Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

My 1987 3.2 keeps cutting out - randomly. I've changed multiple sensors, AFM, etc etc etc but it continues to exhibit the same problem. Cuts out randomly, will not restart for 10-20 seconds, then fires up and runs fine for anything from 50 yards to 50 miles. I noticed yesterday that if I pull on the harness where it plugs into the ECU, that the car will restart immediately, literally turn the key and the engine will try to start but the instant I pull the harness it fires. I've done this at least 10 times now which makes me think it must be the ECU.

I've pulled on the individual wires with the engine running, checked the big plug etc and and cannot make the car cut out. I've also gone into the ECU and re-soldered a couple of suspect joints but is there something in there that is known to fail?

Does sound like an ECU issue. There are many specialised shops that will test and repair your unit. Try googling Porsche ECU repair. One such outfit, which I have no connection whatsoever with is :-

https://www.ecudoctors.com/porsche.html

It may be worth connecting a diagnostic tester to your car if you know someone local to you that has one, that way you may be lucky enough to have a diagnostics readout detailing the issues with the ECU to forward with the unit to the repairers.

Thanks Alan I'll give that a try.

I re-soldered about 25 joints and put the ecu back in. I'm now 16.4 miles without a breakdown which coincidentally is the working title for my autobiography.

good to see you’ve kept your sense of humour.

Well done for getting it sorted, fingers crossed.