My trusty 96 965 has been so reliable I don't think I've posted with a problem here for maybe two years, but a recent issue has me looking for help.

The car has 197,000 miles on it, and has been without doubt the most reliable car I've ever owned. I give it regular maintenance and treat it kindly, and it rewards me with mile after pleasant mile of excellent transportation.

Recently, however, it's been developing a surge. I say developing because it's been slow in coming. I thought I started to notice this as long as a year ago, but I couldn't peg it exactly and it wasn't regular. Recently, however, it's become pretty obvious. Mostly it's a hard throttle issue, where you feel the engine, well, surge. It picks up, flattens, picks up, flattens, does this a few times and then levels out. It's not dramatic, and you can drive around it easily with light acceleration. But it's definitely getting worse. Possibly related, for the last six months it has developed an unpredictable symptom of a hard restart when warm. You'll drive somewhere, park, come back a few minutes later, turn the key and the engine fires, stumbles and stalls. Restart and it fires right up and the condition is gone. It might happen again the same day, or not at all for a few weeks.

I keep thinking throttle position sensor (or maybe just a dirty throttle body, I haven't had time to look), but there are no codes. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Richard in Kansas