Lorenfb

"btw: loren so techron will not help a car burn cleaner? (or clean the valves?) also, a few times when i've used i've actually seen dirty smoke blow & then turn clean when punching it a bit on the fwy. ---- just a coincident? what is the smoke? the product burning?" - 24fps -

No, I didn't say that. I use it in all my cars. My comment was with regard to its' ability
to help resolve the 993 SAI type problem, given where the carbon buildup is.

Check out these pictures I took at one of my customer's shop which had a 993 apart
for a valve job & see the complexity of the SAI ports;

www.systemsc.com/pictures.htm

ESL

Of course I read this yesterday and the CEL goes on today. Happened about 3000 miles ago then reset itself. Hopefully that is what will happen again since I am only at 23K.

Rick Lee

David, I change my oil every 5k miles or after each track event (when my 993 saw track duty). I use Mobil 1 15/50 and DIY everything except alignments. I keep a log book with date and mileage for everything that goes in or on my car, so I know exactly how much oil I'm using, how old my brake fluid is, when my clutch was last flushed, etc. So far, I've gone about 1400 miles since I got the car back from the accident repair, at which time the engine came out and all systems got new fluids. I am down probably about 1/4 qt. of oil since then, which looks like I may be burning 1 qt. max between 5000 mile oil changes. I also discovered a few wks. ago that TPC (who the insurance co. required me to have remove the engine) did not properly tighten the small oil filter and it was dripping. So some of my oil consumption was due to that, until I discovered and fixed it. Overall, I couldn't be happier with my engine's performance and oil consumption.

dhicks

Thanks Rick.....funny about the loose oil filter, I had exactly the same when I bought the car...oil changed by Porsche main dealer and they did not tighten up, hence worrying drip when I first got car...ASG found it when the car was in with them for new LFW/ clutch.

Mark in Baltimore

David,

Regardless of the cause, that's some great news for you in what has been a bit of a problem-child car for you.

Watch My 6

I've been watching every CEL thread closely ever since I've recently started getting the dreaded 'light from hell' on my '96 C4S. I started using only Chevron along with a bottle of 20 gal Techron as well and it usually clears up for a while. I've only got 31K on the clock and I don't really 'baby' the tach so I've been trying to monitor the conditions under which it seems to appear.

So far, my light seems to come on while I'm cruising along on the freeway with fairly steady RPM's; just under 4K or so. I have not checked the codes yet because it disappears within 100 or so miles after filling up and a bottle of Techron.

The whole situation really irks me because it seems to be a design flaw that should be acknowledged and rectified by Porsche. If it happened to be something that jeopardized our safety instead of our wallets, I'm sure it would be a completely different story. I owned a Boxster S and I was always looking for seeping oil which would indicate the classic 'RMS' issue. However, it was under warranty so at worst I would receive a repair or new engine at no cost.

Problem is, my '96 C4S is not under warranty and I would feel much better if I knew that $5K - $6K worth of repairs would make the problem go away for at least 100K more miles. Alas, this doesn't seem like it's the case given all the feedback I've read from this board.

Pisser is, I can afford to (and do) fastidiously maintain my vehicles, so WTF? This is an elusive issue that is clearly design-related and something that Porsche should fricken own up to and fix. I'm sure many others share my same feelings.

Is there ANYthing we can do other than 'just suck it up'? Wouldn't that be great if there were some small monthly 'CEL' insurance premium we could pay?

WM6