Hey everyone,

As many of you know, I just bought my first 951 this past weekend and absolutely can't get enough of it! There are a few small electrical issues that I hope I can work out easily and soon however. All assistance is welcome. I will resort to digging through wiring diagrams in the shop manual if necessary, but I thought I would check around beforehand (searches turned up similar problems, but none exactly the same):

1) The high beams work when you pull back on the stalk in the temporary mode, but when you push it forward to engage them fully, the headlights turn off... all of them!

2) The cruise control is basically gone. Sometimes it will engage, but will never keep on.

3) The left turn signal will not automatically disengage after a turn 95% of the time.

4) The interior light works when you flip the switch, but does not turn on in the automatic mode when the door is open. In fact, the forward and rear positions are both ON positions... now this is my first Porsche, but aren't the three positions supposed to be 1)forward -> ON 2)middle -> AUTO and 3)back -> OFF??

5) The headlights have had 2 occassions where the motors didn't want to agree with me. One was the didn't want to fully raise. That went away after I pulled away from the parking space and tried again. Tonight they had an opposite problem; they turned off, but wouldn't go down untill I drove around and did it while the car was moving. It was raining tonight, so there might have been a wet connection.

6) an occassional phantom noise soundling like it's coming from the rear of the car (hatch maybe?) when I put the car in reverse and backup some. It sounds like an electric motor whining for just a second, then it stops. Very odd.


OK, well I'm guessing with 1-3 it might be the stalks (though hoping it could be fuses or relays that won't cost me a few hundred to fix). #4 I originally though was the doorjam switch, but recently I've been leaning more towards something else seeing as the OFF selection is actually another ON (correct me if I'm wrong). 5 I'm assuming might be the headlight motor relay and 6 just baffles me!

None are serious problems to say the least, but I want Lorelie to be as perfect as possible... if you have any insight into the said problems, please holler!

 

#5 is probably just the motor connector or relay coming loose (mines taped on!!)
As far as the interior light switch, I thought it was 1)On 2)Off 3)Auto.... But that's only from memory.....
1- 3 sounds like the stalk switch, swap it out and that should do it...
Mossy

 

Long shot, but I wonder if #6 is the hatch release engaging by itself due to some loose wiring?

 

mossy's got it.
Forward is on, middle is off, back is auto.
Check out the passenger side hatch shock. If it doesn't have a switch on it, then there's your problem. Unhook the wire on the car side of the shock, and try it again.
On mine, the passenger side shock was replaced with a driver's side shock, so the wires were all twisted around, and it had no switch. This meant that wire was always grounded (through the shock), and that the light would stay on. I just unhooked it until these shocks fail, then I will replace it.

The headlights, that sounds like a dirty connection at the motor, or the relay's connections are dirty, both are very easy to fix, and are right beside each other.

The highbeams...
That sounds like the stalk to me.
It is not fuses/relays.
What is happening is, when you pull back, it keeps the low beams on, and turns on the high beams. When you push it forward, it turns the low beams off, and the high beams on.
So, I would be looking for dirty/loose connections at the stalk, on the forward setting.
Providing the high beams do in fact work when the stalk is pulled (which you said they do).

Cruise control.... don't have it, dont' want it, sorry.

Turn signals.
That's the return switch getting gummed up. Mine does it on the left side as well (co-incidence? I don't know), except mine stays on 95% of the time =)
If I recall correctly, the switch is under the cover on the steering column, right about where the switch is mounted. They get gummed up with dirt and dust over the years. Needs to be taken apart and cleaned.

Seems like odd luck that your high beams and turn signals, which are both on the same stalk are acting up.

Hope that was of some help, best of luck getting this sorted out.

 

I'm a new 951 owner as well. We should get together sometime when you're back in VA. I've got a couple of the same electrical problems with mine actually.
My turn signal is the same, rarely turns off when turning left. I took the wheel off and built up the part of the wheel that triggers flips the signal switch by putting some electrical tape around it. That worked for about a month, but then went back to not turning off.
As for the interior lights, mine wouldn't turn on with the doors open either. I took apart the door switches and spent some time cleaning off the last 18 years of corrosion with 120 sandpaper. That also worked great for about a month, then I crushed one of the switches later by not putting it back in the door frame before I closed the door. Still got to replace that one...
Hope this helps, and good luck on fixing up those problems.

 

i bet your last problem is the sunroof motor turning on when you start to drive. all the cars will do this. what happens is, if your sunroof lifters are not engaged all the way (for instance if you just put the roof on, and they haven't moved into hold it down), when you turn your car on and start to drive, the switches tell the motor to run until the lifters move into the lock down position. obviously if your roof wiring is faulty in anyway, it could cause the motor to turn on even if your lifters are in the lock down position.

just a guess anyway...

 

thanks for all the info... I was worried 1-3 was going to be the stalks... unless someone has cheap ones to sell, they're staying like that for a while! $300 I dont have or live with it.. hmmmm.

Skene, definitely, I'll be organizing some gatherings for when I get back, you'll have to be there Where in NoVA are you?

The phantom noise must be either the sunroof motor or the hatch motor for sure.... I'll see if I can't track it down

Zero... good tip on the light! I'll check that out.

 

kevin.. i do have an extra headlight motor and swich to sell if you need one..

 

Thanx Mike, I'll let you know if I need them when I get a chance to check things out.

 

cool.. just message me if you need them.. they are just collecting dust right now anyways..

 

I have had the turn signal problem before on a couple of cars, I found the easiest fix was to replace them, used to be about $100.

 

I'll jump on the wagon here... On my car, when I turn the direction signal on, the signal always works, and always rebounds after a turn, but sometimes the little green light in the dash will not work, sometimes it will. I noticed after hard excelleration it tends to work, and after hard decel., it tends to not work. I can geuss that its loose something, but what, and where?
One more thing... This only happened once, when it was pouring rain a few weeks ago. When I turned on the cruise control, the pedal just went to the floor, well almost. The car just started excellerating, it would have gone to redline if I let it. Otherwise, it works perfectly fine, I've only tested once or twice after, but it worked.
If I think of more stuff, I'll ask, oh yea, is the clock supposed to be backlit at night?
~Eyal

 

cruise control: sounds like the control unit - long silver box outboard of your left ankle - needs some attention. probably some cold solder joints. remove the box and pull the circuit board out and check the joints for cracks. i did one on my previous 86 951 and it fixed it right up - took 3 tries, but it worked perfectly til i sold it. all i did was heat up all the solder joints with a hot soldering iron and let the solder re-run. worked for me. did NOT work for me recently on my DME as it was just too far gone to fix - had to replace, but it was worth a shot. you might also do a search for 'cruise' and 'solder' and see what come up.

 

my headlights do the same thing (high beam/low beam)
they work in low beam...
when i pull the stalk back (say, to flash your lights OR while you're engaging the high beams) they get bright
when i let the high beams engage it is somewhere between the two in brightness

....maybe i'm just dumb and there is sposed to be three (3) settings??????????

 

I'm in agreement with just living with a broken turn signal for now. If I get so inclined, I might look into taking my turn signal switch apart to see if I can fix it. Of course I might have to spend the $130 or so to replace it after I do that. We'll see. By the way, I'm in the Reston area.