Just had my annual trip from the UK to France for the Le Mans 24hr race weekend spoiled by a breakdown yesterday with my 997.1 C2S on our return drive.

I had enjoyed a storming run on some quiet Normandy backroads (long straights, fast open corners and hardly any other traffic) and an excellent lunch stop in a beautiful old French town.

When I returned to the car after lunch, the following happened when we tried to get going again:

• The car would turn over, but not fire;
• A "Systems Failure" warning message came up;
• The "Engine" warning light came on;
• Tried switching off and on again, but the same series of events happened;
• Tried locking and unlocking the car, but this made no difference - always the car will turn over, but not fire, and the above warning message/light came up/on;
• The only other symptom was that the 'frunk' / engine compartment lids wouldn't open. I would lift the switch lever, but nothing happened, no noises or anything.

Fortunately, I was insured for a breakdown, so the car has been recovered to the nearest Porsche Centre, while my son and I were put up in a hotel and repatriated to the UK today.

The Porsche Centre have called to say they will diagnose the problem tomorrow, but I'd like to have some ideas of the possible causes before then (Information is power, as they say, and it would be easy to be taken for a ride). The cost of the repair, getting back to France and me/the car back to the UK is not covered by our insurance, so this is still going to be an expensive problem.

Any ideas, please?

 

How old is your battery? I know it sounds far-fetched, but modern Porsches behave very strangely when the battery is weak.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I don't know, as I haven't had the car long.

However, I always maintain it using a trickle charger and the battery was not raised as an issue at two recent services and a PPI.

It has been charging fine (according to the lights on my trickle charger) and should have been at or near full charge, as I'd driven 100+kms in the morning.

 

That sounds vaguely like, but not identical, to what happened when my high pressure disk pump went. Best of luck dealing with this...T