Big shoutout to Antigravity for offering a tested solution to the Porsche lithium battery debacle. Your announcement is buried pretty deep so here it is again for others along with a couple of questions:

>> This is the link to the new Kit, we just got the listing up....>>> https://antigravitybatteries.com/pro...ts/ag-con-992/<<

While I’m sure I want to use your Kit solution and get rid of the Porsche lithium battery, I’m undecided whether to replace it with one of your lithium batteries or an AGM. How important is a lithium battery to the performance of PDCC and RAS? My car has both. What was the reason Porsche went with the lithium battery as standard equipment in the first place - only to stop doing so in later model years? (My car is a 2021Targa4S).

I’m pretty sure I can handle changing out the ground cable, but a video is always nice. Your website mentions you have one but I don’t see the link. Forthcoming?

Is the dongle update only necessary if going from lithium to AGM? In other words, if removing lithium and installing lithium, is the dongle update still necessary?

That’s all for now. Thanks again for putting the kit together and making it available to us.

DaveGee

 

>> How important is a lithium battery to the performance of PDCC and RAS?

Zero impact. The 12v ‘starter battery is used to power the starter, not drive auxiliary loads. Besides, RAS and PDCC only draw meaningful current ‘at speed’.

Li batteries were done for weight savings, not current requirements (which is why they were able to be deleted *****-nilly by the factory depending on availability [some .1 RAS cars came through with AGM]). Rumour has it they sometimes swapped due to supply chain issues, but haven't seen any solid evidence either way.

 

Hi Dave, thanks for posting up. We had made 10 kits to start with and sold 6 to persons we had been in contact with previously. I was holding off posting up the link because we are low on the remaining kits, but didn't have all our stuff in order. Meaning images, instruction manual on the website, and our instruction video. But anyway we did decide to make it live as we do the remaing tasks, and build out more kits.

To answer your questions.

- Yes, we are making a simple video, and though we have written instructions, which will be on the website this week, we wanted a video because one area of installing a wire into your Lin Connector would benefit from having a video to make it clearer to understand, though it is still pretty easy with written instructions.

-Yes, you will need the ODB Module for updating settings for both Antigravity and AGM Battery, That is because our Antigravity Battery performs perfectly fine with the AGM Settings, but you also need to update the Lin communication from the ODB Module. The ODB module allows you to plug it in and it does the work, so you don't need PIWIS, or other ways to change the settings.

- In regard to the question if you NEED to go with a Lithium Battery for RAS. I personally do not think you do, but let me give you some data because I don't want to give you any inccorect information.
I had a 2016 991 GT3RS and it had RAS (rear assisted steering), and it came with an AGM Battery, and it worked perfectly fine with the AGM Battery for the month I drove it before putting in our Antigravity Lithium Battery. I used the AGM as a baseline and the Car always operated fine. So based on that limited data I can "assume" you do not need a Lithium Battery with a RAS Car, BUT I must also state that I do not know if there was any NEW or ADDITIONAL items incorporated into the 992 RAS vs a 991 RAS that might create any extra load on the system and perhaps the Porsche engineers just wanted a Lithium to have a battery that was less prone to voltage sag when under a load for this RAS in the 992. And the fact is IF you have a large voltage sag in a Porsche, due to having a low battery in the first place, or simply too many high loads at one you can get flags.

To explain above a little better, one of the benefits of a lithium battery is that under a higher loads, such as RAS, heated seats, Sport Modes or Air Conditioning kicking in, a Lithium Battery will not sag in voltage as much as an AGM. Even though the Alternator is supposed to cover those loads, the battery stabilizes the system to a degree so you don't have a dramatic voltage sag when things kick on and off, typically this does not even matter that much since the loads still are not super big. But it CAN matter, for examle if you have a bunch of these accessories going at once and then throw another load on it, then perhaps that is why the Porsche Engineers might be thinking this could happen and opted for Lithium in the RAS equpped Cars. I just don't want to think I know better than the Porsche Engineers requirements in the 992 with RAS, so just giving you guys my thoughts. But personally, I think if you simply put a high quality AGM battery in H7 or H8 size then you are fine. I'm sure there are 992 in other places with RAS that don't have the Lithium Battery.

I will give you my personal (opinion only) reason Porsche put the Lithium Battery in the Car.... I think they put it in to create a proprietary system where the user is REQUIRED to purchase only their battery. I'm a big "Right to Repair" advocate, and alot of companies are making simple repairs or replacements like changing a battery to require you buy their expensive product only, then they have you boxed in to only being able to use proprietary parts for even the simplest repairs. For exmple in the 991s you could get a Lithium Battery from Porsche and it didn't require all this silliness that the NEW Porsche Lithium Battery has. A Lithium Battery is a better product I can say bluntly, but you don't have to make it proprietary to run in a Car... Ferrari did the same thing and used a similar battery to do the same thing.... make is to the Customer can't just swap the battery easily.

 

Order placed.

DaveGee

 

Had 3 RAS cars non had Li battery

 

Circling back to report that I purchased the Antigravity lithium to AGM conversion kit, bought a battery and successfully completed the conversion. No issues ( other than having to remove the front sway bar to manhandle the pig AGM battery into position) and everything is working normally. The conversion took me about 90 minutes but I’m sure that someone who drops fewer nuts and can more easily lift a 50+ pound battery from the floor over the fenders and into place could do it in half that amount of time.

Shoutout to Antigravity for putting together a kit that gives us options - even if it doesn’t result in buying one of their batteries. In my case I know this car won’t be with me much more than a year, and the price delta between AGM and lithium was just too great. My car is a Targa. A street car. It won’t see the track. And I now have piece of mind that I don’t have to worry about the Porsche lithium battery taking a dump and leaving me stranded with a $3k replacement bill.

DaveGee

Before.

After. Walmart same day delivery for $189. Don’t judge.

 

DG, we’ve got to get your gym game up. 🤗

 

Hah. Unless “gym” is the name of a bartender, it ain’t happening.

DaveGee

 

🤣

Hilarious stuff!

 

>> Antigravity solution to Porsche lithium debacle

@DaveGee sorry, can't help but call out the unnecessary hyperbole of this statement, if only for the newb owners who might stumble in to this thread and panic.

As with all new models, were early 992s sometimes problematic with Li? Yes. Was there a 'bad batch' of of Li batteries that failed earlier than they should have? Seems so. Were there firmware updates needed to some controller versions to minimize battery drain? I know of at least one confirmed case. OTOH, my '21 with Li/RAS was flawless despite being a DD stored outside without a charger, while an informal poll of the GT3 owners (all of which have Li) at my local cars and coffee have never even heard of the issue.

So 'debacle' seems like an internet amplification of an uncommon issue. Sure Antigravity seems like a reputable vendor (I have an AG Li battery in my Spyder for weight reduction) and I'm glad there's a cheaper aftermarket solution for those that need a replacement, but I take informed exception to the general tone of the thread and would hate newbs get the impression that Li-equipped cars are inherently defective....

 

I guess interpretation is everything. I took the "debacle" part as we are (were) essentially forced to purchase a very expensive, proprietary battery replacement that may or may not have been readily available to an owner when they most needed it. Add to that the silly price of the OEM replacement. I also suppose two things can be true at the same time: mine and most OEM lithium batteries have been problem free; I will also switch to the Antigravity solution near the expected end of my OEM battery life to both save some coin and be able to use a non-proprietary replacement going forward.

 

this is huge. they should post this in cayenne forum too. my buddy had to pay a TON of money for a new battery in his wife's cayenne. he didn't even know it was Li until it died.