I'm pissed!! I just bought this car 2 months ago and have 1500 miles. I drove it for about 30 minutes taking some corners etc. then all of the sudden when you are driving the car it is sluggish, on and off. Like the power is pulsing. Just like when you run out of gas! I have a half tank of fuel, oil level is fine, all gages are normal. Even when I am stopped and rev the motor to 4k (and held it there with a steady foot for a solid 10 seconds) the rpm needle will shake back and forth about 300 rpm swings. It is like it is chugging - rev up, rev down, etc.. What the F#$%?

Have any of you heard of the problem? Now I obvisouly need to have it towed to the dealer. What an F'd up Labor day.

Any thoughts?

 

it sounds like vapor lock, i would open up the gas cap and let the car run for a few mins.... add a dose of octane boost or something and it should go away.... the above should work as long as you didnt trigger a CEL.

happened to me once and it never occured again, i have 12k mile now =)

happy motoring

 

Check both your gas cap and oil res cap. Make sure they are on tight.

 

Ok this is weird. I let the car cool off for about 20 minutes drove it and it went away. I swear, it was like I was running out of gas. Yup, gas and oil cap are on tight.

Vapor Lock?? What is that. I did try your technique and removed the gas cap and let it run for a few. But, it was gone before this procedure after I let it cool down.

I have 91 octane out in San Diego. Will octane booster hurt the motor. How can this be prevented from happening in the future?

 

try keeping it the gas tank close to full if you aren't driving it often, i think that would help.... i don't think octane boost would hurt the engine, it would prob help with that bad gas you guys have on left coast

 

Thanks njcl55. I drive my car 2-3 x's/week. So if the tank is not full, that allows vapor to sit in, or what???

So you do not think it warrents a visit to the dealer? This just has me concenred since it is my new baby and all, I'm sure you know.

 

i dropped mine off just to be safe and had them scan for codes it was fine in the end, but worth a trip just to have it documented... again this was my first p-car too, so its being babied but driven =)

the way it was explaned to me was that as vapors get released from the gas and if they sit in your tank due to the high preasure system it doesn;t get realesed and causes this sparatic symptom....

 

My car did that exactly one time - I freaked out but then it went away. I haven't had it happen since... maybe it's some weird ECU glitch at that mileage.

 

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...hlight=bad+gas

 

I don't think mine was bad gas - IIRC I was on half a tank at the time. Who knows...

 

It happened to me on saturday nght, I had the reserve light on, I thought it was because it was low on gas. I filled it up and it continued for a while, then just stopped and has been running perfect ever since. BTW, the car has only 2k miles on it.

 

Happened to me ONCE and only once, now I'm at 2600 miles and never happened again. Bad gas was the only thing that made sense to me since it was a one time thing just after I got gas at a different place.

 

It is not bad gas don't let the title of the link mislead you ...if you have time please read the entire thread from the link above. One of the Rennlist members has a black box in his car from the Porsche District Service Rep installed in his car so when the problem occurs again he can press a button and record data which Porsche can then hopefully figure out what's going on. This is a wide spread problem that effects 2006 Porsche 997's and some 05-06 MB's ie;W211 E55's. There are usally no fault codes or malfuction lights triggered when and after the problem occurs. This can be a potentially dangerous situation if it occurs at a critical time when driving. I am curious to see if the 07's are/will have this issue but it's too soon to tell.

 

I filled up the tank and it has been running fine since. Whatever the problem is, a ECU glitch, vapor lock, bad gas (I never put no brand gas in my P Car), I hope it won't come back. I guess the good thing is that if it is computer related, a easy software fix should be quick. I could not image it is a mechanical problem. Man I sure seemed like it was gasping for fuel though. Thanks for all the comments and help. I can sleep well and just see if it pops up again.

 

I'm surprised there hasn't been any TSB on this or even a recall. I have seen this issue posted on this board and other boards over a dozen times already. Pretty scary....