06_Black_C4S

2006 C4S 3.8 engine, ~ 82K miles, weekend toy, runs fine.

Flashing check engine / visit workshop message accompanied by nasty internal metallic noises about 1:30 minutes into an otherwise normal start-up sequence on Saturday morning. Immediate shut down. Restarted 15 minutes later and videoed the experience. Same exact results; same quick shut down.

Flat-bedded the car on Monday to the same Porsche dealer facility it's been serviced at for the past eight years. Tuesday's diagnosis: Bank 1 VarioCam Plus solenoid actuator failure.

No collateral internal damage due to quick shut downs and flat-bedding precautions. Luckily this all occurred inside my garage, not on the road.

Repairs QED and not too costly, all things considered.. The car will be ready tomorrow.

(Wanted to post the failure video here for educational purposes, but the forum's file upload function is not working for me).

Spiffyjiff

interested to see / hear the vid...

Petza914

Post the video to YouTube then link to it here.

06_Black_C4S

I've tried. Video files are too big -- even edited down in size -- to post on this forum. And, YouTube is having known global account access issues these days that only YouTube can fix ... after you ask the help desk, they think about it and then respond. No time for that.

Throw a handful of nuts and bolts into a metal pot, shake it back and forth. That's pretty much what a 3.8 engine with a failed VarioCam solenoid actuator sounds like at idle speed.

I am picking up the repaired vehicle this afternoon. If YouTube sorts its problems out in the near future, I'll upload the video there and post the URL here.

Petza914

I hope that's really all it was. A noise as you describe and a constantly flashing CEL usually describes the "death rattle" from timing chain tensioner and/or paddle failure. Looking forward to seeing your post pick-up report post and eventually the video.

06_Black_C4S

Referencing the event's unedited 2 minute video, here's the YouTube link:
(FedEx Overnight shipping snafus delayed the new solenoid's delivery from Porsche's Atlanta parts center for a couple of days. Switching to UPS, the dealer expects the part to be delivered this morning, so the car should be repaired, tested and ready to be picked up this afternoon).

Had the in-depth talk with the dealer's service manager about this incident. It wasn't a snapped timing chain, etc., etc. Bank 1 cylinders misfiring madly? Yes.

There are no guarantees in life, but I was assured from a technical standpoint that this event was not a prelude to catastrophic engine failure down the road.

On the other hand, I admit that while waiting to find out what went wrong, I thought about what my next move would be if the dealer determined the engine was irreparably damaged. I'm familiar with the various options, and no matter which one you choose, it's costly.

Petza914

That noise would have had me crapping my pants - glad you're calmer than I. It's interesting that the noise doesn't start for a couple minutes. When my cam position sensor on that same side (Bank 2) went bad, the car would also run fine for a couple minutes during the warm-up protocol and then start misfiring badly on just those 3 cylinders. I say interesting because I guess the engine doesn't open the loop to enable either the Variocam solenoid nor the cam position sensors until after the start-up enrichment phase is completed.

Looking forward to your all-good report later today !

Thanks for sharing the video.

06_Black_C4S

The car's back in the garage. No drama. Looking forward to driving it this weekend.

Hope the video and narrative are helpful. Waited to learn the dealer's diagnosis and repair plan before starting this thread or attempting to post the video.

Throwing this kind of 997.1 incident report and video onto the internet and inviting opinions/ advice on what the problem might be in advance of hearing from the car's mechanic often seems to generate a lot of confusing speculation.

Petza914

Black, wanted to check back in on this thread and verify all is still good and it was just the variocam solenoid that was the root of the problem. Hope so.