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I recently purchased a Valvetronic Designs exhaust valve controller direct from the company and I have a bit of a problem. I can't get it to work. This is what it looks like.
It does not come with instructions but there is a YouTube video that is referred to that clearly explains installation, which is very simple. My car is a 997.1 GT3 and the one in the video is a .2. The first one I received did absolutely nothing. After contacting Valvetronic, they kindly sent me a second kit which after installed, would click once very sporadically but it would not close the flaps.
After the first one did not work I emailed Valvetronic and a suggestion I received was to ground it to a taillight-?? Nope, that isn't going to happen as the video shows grounding it to one of the passenger side engine mount bolts, which is what I did. The only other connection is to the solenoid that controls the exhaust flaps which is a simple one-minute job. I've disconnected the solenoid it in the past but "flaps open" plus my center muffler delete was not a volume level that I wanted 100% of the time.
My question is, before I return both Valvetronic kits to them for a refund - Has anyone out there had a similar problem? And is there something different about 997.1 GT3 electronics compared to a 997.2 one that could affect the install?
I was thinking the same thing, so I tried grounding it in two additional locations with the same end result.
The video shows it being grounded to the engine mount - which I did in two different places. The "U" ground wire connector is way to small to fit all the way around the engine mount bolt. I widened it enough on the first kit to get what I though was a good ground connection, but no luck.
Based on the advice I received from Valvetronic, I believe that proper grounding is likely the issue but I'm not fooling around with the electrical system to find out.
i'm outta ideas then, sorry! the car uses a negative ground, so any *CLEAN* direct contact with metal will work. you won't hurt anything trying other points. do you have a photo of how you've grounded the valve?
Here's the first one, red collar ground wire on the right rear engine mount. I didn't photograph the other two. The second try was on the opposite bolt on the same mount.
The ground wire isn't very long, so there aren't a lot of grounding choices.
I've had the Carnewal version for years, and I really like it. I had a grounding issue with mine as well in the beginning, and ended up grounding under the bumper, using the torx screw. And for a while it would malfunction until I made sure the ground was good, and used contact cleaner to make sure. The Carnewal has a box/transmitter, from what I see the Valvetronic seems smaller and should be a nice item-look through their website, some cars need a positive feed for it to work, though I'd think that's not the case for 997 cars-
Maybe give them a call to sort it out
A shop installed for me when I was in for service so I can not help with the install question, but just wanted to let you know it works and no issues to date for me. My car is a .2 and it also works via the garage buttons, which is super convenient.
Maybe have them send another unit. That one could have been a lemon
They did send a second unit (which I greatly appreciated) and I tried both of them on all four of the ground locations I tried. It is a simple device and the installation is very easy as well. The white wire is the antenna (I asked) and I wish I could have made one of them work. I was never this frustrated even when I was working on broken Huey helicopters back in my Army days.
07-22-2021, 02:34 PM
Valvetronic Exhaust Valve Controller question
