Need Help Bigtime!

[JebLacey]

Hi Everyone... This one might be a little long, so bear with me.

99 Box, Tip, 63Kmiles, strong motor, major done at 52K.

Here is the deal. I started having an intermittant problem, with the transmission going to "safe" mode, and the CEL popping up. It happened in 2 consecutive drive cycles, each time, I stopped the car, and re-started... no probs for the rest of the drive. I took the car down to a local AutoZone, and had the DTC read. I only got back P0600 (Serial Port Malf... PCM trouble communicating) I have not been able to get into a Porsche shop to get the specific code, since the long weekend closed them down, plus, I am kinda stubborn.

Anyhow, yesterday, noticed that the CEL was not coming on when i turned the key, before start. Then I tried to start, and it would not fire. The starter turns and turns (lights flash between P and D), but it sounds like no fuel. I came back out a few minutes later, the CEL was back, and the engine started. Now, it only starts when it wants to, which is about one out of every 20 tries, but i have noticed that the CEL is absent on the ones where it does not start, and always comes on when it does. I dont know what that means exactly. Has anyone ever experienced this?

Lastly, I thought it was a problem with the selector switch in the trans... but if it was, wouldnt the top not go up or down either? Now i am thinking that i have no idea what is going on. The nearest dealership is 100miles, and I dont really trust local shops other than to read codes. Let me know what you think....

P.S. Not to complicate things, but it fired perfectly about 10 times in a row today while i had the door taken apart to fix a regulator that had jumped a rail. Once i got the door back together, it stopped working (i.e. No CEL at Accessory Key, no vroom vroom). Could a short in the door somewhere cause the CEL not to test, and the fuel not to flow?