fastm3

Gorgeous day today, so I washed the car, sprayed it with some Wolfgang Instant Detail Spritz (great stuff by the way), and decided to go for a nice Sunday drive. While driving I noticed that I couldn't change the CD track, nor do anything else with the head unit, including turn it off. Nothing worked, except for the volume control. In fact, the music stayed on even after I turned the car off.

Figured maybe the head unit needed to be "reset", so I took the appropriate fuse out, and let it sit for 5 min. After I put the fuse back, the same issue. Then, while driving I get a check engine message, and the engine starts running very rough. I limped the 5 miles or so back home, but I could hardly more than 25mph the whole way.

I plan to have it towed to the dealer tomorrow to have the fault codes read. Any idea what it might be though? Most probably something electrical, especially since the head unit is effected as well? Probably a control unit of some sort.....?

Any ideas or guidance would be appreciated.

sbpsu354

How old is your battery? My 2010 C2S started acting weird when the original battery was getting weak. The radio would take longer than normal to come back on after cranking the motor which was cranking slower than normal. The AC even delayed coming on for a while. A new battery brought the car back to life and the small related issues were completely gone.

fastm3

The battery is only about 2 years old, so that shouldn't be the issue.

jhbrennan

If you want help you should tell us about your car - model, year, etc. Also, 2 year old batteries are known to fail.

fastm3

2006 997 Cab

Spiffyjiff

i always like to blame the MAF (and for good reason in most cases!). you can test by unplugging it and starting up to see if idle is still rough.

actually, there was another recent thread on here or 6sp about a just-washed car having the same rough idle issue and the hypothesis was a possible cracked coil? i.e. water may have gotten in and initiated the problem. interesting thing though is your radio issues. when you wash your car how much water seeps into your batt tray? maybe it's not draining as it should and/or getting to sensors andwires that are exposed?

too bad you dont know anyone with a durametric to check the codes before you tow.

fastm3

Thanks Spiffyjiff.

What's a MAF and how do I unplug it?

I'll check the battery area for wetness. We've had huge rain storms in the past few months and it's never been an issue. I don't know how my wash would have gotten sensitive components wet, but I guess anything is possible.

USMC_DS1

Check for dampness in the carpeting of your cab. There are drain lines throughout the car which if plugged up due to debris has been known to cause electrical problems as water will collect inside the cab... a variety of strange electric issues will ensue. +1 a two year old battery can fail especially if you don't have it on a trickle charger.

fastm3

Yes I know all about that USMC. The previous owner hadn't bothered with cleaning out the drain lines, so last year, a few months after I bought my car, after a rain storm water collected under the driver's seat and fried a control module. Cost me around $1400 to have the carpets taken out, dried, and the control unit replaced. Of course (the dealer) did clean out all the drain lines afterwards, as far as they told me. I just rechecked and all the carpets are indeed dry. I know there are a bunch of different control modules, controlling various things. Perhaps another module is effected this time?

If the area around the battery gets a little wet, could it possibly cause these types of issues? Also, the car always starts right up, but in a slightly lethargic fashion. I always attributed that to the known 997 battery cable issue, but maybe in reality it's the battery. It's a Porsche battery; does anyone know how long the warranty is on these?

USMC_DS1

Well, we're all really guessing here until you can get a Durametric tool to pull some error codes to help narrow down the likely problem area. A lot of different potential things could be going wrong here. One guess would be a possible issue with the ignition coils. Perhaps you have old(cracked) coils and some water got on them after the car wash. Or possibly a drained battery... any auto store could check it for you. Worst case scenario the p-dealer addressed some of your prior water damage issues but there are still some lingering electrical connectors/harnesses affected which were not discovered. Rusted connection points tend to behave erratically. Or worse yet... all of the above. Time to start troubleshooting and isolate the various possibilities or get it back to the p-dealer for them to troubleshoot for you. GL and post the results.

fastm3

Good guess, USMC! According to the dealer all signs point to cracked coils. They want to replace the plugs while they're doing them, which makes sense. Their estimate for this work is $1200. Is that in line? Should I have them do anything else while they're in there?

Just when I think the car is running great and start to feel good about its reliability, I get hit again with another grand and change. I wonder what's next.....

yardpro

Your car is 7years old.....exact plastic and rubber bits to start going....

ANYTHING at the dealer will be steep.... start looking for a good Indy...
We had a parking brie shoe come loose on our way to Florida for a cruise in January on the wifes jaguar....
Cost $1300.00 for new shoes nd rotors.... twice what a good Indy shop would charge.....but had house them that day....

P cars are really very reltable for the performance they produce...

They are not a Toyota...so expect maintenance....especially as they age...

Mileage has less of an effect on rubber and plastic parts than mileage, so even if you keep miles down, exact issues here and there

USMC_DS1

$1,200 is typical for a p-dealer. As a reference point the parts(plugs and coils) cost ~$300 if you prefer to DIY. There are several DIY write-ups. https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ech-index.html Try asking the p-dealer for a free oil change while they still have it up on the rack.

fastm3

Well, $1200 later she's back home, with 6 new coils and plugs. Turned out 4 of the 6 were cracked! Incredible that it ran as well as it did, with 4 cracked coils. I wouldn't necessary say it now runs a whole lot better/smoother for feels faster. It might, but it's not discernable to me anyway. Maybe I'll get better mileage, who knows.

I guess the silver lining is that the car is now 7 years old has about 35,000 miles. I probably had to get the coils and plugs replaced at the 40,000 mile mark anyway, so now that service should be a bit less painful.

Thanks guys for all your help and insight.

Oh btw, the radio issue was obviously unrelated. There were no faults stored in the PCM, so they apparently just disconnected it and reset it, and it's now OK. According to their notes "if the problem comes back will need PCM $3395 parts and labor"!!

Don't really know what to say about this, except to say that I hope it doesn't come back!! $3395......jeez

USMC_DS1

Good to see your car back in good order... should the PCM go out you can send in to PCM and get it repaired for a few hundred bucks from Becker. http://www.beckerautosound.com/Porsc...6644_6642.html Another alternative would be to go with an aftermarket unit but then you would lose some of the PCM functions of which I believe that a Durametric Professional tool would address much off.