I have a recurring fault with my 997 gen.2 Targa 4S.
This first manifested itself as follows:
One part of a racing licence course I participated in at Hockenheim was to do racing starts.
We were starting from the beginning of the Parabolica straight on the GP track.
My Targa was up against a 997 gen. 2 4S cabrio with PDK and Sport Chrono. Naturally, in addition to he could employ 'Launch Mode".
I activated 'Sport Plus" in my car and waited for the flag to drop. I took the revs to about 5,000 rpm and was able to get a slingshot start, beating the 4S cabrio :yahoo:
We then had a re-match. Having lost despite his launch control, his honour was in question now! I was equally determined to give it my all :twisted:
The flag dropped and once more I got the drop on him, getting away in front of him. However, as I changed up into second, I heard a 'beep" sound. As I changed into third, the car was clearly not reacting as sharply and the cabrio was able to draw along side and ease by me, going on to take the win. I saw that my display was announcing to me in German that the PASM display was defective – whatever that should mean :-|
I asked others for advice and some of them suggested detaching the battery for a while and doing a 're-start". I wss loathe to do that with a further day of the course to go in case it totally messed the car up, so I just lived with it.
Outside the circuit, going through Hockenheim, as I pulled away from the traffic lights, I noticed that the 'PASM display defective" message was now rotating with a 'ASR failure" message (ASR being Traction Control System).
On the autobahn, I then found that cruise control also no longer worked :roll:
Once home in Switzerland, I tried disconnecting the battery overnight. This did not change anything :what:
I then looked at the fuses, but could see nothing amiss.
I took the car to my Porsche Centre and explained the symptoms. They looked it over and advised me that it was afterall a fuse that had blown – though they did not know why. They replaced it and all was well again.
A few months later, I was behind a dawdler on a country road. When the road was clear, I dropped a gear and went to overtake. As I used the clutch, I got that 'beep" again and saw the 'PASM display defect" message once more :bonk:
Back home, I replaced the fuse and all was well until the next time I did a fast overtake, rapidly dropping a gear. "Beep!" :evil:
As everytime the fault occured, it was in connection with changing gear, so I eventually took it back to my Porsche Centre for them to check it over more thoroughly.
When I collected the car, they informed me that the fuse that was blowing covers several aspects of the car's system including a switch in the clutch pedal, the electric adjustment for the seats and the heated washer jets amongst other things.
They had first checked the clutch switch which they said was OK. They had then removed the seat to see if any cable was chafing and perhaps shorting out under violent loads. They didn't find anything amiss.
They had previously had a case of the heated washer jets causing problems, so changed these and hope that the problem was solved. I expressed my scepticism. The fact that they themselves were not convinced that the jets were the cause was supported by the fact that they provided me with two spare fuses for my upcoming UK trip – 'just in case" :-|
Subsequently, I was able to travel over 1,000 miles into the UK without issue.
Then once more a similar scenario: I closed in on a dawdler on a country road, dropped a gear to get quickly by. 'Beep!" :damn:
I continued with the fuse blown until I had a chance to get a pack of 6 fuses at a Halfords store, as I wanted a supply of reserves to allow me to use cruise control on motorways. I then fitted a new fuse in the Halfords car park and headed for the nearby motorway.
En route to the motorway, after only about two miles, I was approaching a roundabout at about 40 mph and gently braked and changed down to second gear. 'Beep!" Argh!
After arriving at our holiday home, I went to the local Porsche Centre and described the problem to them. They had never experienced anything similar. I explained that my Swiss Porsche Centre had said the clutch switch was OK, but the problem had always occurred when using the clutch pedal. I asked them to replace the switch on the pedal.
When I collected the car, they showed me that there were actually two separate switches on the clutch pedal and they had replaced both. They had also taken the trouble to give my far-travelled, grimy car a quick wash to remove the worst.
Two miles later, approaching a car park, I changed down into second gear. 'Beep!" :gunfire:
I returned to the Porsche Centre. They said they'd need the car for perhaps a couple of days to really go through everything. I said that wouldn't be convenient as we had a lot of travelling planned. I did ask him to make enquiries with Porsche to find if this was a known problem. He promised to let me know either way.
He didn't... :nooo:
Before I set out on my return journey, in a lay by a few hundred metres before I joined a motorway, I replaced the fuse again.
30 miles later, I left the motorway to enter a service station. As I was manoeuvring into a parking space I had the clutch pedal fully depressed with the car motionless. 'Beep!" :duh:
I gave up trying after that – though it was positively excruciating trying to adhere to the ludicrous 100Km/h limits on the almost empty Dutch 3-lane motorways! :salut::salut::salut:
The car is now at my Porsche Centre so that they can check the wiring loom, etc. in an attempt to identify and localise the cause of the problem. A difficulty is that there is so much electronic equipment on modern cars that numerous components are on the same fuse.
I must say that when I took the car in, I sat in a 991 and discovered that the steering wheel is now adjustable via electric motors too – presumably so that the wheel position is also memorised – which is great, as long as it all works... :!:
I'm beginning to wonder if modern cars are something that need to be got rid of after a few years before the electronic components start to cause very hard to solve problems. Maybe the 1990s cars with ABS, airbags, etc. but without all the modern systems were the last viable vehicles to keep long term...
I will report back on this, but would love to hear from anyone who has experienced or knows of similar problems :thumbup:
This first manifested itself as follows:
One part of a racing licence course I participated in at Hockenheim was to do racing starts.
We were starting from the beginning of the Parabolica straight on the GP track.
My Targa was up against a 997 gen. 2 4S cabrio with PDK and Sport Chrono. Naturally, in addition to he could employ 'Launch Mode".
I activated 'Sport Plus" in my car and waited for the flag to drop. I took the revs to about 5,000 rpm and was able to get a slingshot start, beating the 4S cabrio :yahoo:
We then had a re-match. Having lost despite his launch control, his honour was in question now! I was equally determined to give it my all :twisted:
The flag dropped and once more I got the drop on him, getting away in front of him. However, as I changed up into second, I heard a 'beep" sound. As I changed into third, the car was clearly not reacting as sharply and the cabrio was able to draw along side and ease by me, going on to take the win. I saw that my display was announcing to me in German that the PASM display was defective – whatever that should mean :-|
I asked others for advice and some of them suggested detaching the battery for a while and doing a 're-start". I wss loathe to do that with a further day of the course to go in case it totally messed the car up, so I just lived with it.
Outside the circuit, going through Hockenheim, as I pulled away from the traffic lights, I noticed that the 'PASM display defective" message was now rotating with a 'ASR failure" message (ASR being Traction Control System).
On the autobahn, I then found that cruise control also no longer worked :roll:
Once home in Switzerland, I tried disconnecting the battery overnight. This did not change anything :what:
I then looked at the fuses, but could see nothing amiss.
I took the car to my Porsche Centre and explained the symptoms. They looked it over and advised me that it was afterall a fuse that had blown – though they did not know why. They replaced it and all was well again.
A few months later, I was behind a dawdler on a country road. When the road was clear, I dropped a gear and went to overtake. As I used the clutch, I got that 'beep" again and saw the 'PASM display defect" message once more :bonk:
Back home, I replaced the fuse and all was well until the next time I did a fast overtake, rapidly dropping a gear. "Beep!" :evil:
As everytime the fault occured, it was in connection with changing gear, so I eventually took it back to my Porsche Centre for them to check it over more thoroughly.
When I collected the car, they informed me that the fuse that was blowing covers several aspects of the car's system including a switch in the clutch pedal, the electric adjustment for the seats and the heated washer jets amongst other things.
They had first checked the clutch switch which they said was OK. They had then removed the seat to see if any cable was chafing and perhaps shorting out under violent loads. They didn't find anything amiss.
They had previously had a case of the heated washer jets causing problems, so changed these and hope that the problem was solved. I expressed my scepticism. The fact that they themselves were not convinced that the jets were the cause was supported by the fact that they provided me with two spare fuses for my upcoming UK trip – 'just in case" :-|
Subsequently, I was able to travel over 1,000 miles into the UK without issue.
Then once more a similar scenario: I closed in on a dawdler on a country road, dropped a gear to get quickly by. 'Beep!" :damn:
I continued with the fuse blown until I had a chance to get a pack of 6 fuses at a Halfords store, as I wanted a supply of reserves to allow me to use cruise control on motorways. I then fitted a new fuse in the Halfords car park and headed for the nearby motorway.
En route to the motorway, after only about two miles, I was approaching a roundabout at about 40 mph and gently braked and changed down to second gear. 'Beep!" Argh!
After arriving at our holiday home, I went to the local Porsche Centre and described the problem to them. They had never experienced anything similar. I explained that my Swiss Porsche Centre had said the clutch switch was OK, but the problem had always occurred when using the clutch pedal. I asked them to replace the switch on the pedal.
When I collected the car, they showed me that there were actually two separate switches on the clutch pedal and they had replaced both. They had also taken the trouble to give my far-travelled, grimy car a quick wash to remove the worst.
Two miles later, approaching a car park, I changed down into second gear. 'Beep!" :gunfire:
I returned to the Porsche Centre. They said they'd need the car for perhaps a couple of days to really go through everything. I said that wouldn't be convenient as we had a lot of travelling planned. I did ask him to make enquiries with Porsche to find if this was a known problem. He promised to let me know either way.
He didn't... :nooo:
Before I set out on my return journey, in a lay by a few hundred metres before I joined a motorway, I replaced the fuse again.
30 miles later, I left the motorway to enter a service station. As I was manoeuvring into a parking space I had the clutch pedal fully depressed with the car motionless. 'Beep!" :duh:
I gave up trying after that – though it was positively excruciating trying to adhere to the ludicrous 100Km/h limits on the almost empty Dutch 3-lane motorways! :salut::salut::salut:
The car is now at my Porsche Centre so that they can check the wiring loom, etc. in an attempt to identify and localise the cause of the problem. A difficulty is that there is so much electronic equipment on modern cars that numerous components are on the same fuse.
I must say that when I took the car in, I sat in a 991 and discovered that the steering wheel is now adjustable via electric motors too – presumably so that the wheel position is also memorised – which is great, as long as it all works... :!:
I'm beginning to wonder if modern cars are something that need to be got rid of after a few years before the electronic components start to cause very hard to solve problems. Maybe the 1990s cars with ABS, airbags, etc. but without all the modern systems were the last viable vehicles to keep long term...
I will report back on this, but would love to hear from anyone who has experienced or knows of similar problems :thumbup:
