Hot day, engine sputtering, stalling

[egress91506]

99 Boxster (5 speed). Couple weeks ago, hot day (around 100 degrees), wife drives the car to son's karate class, and car won't start after sitting for about an hour. I drive over, and get the car started. Didn't start right up and I had to play with the gas pedal a bit. Once started, it was fine.

Yesterday, another hot day. Wife driving, pulls into our driveway, air conditioning running. While idleing in driveway, car starts sputtering and dies. Engine temp guage shows couple needle widths right of 180, but no flashing light on right of guage. Won't restart. Gets towed to my mechanic who starts the car right up and drives around. Running great.

My thought is engine compartment fan, but the light on the temp guage hasn't been blinking (I understand that one of the coolant light functions is too high temp in engine compartment).

Another thing, is earlier this week I noticed that neither of the spoilers under the rear of the car (little rubber vents aft of engine) were there anymore. I ordered two, but they are not installed on the car. (They arrived after the tow truck left.) How important are they? Enough to heat sink the engine compartment?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Edited June 17, 2006 by egress91506

[jeffwgiles]

99 Boxster (5 speed). Couple weeks ago, hot day (around 100 degrees), wife drives the car to son's karate class, and car won't start after sitting for about an hour. I drive over, and get the car started. Didn't start right up and I had to play with the gas pedal a bit. Once started, it was fine.

Yesterday, another hot day. Wife driving, pulls into our driveway, air conditioning running. While idleing in driveway, car starts sputtering and dies. Engine temp guage shows couple needle widths right of 180, but no flashing light on right of guage. Won't restart. Gets towed to my mechanic who starts the car right up and drives around. Running great.

My thought is engine compartment fan, but the light on the temp guage hasn't been blinking (I understand that one of the coolant light functions is too high temp in engine compartment).

Another thing, is earlier this week I noticed that neither of the spoilers under the rear of the car (little rubber vents aft of engine) were there anymore. I ordered two, but they are not installed on the car. (They arrived after the tow truck left.) How important are they? Enough to heat sink the engine compartment?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[jeffwgiles]

My 1997 is doing the same thing. I have checked the engine compartment cooling fan and it is fine. The temp sensor is fine also. I have checked the fuel system and it is all working, BUT I am not getting the ground from the dme to the fuel pump relay under the conditions you speak of. Once it cools down, it starts and runs fine. If you have any ideas at this point, I would love to hear them!!!!

[TKE878]

This may or may not be relevent, but I used to have a similar problem in my 75 Super Beetle and my 83 911SC. There were a couple of items that may be interesting to look at. Since the battery in an 83 is way up in the front trunk, as the car got hot, resistance increased in the cables and it wouldn't turn over. The starter just clicked. I could push start the car with about 3 steps. A fix or suggested remedy was make sure the chassis ground strap wasn't all corroded and replace if necessary. I did that and I guess it may have helped. The think the real cause was a small crack on one of the starter posts. It got hot, the crack opened enough so a contact couldn't be made and it wouldn't start. When it cooled it was fine.

As a was driving my new 01 Boxster home I wonder if when it got hot if I would have to push it to start it. Like I said my experience may not be related, just tossing it out there.

[juniinc]

fuel pressure regulator,,,

[JP Rodkey]

First read sounds like a fuel problem to me.....would start there, especially looking at the fuel pump and pump circuit.

[jeffwgiles]

First read sounds like a fuel problem to me.....would start there, especially looking at the fuel pump and pump circuit.

Here is another twist to the problem.....If I give the car a shot of ether, it will fire and then stall again.

[Jake Raby]

First read sounds like a fuel problem to me.....would start there, especially looking at the fuel pump and pump circuit.

Here is another twist to the problem.....If I give the car a shot of ether, it will fire and then stall again.

Definately fuel delivery then.... Sounds like the pump died or you have a blockage in the filter or lines..

DO NOT start the Boxster engine with Ether!! These engines are high compression (11:1+) and they won't tolerate Ether as they have somewhat cheesy pistons anyway!

[RFM]

Check or change the pump and DME relay and try again.