Hey there all, today I made the jump from first generation to second, as I purchased an 88 convertible. The car is in overall great condition, the top has been recently replaced, so I suppose I can cross that off of my list. My question is this, in the process of buying the car, the owner did mention to me that the car does run intermittently. He told me that last time he started it, that it ran like a champ for about 15 minutes, and then shut off like someone hit a switch, no sputtering, and no smoke, which rules out an apex seal as well. The car has no problem idling when it does start, and is actually quite smooth. When the key is turned there isn't any clicking that would normally designate a bad started, or maybe a bad ground, and I'm stumped at this point. I've searched a few threads and haven't really found anything specific to my case. By the way I picked it up for $1000

 

How long did it sit and when was the last tune up? How many miles on the car?

First thing i would to is run codes. - Link http://fc3spro.com/TECH/HOWTO/ERRORC...KI/zerror.html


Then i would do a compression test. - Link http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n...ion_check.html

 

Possible intermittent connection in one or both of the CAS circuits ? The CAS is the only sensor failure in the 86-88 cars for which there is no default condition to which the ECU can go to operate with to get you home. No CAS, no run.

If this is the problem, it should show up with a trouble code, but only while the condition is occuring. The 86-88 cars do not store trouble codes.