Started her up in the parking garage yesterday and it took a much longer crank than usual to get her going. Then, in park, it idled noticeably rougher. Put it in reverse, and there was almost no throttle response. Like I was moving on battery power or something. It moved, but not above 3-5 mph under any throttle pressure. Shut it off. Started it back up, and all was fine. Drove it home gingerly. Parked it. Now I'm afraid to drive it to work with the possibility it happens again.

Should add that I just replaced a failed fuel pump (in case that might have anything to do with it and is helpful info.)

Any ideas? Should I be concerned?

 

it sounds like there was air in the fuel line somewhere. that happened to my boxster several times, especially if i let it sit for a while..
I know that can happen to other tyoes of gas motors if you shut them off hot- the engine boils the fuel out of the lines near the engine, but i have no idea if that can happen with the porsche 3.4/3.6

 

bring the car over to my house and we can hook it up to the laptop...just kidding (sorry again)

in all seriousness, take the car to eric and have him drive the car for a day and figure out all the kinks.

 

It could be a coil on its way out as well. They can come and go until they finally throw in the towel. (if they totally crap out, you will get a code that tells you which one)

 

Hope not. Just replaced those two weeks ago.

 

Tried resetting the ECU so it re-learns? This fixed the issue on my m3 when it was having abnormally long crank. Not sure if this applies to the 996, but might be worth a shot?

 

Yep, that's why it took so long to fix when it happened to me...

 

A few brainstorm kind of ideas would be the hose connections on the bottom of the fuel sending unit from the pump, they can be kinda stubborn in clipping correctly. Also, regarding the key cycle reset sounds familiar to throttle assembly issues. Any warning lights associated with this?
Ben

 

Get a Durametric on the car and read out all the codes. There must be some after that.
1 Coil pack will not make that problem. Even 3 packs failing wont. It will sound like a Subaru impreza with a missing cylinder but it will still drive.

1st....Faults Code readout its a must!

 

How old is the battery? Weak battery causes wierd issues in these cars.

 

Look the throttle calibration test. It involves turning key to run for a bit then back to off then back to run. Check for the specific process because you CANT touch the throttle while doing this and it is very specific in what to do. My car exhibited some of these issues and when it was all said and done my ecu was bad and had to be replaced. Mine was probably due to voltage spike from me and the battery charger but lets not go into that. After new ecu and reprogram from kevin at UMW car runs like a sewing machine on steroids. Hope yours is a cheaper fix. I have heard about the fuel line hookup before though.