Lonny88

Gentleman, It's taken some time and I've pulled a few teeth but I finally got an answer from technical on the "system failure" issue. After doing the repairs on Jay "DJ23" and Gary R's vehicles, of which they both had the same complaint but different faults, I was enlightened by the goo roo's at technicial who were enlightened by the" know it all's" in the father land. The issue is not with static electricity due to rubbing wax into a frenzy on the hood of your vehicle, nor is it an infestation of water because you just can't get your 997 clean enough, lol. Apparently the problem is that when the front control unit, one of the eleventeen control units that the vehicle has, contracts a fault it has a tendency to ignore communication signals thru the "CAN" line causing a c127 fault. When three or more control units see this fault the instrument cluster throws up a red flag known as the "system failure". Once the fault is repaired, usually an incoherent microswitch signal, the front end control unit resumes communication with the rest of its electrical family. I've been assured that the problem will be rectified in the future but as to when only the furor knows, lol.
Thanx and love your technician,
Lonny

SrfCity

Thanks for that info. Jeez, with all that wizardry it'll make things fun come the day the car's out of warranty

JFScheck

Interesting, a simular item on the Cayenne has also occured with the sterring angle sensors....

JasonF

That actually raises an interesting question. Assume there's a TSB issued on the problem, but not a recall. Will Porsche fix a TSB-related item under warranty, even if a particular car's warranty has expired?

Speed

I guess this explains why my dealer replaced the microswitch in my 997S when I reported that the trunk lid had popped open on three occasions for no apparent reason even though I didn't get a "system fault" message.

phaedrus242

No warranty=no free fix, tsb or not. Really, a TSB is just a fix for an issue that has come up before. It's not a recall or anything close, mearly an aid for technicians when dealing with a particular problem.

Speed

It's my understanding that a dealer can get approval from Porsche to do warranty type work after the warranty has expired as a matter of customer good will. A lot depends on the willingness of the dealer to go to bat for the customer and the willingness of the PCNA regional rep to approve the work out of warranty. This issue came up a lot with the 996 and the rear main seal problem that many cars suffered from, some multiple times and after warranty.

DJ23

Lonny thanks for informing us all on the system fault. It's nice to see a tech come on the board and explain exactly what is happening. Hope future problems can be avoided.

Jay

Sadiq

bump - i just got this message on my 06 C2S. I was having my tires changed and when I got the car back, i got the message. it's likely that the bozo tech pulled the emergency hood release while searching for the wheel lock key. anybody have this issue on an after-05 model? also, when i turn on my high beams, the hi beam indicator light goes off after a few seconds (Even though the high beams remain on). very strange indeed.