I'm looking into buying a Z32 so I called a dealership who has a 91 TT for sale. It has 115K miles on it. The guy said that the turbos are fine, and everything else appears to be great. The car will start up, run for a few, then shut off. It'll take it a while before it starts back up the next time. Any ideas as to what could be wrong? What's my worst case scenario?

personally m8 id walk away from it, these cars have enough problems without buying one that keeps shutting off,

 

 

It may be some sort of temperature problem?

I think I remember some one having a very smilar problem. I will search for you.

Any more details on the problem? When does it stall? When you slow down? or will it just stall when its moving?

 

Stuart

Well the guy didn't really say. The car is about an hour away, so before I went up there to check it out, I was going to see what the pros had to say heh. From the little that he did tell me, I assume that he started it up, let it idle for a few minutes, and then it shut off. Then if you try to crank it back over right away... it won't have anything to do with it. The temperature theory makes sense... as the car would warm up in a few minutes, turn off, and not start again until it was cooled. Any ideas on how to fix it? If this is the only problem, then I'm going to jump on it provided that it isn't a super costly fix. I'm starting an online company, and will probably be able to import a nice JDM engine for it later on down the road, so as long as it'll last me a while, I'll be set. Please lemme know, thanks everyone.

Well the guy didn't really say. The car is about an hour away, so before I went up there to check it out, I was going to see what the pros had to say heh. From the little that he did tell me, I assume that he started it up, let it idle for a few minutes, and then it shut off. Then if you try to crank it back over right away... it won't have anything to do with it. The temperature theory makes sense... as the car would warm up in a few minutes, turn off, and not start again until it was cooled. Any ideas on how to fix it? If this is the only problem, then I'm going to jump on it provided that it isn't a super costly fix. I'm starting an online company, and will probably be able to import a nice JDM engine for it later on down the road, so as long as it'll last me a while, I'll be set. Please lemme know, thanks everyone.

I found some information on simalar situations like this. I had a problem a few weeks ago with my car stalling at light and slowing down for junctions. I was told to clean the Throttle Angel Sensor. I did and its been 100% ever since.

Other posts people say check the crank angel sensor and the PTU (Power Transfer Unit). The PTU is notous for going AWOL. Other suggestions have been just check all the coil packs are pushed in correctly.

 

How much is he asking for the car, if you dont mind me asking, and what Year is it. UK or JAP?

 

Stuart

(sorry about the two posts above, my IE is being dumb)

 

About the price, they want $4900 for it. I'm actually in the US... Melbourne, FL. So far I think I'm gonna spend most of my time on this board so long as I get the car, it's the best looking forum I've seen thus far. Around here, a decent TT Z32 goes for like $10k and up. So this is less than half of that, and if I can fix it relatively cheap... I'm in! heh. Thanks for the help, anymore suggestions are welcomed.

You will probably get a better responce in about 12 hours or so. Its 1am here now and people are either in bed or on the town getting drunk.

 

Stuart

HOW LONG DO TURBOS LAST?

115k sounds a lot

If it stops dead and won't restart it's probably electrical, first port of call would be the PTU, followed by the CAS in my opinion. PTU is easy to check, borrow a working one and swap them over, should take 10 mins.

now be clever about this, you can use that to your advantage.

Assuming it is something eletricle, you could tell him it is a very serious problem and will cost ex to get sorted, so take that of the price ect.

 

Well, I can do that up to a point... but the car is already super cheap for what it is because of the problem. So I doubt that there is a whole lot of room to talk them down. I do intend to try though

 

I've heard the following possibilities:

loose harness

coil packs

PTU

CAS

TAS (this like the TPS??)

computer

temp. problem (so maybe Coolant Temp Sensor, Thermostat)

 

other thoughts:

depending on what exactly it does, perhaps it's an air/fuel problem to where it floods itself over time due to a faulty reading. That would explain not cranking over shortly after? (MAF, bad fuel pump ?)

 

I dunno, anything I should eliminate? I mean what's the worst case scenario on here? The ECU? that just gives me an excuse to go JWT (well after I pick up a donor ECU or core exchange).

Being a bit of a gambler I would offer him a daft price and buy it as a non-runner, go collect it on a trailer. He'll probably be pleased to be shot of it and as you have a repeatable hard fault and not a dodgy intermittant one it should be an easy fix.

I has been brought up that perhaps it has something aftermarket on it (turbo timer or something). The problem I see with that is that the timer wouldn't just engage randomly, even if the guys at the dealership screwed with it unwittingly.

 

Another guy told me how his ground wire rusted off of his fuel pump. He said it would sporatically shut down without warning. I don't think this could be the case here, possibly a faulty fuel pump, but if it was a ground wire coming off, then it shouldn't be consistent in starting, shutting off, not starting, then starting again at a later time.

 

Am I right in thinking all of this or...?

PTU's often fail when they warm up and/or due to the engine vibration - start with the easy stuff ...

My advice? Walk away mate! I had a rough idle on mine when I bought it and you really don't wanna know how much it cost me to sort it out! Trust me, as someone said above, these cars can show what would seem a simple to fix fault but it can end up costing you thousands to sort.

 

 

 

------------------

I had this problem, this sounds like the PTU to me.

 

It's easy to do a diagnostic on the ECU to confirm this. http://www.ttzd.com/diagnostic.html

 

When cold the diagnostic will report that all is OK 55. But do it again and the ECU will report the PTU failure. (21)

 

It's a doddle to replace.

 

If you get 21 then go all Stanley Unwin and tell him 'it's a problem with the ryeload on the Furload and it could cause r&dicky propshaft failure' should beat him down on price.

 

Go for it, sounds like a snip if the ECU check confirms all of this.

 

Simon P.(Now zedless & bored in an S type, boo hoo but before you laugh, remember how I murdered you all in the Caterham at Trax 2001 ha ha and I still have it!)

 

 

Yep, sounds like PTU (ignition amplifier) to me!! Mine failed a couple of weeks ago. Just stopped dead as I slowed down (presumably the engine heat increased as the airflow dropped). Started again 20 minutes later - did 5 miles and croaked again, cooled down - did 2 miles and died.

 

I did the repair job documented in AndyP's tech section (v.good!) but now have the replacement, updated part from Courtesy ($179).

 

If it has the new type PTU then the problem is likely to be elsewhere as they never fail (allegedly). The old type should have been replaced on recall - mine wasn't

 

Cheers,

 

RobH