Red1

'08 957S, 55K miles

Drove to gym yesterday. Came back out and nothing. Turn key and get absolutely nothing.

12.34V to the terminals in the engine bay. I have lights/radio/etc.

Cannot shift into N.

Any ideas?

Sniffer

Starter?

Starter Relay?

Key contacts?

Broken wire between any of those components?

Red1

I'll try a relay

19psi

If it's the same as the 955, you should be able to shift into neutral with the ignition on and your foot on the brake. That should at least point towards something like the ignition switch or relay and rule out the expensive and pita to access starter.

Red1

That did not work.

As for update, car was towed to dealership Friday. Thankfully the second tow truck driver knew what he was doing and showed me the neutral switch in the console.

Dealership just called. All they can say at the moment is they still have no idea what's wrong with it.

The silver lining to this cloud is I was planning a trip this summer with this car. If this had happened at a fuel stop in BFE I would have been well and truly hosed. As it is I'll be inconvenienced out of the money it will take to fix this, but as soon as it gets back it's getting traded off. May have a Durametric for sale soon. Used once.

Andy E.

Similar event happened to me a few years back. It turned out to be a corroded CAN-BUS connector under the driver's carpet caused by a blocked sunroof drain.

The difference was that I could still start the car but couldn't shift out of Park. Also, the MFI lit up like a christmas tree showing multiple faults and the car would not shift out of 3rd gear.

Red1

Well, by the end of the day no change in status. Dealership still stumped. Apparently they have several hours into diagnostics and at the moment have no idea what's wrong with it.

They've asked for a blank check to start tracing wires. At one point the service advisor opined that it may be the immobilizer, and that this could easily get into the $10K-$15K range to repair. I made it clear I will NOT be authorizing that kind of money. If that's my option I will scrap the car. I made one call to a well known breaker but they're not really interested in Cayennes. Can't say I blame him.

Between a rock and a hard place. Stone-dead car and nobody has a clue what's wrong with it. 55K miles, very good condition, and worth it's weight in scrap. I didn't think it possible, but this has superseded my E46 BMW as the worst car I've ever owned.

Sniffer

I don't think its the immobilizer

As I understand it the immobilizer lets the car start, checks the transponder chip within a second or two and if its incorrect it kills the engine again

I know this is how it worked on VAG cars I`ve owned, *could* be different for Porsche and if the car has KESSY then that may change things too

Torre

I'm pretty sure they just want to get rid of your car as they are unable to find the problem. Nobody can give a quote like that without having any idea whats wrong.

btw, my e46 was also my worst car ever. When the dealership could not figure out whats wrong with it they also started mentioning like "next step is to take the whole engine apart now", just to get me out the door.

DWPC

Other cars have similar issues caused by embedded security systems. Disconnecting the battery for a while to allow all the processors to reset to default usually clears it. Failing that, I'd find an automotive electrical specialist; sounds like the dealer's techs have exhausted the troubleshooting database and are just flailing...at $150/hr.

Sniffer

Must be a BMW thing - my E53 X5 was by far my worst ever

It had horrible reliability and I found it terrible to work on

By contrast I like how the Porsche is laid out and find it quite easy

Sniffer

Its a tough call but in this instance I think I`d agree

In theory the dealership (i.e. - the people with the most experience and best resources on the particular brand) should be your best bet for a tricky fault but yours do not inspire confidence

Like in any walk of life there are varying quality of people with varying strengths

I also see it from both angles - they're a business and so can't be spending a ton of time on something without getting reimbursed but by the same token its wrong to expect a client to pay for countless hours of diagnosis so their techs can learn, so in that respect its luck of the draw - you could walk into another dealership where a tech has seen this exact problem before and has it diagnosed in an hour.

When I lived in Europe I used a VAG specialist that I could call and describe the symptoms to and 9 times out of 10 he could pin point it right there

With the sort of rhetoric you are getting from you're dealership I would be inclined to look elsewhere

5thlilpiggy

I don't know if the 957 is the same, but the PO of my 955 had a "can't get out of park" issue.

It also turned out to be wiring under the drivers carpet (winter road salt on shoes = corrosion).

Sniffer

Yeah, thats a good point - that connection under the floor is well known to be problematic (the loom gets wet and corrodes the soldered connections - 957 is the same as 955)

I would be very surprised if a dealership didn't check this as a first step however but its not beyond the realms......

Red1

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to keep this up through the finish so it'll be in archives if somebody does a search on no-start conditions later.

A friend pointed me to this thread: http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/c...ont-start.html I found it interesting.

As of end of the day today, dealership has thrown ball in my court. They have no clue. So, after reading the discussion above, my theory is that the problem lies in the steering column. The car recognizes the key, throws no codes, just simply won't start. Has power. What it does not do is unlock the steering wheel when the key is introduced.

I thought about it. Everyone has turned a key in a conventional ignition only to run into the steering lock. A jiggle of the wheel and you're able to start the car. This ignition doesn't work like that, and doesn't give you a balky key to clue you into the problem. It can't be bypassed so conveniently.

No car will start with a locked wheel. This car isn't throwing codes because it is in a normal condition - engine off, wheel locked. The engine won't start until I resolve the locked wheel. So I authorized the order of a new steering column and control unit. They made it clear in no uncertain terms this is my call, and they are taking no responsibility if it doesn't resolve the problem. (Remember, they've offered NO solutions yet themselves and it's been dead for a week.)

To be honest my faith in their ability to install the new components correctly is actually quite low. This is my Hail Mary throw. At this point I'm probably looking at a $5K repair bill, at a dealership that is giving me no confidence whatsoever. What a disaster.