[quote name='randbems' post='54786' date='Jun 14 2008, 10:56 PM']I picked up my 94 968 coupe (Pic attached) today and noticed on the drive home (3 hours) that the fuel gauge is not reliable. It was kind of bouncy. Any ideas of what could be wrong? I also could hear a relay randomly opening. Should I worry about this? The doom light will not work on the on when door open setting and the hatch light would not shut off at all. Once it did, it would not come back on. Break lights were not working until I reseated the lights in the lens. I also can here wind coming in the cabin from the hatch area and sunroof (mostly @ 80 + mph). The key (I only have one) won't open the hatch and the alarm does not appear to work. The door lock button will not lock or unlock the driver’s door. Are these normal things or do I have a lot of little things to fix? Should I worry about any of these?
Thanks.[/quote]
Most of these things are pretty minor annoyances that you should be able to fix yourself; It'll give you a lot of satisfaction and you'll get to know the car better in the process. If you do some searching on the web, you can find the factory service manuals in pdf form; these are pretty handy. You'll also want to get hold of the factory parts guides (refered to as "PET") as well.
Working backward through your list:
The door lock issue is pretty straight forward - there's a little plastic linkage connecting the door lock mechanism to the solenoid that activates it; it's about a $4 part at the dealer (part # 944.537.511.00 called an "operating rod"). Go ahead and order two, since the passenger side will inevitably break sooner or later.
The alarm might have been bypassed because of the broken lock mechanism; it gets annoying when you keep setting the alarm off every time you open the door. The central locking module (brains) are in the passenger side footwell under the carpet and behind the wooden panel; that's where the motronic DME (engine computer) lives as well.
The key in the hatch thing is electrical; the key switch turns a cam that triggers a microswitch. Either the microswitch is bad or it's simply out of allignment; you can acess everything from inside the car, although it's a little tight in there.
The wind noise is probably the hatch seal between the glass and the metal frame. If you open the hatch and flex it a bit (twist the hatch) while looking at the front edge of the glass, you'll inevitably see the gap opening and closing. This has to do with the mastic used to prime the glass. The proper fix is to fully remove the glass and re-seal it, but there is a danger of breaking the glass as it's removed. Some glass shops won't touch this job, especially if they check the replacement cost of the hatch. If you don't plan on entering any concours shows, you can scrape out as much of the old goop as you can, then have a glass shop shoot some urethane sealer in there, and it should be pretty solid; It can look a bit messy from the outside, by I see you have a pretty dark tint, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Sounds like you've adressed the brake lights issue, you might want to go around with fine emory cloth and clean up any corrosion on all of the bulb contacts, then coat them with a little vasoline to keep them from corroding again.
For the hatch light - the switch should be all the way forward. If it doesn't work correctly, check the contact switch at the passenger side hatch strut - there should be a brass contact that grounds against the metal rod when the hatch is open; when the hatch is closed, a plastic insulator breakes the contact and the light should go out.
Not sure what the issue with the dome light could be, but you probably want to start with the contact switches in the door jamb.
The relay thing probably isn't anything to worry about, it might be some actuators in the HVAC or something like that. I hear something whir for a few seconds right after I start the car, I'm assuming it's normall.
That leaves the fuel guage; most likely a ground issue or bad sending unit. There's an acess plate to the fuel sender under the carpet and pad in the back; you might want to check the connections there.
Good luck and enjoy the car!
