Car cuts out when cold

[wholberg]

My 87 Carrera has developed an odd symptom as the weather turned cold. It starts and idles just fine. When I hit the road it will intermittently cut out for one-half to one second, mainly under acceleration. It is not a miss, but rather feels like the ignition switches off for a half second and then switches back on, and this may happen once or twice a minute. It occurs less frequently at a constant speed, but will still occur intermittently. After driving for 10 or 15 minutes the engine comes up to operating temperature and runs just fine. I've looked over the engine and don't see anything obviously wrong, checked wiring connections, etc. This week I will look for vacuum leaks. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[pozee]

It MAY be the the Cyl.Head Temp. Sensor (CHT). Do you have the 1-wire or 2-wire sensor? If 1-wire, that's the original design and was replaced by the 2-wire unit. The sensor could be loose or corroded or just functioning intermittently when cold causing the symptoms.

[stlrj]

My 86 3.2 had the same problem after I hosed the engine to clean off some grease. Seems my CHT connector was bad allowing moisture to enter shorting out the pins. I finally had to replace the connector which was cracked with another one that I soldered on in place of the old one.

[wholberg]

Thanks, I will check this. I will bet that it has the original 22 year old sensor so this seems likely.