Lady Silver

Hi all:
So I'm driving along in my wife's 2014 Boxster S and suddenly the PSM warning light covers the general purpose display to the right of the tach. There is a ton of stuff on the web about this but I couldn't find an exact match for this occurrence and remedy. I pulled over and turned off the engine. Then restarted it, and all was well. It did not reappear. The battery is only less than 2 years old and checks out fine on my charger.
I was doing some spirited driving in Sport mode, PDK manual, a sweeping left hand turn. Might this mean something?
Any ideas on this? Just a digital burp?
Thanks
Rick

okie981

Believe it or not, a coil pack going bad can cause this message to appear and shutting off the car and restarting it can clear it up for weeks or months or maybe only a few minutes.

ICNU

Another thing to consider is the wheel/tire rolling circumference from front to rear. Porsche uses a stagger with a smaller diameter front wheel/tire combo vs a larger diameter on the rear. The traction control can be fooled into intervening if you have swapped out the tire sizes to something that is too far out of line with what the car is expecting to see between the RPM of the front wheels vs the rear. Too small diameter for example can trick the car into thinking the wheels are spinning on that axle because its seeing a higher wheel speed than expected, so the PSM/ABS kicks in for a bit.

The only reason I mention this is because you mention seeing the PSM warning when doing a sweeping turn, and sweeping turns are exactly the situation many have reported causing the PSM into activating in error. 99% of the time the symptoms you are reporting is a failing coil pack, so my question is have you recently changed wheel/tires lately?

okie981

Hadn't heard of this one but it makes perfect sense if tire rolling circumference ratio has been altered front/rear from OEM spec.

Lady Silver

Thanks for the tip. The car just had the 40,000 mile maintenance in February at the dealer but the coil packs were not touched. Do you know if a faulty coil will throw a code?
The car has factory 19 inch wheels. Tires are 235/40 front, 265/40 rear. We have owned the car about 1-1/2 years and these are the tires she came with. That is the Porsche owner's manual sizes.
Thanks
Rick

Lady Silver

Thanks. Beginning to look like a coil problem.

ICNU

Agreed, more than likely at least one failing coil pack considering your tires are correct size and haven't been an issue prior. My coils started failing and causing the car to go into limp mode at random times at about 30,000 miles. I changed out all of mine myself for about $300 and the problem went away

kisik

You can look at codes. It is a coil. Your tires and battery are fine. Just swapped my coils 2 weeks ago. You will also find some tottaly unrelated codes about PDK...don't worry about. Very easy job, especially if you don't have heat shields over coils. You can find new green Beru coils in FCPEuro.

okie981

If you plan to keep the car a while, and you are going in to replace coil packs, think about installing the OEM coil pack heat shields that are standard on 911 cars with the same 9A1 engine. You can buy a kit from Suncoast or put one together yourself part by part. If you have OEM exhaust headers installed, you will want short versions of some of the bolts that attached the shields to the valve covers due to the close proximity of the OEM header/cats to the valve cover. I think the kit can be purchased for around $150 from Suncoast.

toma nova

Too bad the dealer didn’t offer coils when they changed the spark plugs….

What tires are you running and what pressures? I agree with coils but want to rule out actually sliding.

Lady Silver

Yeah, I would have had the coils changed had I known the service life is like 5 years. Although the car has only 37 k miles on her, she is going on 9 years old and I don't think the coils were ever changed. coulda/shoulda/woulda........Maybe the dealer will give me a bit of a break....
We are running Michelin summer tires on 19 inch wheels 235/40 front 29 PSI, 265/40 rear 30 PSI (in the garage, cold). Car felt fine when the warning screen popped up. We were on the inside of a left gradual turn at about 70 mph, clean blacktop. Didn't feel any sliding at the time. So does the PSM disengage by design if the car gets a bit sideways? That doesn't sound like a good idea.
Thanks
Rick

okie981

Akshually, the OEM coils have been known to fail after 25k miles especially on a car that is tracked and that doesn't have the heat shields. Ask me how I know.

Kitc2246

While you eliminated it a failing battery is often the cause for Porsche electronic gremlins. Thanks to Okie I have 911 heat shields on my 2013 Boxster S since Spring of 2020 and still on the original coils at 40K and 40+ track days. You can't blame the dealer, coil packs are not a maintenance item. I carry two spares to the track. That said if you do a spark plug change their is no additional labor to do the coil packets. First thing I'd do is pull the codes to see if there is a misfire/coil pack issue. Something as simple as a stone could have interrupted the speed sensor which caused PSM to error out. Unless you are a DIY guy and want to do the coil packs not sure I'd immediate assume its a coil pack issue. Unless you find a code I'd wait to see if it repeats. As Okie indicated his failed "early" because of track heat. IMO preemptively replacing them during a spark plug change is not necessary, but if it makes you feel better its your money.

toma nova

Same as me and I never lack for grip on the street. I misread your post and was thinking about the PSM flashing / catching the rear. PSM does not disengage when activated!

I replaced my coil packs at 40k when I did plugs since I had been tracking my car in TX. A few hundred $ and no added time = set for another 8-10 years.

Lady Silver

Yeah thanks. I pulled the codes this morning. Still working them...