1988 3.2L Carrera engine chugging

[AvWB]

Four months ago I purchased a 1988 3.2L Carrera with 103K miles. It had been a Southern California car all of it’s life until I bought it. From the receipts I received it appears the previous 3 owners maintained the car pretty well. I took it to an independent repair shop that works on Porsches to get the A/C recharged. After the recharge was complete I only made it 1 block away when the engine suddenly started chugging with a few backfires and producing no power. Stepping on the gas pedal to any extent caused it to die. It would restart but kept behaving the same way. The repair shop towed it back and after 45 minutes called me and said when they got it off the truck it ran just fine. They had some success in the past with cars acting like this by replacing the fuel pump. The pump on my car was probably the original. I had them replace the fuel pump. I have driven it 100 – 150 miles since this repair with no more trouble until yesterday. The same thing happened. I had it towed home and pushed it into the garage. After about 2 hours it started and ran just fine.

Have any of you had this happen? If so, what was the problem and the solution?

[Fever]

DME relay going kaput.?

[nene]

DME relay either works or doesn't.

[mo-mon]

Check past receipts when the fuel filter was last replaced. Compare with maintenance schedule.

[BER]

I had a similar situation with my 84 Carrera back in November. At speed, the car ran fine, but every time I pulled up to a stop light or stop sign, the engine would stumble, stepping on the gas would not help. Sometimes it would die, but restarted with no problem. Other times the engine would start running ok on its own.

I checked everything i could think of...DME Relay, fuel pump, fuel filter, cap & rotor, plugs, reference sensors, etc. Turned out my ignition switch was failing and finally died, luckily in my garage. Replaced the switch assembly and car has run great ever since.

Good luck.

[Mdanny]

DME relay either works or doesn't.

[ischmitz]

To OP: it looks like in another thread you're now at the point of no start: Carrera 3.2L engine quits running

Maybe ask moderator to close this thread and continue the other thread. In the future it's more advisable to maintain just one thread for a given problem to keep all the information and developments in one place. This will help others to help you.

Ingo