apitts73

So i've had some electrical issues lately......

Any kind of electrical load(power window, a/c,etc.) would cause the AFRs to go super rich...like every few minutes when the radiator fan goes on while driving around town on a hot day!

I checked everything that was suggested to me to do/change/check on the car....still no change. So i decided to bring it into a different Porsche shop for a new set of eyes to look at it. Comes down to the wire harness. The last shop wired in the Vitesse system and when the new shop saw the wiring job....lets just say they were very disappointed. They tried do undo the mess of wires, but they said it would be cheaper(many hrs) and faster to order another one.

I want to confirm that it was the harness. I dont want to re-wire the vitesse system into the new harness because im going with the Wolf system next.

SO THE BIG QUESTION???


Should i return it to stockl(stock barn door)maf, o2 sensor instead of AFR sensor,etc. to confirm in some way that it was the harness. From the mess of wires when vitesse system was wired into the harness by other shop.
Should i buy the Wolf system before i confirm it was the harness that was causing the electrical issues?

Crazy last 5yrs since i've owned the car...on the 4th motor and have only driven it less than 4000 miles. Should be 25000miles if it ran properly!!

Any input is appreciated.

thanks,

Adam

schip43

Wow that is pretty F'd up! How about pull all the Vitesss stuff first and put the stock stuff on and see if it works? Maybe it was a bad install.If that does'nt work pick up a "diffrent" engine harness on E bay install that and see if that works?

But yeah pulglng in the Wolf, into the current nightmare would be my last choice!

Lot of work either way good luck!

MooreBoost

check your grounds

slap929

4 engines in 5 years makes me think that stock is the way to go. I remember you having a cracked block(a 3.0L at that), what killed the other three? The shop makes it sound like removing the vitesse stuff is harder than replacing the whole harness. I dont really know the state but I couldnt imagine that removal of a MAF is going to be harder than the entire harness.... But i am just going on what I have to read. Sorry to hear that you are still having problems. Let us know if you are able to get it sorted out.

MooreBoost

seems like it would cost more to pay a shop to do all that then to rewire the maf system

i did a search and found 1000000 threads with cars having the same problem as yours. they all seem to have bad grounds.

schip43

Oh crap yeah man my suggestion was based on you spending hours yourself doing this stuff not paying a shop to do it! The grounds are an issue on these cars, the bell housing comes to mind. Clean that up and maybe add one of the addon grounding kits?

MooreBoost

also check the grounds under the driver side dash next to the fuse box and behind the headlights

apitts73

Thanks for the suggestions guys,

I had already cleaned every single ground on the car...no go!

The last shop chopped up the harness pretty bad, so its very hard for the new mechanic to piece everything back to stock. Im pretty sure this old harness has had a few things installed and taken off before i bought the car 5yrs ago...its a mess.
Plus the first shop didnt secure all the wires for the vitesse install...some were just twisted then electrical taped!
Will have words with them soon..want to sort this out and get rid of this stress first!

So i decided to buy a used harness to start fresh from for the Wolf system.
But in order to confirm it was a bad install or just plain and simply OLD harness, i would have to re-wire the vitesse system back into this new(used)harness....confirm...then take vitesse stuff off again to install the Wolf system.
So im kind of leaning toward install new harness with the Wolf...and see what happens!?

All this time(5yrs) i said i would be buried in this car.....but one can only take so much trouble/problems/$$ before you wonder if this is the time to throw in the towel!!

Not just yet....but close.

Will let you know how things work out.

adam

kevincnc

Do you see your voltage dip when an electrical load comes on? I had the same issue, replaced the battery, and the problem went away.

fast951

Adam, it sounds that there are multiple issues, not just one.

The rich running condition when the radiator fans run (or when there is a electrical load) is 99.9% attributed to a bad engine/chassis grounds. Very simple to isolate! Disconnect the MAF ground wire (Black wire) from engine/chassis and connected directly to battery ground. If the AFRs are no longer rich, it's time to clean the grounds or run new ones.

As far as the wiring goes, since you purchased the components used, I can only guess as to what you have. The MAF itself is very easy to wire, just a few wires. From the sound of it, it's fine.

I assume you have the older PiggyBack, which requires minimal wiring. There is only a single DME wire that gets cut and routed via the PB. The other 4-5 wires are "T"ed to the factory wiring. Before going further you may want to examine the Piggyback wiring by comparing what you have to what has been done (assuming you did receive the PB wiring from the previous owner). If not drop me a note.

Apparently the shop that did the work did not pay attention to details. I recall they had you running the race gas maps on pump gas, which damaged the engine...

Drop me a email if you need any help.