No start, baffling problem 1992 Q

[Alan]

The baffling part is that it started, here's the story:Wife's '92 Q about 120k, no recent problems reported by her, and no recent work. This morning the car starts, runs a few seconds and dies, won't restart. I cranked her a few times, and let her sit while I took care of other stuff. BTW it is very cold for us here 30s and 40s. Got fuel past the underhood filter, so I decide to check for spark by spraying starting fluid in the plenum, took off the big intake hose (you can see I'm from the dinosaur years). After some cranking and false starts, she starts and runs right, restart no problem. Didn't set a check engine light, so I am assuming (yes i know) that the there will be no codes blinking on the ecu? So I am thinking maybe I wiggled someting and made a connection when I moved the big hose? I guess we can drive it and see if this is an itermittent, or one time problem, any thoughts

I like our closest dealer, but they are over 2 hours away. Sometimes I feel like it would be worth a quick 3000 mile trip to go to T-3 ;-)

Thanks in advance, Alan

[Qdemption]

It could be your MAF sensor??

I also have a 92 and experienced the same problems you have mentioned. My car would also be driving fine and then I would lose power and even sometimes the car would shut off on the road.

It turned out to be my main air flow sensor. Try fiddling with it while the car is on and see if it cuts off or you lose power.

If that is the case, then all you need to do is clean it with some brake cleaner.

Do a search on MAF. That should afford plenty of information.

[nuQ]

the maf would be the logical place to start. i had a rough idle situation a couple months ago, could barely keep her running. i took the connection off for the maf and CAREFULLY scrapped the little metal connections on both ends, put some bulb grease on each and re-attatched. then sprayed the inside with brake cleaner. problem solved. best spot to start the repair procedure.jeff