So, I did the spark plug change myself today to save some cash. I bought the plugs at Porsche, some BERU's. I did all the necessary things, torque-ing the plugs to 22 foot lb. Got the car back together and here's the problems:

Car starts up and idles at around 1000-950. It tries to drop lower then gives a little flat sound then moves back up to a thousand. Weird.

I took it out for a drive and got into 3rd gear. Acceleration is fine except now I see no boost. It accelerates like an N/A engine.

When I take my foot off the gas at any speed and at any rev, the tach drops low and the car dies.

Anyone?

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!

Keith

 

Boost leak? Check the IC hoses and piping first.

 

yes probably the C clip couplings, as ICs were removed.

 

Anytime I work on anything and a symtom changes after I am done working on it, I re-trace and re-check all of the things I touched. Even if it doesn't seem like it could cause the problem. Not to make it sound like you don't know what you are doing. This step helps me all the time. Check all of your hoses. It may not be a hose you removed. It may be near what you were working on that was disturbed.

 

That's what I was thinking too. Da*mmnN! Well, it should knock down my sparkplug change time by half with all this practice! I'm acting cheery but really just wanna die.

 

You will figure it out. Anyone who has ever worked on a car has had these things happen. Don't worry, it will be something easy. Just don't drive it until it is fixed, it could damage the turbos.

 

Berus? Next time go with Bosch.

Look at the bright side: you'll do it twice as fast next time!

 

dont worry it'll be faster this time around, if ur checking the ICs, easy enough to do from top and bottom, no need to take the bumper off.

 

+1!!

 

I think you have big boost leak like hose off. It would be easy to find.

 

You should be able to check most of those without tearing the car apart. Bottom IC is accessible and top you can check with flashlight to be sure they are seated and if not, then you can man-handle them and press them in by grabbing the hose and pushing...

 

Hey all, thanks for the replies, they were all on the money. I found a hose loose on the drivers side IC. So, here are the remaining problems.

The car still idles rough, doing the same thing where it idles and raises to around 1100 then drops down to 900 and sounds rough with little flat spots in between.

I took it out for a short run to see if boost came back and noticed that while the boost is working, it won't really go past 0.3 because at 2100 RPMs it runs really rough, and I noticed if I slowly accelerated without disturbing the boost it was coughing and sputtering much less.

Are there more leaks?

The reason for the spark plug change was due to rough spots on acceleration in the first place. They (the coughing etc.) usually hit in the range of 4-5K RPM, and the RPM's ran constantly at 1200 RPM and I couldn't check oil because of it.

So, what to do? Are there any other things I could do before giving up and driving it to the shop?

When I changed the plugs I did have to remove an O2 Sensor on each side, but I did screw them back in tightly. I wonder if I damaged them? I noticed that they didn't turn freely because they were connected at the other end an twisted the wires pretty badly.

Hmm. Well, here's a photo of the Victim:

 

sounds like a vac leak rather than boost. Vac leak will effect idle, boost leak will not.

 

Nice looking car! I like the yellow pinstripe on the wheels!

Might be the coil packs... Usually a good thing to change them out while in there if they are the originals... Are you getting a flashing check engine light or any codes? Might hook up a Durametric and look for misfires. That would point in some more direction. If it is consistent misfire on one cylinder, than probably a coil pack, etc. Random may be a leak or MAF.

 

+1 on coil packs, and on teh Durametric. Too bad, because you could have changed them at the same time as the plugs...