All off a sudden my 997 won’t start
 

Brought it to work this morning. 2 hours later went to leave and it won’t start.

battery good. Jumping didn’t help.
Dash lights on.
Clutch goes all the way down. Mat not in the way.
When I put the key in, the steering wheel unlocks, but there is no chime when the door is open. Like the car is not seeing the key.
locked and unlocked the doors with the fob.
windows don’t work.
seats do.
conv top does not.

AAA coming to tow it, but I’d rather not bring it to my Indy and pay $2000 for a fuse.

any clues?

sorry for the grammar, on my phone.

Try swapping out key battery?

It could still be a low battery. Modern cars will show many signs of life with a low battery. You may have needed to let it get some charge from the jumper car before trying to fire it up.
Does it turn over, or just silence when you turn the key?

There is nothing when I turn the key. I can’t even open the windows, although there is enough power to move the seats normally. It’s like the car isn’t turning on electrically when I turn the key to the on position. Everything works that doesn’t need the key to be on. Nothing works that needs the key to be “energized”.

There has to be a fuse that controls the initial electrical system when you first turn the key on. It seems that the car is not seeing the key bring turned on, although it does see the key being inserted to unlock the steering wheel.

Or it might be a bad ignition switch. The fact that the “key left in the ignition” chime is not working, but the headlight chime is is telling me the car is not seeing the key.

Do you have a battery charger or can you borrow one? Maybe AAA has one. Check what percentage of voltage is left without car on or ignition. These cars can act very strange electrically when batteries are very low.

This... go have your battery tested before you do anything else.

Too late. I noticed the windows no longer dropping or raising the 1/4" on door open/close so I was thinking battery. I dropped $250 on a new battery after being towed home, but still nothing. I have a feeling something is going to drain this battery quickly, because as soon as I hooked it up a few things "clicked". Still no start. I don't even think my scan tool will work because the key can't be switched ON.

The old battery was down to 8.5V by the time I got the car home. The new one was 12.6 unconnected. It is 12.3 now. The old battery was an expensive AGM from 11/21.

This car had a parasitic drain for a while, but I thought I had fixed it. I've been leaving it off the trickle charge for weeks and even after not starting it for days, it would start right up.

Just swapped it with a new one. Nope.

So with the key out of the car, I disconnected the positive terminal. When I touched it back to the battery, the frunk latch actuated and moved and the passenger wind dropped. I removed it and touched it again and the window dropper more, and more until now it is all the way down but the motor still sounds like it's engaging when I hook up the battery. I went around to the drivers side, opened the door, and the window dropped 2".

I'm going to try and scan it...

But something has to give, my windows are now stuck in the down position and there is no room in the garage for this car.

Sorry to hear this. So strange. Do you have any signs of mice or rats chewing through wires in your frunk or engine bay? Scanner may definitely help, but I have to think some wires got damaged somehow.

Disconnect your battery (just the negative terminal is fine.) Leave it disconnected for 15 minutes or so. Then reconnect it.

This may help restore proper operation of the car.

Magic 8-Ball says:


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...eaf7786410.jpg

No mice damage. The car is very clean.

You can't even scan the car. The ignition needs to be on for my Autel to recognize the dongle. The ignition is dead electronically. Has to be the switch. Seems this is not a rarity on 996s and 997s.

At least I have a car cover to keep it dry till the switch comes.

I already have the old one out. I disassembled it to see what I could see. Nothing obvious. Could be a component in the discreet circuits.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...67bdea4b12.jpg

I must admit, I'm getting a little tired of these cars. I recently spent $3k getting a NJ inspection sticker on it. As soon as I got the car home from that, the check engine light popped back on within 100 miles. I spent two weeks looking for air leaks only to throw a MAF sensor at it in frustration and it's been 1800 miles and no CEL. Then a few days later the airbag light came on. Didn't even show a code in my scanner. Couldn't clear it because there was no code to clear. But yet the light was on. Brought it to my indy and $2000 later I had a new front impact sensor and no light. The car was great for exactly one day before I started hearing a loud clunk when I turned sharply. I already spent $2k last summer on lower control arms...could be sway bar bushings, drop links, who knows. Good thing I looked in the frunk, because the battery jumped its clamp and was sliding back and forth. If I brought it in it would have cost another $2k for a $7 battery clamp. Got that sorted and now, all of a sudden, it won't start after running fine for a week and not having battery issues for months. It was parked on Main Street in front of my store and we had to stop traffic in both directions to get it on the flatbed. Quite a scene. FWIW I have a Jeep Wrangler with 90k miles that hasn't seen a shop once. Before that it was a 2010 Honda Pilot that also never saw a shop except for a scheduled timing belt.

I also have a 993. It had a conv top issue. After weeks of me tearing things apart, thanks to another Rennlister, it turned out to be a cold solder joint in the roof control box, again a lesser known issue. Cold solder joint...really?

My '76 Coupe is my saving grace. No airbag, no roof, no O2 sensors, etc.

Pardon the rant. Thanks for listening. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Well, I had a slow start issue yet the previous owner had replaced the rear starter wiring harness, which is a thing, and new starter.

I decided to take a look at the other end of the positive cable at the battery. It’s a bad design, a push o connection and mine was pretty corroded .

I removed the fitting, threaded it, and changed the main positive lead to now have a solid bolt on connection.

might want to take a look at the positive wire from the battery, it’s a lame design.

rich

The clutch interlock switch is a very common problem in the 997s. Keep pushing the clutch to floor to see if the switch will make contact.
It's a fairly cheap part.