desmotesta

Hi all

Can someone share the location of the culprit ground/starter cable under the car, the one that is the reason for slow start, no start, click click noise even thought the battery is either fully charged or on very good health?

I have checked the ground cable from battery terminal to chassis ( in frunk) and all looks good. Would like to tackle under car cable next

Thank you in advance

Cemlo

sword369

Are you sure it's the ground? I had a very similar problem and found it was actually the positive connection from the battery to the front bulk head.
I followed the cable from the positive battery terminal to the front bulk head. There is a push on plastic cover which houses a slide on metal connector. I found that mine had corroded and when cleaned solved the problem. I eventually removed the binding post created a thread and bolted the connector in place completely solving my problem.

997 has the same issue check out this video:
Apologies as I don't want to send you down a rabbit hole but this is a common issue and what you describe does sound very familiar

Good Luck

sectachrome

I also have this issue only on hot starts occasionally. I looked at the battery connection in the frunk and it was fine.

Goonfather

Are you sure that the battery is fully charged? Mine was sitting for 3 weeks and when I went to fire it up, with made a clicking sound and the dashboard lights "pulsated" in time with the clicks. Got some jumpers, fired it up. Just a low battery, which surprised me as it is about 3 years old.

desmotesta

Update:

Tha@sword369 response, I decided to tackle the slide on connector first.

To my disappointment there was very little corrosion (only on the tip) which I cleaned up with a wire brush. There WERE clear signs of moisture encroachment in the battery compartment, so It seems some rubber gasket or panel has failed over time.

That said, cleaning up that little corrosion has noticeably improved the start situation. It still doesn't reflect how new and fully charged the battery is, but there is a significant improvement

TMc993

Sometimes in older cars there can be corrosion that has crept inside the insulation on battery cables, especially from the battery posts. If you can't find another cause and you're certain that your battery is strong, you might want to replace the cables.

sword369

Did you check inside the connector itself? that's something I had to spend quite some time on initially cleaning out. The pin itself wasn't too bad on mine. It's a very poor design long term but it aids with manufacturing time (speed).
Given the amount of current that passes through it on start up I would highly recommend threading it to completely eliminate that point of failure - if you have that option.

I believe (but have not confirmed) that Porsche actually have a fix for this and it essentially replaces the entire distribution block behind the dashboard, the result is a threaded terminal and nut - costly at the dealer though!

I also replaced my battery as I had no idea of the age of the battery and that certainly helped as well

Apologies as I don't want to send you down a rabbit hole but hope it helps a little. Good Luck.

MrMoose

The area around the battery is not designed to be sealed, it has water drains. So finding water there isn't a problem, just make sure the drains aren't plugged.

If cleaning that connector helped then it seems like you may have found your problem. I'd try cleaning it again (and get inside the female connector with a round brass brush or something) and then give it a coating of dielectric grease to keep moisture out.

Yeah, there are retrofit parts, you need a threaded pin and a battery positive cable with a threaded connector. But they've gotten stupid expensive from Porsche even just for the parts.