JFP in PA

Don't necessarily agree with that, we have caught some real duds being passed off as "pristine". A couple of my personal favorites was a beautiful C4 with a 2.7L Boxster engine in it, and an early Boxster that had severely cracked engine bulk heads (major structural members, hidden under new paint) from running 19" wheels on the car. Both sellers were asking top dollar for the cars.

Most of this stuff is not all the uncommon. You did not say how many miles are on the car, but the coils age on these things, then crack, and can suddenly fail with no warning. It happens, even on the best maintained cars, nothing unusual here. Your problems with the seats can easily be related to your air bag coding; again, not unusual. Door handle wear related failures are another common issue on the 986/996 cars. A quick search should give you some idea of what is involved if you want to fix this yourself. Even the best PPI won't always catch little things that are close to failure, but have not totally crapped out yet. Coils can let go at any time, door latch assemblies can fail with the next pull. We actually had a car throw a code as we were backing it out after a complete PPI. Turned out to be something small, cheap, and easy to fix, but these things happen with "pre owned" cars. PPI's are designed to catch the big stuff (wrong engine in the car, clutch or trans moments from crapping out, hidden chassis damage, etc.), as well as give the buyer some negotiation leverage based upon the car's condition. But they can't always tell you about what has not happened yet. It is also not unusual for a seller to not want to spend money fixing small but annoying issues before a sale, hoping the car won't act up until after it is sold.

Check and make sure the brake has not picked up a small pebble or other debris which can make all kinds of noise. The larger brake ducts they put on these cars can act like a street sweeper at times.

If you are just replacing the bearing and have not other damage, it should not be necessary.

Sounds completely normal.

Congratulations! Now try to not get too out of control......................... :eek: JFP, There is a suspension cross member which runs across the car in front of the engine. It looks Aluminum. I suspect it is in all 991s. Do you think I could use this as a center rear jack point?? If I bend it it could always be replaced not that I really want to do that. But, the only other place available is the bottom of the engine which everyone agrees is out of bounds. We have only had a handful of the 991's in the shop, and yes, that is an alloy member, so I do not know if it is designed to carry the entire weight of the back of the car. In any case. we do not lift any car with a floor jack under the center; I prefer to use the side rock box lift points using a jacking adaptor plate. The last thing I want to do is bend something on a customer's car...... Those lift points are where I normally use the floor jack with a wooden "hockey puck" The problem is that you can not get a jack stand in there with the floor jack in the way. You can lift and entire 1/2 car at the rears and get jack stands under the fronts. Now, how are you going to get the rear end up?? The rear is partially counter balanced by the car hanging out in front of the front jack stands so it is not as heavy as you would expect. That aluminum cross member is pretty beefy..... My guess is nobody will give me a direct answer not wanting to take responsibility for breaking the car. If you don't knoww the answer the answer is NO. Eventually, enough people like me will lift the cars here to be able to provide an educated answer. **** the torpedos. You can start by jacking up the rear from one side and putting a jack stand (with a rubber hockey puck) under one of the rear suspension mount points. They are already holding up the car's heft when it is sitting on the ground, so sitting on a jack stand should not be a problem for them. Once the rear is up, do something similar up front. Not as fast as picking up the entire butt at once, but functional.

Glad to hear it is finally coming together for you! :thumbup:

Obviously, I have to give that an unqualified "maybe". Electrical problems are nearly impossible to diagnose remotely. A tech should be testing the VarioCam units with a scanner (PIWIS, Durametric) while the car is idling; activation should cause both a jump in cam timing and an abrupt change in the idle as well. If they both do not respond, I would be putting a volt meter on the circuits to see if they are actually getting a signal before tearing the car apart, or you could end up with new units in the engine and still having the same problems.

When you start a dialogue like this one, it is always a good idea to include the car's year and model. That said, I find it a little odd that you suddenly get the same fault code for both banks of the engine; usually parts do not fail this way and the cause is often electrical rather than mechanical. Secondly, the VarioCam solenoids can be done on most models with the engine still in the car by removing the mufflers and the cam covers. To answer your other questions, if I had the engine out, I would recommend updating the IMS, the RMS, and the AOS while it was out. The chains on these engines are pretty durable, which is a good thing as changing them requires taking a lot of things apart to just get at them.

Congratulations! Now try to not get too out of control......................... :eek: JFP, There is a suspension cross member which runs across the car in front of the engine. It looks Aluminum. I suspect it is in all 991s. Do you think I could use this as a center rear jack point?? If I bend it it could always be replaced not that I really want to do that. But, the only other place available is the bottom of the engine which everyone agrees is out of bounds. We have only had a handful of the 991's in the shop, and yes, that is an alloy member, so I do not know if it is designed to carry the entire weight of the back of the car. In any case. we do not lift any car with a floor jack under the center; I prefer to use the side rock box lift points using a jacking adaptor plate. The last thing I want to do is bend something on a customer's car........

Yes the headlight needs to be removed. The corners are really only held in by a little pressure. Once you look at yours you will see a little lip on the bottom. Ignore that, you will need to apply a little pressure to the top part of the corner. Push from the back out and the little plastic pins will pop free, a little oil wont hurt on the pin. Careful when pushing the top pins, because if you go to fast you will crack the little shelf off which holds the bottom of the corner. If you do, don't worry, it will work with the little shelf broken.

On a 996, there are three front water drains in the battery area; left, right, and center. All can be cleaned out by using a vacuum to collect an debris on top, and then blowing compressed air thru them. Because all of them turn to one side or the other, I would not be pushing a "thin metal poker" into them as you could end up piercing the line at the bend. Use air.

The gearbox can also spring a leak where the linkage shaft enters the case. I think you need to get the car up in the air (on a lift) and shine some bright light in there to try to see where it is coming from.

hi , i guess you got me wrong. i would like to know if the fan /resistor is one part or i can get it separate? thank you It varied with the model year, but the ones with resistors external to the fan controller could be replaced separately, but they are pricey (around $100 per).

The test tool is a "air bag simulator" used to test the bag circuits without causing the air bag to go off. OEM procedure is as follows: 1. Remove driver's airbag unit. 2. Attach the special tool 9516 instead of the airbag unit. 3. Clear the fault memory. 4. Check whether the fault appears again. a If the fault does not appear again, replace the airbag unit. b If the fault appears again, disconnect plug connection to the contact unit and attach special tool 9516/1. 5. Clear the fault memory. 6. Check whether the fault appears again. a If the fault does not appear again, replace the contact unit. b If the fault appears again, check the wiring harness for pinches and chafing damage. c If no fault is found on the wiring harness, replace the triggering unit. Proceed as described below to determine whether the fault was eliminated: 1. Clear the fault memory. 2. Switch oft ignition. 3. Remove ignition key. 4. Switch on ignition. You may need to borrow the airbag tool (a special resister in box with the correct connector) or find a shop that has one.

It is possible that could be left over from the last time the gearbox was serviced. Clean the area up, check the box to make sure it is still full, and see if it comes back.

If you have access to the Durametric software, you can switch the fans on and off to test them. You may have a bad relay or a blown resistor on one fan.

Year of the car?

Richard, that is a real find if the data is correct, it retails for around $150 here. http://www.icarsofttools.com/Porsche-iCarsoft-i960-Car-Diagnostic-Scanner-Scan-Tool-Reader_p_17.html

I wasn't saying it cannot be done using sandpaper, but most of the DIY's that we have seen that went very wrong involved sandpaper, while nobody seems to have problems using a fine glass polish and a buffer instead. Sandpaper, even when wet, can cut very quickly and deeply, leaving a real mess to recover, especially when used with power tools; fine glass polish cuts more slowly and in a more controlled manner, so it is more forgiving to first time mistakes.

Griot's fine glass polish, Amazon carries it as well as Griot's website: http://www.amazon.com/Griots-Garage-11074-Glass-Polish/dp/B00AX4TW98/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1402085044&sr=1-1&keywords=griot%27s+glass+polish

Long before I'd take any kind sandpaper to the lights, I would start with an orbital buffer and some fine glass polish (we use Griot's); usually that is all it takes to bring them back to near new condition. Just don't get this stuff on the paint, mask off the lights first.

Isn't the tire size option built into the TPMS on board dash display system? Check your owner's manual for information concerning how to select this option. From a 2011 Cayenne owner's manual (http://www.porscheownersmanuals.com/2011-cayenne/4/123/Tires): "Entering Tire Data and Display Incomplete entries or selection of the wrong tires on the multi-purpose display affect correct indication of warnings and messages. The settings must be updated in the "Tire pressure" menu after changing a wheel, filling with tire sealant or adding air (after previous warning "Tire pressure!"). Please see the chapter "RED WARNING – TIRE PRESSURE!" on page 125. The new tire type and tire size must be selected even if the settings for the new set of wheels are the same as for the old wheels.

Still seems a bit low, try switching oil weights as we discussed.

I would connect a mechanical gauge in place of the sender and see what pressure you are getting. It is entirely possible that you have very low pressure. What oil are you running in the car? The dealership told me they only use 0W40 In that case you could try changing oil and switch to a 5W-40 to see if the pressure changes.