f1pilota

I had a problem of the front fog lights not turning on as well as the trunk lights. Here was the fix:

Porsche tech had to do the following:

(no fault codes were INITIALLY found)

1: headlights needed to be recalibrated (maybe due to previous owner lowering)

2: once the headlights were recalibrated to level the computer showed fault codes

3: tech reset lighting fault codes which restored fogs and trunk light.


He said that if the headlights come out of alignment the default for the computer is to shut down the non essential lights. Strange but it fixed my issue. Hope this helps someone else out there.

Kind Regards,
Christopher

cuttinsod

interesting..thanks!

Minok

That seems like a bone-headed maneuver. Why does shutting down on-essential lights help in any way?

And why not throw a fault code for the lights being out of alignment?

Seems like a firmware problem in the computer system from Porsche.

So the answer is, with any lighting quirk, they should realign the headlamps because that may be cascading an issue down to other lights.

f1pilota

It seems really stupid to me honestly and rather hard to believe. It did fix my problem though. It's the kind of thing I would expect from a quirky Italian car...

Moral to the story.... Try realigning your headlights when you have lighting issues... It just might work.

simsgw

Caused the driver to notice a problem and the tech manual told the mechanic the first thing to check? I suspect the penalties for misaligned Xenon lights are stiff in Germany, so they chose something more obvious and less easily ignored than a "check lights" light.

Gary

f1pilota

Interesting point....

Edgy01

My how these things are complicated.

Minok

I'd think that would be unlikely.. but maybe I'm not the typical behavior the designers would expect. If my trunk light stopped working, I'd tend to back burner it as "I'll get to it one day". If the instrument cluster indicated "Headlights out of alignment - visit garage" or something.. I'd actually do something about that.

The cars have a text based message display system for faults and notifications.. would they really design it to indicate a fault by not using any in-dash display of a fault, but by shutting down other non-defective functions?

alexb76

100% agreed.

It doesn't make any sense at all. Throw a code, and dash light, so the driver takes it in to align Xenons! simple really! I get a code when my indicator light's out, when my TPMS isn't working, etc... this could just work the same way.

PS. This actually remind me of my Computer Science classes back in 2000-2001, one thing we were taught was to use more specific language while designing our code for bug reports. For instance, if a module failed, don't say "Class xxx.cpp failed", say something more meaningful like "Database access to xxx failed"... something that still is not practiced very well in the industry. Like all the stupid error codes we get when things fail on PCs, mobile phones, etc...

f1pilota

I agree with you both but it is exactly what happened and I can refer you to the tech at Porsche North Houston... It was bewildering. My trunk light and fogs didn't work... Period. No fault warnings. That's why I brought it in. I thought it was quite stupid too! And everyone runs Ferraris down... Pffft.

Coug4

I think I am a victim of this problem. Frunk light is out; Fog lights are out. Durametric test of the fog lights and the Frunk light checked out ok so this seems to be a control issue. I could use some help as I am new to this particular car. Can I do a headlight adjustment and calibration?

Thanks;

Steve