield, Lancs), it had almost a full tank of petrol and has never displayed any such symptoms before.

Any ideas? Let me know if more information is required...

Thanks in advance...

Rick

Sounds like a fuel starvation problem to me, could be a blocked fuel filter or line or a problem with the fuel pressure regulator. There is a article on Clarkes Garage in the website home page about checking fuel delivery and pressure, but without pressure gauges this may be awkward. You could disconnect the fuel feed line to the injector rail and see if any fuel comes out when the engine is turned over but you will need to let the pressure off slowly and have a container to catch the petrol or you could have a fire, I would ensure the engine will not fire up by removing the HT lead or something similar.

Maybe the easiest thing is to fill up on good petrol to see if it is muck in the lines a good quality petrol treatment in the tank may help, I had this problem once after filling up at a particular service station and had to drain off the fuel so I could put in some good quality stuff, seems the filling station had a problem with the blending but never managed to prove it enough to get compensation. Have you filled up recently or let the tank run low this may have disturbed sludge from the tank bottom, it might be worth draining the tank and flushing out.

Hi,

I had this problem myself recently. Never managed to track it down to anything though. I replaced the DME relay and sprayed WD-40 on the spark plug tops and in the lead ends. Never had a problem since.

The only thing I could think was that I had recently stopped using the V Power as it was getting a bit pricey at the time. I had a tank full of supermarket stuff so could have been that.

Ben

I had a similar problem, i let the fuel level get so low one day and when i filled up all the gunk in the bottom of the tank was disturbed and blocked the fuel lines, it would cough and splutter, surge back and forth until eventually it wouldn't start

I would've thought it would block the filter inside the tank first, followed by the fuel filter before blocking the lines.

Although saying that the fuel filter is after the pump so it could clock that (mine was seized when I got it).

Thanks all, I will try each of those starting with the cheapest - and let you know!