Robin 993DX

Knock on wood I have been lucky with my 993's SAI and CEL issue.

Unfortunately not so lucky with my 996, the CEL came on yesterday and found out it was caused by the SAI on cylinder 2-4-6.

So the 996s have the same issue?

What causes the CEL to go off again? Is it by the 2ndary 02 sensing the mixture is not being leaned out by the extra fresh air of the air pump during cold startup? Sorry I have been away for awhile and is a little rusty with some of the on going issues.

FWIW, the CEL caused by the SAI came on within 1 minute of a cold engine start.

dhicks

Interesting......have you sounded out the 996 board to see if others have the same issue....I wonder if the fact that there are soooooooo many 996's out there, if this is a common problem on them it may (lets hope) force a Porsche fix and we can get in on the act?

dhicks

OK....just saw you did....keep us up to date with the response

g_murray

Well THAT sux!

Was it JUST the one code ...or were there any other codes ...or pending codes ??!!

On the assumption that you don't have any 'extended warranty' or 'dealer warranty' n' such then I would NOT be too hasty in going for the $$$ SAI-flush fandango.

I did a search, myself, a while back, on this and other 99* forums and the SAI-code can ALSO be triggered by bad or weak (rubber) tubing/ducting that's synonymous with the emissions system. SOOOOOO -- please check ALL 'ductwork' first! ...before you blame our black friend ...Mr. Carbon.

G.

Robin 993DX

There were two error codes generated
(1). SAI
(2). SAI - cylinder 2 - 4 - 6

The CEL caused by the SAI came on right after a cold start up, the only thing different I did during this routine start was that I punched the gas a pedal a little harder on take off..........

So far many have responded from the 996 side, so that's hope this is an isolated incident.

hoggel

I heard from a source I consider to be reliable that the Boxster and the 996 use the same check valve as the 993 except those cars have an electronic check for the function of the checkvalve. According to the source, if the checkvalve fails it throws a CEL. He said that is how they know that the valve should be replaced at 15k to 20k intervals, because they started seeing CELs on the Boxster.

Robin 993DX

Update:

I guess the SAI issue for the 996 was a fluke for me, after reseting the code it hasn't come back yet. Again I think it was user issue, too much gas when engine was cold.... regardless, I dumped in some super strong fuel injector cleaner yesterday. Sorry don't know what it is called, my mechanic friend told me that stuff was like $300 a gallon but it works really good.... Stuff was really thick kind of like glue...

Laura

Robin,
The info is correct the 996 and 986 both use the same valve, the 986 an additional valve also that should be changed at scheduled intervals. On your 996 when the CEL pops up for SAI, many times it is a vacuum leak, not the valve failing. Sometime it is just a burp in the system, clear the fault, won't see it again for months, sometimes never. SAI flush is not required for these cars.

hoggel

Thank you for the help with my car Laura. The CEL with SAI fault on my 993 was a vacuum leak.

Robin 993DX

Laura, so what exactly sets the check engin light off for the 2ndary air injection error? What sensor?

GeoT3

Robin,
Welcome back... We missed you! Hope you are doing well! Love your site.

George

viperbob

Only 986s through '99 use the 993 check valve.

Kevin Reilly

Just popping back into this forum after a long absence...will note that the SAI problem is getting a lot of play on E39 M5 boards as well. For those cars, the price tag of a "fix" is $8,000.