Quick question....
I have been having a problem with my left turn signal fuse blowing. Took it to the dealer and told them about the problem. It is really random...sometimes it will go a couple of weeks other times blows right away. They kept it 1 week charged me for an hr of labor and said that is was working and they couldn't find anything. By the time I got home it had blown again...I am now tracing everthing down and found that they stuck a 16A! fuse in it when it is only supposed to be an 8A.

Is there something I am missing here? Whatever my problem was before has is it worse now? Maybe they should have just stuck a penny in there!

 

First, I think you should go back and rip them a new one, demand your money back. Their stupidity could have melted your harness or worse. Putting a bigger fuse in is NEVER the solution. Preferably, make your scene in front of someone who is considering buying a car or leaving it for service. Normally I'm not about tearing down businesses for mistakes, but that is an example of supreme, inexcusable stupidity.

 

I have learned, through sad experience, to NEVER take my 928 to a dealer. It is a car that is no longer manufactured and has not been for at least 10 years. Sharks are also in short supply, and therefore most dealer mechanics will likely have not worked on any 928's - at least not for a long time. They keep themselves up-to-date on warranty cars first and foremost, reasonably new cars next, and discontinued models basically never.

Either DIY or find yourself an enthusiast/mechanic who really knows 928's.

 

Yea that is a really big NO NO and may have damaged the wiring harness. Tracing out intermittent shorts to ground can be very difficult and time consuming and what may be only a 15 minute repair might take hours to find and even if they spend hours they might not find it. The tech has a very hard time charging for several hours labor and NOT finding the problem BUT installing a bigger fuse is not the answer. At a minimum send the dealer a letter documenting the fuse change, copy to PCNA ?? Noting that should there be additional damage to the wiring that you intend to hold them responsible for damaging your car !

 

Just wait until you see what's coming about a P dealer service I'm cleaning up after. I was a doubting Thomas about the inferior quality of dealers when it came to our cars. After what I've seen, it's just shameful. PCNA should care....but they don't. It comes down to the monkey that's under YOUR hood. Some may be good, but it's like interviewing a guy for a job. Background, training, experience, commitment, and specific 928 knowledge. The marque notwithstanding, there's a bunch of guys with Porsche smocks on that I wouldn't let fix the chain on my Schwinn.

Electrical SHORTS, especially intermittant are always billed on the hour, with a minimum set of 3 hours for investigation. This is almost axiomatic in the industry. If the customer doesn't want to approve this, it's pretty hard to locate it in less. Many times multiple panels have to come off, the car has to be started and stopped multiple times, shaken, stirred, wiring pushed and pulled. It's hard to do. Putting a higher rated fuse in the circuit is not appropriate, and is also shameful.

 

The following is an actual conversation on 10/28/04 between a Rennlist subscriber and a Porsche dealer:

Steve: Hi, this is Steve, what is the status of my car?
Dealer: Your battery is dead. You need a new one.
Steve: Wow, that is surprising. Since it cut out at 75mph I didn't think it would be the battery.
Dealer: Oh, it cut out at 75mph? Let me call you back.
*********
Dealer: Hi, Steve. Your battery is fine. Your alternator is dead. You need a new one.

 

LOL...and some people wonder why I'm doing my own repairs.

 

[ON] If I've/We've said it once I've/We've said it a million times: The worst enemy of a Shark is the PO's technician or any technician that doesn't work on 928s frequently.[/ON]

I've learned that it is never worth my time to bring any car I own to any shop to diagnose and repair any intermittent issue whether it is mechanical or electrical regardless of the warranty status of said car. Until the fault is repeatable and I can describe exactly how to reproduce the fault I don't bother to bring it to the shop as without repeatability the answer is always "could not reproduce" and I've wasted my time.

 

Thanks for confiming what I was thinking...

I called down today and talked to the service manager. He told me that it is customary to put in a higher amperage fuse in these situations . He said that sometimes as wiring gets older and connections get corroded it takes a little more current to work...thus the reason for putting in the bigger fuse. He told me the tech working on my car has been working on Porsches for 35yrs. I drove the car today and everything (except the turn signal) worked fine...should I be concerned about the wiring harness?

BTW...I decided to replace the flaher relay toady...could this part have been causing my car to blow the front left turn signal fuse?

 

Ok, by that logic, when a tire gets a casing separation, you should inflate it more? When a fuel line springs a leak, we should increase the pressure? That is just BS. He's talking about the symptom, not the cause. And for anyone that can understand V=I*R, when R goes up(corrosion), and V is fixed at about 14, then I has to go----- Down! You win the quipee doll! they just wanted you out of the shop so they could bring in the out-of-warrantee Boxter with the leaky front seal.

What drivel.

 

I'm only on this thread to vent, let me make that clear right away.

That said...are you KIDDING me? I have a certain amount of awe when it comes to electrical sytems (I'm a mechanic, not a spark chaser) much like monkeys are impressed by fire. But even my ignorant a$$ knows that is a load of crap. Trust me on this, I work at AutoZone, I am as shade tree as it comes.

Yes it can damage your wiring harness, no that is not a reasonable explanation, and if that mechanic has been working on Porsches for 35 years then he has cost PCNA a lot in warranty items and should be fired (out of a cannon).

Let me see here, 35 years ago means 1969 or '70ish. Yeah, I'd say he started out alright but then learned the shortcut to making $$$ was to be able to charge $100 an hour for labor and then magically work 30 man hours a day. Hell, strippers don't make as much as this guy I bet, and they work for a living.

Try this one next time: "Could you show me in the technical publications where it says to install a higher amperage fuse when wires get older?" Or we could organise a posse and string these guys up by their toes. Either way, they need to get the point.

That said, I value my money and my car a little too much to take it to one of the incompetents at our local dealer.

 

I guess I am just one of those that is learning the hard way...I drove it a little more tonight and found that my blower motor is no longer turning on so I now have no heat or a/c. It is looking to me like I got screwed here and perhaps will have to deal with further ongoing electrical problems. Nothing like paying someone to mess your car up!

 

Your harness is probably not damaged, but it could have been. Or you could have had a switch melt, maybe an electircal fire in the pod. Point is it was a stupid thing to do. Wires do not increase resistance over time, but connectors can and do corrode.... and folks who want to fix a car right can and do clean connectors to solve problems.

At the very least these are the actions of a man who doesn't care at all about fixing the problem right... he's just making a buck, as has been said above. The service manager's statements are worthless, just incompetence defending incompetence. You can find better.

 

If your car is a pre 86, then check the earthing wire for the bulb. Min had become disconnected and because the lamp housing is aluminium, it was earthing through the housing. Problem was that the housing was not designed for this and it required a huge amount of juice to make the bulb flash due to the higher resistance.

I went through two melted relays before I discovered that, and yes some PO had put in a 30 A fuse

Good luck.

 

I like how you said "earthing' instead of grounding. I think I'll use that more often.

Broken grounds are usually the culprit. PITA to find usually, but try taking the light fixture out and checking the wires right there. You just never know.

Dealers are for warrenty repairs on new cars.