Auto electrician ?

[blade7]

I had an issue with my 944 recently, after an hour or so driving I stopped for fuel and afterwards only got a few hundred yards before the car coasted to a halt. Tried a couple of things but it wouldn't restart so had to call the RAC. The guy checked for a spark first by putting the coil lead to earth while I turned the engine over, must have been a spark as he reconnected the lead, told me to try again, and it fired straight up. I drove home without issue and the strange thing is the car was running better than before and the air fuel ratio was spot on whereas before it had been a little rich. So what did shorting the coil lead do ?

[blade7]

The RAC guy struggled to remove the coil lead so that connection looked good, going by the fact the AFR improved to where it had originally been 4 or 5 months ago where was the poor connection likely to be ?

[blade7]

ch427 said:

The coil lead he disconnected.

I watched him disconnect the coil lead, it was fully in.

[blade7]

ch427 said:

blade7 said:

I watched him disconnect the coil lead, it was fully in.

You said it was difficult to remove, maybe it had some light corrosion on it?

No it was hard to remove because the leads rubber boot was tight on the distributor and the plug leads are very close. The leads/distributor/rotor arm are in good condition, I replaced them a couple of thousand miles ago.

[blade7]

Removed the distributor cap and disconnected all the leads today and everything looks good, the car starts straight up, idles fine and the AFR is spot on. Wait and see I guess.

[blade7]

Around 15 years ago was the last time I had to call the RAC when my 93 Audi 2.6 wouldn't restart, they tried various things the last was disconnecting the battery leads and touching them together, it worked. I believe this either resets the ECU and or discharges the capacitors. My 944 hasn't died since but a couple of times the AFR went rich and the engine stumbled for a couple of minutes. I temporarily disconnected the battery leads and connected them with a fused wire and all seems fine at the moment...