Rob's-981S

I'm using the PIWIS II clone along with the same version of PIWIS that everyone else seems to be using with the Virtual Machine. (1.8500?)

My PIWIS seems to do everything 'as advertised', and well... so I gotta think it's not just a glitch with a single function?

Last night I decided to take a detailed look at my VAL file, viewing with PIWISBrowser... and discovered something interesting. My CDR radio shows my VIN, but also a 'Vehicle Identification Number - B', showing it was installed in another vehicle at some time. I am now wondering is the Air Conditioning control unit is pulling the VIN from the radio when it tries to validate the Sports Chrono 'code'. And just maybe the second VIN is confusing it?

later I'm going to go into Development Mode and see if I can delete VIN B. It would be awesome if that's the issue. I'll post my findings later!!

However if your PCM radio took it but not the Air Conditioning... then the above is probably not the fix.

Other than that I gotta think during some past service, the function was covertly hard-coded out by Porsche...

Rob's-981S

Next thought if the above doesn't work is to buy a used A/C control unit that comes from a vehicle that definitely had active Sports Plus...

01010011

Hmm...now that you mention the hard-coded out during service part...I wonder if it could be related to the stop-sale on used vehicles with Sport Chrono that was reported early last year.

I wonder if there was some sort of software update applied to all cars, even those without the option to ensure no one would add it later?

The only thing is, according to the history report I received when I bought my car this year, the last time it saw an official Porsche dealer was Jan. 2020, and supposedly it was Nov. 2020 when Porsche issued the order. But that doesn't mean they didn't know things were going on earlier (or that there was a later dealer visit that isn't showing up on the history report).

At this point, I'm not sure how much deeper into this I'm going to get. Don't really want to start swapping out more hardware. The Sport+ isn't all that important to me, especially since I don't have PDK, as it doesn't do as much on manual cars. I thought if I could add it cheaply by just replacing the switch panel and coding it would be fun to have, but I don't really want to invest any more money in adding the option.

Rob's-981S

Well; I was successful in correcting the VINs in the CDR in development mode... however have failed dismally with getting the unlock code to work for Sports Plus in the Air Conditioning Control Unit.

I am pretty much convinced at this point that Porsche somehow coded the option out, probably via firmware change... because I have experimented with virtually every option in both Developer and After Sales modes.

I'm out of ideas for now.

Jim981CS

Did you follow the thread I mentioned in post #38 above by @Visual ? He went into step by step detail with screenshots but it was it was for a PCM although I think it would be similar.
Jim

Rob's-981S

Thanks Jim; yes I did... and interestingly I also lost the 'Sport' mode indication in my cluster, which I was able to fix in Development mode as 'Visual' suggested.

I Just picked up a PCM3.1 from a member and am looking forward to messing around with it next weekend. I am wondering if somehow that might encourage things to work in 'Sport Plus'...

Other than that I am thinking it's likely Porsche hard-coded the feature out. In my case I was read-ended a couple of months ago, leading to major repairs which also resulted in 'Dealer Reprogramming'.

rennforum

I am reading the post as very interesting on sport plus as I have PDK. Hopefully there is some progress.
Have you asked dealer if they could enable sport+? I heard some vehicle Porsche offer as an option.
I face the same situation where the code only works on PCM but not on A/C.

Rob's-981S

Well... it's a known fact that dealers are DISABLING the function, even in cars that had it installed as a factory option. I believe there's some kind of 'Voluntary Recall' to improve emissions. There's no way they're going to unlock it again...

I just acquired an A/C head from a car which was verified as having Sport Plus active... so we'll know soon if it's firmware / software inside the A/C head, or elsewhere which controls this option.

Will let you know!

rennforum

really, that is not good. why they want to improve emissions on cars already sold? unless the numbers dont match.
for information my vehicle is from 06/15

peterfrans

I changed the airco control module (BKE) because of an upgrade to heated seats and have since lost sportplus. Until now I have not been able to reverse this by coding. Originally the car came without sportplus, but I obtained an unlock code some years ago and had a functioning sportplus button. Swapping the original airco control unit back in provides functioning sportplus, so the it appears that this option is indeed controlled from the airco control unit.

rennforum

Hi perferfrans this is really helpful information. do you know the part number of old and new control unit as well the manufacturing date for them? I have cooled seats and AC control unit 991 653 205 17 is from May/2015. Cannot code my control unit to have sport plus ... it doesnt accept a code which was acceptable on PCM.

Rob's-981S

I'm planning on going into Development Mode in PIWIS and capturing information on every setting shown for both the current and the new A/C control unit.

I am hoping it's a firmware version that we can overwrite, or maybe an otherwise hidden / unlabeled (i.e. 'undeclared') setting that we can flip back.

I will pass on anything interesting I find out.

The key thing will be when I update the VIN and then apply the activation code for my VIN... will SPORT PLUS activate, or has it been blocked elsewhere in the vehicle's software?

rennforum

great. tks for helping.
do you have short instruction how to update VIN for a module using PIWIS? I have done that on BMW but new to Porsche .... learning a lot here.

Rob's-981S

As far as I can tell there are two ways...

• The 'standard' method would be in After Sales mode, when you replace the module you tell it to 'Automatically Code'. It will update the VIN and all other settings, based up installed features that you've set up. I prefer not to do this because that also overrides things you may have manually tweaked.

• The other way is to go into PIWIS Engineering mode (all in German; so Google Translator is helpful to have on hand), locate the VIN and update it yourself... then 'save' and back out.

Of course I don't really know what I'm doing, but this is what I've figured out.

Does this help?

rennforum

get it. tks. when using engineering mode which tab is used to update the VIN? extended identifications?