Sevenje

Hey there! First time Porsche owner here.

2006 Cayman S - 83,000kms - 5sp Tiptronic

I absolutely adore my car but being inexperienced with these, I have grown quite paranoid about some minor symptoms my car is showing lately. Car runs and sounds well, no smoke at outside of the freezing cold weather. Ripping around short trips is fantastic, but lately when I've been over 1.5 hours+ into even normal driving, the idle and transmission characteristics change. I've noticed after a bit of us, at the lights the idle is somewhat inconsistent, moving constantly around 100-200 revs at all time with the occasional large jump up 300-400. I also often find that shifting between 2 and 3, the car will have a minor jump forward. Nothing extreme but it is noticeable unless you are heavily on throttle. Even while casual driving, it seems to always sit in 5th when it feels necessary to drop into a lower gear. None of these symptoms are EXTREME and super bothersome but I've been in and around cars long enough to use the butt sensors and identify when things aren't spot on.

What are the thoughts here?

harveyf

Welcome to Rennlist!
I own 2 Cayman S cars, an 06 and an 07. They are great cars. You are smart to give yourself time to become adjusted to your new car. There is a "sweet spot" where you are still sensitive to unusual behaviors but have not become totally accustomed to them. Keep doing what you are doing, which is observe and evaluate.

The idle speed control on the 987.1 Cayman is accomplished just like other engine modes. Engine speed, load, temperatures, etc. are measured and the engine control unit (ECU) selects the best fuel injector open times and throttle open position to give you a smooth idle. When it works correctly, it is seamless. There is no separate idle control system as found on earlier cars. In particular, no Idle Air Control valve and associated plumbing.

Issues that show up after 1 1/2 hours running time to me would typically be heat related. A component might get heat soaked and start to degrade. This is of course maddening to find. One option is to selectively cool certain key components, with icepacks, to see if you can affect the issue. Start with the ECU, which is in the trunk, under the carpet adjacent to the engine compartment.

Another cause is vacuum leaks. I'm not sure how a vacuum leak might show up after 1 1/2 hours but stranger things have happened. You might want to look into doing a Crankcase Vacuum Test. Here is a link to a youtube by Tony Callas that gives some details on vacuum leaks.


If you search my website for the keyword "Health" there are some articles on baselining the health of your engine. They do assume you own a Durametric, which I would recommend. With a Durametric, you can also look at individual cylinder misfire history, which might point you in a helpful direction.

I'm not a PDK guy so I've got nothing there!

Keep us posted. It is always gratifying to hear from new owners.

sasilverbullet

Don't know about the idle problem, but for sure you need to do a full service on your transmission. Do you have maint. records? Do you know if/when the trans has had a full service?

I just did mine yesterday and occasionally I would have weird shifting. That fluid that came out was nasty dark grey and the magnets at the bottom of the pan had a lot of metal particles. No more weird shifting...

PlatinumLee

I noticed my rpm idling at a stop light were erratic while heading to destination. I got a CEL running lean code when leaving from destination and made it another 15mi before my AOS diaphragm ruptured and had oil filling up the intake and wrong side of piston. Very precarious state for car as you will hope that the engine seizes up before it bends a rod of a host of other granade type effects.

relatively simple repair though replace AOS, clean oil out of intake and all new spark plugs which thankfully the soaked ones were old anyway

oh forgot: ‘06 CS Tip. Incident occurred around low 60k mi if memory serves. 73k mi now and engine trouble free since