Macster

Out of town overnight staying at a motel and I parked the car outside and uncovered and it rained pretty good last night.

Got in it this AM and engine started up just fine and engine ran just fine while I ran about Santa Clara down into San Jose and back again on personal business. Then after my errand was done in Santa Clara I headed to the office, and the car drove ok from Santa Clara to my office in Hayward. In plenty of rain and on very wet roads.

Once at work I parked the car outside and uncovered for around 5 hours, still raining pretty good.

When I went out for lunch shortly after I started the engine check engine light came on.

No untoward behavior from the engine, just one second the light was dark, the next it was lit, steady on too not flashing.

Pulled the error codes. P0300 and P0306.

WAG is the engine may be due for new coils (56K+ miles). Didn't clear the error codes to see if they come back. It occurred to me the engine/coils might have gotten wet. I noted when I started the engine this AM (at 4:15am (good grief!)) the serpentine belt squeaked a bit off and on as the engine idled/warmed up and this means water got at least on the belt/pulley. (It does this too when I wash the car even though I am careful to not flood the engine cover with water.)

The car still under CPO warranty (Thank Goodness!) so I'll drop the car off at the dealer Friday AM for diagnosis and repair.

Oh, kind of funny but my 02 Boxster's check engine light has been on for a while and I assumed it was due to a reoccurring P0430 (converter performing below efficiency) error. Related to a project I'm working on I had reason to read the error codes from the Boxster and was surprised to find 5 error codes stored. The P0430 was there of course, as I expected, but the new ones were P0300 and P0302, P0306 and one other misfire code but I can't recall which one now.

So, time for coils for the Boxster too. Trouble is it is out of wrarranty, by nearly 200K miles!

Sincerely,

Macster.

Mikelly

Mac, I suspect it's just "time"... When was the last time they were done?

As an aside, I got a shock three weeks ago when the coil packs on my E36 BMW when bad... Priced them and it turned out they were Way more expensive than the coil packs I priced for my 996TT.

Mike

Macster

Last time? Never. AFAIK (I bought the car used in June of 09 with around 10K miles on it) the coils are original. I had the plugs changed at around 35K miles and at the time I asked the tech to check the coils and advise me if they needed replacing.

He reported back he found no reason to recommend to replace the coils. Up 'til now their performance/behavior has been everything I could want.

For instance, last Saturday afternoon I headed the car down 880 to 101 and then south on 101 and ended up in San Luis Obispo. Sunday I continued south and drove down to 101/405 then turned north on 405 to 99 and then over I-5 (I always when I stop for gas at this station at where 99/I-5 come together I always end up getting turned around and end up on 99 instead of I-5) then up I-5 to I-580 and back to Livermore. Covered I would guess approx. 800 miles and the car ran like a fine watch the whole time.

Called the service manager after I posted and we spoke. He said the shop's very busy (and shorthanded) so while I could bring the car by Friday there's nothing that can be done until next week. The absent tech who's away at training through this Friday will be back on Monday so if I can wait and bring the car in Monday that would be better.

Also, he said the tech has some leeway in approving warranty replacement for more than just the coils pointed to by the misfire error codes, so it is possible I might get more than a one or two replaced under warranty. The ones that aren't covered by the warranty I'll go ahead and have them replaced so the car comes out of the shop with 6 new updated coils.

Boxster needs coils too. I wonder if they're cheaper by the dozen?

Sincerely,

Macster.

MK19

McCaster: Reset the CEL and drive and if this repeats itself, see my post on the fix/improvent for the cam control solenoid valve........this is a dead ringer for what I've now experienced twice. No big deal to fix, but the original trouble shooting was really tough.
MK19

jcb-memphis

MK19, thanks for that...will make a mental note.

Jeff

Fastboy

Every time I bring my car into one of those drive-in car touchless washes with the high-powered sprayers--my check engine goes on--my mechanic resets it and says its nothing to worry about--these cars will do that when a sesnor located somewhere water can get at it gets wet.
Not sure if that helps--but there you go...

Macster

Found your post and saved contents to a file in my Turbo notes folder. Thanks for mentioning it.

However, I'm going to let the service department tech see the error codes as they are. The car is still under CPO warranty and I'm going to let the techs spend whatever time they feel they must in diagnosing this problem.

I didn't have my Obd2 code reader handy (left it in the Boxster... didn't think I'd need it for the Turbo!) to read the freeze frame data but the error popped up just at idle, after a start. If I'm right then I don't think the rpms got high enough to fall into the solenoid problem you covered in the post you mentioned.

But I will keep the possibility in mind and of course I'll run it by the techs.

Sincerely,

Macster.

MK19

CPO......I'd let'em fix it too.
But if it's the broken braket over this valve.........mnake them change both sides, even if you have to pay the $20 for the part........because they just keep failing. I'd consider changing these brakets every 40k miles or so, unless my fix solves it.........I won't know for another 30-50k miles though.

MK

PAULUNM

I just had my mechanic replace both of these brackets while he was in there doing plugs and 997 coils as a preventative measure.

$16 each is pretty cheap insurance.

Macster

Both posts offer good advice. I'll have the brackets replaced.

Stopped in at the dealer Friday AM. Tech said that in order to replace the coils under warranty the error codes would have to be present. When I brought the car in he would perform a Porsche diagnostics scan and not only does this retrieve the OBD2 error codes it also retrieves considerable diagnostics info that is Porsche proprietary.

He mentioned (and I knew this) that if I continued to drive the car the error codes could self-clear.

We talked a bit and I decided to clear the error codes myself.

(Oh, I pulled the freeze frame data and the P0300 error code was the freeze frame cause and the engine coolant temp and rpm reading indicate the misfires occurred at cold idle (1100), just shortly after startup.)

Anyhow, the suspicion is the engine got real wet from sitting outside in the rain overnight and the misfires were from the moisture (water) on the engine/coils.

The tech said that if one or more of the coils was really bad the error codes would return. He said he's seldom found a Turbo coil bad. Now this is partially due I believe to the area in which the dealer is located. We get mostly sunny/clear weather in this area with just a few months of cool/cold weather and rain. We went for instance all of January and a few weeks into February with no rain at all and rather mild temps (in fact on one day the high for the date was broken). But the rains returned a week or so ago and look to last at least through next week.

So, I cleared the error codes and will continue to drive the car. In fact, I have plans to head out in the car this weekend though I don't know where I'll go. But I will go in the Turbo and it will get driven in whatever weather is out there, though I will avoid snow/ice that is present at the higher elevations.

The coils will get every chance to act up again.

Sincerely,

Macster.

PAULUNM

I wonder if one of your coils has a crack, and gets wet, causes misfires....

You can buy 997 coils for less than $300 total, but we're talking 4-5 hours in labor to replace them.

Macster

The coils were ok about 20K miles ago (sometime middle of last year) cause I had the plugs changed then and asked the tech to inspect the coils and advise me if they needed replacing. He said the coils looked just fine.

But that was then. Now? Well, I haven't had the car into for this yet so we don't know what the coils look like now.

But I was told the coils can be replaced under CPO warranty even though the coil's cylinder is not misfiring based on the coil's appearance.

I'll see how the car behaves this weekend. If the coils are bad I suspect misfires will return since the weather is due to be wet and cold this weekend and I intend to be in middle of it with the car as much as possible.

Heading out in fact after I post this reply.

Sincerely,

Macster.

adam_

Really?

CEL goes off, but codes should be retained until reset no matter what.

Is Anthony your tech?

haulinkraut

The way these coils usually fail is by cracking the plastic from the heat of the turbos and manifolds. This exposes parts of the electrode which arcs to the engine head. This arcing reduces the intensity of the spark where it belongs(spark plug). When the engine bay gets wet this arcing gets amplified. Just think that every place the coil is cracked and arcs is taking awy from the strength of the spark at the plug.

jcb-memphis

Ok, if this is a known issue, why not put some sort of heat shield in place...any room?


Just a ?. Don't shoot.


Jeff