I quickly picked my car up from the dealer who wanted to pull the engine to check the cams and solenoids. I took it an indy service place in Ann Arbor. They wanted to start from scratch to diagnose. Here is what they found in one hour of labor. I am very happy with the diagnosis and my new sevice facility.


I test drove the vehicle and it runs very well and makes good power. Vehicle scanned and found zero camshaft trouble codes. I looked at the camshaft live data, there is no issues with either camshaft. The deviation is -0.6. This is not any cause for concern. I will attach a photo of the live data. With the way that the car is running, the fact that there are no trouble codes and the live data on the camshaft positions, I believe that there is no mechanical issues with the camshaft. I think would could possibly be happing is an intermittent faulty camshaft solenoid. At this time everything is working correctly. I will not be able to confirm any solenoid issues without one the solenoids being completely failed.

 

Two quick notes: We assume that the Porsche Dealership did read and clear "all" codes? What CEL codes were tripped previously? How many miles have you put on the car since it was in the Porsche service center?

Secondly: Please realize that camshaft sleeves "can" continue to rotate. They can be rotated slightly open so that the "11 or 21" CEL doesn't trip.
At a minimum I would have swapped camshaft solenoid> this is done to rule out a faulty wiring connection or solenoid.
Post your engine mileage and "all" captured CEL's... Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

 

Here is the earlier ugly story. Spun cams in Detroit-Nearby shops who can fix them - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums
My original shop read the code but didn't try swapping solenoids. Then the Porsche dealer said they had to pull the engine to swap solenoids. The P0021 code only came up once around July 31. After I got the clean bill of health last Friday I have put about 300 miles on the car with no issues. the car has about 79500 miles on it.
If the code does not reoccur will swapping solenoids show anything?
If the cams are actually rotating would the cam readout have gone back to normal? Would I get more P0021 codes?

 

Curious…when they checked for the cam deviation, were they looking through the whole rev range? My understanding is codes can come and go, especially if the oil holes in the cams aren’t completely closed, but a cam deviation will always be there and is most noticeable when revving the engine as the spun cam is very lazy. I only ask because I had a spun cam and never once had a CEL.

- Nick

 

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Can I ask which shop you used in Ann Arbor? I'm looking for a shop to handle my maintenance on a newly acquired 996 turbo. Thanks in advance for your time and reply

 

Arbormotion-Chuck was a pleasure to work with.

 

Also for any one in the Detroit (downriver) area I have a scanner and can check codes and read active cam deviation

 

What is an acceptable range for can deviation?

 

I believe I read up to 5 degrees at one point but not 100% sure on that.