Faulty auxiliary belt causing engine limp mode
06-10-2022, 03:41 AM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Faulty auxiliary belt causing engine limp mode
I saw this on Facebook and have asked the person if they are on Rennlist. They haven’t replied. When they do, I will let them do their own thread. In the meantime, here is the story.
Well that’s been a bit of a roller coaster 3 months…!
In early April this year after about a two year hunt for “the one” I handed over my money to Cameron Porsche, a largish independent Porsche dealer near Bath. The car was serviced, MOTd and polished up for me ready for collection. Less than an hour after pickup while driving home the engine started misfiring and lost virtually all power. Cameron’s recovered the car and told me they would have it back to me after I returned from my Easter holiday which I was about to go on.
When I did return the car, sadly, wasn’t fixed. It was throwing pages of error codes. They had already changed a number of items including coil packs and solenoid valve lifters, but still the car was throwing faults and going into limp mode within a short few miles of being driven.
It could take a while to literally replace all of the items it could be so they gave me a 718 Cayman S as a loan car.
After considerable exploration and a number of components being changed without success, it was concluded that it must be a software issue so the car was packed off to an OPC to have the DME software reinstalled. The next day, the OPC said this had fixed it and it was ready for collection. Within a few miles, the problem was back.
Tim, Cameron’s chief mechanic said literally the only thing they hadn’t change that it could be was the DME itself. A new one was ordered from Porsche. A couple of weeks later, that was fitted and it was sent back to the OPC for a further software update. The OPC called and said it had been a success, the fault was gone… you guessed it, 8 miles later the fault was back. That was on Monday this week and was a considerable problem for me: I was due to drive to France on Thursday to kick off a construction project in the alps.
Simon, the boss man at Cameron’s called and said they were out of ideas, that they didn’t know what to do with it, and that I could have my money back on return of the loan car. We agreed I would take it back today (Thursday). On Tuesday I desperately began the search for another Spyder.
I got up today ready to take the drive down to Bath and get my money back. Shortly after I did, I received a call from Simon at Camerons. Incredibly, Porsche had released a technical bulletin saying that a number of cars appear to have been adversely affected by the fitment of a new auxiliary belt which was slightly out of spec. It was recommended that the air con auxiliary belt be replaced.
My understanding is that the out of tolerance belt was causing some engine vibration at precisely 2900rpm, that the ECU was recognising that there was vibration but not where it was coming from, and as a result was throwing fault codes on any item it thought could be causing the problem and throwing the car into limp mode (presumably to protect it from engine damage).
4 hours later a new auxiliary belt has been procured and fitted. REsult? Problem solved. And after a day of testing, still no problem has appeared.
So 3 months later my little red 987 made it all the way back to Birmingham (via a somewhat circuitous route) and is now safely tucked up in my garage ready for a trip down to the alps this Sunday. And the only sad news is that I now don’t need the spotless 5000 mile 981 Spyder that I found at the OPC in Porsche and had persuaded myself I did need.
What did I learn from this experience…? First thing is, buying from a reputable dealer is key. If I’d bought privately this would have cost me 8-10k to fix. Secondly, Cameron’s are fabulous. They kept me up to date, lent me a virtually new loan car while my 12 year old was playing silly bvggers and made it clear that I could opt to have my money back at any time. And today, when I collected and said I was a little nervous the problem might come back, Simon gave me a 6 month guarantee that they would sort it if it did. As the old saying goes, don’t judge people because something goes wrong, judge them by how they put it right when it does. For me, Cameron’s probably just gained a client for life.
Well that’s been a bit of a roller coaster 3 months…!
In early April this year after about a two year hunt for “the one” I handed over my money to Cameron Porsche, a largish independent Porsche dealer near Bath. The car was serviced, MOTd and polished up for me ready for collection. Less than an hour after pickup while driving home the engine started misfiring and lost virtually all power. Cameron’s recovered the car and told me they would have it back to me after I returned from my Easter holiday which I was about to go on.
When I did return the car, sadly, wasn’t fixed. It was throwing pages of error codes. They had already changed a number of items including coil packs and solenoid valve lifters, but still the car was throwing faults and going into limp mode within a short few miles of being driven.
It could take a while to literally replace all of the items it could be so they gave me a 718 Cayman S as a loan car.
After considerable exploration and a number of components being changed without success, it was concluded that it must be a software issue so the car was packed off to an OPC to have the DME software reinstalled. The next day, the OPC said this had fixed it and it was ready for collection. Within a few miles, the problem was back.
Tim, Cameron’s chief mechanic said literally the only thing they hadn’t change that it could be was the DME itself. A new one was ordered from Porsche. A couple of weeks later, that was fitted and it was sent back to the OPC for a further software update. The OPC called and said it had been a success, the fault was gone… you guessed it, 8 miles later the fault was back. That was on Monday this week and was a considerable problem for me: I was due to drive to France on Thursday to kick off a construction project in the alps.
Simon, the boss man at Cameron’s called and said they were out of ideas, that they didn’t know what to do with it, and that I could have my money back on return of the loan car. We agreed I would take it back today (Thursday). On Tuesday I desperately began the search for another Spyder.
I got up today ready to take the drive down to Bath and get my money back. Shortly after I did, I received a call from Simon at Camerons. Incredibly, Porsche had released a technical bulletin saying that a number of cars appear to have been adversely affected by the fitment of a new auxiliary belt which was slightly out of spec. It was recommended that the air con auxiliary belt be replaced.
My understanding is that the out of tolerance belt was causing some engine vibration at precisely 2900rpm, that the ECU was recognising that there was vibration but not where it was coming from, and as a result was throwing fault codes on any item it thought could be causing the problem and throwing the car into limp mode (presumably to protect it from engine damage).
4 hours later a new auxiliary belt has been procured and fitted. REsult? Problem solved. And after a day of testing, still no problem has appeared.
So 3 months later my little red 987 made it all the way back to Birmingham (via a somewhat circuitous route) and is now safely tucked up in my garage ready for a trip down to the alps this Sunday. And the only sad news is that I now don’t need the spotless 5000 mile 981 Spyder that I found at the OPC in Porsche and had persuaded myself I did need.
What did I learn from this experience…? First thing is, buying from a reputable dealer is key. If I’d bought privately this would have cost me 8-10k to fix. Secondly, Cameron’s are fabulous. They kept me up to date, lent me a virtually new loan car while my 12 year old was playing silly bvggers and made it clear that I could opt to have my money back at any time. And today, when I collected and said I was a little nervous the problem might come back, Simon gave me a 6 month guarantee that they would sort it if it did. As the old saying goes, don’t judge people because something goes wrong, judge them by how they put it right when it does. For me, Cameron’s probably just gained a client for life.
The following 2 users liked this post by John McM:
Schwinn (06-10-2022),
vanlieremead (06-10-2022)
06-10-2022, 10:44 AM
#2
Rennlist Member
Wow! Thanks for posting.
This seems like the automotive equivalent of the butterfly effect.
This seems like the automotive equivalent of the butterfly effect.
The following users liked this post:
John McM (06-10-2022)
