I fillled the tank Friday night at Phillips66 with Prem. Unleaded and headed west on I-70 up into the mountains. Traffic was a mess from a wreck, rain and Friday getouta town crowd. About 5 miles after filling up heading up Mt. Vernon Canyon, the car starts hesitating and lurching like fuel starvation or no spark. No pattern, just ever so often, hesitate & lurch

I thought it might clear itself in a couple of exits. No luck. Not wanting to find myself stranded, I turnaround at Floyd Hill.

Yes, the car ran fine all the way home and downhill by the way.

Any thoughts? Avant is 1yr old, 10k miles. I will have it at Stammler 1st thing Monday am to prep for a labor day getaway, but I'm afraid it will be the dreaded:
"Unable to replicate" syndrome.

Thanks,
Grant

...once this pattern starts, it won't be long before it locks up. My 90Q did the exact same thing. Car was running fine on level surfaces and downhill, but going up hills, it would lurch like crazy. Eventually, after about 20 miles or so, it started lurching even when going down hill, until finally stopping completely. Good luck!

Charles

PS: The first sign, before the hesitation, was a clicking sound from the fuel pump. Have you heard any clicking or abnormally load hums from below the car?

1) You got a bad batch of gas. Very likely if there was a tanker truck there filling the tanks while you were refilling - stirs up all the crap and water in the tanks.
2) The fuel injectors might have been fouled. Had you run a long time just puttering around? Was the gas stop short? I have heard of several cases of fuel line/injector fouling due to lots of stop-&-go drivng, or frequent engine shutoffs then immediate engine starts.

What I have been doing on my 30V is every 5 tankfuls or so, I add a can of Chevron Techron additive (not the Chevron "fuel injector cleaner" but the black bottle labeled "Techron" in big letters). It's the only fuel cleaner that has been recommended by the Porsche gurus in the Porsche club I belong to - and what's good enough for my 911 is good enough for my Avant. Have not had a fuel injector fouling/missing problem in 200K miles in various 911s, 130K miles in old Coupe Quattro, or 17K miles in the Avant.