Suddenly my Boxster won't start - what do I check first?

[DG Boxster]

Yesterday I just moved the Boxster out of the garage and back in - so I started it twice but total run time was < 30 seconds.

This morning it started normally, but immediately started to run rough / low RPM. After about 5 seconds of that it stopped.

Now it just cranks (starter runs) and very lightly "coughs" occasionally. If it was an old car I'd say it was "flooded"

Any ideas? I haven't tried much as I don't want to kill the battery.

This is my only car

[Jamesp]

Your fuel pump may have taken a powder. I'd check that first.

[DG Boxster]

Real time update:

I found this in another thread:

Originally Posted by jdlmodelt

I have had this happen to mine about 3 times in the past year. Every time I didn't let it warm up for several minutes before shutting off. Then when I went to restart later even the next day. It flooded. I have to put the pedal to the floor and crank till she starts and let the cylinders burn out. Someone may rebuke me for this but it works for me.

That did it for me. It took nearly a minute to clear out the cylinders. Probably not great for my starter but she's running.

I'll never do the short run thing again.

Thanks 986 Forum

[Ptriggiani]

My experience is with audi's from the late 90's through 2004 or so and similar situations. I could not start then to pull them out of the garage for a wash do the same to pull them back in with out flooding them. The only cure was to remove all the spark plug, leave the cylinders open to allow for the excess fuel to evaporate , clean and dry the plugs or replace with new ones and then the car would start. I got this suggestion from an Audi certified tech.
I am not sure if this applies to the boxters or not but it may be worth a try.

[Retroman1969]

Mine did that once a short time ago under similar circumstances. I treated it like a flooded engine, put the pedal to the floor and cranked about 10 seconds at a time. Took a couple of minutes, but it started up and hasn't done it since.
Several people on the forum let me know that it has been known to happen on these cars.
But it could also be a bad fuel pump, clogged filter, bad gas, etc....