997.1 Turbo not boosting (Now resolved thanks to 9e)

JP_Turbo said:

chimp911 said:

Sticky actuators is a fairly common problem (happened to me twice) and if it is this then a bit of high temp lubricant should free it up and off you go - a decent OPC would do this free of charge... good luck :thumb:

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Any suggestions on what brand to go for with this high temp. Lubricant?

Cheers

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The high temp. lubricant can be bought from Porsche not cheap though @ £58 part number 000 043 305 36

Branded as a Fuchs Lubritech - Gleitmo WSP 5040

- perhaps an internet search might find it elsewhere cheaper ?

Nik, thanks for the kind offer, car is going in to 9e tomorrow (it defeated my best efforts at determining the cause of the no boost issue) - so we'll know more then.

If replacement turbos are the order of the day I'll be in touch :thumbs:

Hopefully I'll have an update tomorrow.

vlad said:

Nik, thanks for the kind offer, car is going in to 9e tomorrow (it defeated my best efforts at determining the cause of the no boost issue) - so we'll know more then.

If replacement turbos are the order of the day I'll be in touch :thumbs:

Hopefully I'll have an update tomorrow.

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Fingers crossed it's nothing as expensive as the turbos

nikos525 said:

vlad said:

Nik, thanks for the kind offer, car is going in to 9e tomorrow (it defeated my best efforts at determining the cause of the no boost issue) - so we'll know more then.

If replacement turbos are the order of the day I'll be in touch :thumbs:

Hopefully I'll have an update tomorrow.

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Fingers crossed it's nothing as expensive as the turbos

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+1 :thumbs:

steve baker said:

DaveH911 said:

I am currently in the same position. The LHS turbo started sticking about a year or so ago, in fact the actuator mechanism was stuck solid. My Indy managed to free it up, giving me back full boost for a short period of time but then after several 'visit workshop' notices the same side was found to be leaking oil. After a bit of ringing around Turbo Dynamics down in Christchurch said they would have a look at it. I decided to send both down for possible refurbishment but after assessing them, they reported back on Thursday that both housings are completely shot and the turbos are beyond repair. After several phone calls, texts and emails it is now apparent that there are no refurbished or hybrids currently available anywhere in the country with some dealers advising that 997 turbo units have been on 'back order' for almost a year now with no date for availability on the horizon but my Indy has sourced 2 new ones from Porsche, so hopefully I will be back on the road shortly. My vehicle was registered in Dec 2006, so one of the earlier ones purchased in this Country but looking ahead there may possibly be hundreds of 2007's, 2008's etc requiring same shortly as they get to the same age/mileage.

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What mileage has yours done ?

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90k and 11.5 years old. The other issue was that most of the oil and coolant pipes feeding the turbos had also corroded badly from the inside outwards (they looked ok visually but the inner skins had perished) All bar two had corroded from the turbo side of the connection, so had to be renewed also.

Hi, an update...............

Apologies it's a bit long

As mentioned I finally took the car down to 9e for my boost issues to be investigated.

Story in a nut shell.....

Car purchased from well known indy 2015, very pleased with it certainly a step up performance wise from my 996 C4S.

Car maintained by another well known indy closer to where I live. At service time May 2016, I enquired about 'pepping' her up a bit, a plan was hatched to fit GT2RS intercoolers, IPD plenum(with 82mm TB) and Y-Pipe and Kline exhaust with 100 cell cats all brought together with a custom map.

I was very pleased with the work that was done the mapping company they identified an issue with the passenger side actuator which they fixed - should really been spotted by the indy that fitted the hardware, (anyway after the work car was certainly a lot quicker – I now appreciate this is not the be all and end all :? ), and I ran the car for about a year with no issues until this April.

Then as documented at the start of this thread I lost boost, as it happened I was near the people that had performed the custom map, so I popped around (to be fair they did have a look but stressed it would have to be a quick look as they were very busy) on inspection nothing was obvious, they thought it might be the actuators or turbo , anyway they couldn't fix it and as I was 50 miles from home I limped back.

The following week the indy that had performed the hardware install had a quick look one lunchtime, again they couldn't see anything obvious.

They couldn't book me in for 5 weeks....... (I was bit disappointed they couldn't expedite my case – they had looked after my 911's for 12 years - but fair enough).

I wasn't happy with waiting that long and I'd heard good things about 9 excellence and booked it in there for 4 weeks hence......

All I can say is wow what an operation, unlike any garage experience I have ever had...and that is in a good way I hasten to add!

From dropping off, when we sat down to discuss what the issues were and where I wanted the car to be, through to the regular updates of what was found and then next steps to discuss what options there were available etc...

After the initial chat with Ken I left feeling reassured the car was in good hands, they even managed to get the car on the ramps while I was still there to have a quick check. (Unfortunately nothing obvious).

9e are a bit of a distance from me but actually letting the train take the strain, the drop off was remarkably simple. Ken gave me a lift to the airport in the 9e Red Cayman (just back from testing and wow!), and from there the Gatwick express gets me home so quite painless and her indoors didn't have to get involved in car drop off (always a bonus!).

Anyway that afternoon I got a call from Ken detailing where they were up to with the investigation and what they'd found so far.

And.............drum roll..............the Cause of the loss of boost was one of the hoses at the back of the plenum had popped off, and driver side actuator was kaput. (To be fair the hose at the back of the plenum isn't easy to see - perhaps impossible without dropping the engine an inch or two so I can understand why it hadn't been spotted before – though the reason it had popped off was poor initial install :x

Relieved it wasn't the turbo's – phew bullet dodged........

I was a bit disappointed the original indy and the original mapper hadn't run an actuator test, which would have identified the broken actuator (it moved OK if you manually pushed it).

Anyway c'est la vie with the pipe to the plenum properly installed and a new actuator the car would be ready for road testing the following day.

Next day... and another issue... this time arguably more serious, post road test Ken gave me a call and we went over the logs.
it was explained really clearly, you could see the previous map was a bit of a mess, the ECU was compensating for the bad map , pulling timing and the Air Fuel Ratio was all over the place.

We discussed options, I wasn't prepared to keep the previous map on the car, so it was really a case of reverting to stock, which would mean removing all the performance mods or keeping the mods and getting it re-mapped by Ken, for me a no brainer.

Anyway fast forward and a couple of days later, and after several updates, the new map was on the car and Ken was happy with the map and the data that was being logged, AFR within Porsche tolerances, no horrible retardation of timing at WOT etc.....

Now it feels stock smooth bumbling around, boost comes on from really low down and boosts almost linearly, almost feels like a NA car but so so strong.

The previous map was brutal, boost used to come in with a thud, fortunately in the UK we can't sustain high speeds at boost, but I am convinced that had I had an opportunity on an Autobahn to keep 'it planted' for a sustained period I would have damaged the car.

I picked the car up at the 9e Coffee and Cars the other weekend, and at long last 2 years into Turbo ownership I finally have the car I thought the 997 Turbo was going to be from day one.

A big thank you to the team at 9e :thumbs:

Congratulations on finally getting it resolved, that must be a huge relief.
You can't put a value on a good specialist. As far away as 9e might be I think the weeks of uncertainly are far worse.

Hope you are enjoying it this weekend

Ken and 9E look after my fathers 2005 Cayenne.

It is a standard car and they just look after its standard servicing schedule.

We have never had anything but absolutely outstanding customer service
from 9E.

I have a 997 Turbo in the OPC warranty service situation and get
jealous every time I deal with Ken on my fathers behalf. It is real old fashioned personal service at 9E.

Delighted it's nothing more than an actuator and loose pipe. Relief!?!

Also great to hear more positive words on the customer experience offered by 9E too. Good job :thumbs:

Sounds like a DMS style map, stupid boost in the midrange and then it all goes Pete Tong.

Mezgerite said:

Sounds like a DMS style map, stupid boost in the midrange and then it all goes Pete Tong.

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Do you have experience of a DMS map?

I had a DMS map when I bought my car nine years ago, never had an issue with it and I know of others who are equally happy.

Maybe a Nicholas Lawrence map! :bandit:

Mezgerite is spot on.

and I could have stopped once the boost leaks were resolved.

..... and I thought I was happy with the previous map...... until I saw the logs - something other tuners don't show you (just that curve with the big BHP numbers).

When you see the logging and realise that all thats saving the engine is the ECU, it was quite a revelation.

Martian said:

Mezgerite said:

Sounds like a DMS style map, stupid boost in the midrange and then it all goes Pete Tong.

Click to expand...

Do you have experience of a DMS map?

I had a DMS map when I bought my car nine years ago, never had an issue with it and I know of others who are equally happy.

Maybe a Nicholas Lawrence map! :bandit:

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Yes, i have fixed a few that have then gone on to run very well on Vmax style events. The problem is they suffer from thermal runaway, but unless you do some serious data logging you won't see the issue.

vlad said:

Mezgerite is spot on.

and I could have stopped once the boost leaks were resolved.

..... and I thought I was happy with the previous map...... until I saw the logs - something other tuners don't show you (just that curve with the big BHP numbers).

When you see the logging and realise that all thats saving the engine is the ECU, it was quite a revelation.

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Glad you are enjoying the car

This is the problem. People think it is fine and the only saving grace for such poor tuning is that the ECU is very clever to protect the engine by throwing as much fuel at it as it can, which is fine in terms of saving the engine until you get unlucky and an o2 sensor fails when you are on boost and then you can wave goodbye to your engine. Run that tune on your car that you had for a few minutes at max speed or near to it and watch the engine melt.

And apart from that it is slower because it is pulling timing all the time. You saw for yourself how bad that was and it is the same on every one I have looked at - better to run a stock map than that frankly.

Ken

Martian said:

Mayb0e a Nicholas Lawrence map! :bandit:

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:grin:

Whatever happened to him :dont know: