temporarychicken Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 The 981 has its fifth birthday in under three weeks. However, rather than wait until then for a big present it decided to give me some trouble in the meantime. The car wasn't used much during year four, and the trouble started when the battery went flat. Afterwards the start-stop never worked properly and the charging voltage was much higher than usual. I replaced the battery and all was well for a few days, but then the car started running very roughly below about 1300 rpm. This is particularly annoyin in a PDK vehicle. After a few days I read an OBD fault code indicating a 'Valve lift control' issue, with misfires on cylinders 4,5 and 6. The Boxster has both variable valve timing and variable valve lift. The latter is controlled by a solenoid on each cylinder head, inbetween the spark plug holes. My near-side one had gone bad, meaning the car had been stuck on high-lift on this bank of cylinders all the time. This explained why the car ran so rough at low revs and cleaned up when I revved up. A new valve-lift solenoid was procured from Design 911 and I fitted it - problem solved! This rapture lasted two whole days, until on a slightly warmer day than we'd been having until that point, the big yellow 'PSM loss' warning came up about 50 minutes into a drive. Restarting the engine cleared the fault. Several other subsequent journeys were also interrupted with PSM loss at between 25 minutes and 1 hour depending on the temperature that day (the hotter the ambient temperatures, the quicker the fault manifested itself). I spent some time debugging the issue, but since my fault code reader was only OBD-II capable, it gives limited engine diagnostics, and no ABS, PAS etc. I therefore forked out 134 pounds for an icarsoft POR II Scantool to gain further insights. This tool is excellent. It reads all the Porsche-specific Engine fault codes and counters that OBD misses, and also allows you to read ABS (PSM) codes. As a bonus, I was finally able to reset my service intervals and stop the 'Service now' message from coming up every time I start the car. I recently did the 4 year 20k mile service myself, hence the lack of dealer interval reset. This last feature alone is worth the 135 pounds, but without the superior engine and ABS diagnostics of the Icarsoft POR II, I'd never have figured out why 'PSM loss' was occuring. Ultimately I figured out that the core problem was a bad coil pack on cylinder number 4. This is on the left bank, right near the valve-lift solenoid I'd replaced. I decided to replace all six coils since EuroCarPets had a good price on the OEM-spec Beru ignition coils. After all this the car seems to be back to it's usual silky-smooth self, just in time to enjoy it's 5th birthday. The question is, why did these parts fail after only 20k miles. The answer, to me is the extra heat from trackdays kills these electrical components attached to the side of the cylinder head, right above the exhaust manifold and primary cat. On a road-only car these parts would normally last the life of the car, but after probably nearly ten track days + Ring trips over the years there is clearly a hotspot in this area that accelerates failure. Next time I'll do a whole extra cooldown lap! Has anybody else experienced any wear-and-tear on the 981 as a result of track days out of the usual brakes/tyres? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzfox Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 I had a coil pack on cylinder 6 let go at about 30,000 miles, the car's done about 4 trackdays. Now you've said that you've got my Porsche paranoia working overtime! I have recently thought the car sometimes isn't quite as smooth on a light throttle/low revs as she used to be, sometimes I notice a slight 'cough' and the gear change sometimes is a bit more noticeable than usual, almost like there's a little drive train shunt but very subtle. It probably is just Porsche paranoia because it is all very slight. Is your new reader a quick, simple plug in and read off? If so any chance you could bring it along on Monday for a quick plug-in to mine and see if there's anything exciting in there? Cheeky to ask so feel free to tell me where to get off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spook Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 4 hours ago, temporarychicken said: The 981 has its fifth birthday in under three weeks. However, rather than wait until then for a big present it decided to give me some trouble in the meantime. The car wasn't used much during year four, and the trouble started when the battery went flat. Afterwards the start-stop never worked properly and the charging voltage was much higher than usual. I replaced the battery and all was well for a few days, but then the car started running very roughly below about 1300 rpm. This is particularly annoyin in a PDK vehicle. After a few days I read an OBD fault code indicating a 'Valve lift control' issue, with misfires on cylinders 4,5 and 6. The Boxster has both variable valve timing and variable valve lift. The latter is controlled by a solenoid on each cylinder head, inbetween the spark plug holes. My near-side one had gone bad, meaning the car had been stuck on high-lift on this bank of cylinders all the time. This explained why the car ran so rough at low revs and cleaned up when I revved up. A new valve-lift solenoid was procured from Design 911 and I fitted it - problem solved! This rapture lasted two whole days, until on a slightly warmer day than we'd been having until that point, the big yellow 'PSM loss' warning came up about 50 minutes into a drive. Restarting the engine cleared the fault. Several other subsequent journeys were also interrupted with PSM loss at between 25 minutes and 1 hour depending on the temperature that day (the hotter the ambient temperatures, the quicker the fault manifested itself). I spent some time debugging the issue, but since my fault code reader was only OBD-II capable, it gives limited engine diagnostics, and no ABS, PAS etc. I therefore forked out 134 pounds for an icarsoft POR II Scantool to gain further insights. This tool is excellent. It reads all the Porsche-specific Engine fault codes and counters that OBD misses, and also allows you to read ABS (PSM) codes. As a bonus, I was finally able to reset my service intervals and stop the 'Service now' message from coming up every time I start the car. I recently did the 4 year 20k mile service myself, hence the lack of dealer interval reset. This last feature alone is worth the 135 pounds, but without the superior engine and ABS diagnostics of the Icarsoft POR II, I'd never have figured out why 'PSM loss' was occuring. Ultimately I figured out that the core problem was a bad coil pack on cylinder number 4. This is on the left bank, right near the valve-lift solenoid I'd replaced. I decided to replace all six coils since EuroCarPets had a good price on the OEM-spec Beru ignition coils. After all this the car seems to be back to it's usual silky-smooth self, just in time to enjoy it's 5th birthday. The question is, why did these parts fail after only 20k miles. The answer, to me is the extra heat from trackdays kills these electrical components attached to the side of the cylinder head, right above the exhaust manifold and primary cat. On a road-only car these parts would normally last the life of the car, but after probably nearly ten track days + Ring trips over the years there is clearly a hotspot in this area that accelerates failure. Next time I'll do a whole extra cooldown lap! Has anybody else experienced any wear-and-tear on the 981 as a result of track days out of the usual brakes/tyres? Mr. Chicken, I feel your pain … I think it may be more an age/mileage-related wear and tear issue than a track day one. My solenoid gave warning of its imminent demise by way of an acrid engine smell after a good run - I put it down to being a normal 'engine smell'. Of course, it's only when the damned thing went altogether that I put two and two together …. I can also vouch for the POR II - I bought one after I triggered the airbag light when changing my steering wheel. Not as comprehensive as something like VCDS as you can't modify coding, but good features for the money. If you're looking for more wear and tear items, keep an eye open for the HPFP … First sign of failure is a small oil leak from its casing. Expensive things, these Porsches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat haggis Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 I have the same porsche icarsoft mate it's a nice bit of kit.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz05 Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 Thanks for sharing. Wish the piwis ii software was easier to get hold of at reasonable cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temporarychicken Posted May 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2018 Yes Piwis II is expensive and therefore only really justifiable for repairers. Icarsoft is, to be fair, excellent for the money but doesn't do coding as mentioned above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz05 Posted May 23, 2018 Report Share Posted May 23, 2018 It's the ability to code that I want sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spook Posted May 23, 2018 Report Share Posted May 23, 2018 1 hour ago, daz05 said: It's the ability to code that I want sadly. Just make a list of all the coding you want done and book a 1 hour diagnostic session at your local OPC. That's what I did. Works out cheaper than the cost of a POR II if that's all you'd want it for, plus you get a comprehensive car health check thrown in for free ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz05 Posted May 23, 2018 Report Share Posted May 23, 2018 1 hour ago, spook said: Just make a list of all the coding you want done and book a 1 hour diagnostic session at your local OPC. That's what I did. Works out cheaper than the cost of a POR II if that's all you'd want it for, plus you get a comprehensive car health check thrown in for free ... Good advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patt Posted May 24, 2018 Report Share Posted May 24, 2018 Chris from Excel advised me that the 20" Carrera wheels are very soft and prone to buckles especially those tracked. My taking was they didn't like running the kerbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temporarychicken Posted May 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2018 Interesting that the 20" Carrera wheels are weak. They were the prettiest in my opnion. I guess the more expensive 20" sport techno II wheels would be stronger. They certainly look it and are a bit wider also. The kerbs have more to fear from my 20" aftermarket Khan wheels than the other way around, since they are chunky old rims but they do carry a 305 tyre at the back. What I have noticed though, is that the car is not noticeably any quicker round the track on 20s than on the 18s that came with the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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