I have a 92 940 Regina with 130,000 miles. Two problems occurring and I am uncertain if they are related. 1st on a cold start where the car has sat overnight when I first turn key to KP3 to start it will crank forever and not fire. BUT if I put it back to KP2 then try again, it fires up. But that first attempt never works. I tried an experiment and for the first attempt just barely even bumped the starter(KP3) then KP2 and back to KP3...boom. She fires right up. What would make the first attempt fail, regardless of duration but allow the second to work?
#2)Loss of low RPM power. If I go to really punch the gas at low RPM's it feels like it wants to stall out on me. Seems slightly worse when cold but does it fairly consistently. Once above 3k rpms or so it accelerates as per normal. Feels like a fuel issue to me. I have not hooked up a gauge as yet but can/will. Just wanna make sure I am not chasing multiple issues.
Thoughts?

Dear Pete,

Hope you're well. The ignition switch might be on the way out. I suggest this, because different key positions seem to affect start-up.

On a 93 940 (Rex/Regina) with 155K miles, ignition switch failure was preceded by a "pick-up" lag when pulling away from a light. I, too, thought there might be a fuel supply issue, but then recalled I'd recently changed the fuel pump.

The car then died totally. The clue - that the ignition switch was the culprit - was provided by the total failure of ALL lights. No instrument cluster warning lights. No emergency flashers. No interior lights.

Once I replaced the ignition switch, I discovered the likely cause of its failure: the brown plastic section housing the wire harness contacts can be slightly rotated relative to the aluminum base, that fits into the ignition lock housing.

Another potential source of the trouble could be ignition amplifier and ignition coil contacts. This unit is mounted on the front face of the driver's side strut tower (North American models). See the FAQs for the cleaning procedure.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

I am not sure about the key bumps but I had loss of power when cold at lower speeds with a little erratic shifting but disappeared after the engine warmed. I This was in a 1995 normally aspirated 945. Vacuum hoses were fine. After several months it got worse. At this point I did a night vision check and found the plugs wires glowing, which I wanted to check early on but forgot because once I got home it was running fine. I replaced the ignition wires and it was fixed. Although they looked fine, I replaced the plugs with about 30K miles.


TOm

"night vision check"
That's a new one to me. Very clever.

Sounds like a fuel issue to me.

Swap in a new fuel regulator and test the pressure.