Porsh-uh

2nd day of owning my 986... the check engine light comes on. SIGH. Probably no big deal, but still annoying. Anyway- so is there anyway I can diagnose this myself. I suppose I'll need some sort of code reader. Where is the best place to pick one up. Also... anyone know of a good independent in the Monterey, CA area?

Loren

Just drive to your nearest Autozone parts store. They will loan you one to read your codes in the parking lot.

If you can make it to Santa Cruz - go to Fastlane talk to Tim Benson.

Tim Benson's Fastlane Porsche Repair
2831 Soquel Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
(831) 477-7510
tim@fastlanesc.com

Porsh-uh

I appreciate the heads up about AutoZone, Loren. I went by there and they gave me the "we're not supposed to do this" line for about 5 secs and then let me borrow it. The codes came up P1128 and P1130. Both related to Mixture/Air Flow. Anyone got any ideas what might be up? I remeber reading on here about a self-fix related to this issue in the MAF Sensor.

Loren

Could be a dirty MAF, or an air leak (like a cracked AOS, oil filler pipe, etc. , etc.).

Macster

CARB emissions certification. If car is turning on CEL then it will not pass emissions.

Anyhow, with both of those error codes generally the cause is a MAF.

If running an aftermarket air filter sometimes excessive oil from the filter or too much dust making it past the filter will foul the MAF enough to cause it to fail to measure air flow accurately.

'course, there's alway just age. MAFs do not last forever. But I wouldn't replace it until I had confidence it was in need of replacing.

If dirty, or if dirt suspected, sometimes a cleaning can help. Sometimes though the problem lies elsewhere. My experience was a leaking oil tube filler cap.

Another possiblity is a failing air/oil separator.

However, before I started working on car I'd ensure that the seller wasn't obligated to correct anything that could cause the car/engine to fail CARB emissions compliance.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Porsh-uh

Thanks for the info, Macster. I started by clearing the code and seeing if it comes back because it was not running rough or anything. So far, so good. I'm thinking it could be the MAF starting to get dirty. We'll see.

geoff w

I recently went through the CEL and MAF process. First time I ever accessed the engine compartment. The best writeup I found was Mike Focke's at http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/ch...sairflowsensor

Once you figure it out, replacing the MAF is extremely easy, even if you're not overly gifted in terms of mechanical ability. First time I cleaned the MAF, and after the CEL stayed off for a few tanks of gas, I ordered a new MAF from Sunset in Oregon and replaced the old one and have had no more CEL problems.