Crisis

As a newbie to the world of 928 ownership, this is the first of what I anticipate will be a number of posts looking for info. My car is a euro model, brought over to Canada from Japan. The car is left-hand drive and all units are in metric, so that's OK, but the German text in the message center doesn't make things easy.

My problem is this: Every time I start the car I get an icon in the message centre that resembles a vehicle driveline, showing the front & rear axles connected by a driveshaft. I have an 89 US-spec Owners Manual for the car (originally thought the car was an 89, not a 90 - long story). This icon is not shown in the Owners Manual. Could anyone tell me what this stands for and how critical it is?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

ps: It's snowing here in the Great White North

michaelathome

Nicole where are you?

Michael

docmirror

I think it's your RDK (reifen druk kontrol) telling you that one or more of the tires are low on air. Test this way: start the car, don't move it, and see if the icon appears. If not, then start rolling, and check for the icon to appear. If it appears, there should be a small triangle shaped arrow pointing to the tire(s) that are low on air. It can also mean that the RDK system is not working at all. Some cars have had the RDK disabled, and if the icon appears, but not little arrow is seen, this is possible. The icon is also in the upper right center on my dash, but a Euro/ROW car may be different but it is unlikely.

Other possibliity is the ABS warning which can show up on startup, or when rolling, depending on if the ABS passes power on diagnostics. It is a different icon than what you've described.

As to how serious is it. If it's RDK, I would look at the tires carefully, and drive it. If it is the ABS, you may want to have that checked more carefully before driving much.

Doc(not Nicole, but a close approximation)

edco

Hey Crisis,

Could it be one of these? As docmirror says it will show in the message center with an arrow pointing at the tire in question. The PO told me they had many problems with the sensors. I have had it trip once and did a small air adjustment and it has not gone off since

Crisis

Man, that was quick! Yes, it would appear to be the low tire warning as edco has shown. The tires are all OK for pressure, but given that it has aftermarket 17" OZ five spokes, can the factory pressure monitoring system still work, or should I just get used of seeing it every time I start up?

Regardless, it's a relief that it's not a big deal. Maintaining proper tire pressure is within my realm of meachanical expertise.

Thanks again for the quick response.

edco

Hey,

There is a way to bypass the warning light by tricking the system

Info on bypassing the warning light

Crisis

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

JMAGOLAN

If you have non-factory wheels, you most likely don't have the pressure transducers in the wheels, and the RDK will not work (no signal to monitor). Your options are to bypass, as suggested above, get factory wheels with the transducers, or (possibly) obtain the transducers (two per wheel) and have the wheels drilled for them (not sure how successful tht would be).
Jerry

ErnestSw

Noooooo problemmo!! The eight transducers and special nuts to hold them on will only run you about $4500.00 from Porsche. Mos of us have disabled our systems. They give false warnings even when you have the correct wheels.