Well, unfortunately, the last 944 deal went through. Great car, but the term "oil leaks everywhere" during the prebuy inspection scared me off. On with my search. Current car: Owner says hard to start when warm, started when new timing belt installed. Thinks it may be timing belt off a tooth, possible?). It actually sounds like a symptom of flooding to me) Problem 2, pressure plate is broken, I have to ask him what he means by broken, because I would assume the clutch would be shot. Owner claims it only "clunks" when the clutch is popped. This scares me (at least he is honest about it I guess) Problem 3, power steering rack leaks, so has been disconnected. While I do not think this would be an issue (I remember several of our old cars having failed power steering and it never being a problem, but they were not Porsches). Thanks for any input. Is there a good Porsche Q&A site to ask these sorts of questions?

99 Buick Regal 3.8L V6 (no supercharger). Often chugs on light acceleration in 2nd or 3rd gear and then shifts rather hard into overdrive. Usually only after driving for close to an hour or more and gone if left to cool off for a couple hours before being driven again. Check engine light comes on when problem exists and eventually goes off when driven without symptoms for a while. I read this in a local newspaper: "It could... be the torque converter clutch locking and un-locking for some reason. A quick test for this would be to use your left foot to depress the brake pedal about half an inch - not enough to actually engage the brakes, just enough to activate the brake switch - and hold it at that point while you gently accelerate. If the chuugle disappears during this test, the problem is with the converter clutch or its 'command' from the powertrain control module." First question would be whether the above seems reasonable. Second, of course, is if there's any kind of ball park on the cost to fix this - $200, $2000?