JFP in PA

A quick question, you said this is a 2000 base Boxster, what scan tool are you using to read the codes you listed?

Anytime, let us know how you make out.

If the battery is below 12.6V, the battery is at least low and needs a recharge, or may need replacing. If the alternator is below 13.6 to 14.5V, the alternator or voltage regulator are bad.

If the system shorted internally, yes, what he describing could occur, but these incidents are rare. But I don't think that is your problem, which is most likely low voltage related. In either case, if you connected a voltmeter directly to the battery terminals (depending upon your model, you may have more than one battery), with the vehicle off you should see 12.6V; with the vehicle running, you should see between 13.6 and 14.5V.

What causes the OEM cables to fail is not the gauge or number of wires, but corrosion build up inside the cable and particularly the cable ends, which causes the internal resistance to go up. The replacement OEM cables designed to address this corrosion issue have something injected into them to retard the corrosion development over time. Welding cable is not treated in this manner and would probably do no better than the original cables.

Just be aware that some IMS fixes are well designed and thoroughly tested, others not so much; and you are betting your $17K engine on the product.

Good luck with this project, it is one that I do not envy. Keep track of what works to get the paper out and what does not, I'm sure someone else will do this again sometime, and you will have literally "written the book" on how to deal with it.

Yes, but you can also do it with a simple hand held volt meter.

It is, but it is also removable and replaceable without getting a new alternator.

Any educated guesstimations? ***** And on the other issue, I'm not having much progress/luck here. From the outset, I mentioned that "I see a lot of people refer to their cars as "2006 MY07". So if a car can have a buld date in 2006 and yet be called a MY07 - then the build year isn't the answer I'm looking for. I think i'm generally pretty good at articulating but maybe the issue is just so simple that people are missing the crux of my question. I just want to know what makes a car an MY07! and "build date" isn't really the answer if you can have both MY07's and MY06's built in Aug 2006. Is "MY07" written somewhere? I thought when "The original paperwork" was mentioned above, that that was the answer to the question and that it would therefore be somewhere in the books - and that therefore was the end of the question. NB: Does "running the VIN" mean via a dealer? I just want to know if there's a simple way you can know for yourself. I'm really not sure what you are attempting to accomplish, but people can say anything they want about their cars; however there is only one correct model year for any given vehicle, which typically listed on the title and registration for the car. If you have the 17 digit VIN for the car in question, you can enter it into Scouser's Porsche VIN Decoder (Documents tab at the top of the page), and it will break down what Porsche thinks the car is, which is pretty much exactly what I would expect the car's title would say. A dealer can also decode the VIN using a different software, but should come to the same results. The only people that have accurate data on the IMS failure rates is Porsche, and they are not talking. We have seen a few, but have no idea if that is representative of the entire population. Any number thrown out is pure speculation.

You need to have the alternator checked for out put, it may be as simple as a bad voltage regulator.

Are there any stats on how much lower? I think I need to clarify what I meant. ... "What lets you know a car is a MY07?" meant ... when buying a second hand 987 privately, what is the thing to look at to determine whether its a MY07? Is it the Servicebook? Something else? Is there any way to tell from a listing or do you need to look at the paperwork? There are no "hard" stats on the final IMS design as Porsche has continued to be tight lipped, so all the information is second hand. But they can and do fail. If you want to know what year Porsche thinks the car is, you need to run the VIN and/or find the build date.

Thanks again Ahsai!. What would have been the harm of it being driven after these happened? :cursing: It should create a major oil leak, with everything that entails. A larger question would be why it happened in the first place, these plugs simply do not fall out on their own.............. That sir is the real question. I do not know what would be the cause. I was at the track autocrossing, did a 360 and did not hit anything. Thats when this all happened. The oil pressure and levels dropped but not to significant levels. There were no alarms or CEL indications. It was drove off the track and retired for the day :( They are metal are they not? So I really don't know how or why it came out. No, they are synthetic rubber or plastic material (flexible) and held in by friction and the sump vacuum:

Thanks again Ahsai!. What would have been the harm of it being driven after these happened? :cursing: It should create a major oil leak, with everything that entails. A larger question would be why it happened in the first place, these plugs simply do not fall out on their own..............

For those that would like to know a bit more about the water pump issues on these cars, the May 2014 issue of Excellence has an in-depth explanation in the "Tech Notes" section, starting on page 36 in the letter titled "Anxious Pump Watcher". A good read........

+1, which is why the part counter guy at your dealer often asks for the car's VIN number, from that he knows exactly what is in the car, regardless of what anyone calls it.

The original paperwork determines the model year, as it is what the state uses to title the car. The M96 vs. M97 depends upon where your head is at; if the possibility of an IMS failure concerns you, a car that can be updated would be preferable. If you are comfortable living with the non-serviceable IMS lower but still persistent failure rates, then the M97 would be fine.

Sometimes when the IMS starts to beat itself to death, one of two things can happen that will cause oil leaks. There is a seal on the IMS bearing center bolt that fails, allowing oil to leak out. In extreme cases, the center bolt can even fail completely, allowing the nut with part of the center bolt to actually fall off and drop to the bottom of the bell housing, which will also allow the oil to leak out:

I sometimes start to get a headache from all the "latest" IMS cures. Couple of points: The oil pump drive shaft is already a weak point in these engines, now you are going to machine away some of its mass to create an oil passageway. Not so sure that is a good idea. Second, this approach will need to flood the entire IMS shaft before the oil even gets to the rear of the IMS bearing, so it will just sit in the shaft, making it heavy and loading the chain cam drive system even further Third, the rear of the IMS bearing is sealed, so unless you are going to take the bearing out and replace it with an unsealed bearing, oil is not even going to reach the IMS bearing. Fourth, the end user needs to make a tool to hammer a 1-3MM opening in the plug in the oil pump end of the IMS shaft; that is a pretty small opening to get with a ground down punch and a hammer, so what happens if it is too big, say 6MM by accident (easy enough to do when you are whacking something with a hammer to get an opening)? No oil pressure perhaps? Yikes! If you have to take the bearing is out, why not just install the proven LN Ceramic kit, which has shown in more than ten thousand installations that it does not need pressurize oil feeds, or any other Band-Aids, and put the car back together? Less complications, proven results...................

Did you mean Suncoast? Sunset Porsche is a RennTech.org board sponsor.

When you get an AOS going south, you really should change everything connected to it as there will be built up oil residue in them. People often skip this to save money, but it is false economy because you usually end up going back and changing it later.

You can also get the same information in the 996 Bentley manual, although they are usually listed in small tables in the section referring to the repair at hand. The Bentley manual is available at the RennTech "store" at Amazon.

Another Regan fan; "Trust, but verify............." :thumbup:

Possibly; high pressure fuel pump issues are fairly well known, fuel intrusion from the DFI is leading to cylinder wall scoring issues, and more importantly there have been some multiple reports of abnormal cam chain wear. If the chain fails, the end result would be the same as an IMS failure. Argh, that's disappointing to say the least. Thanks for the info. I was hoping the 9A1 a bullet proof engine :( The closest thing Porsche has produced to being bullet proof was the Metzger lump (now discontinued) that used to come in the Turbo and GT cars. Brutally strong, and ridiculously expensive; but you could still break it if you really tried. Hopefully the engines in the new 991 cars particularly the Turbos and GTS have been sorted out by now?? At this time, I do not have enough information about what changes were made between the regular 9A1 and the Turbo versions to really be definitive on all the differences; there has to be more than a few, but Porsche has been pretty closed mouth about it. As we get to spend more time with these newer cars, all shall be revealed.... Hopefully WW's influence is wearing off. Porsche is back to racing and hopefully back to making tough cars. I'm sure they have taken the time to strengthen components to withstand the rigors of the Turbo cars and how they are used, but without having seen one example of each engine disassembled side by side, it is often difficult to figure out what they have done.

Very simple: When the AOS fails, it tends to pull a lot of oil into the intake system. There are a myriad of little nooks and crannies where the oil can sit in the intake, so it comes out very slowly over time causing prolonged smoke unless you pull the entire intake off and manually clean it out. thanks for your reply throttle and plenum has been cleaned twice the problem is The oil in TB/PLNUM bcoz of oil coming from vent line and drops in the intake What is the reason for this amount of oil seep out from AOS Through vent line Which cause the oil in TB/intake As I mentioned above to aos Was changed 2 time Is because of bad ring ? Unfortunately, most of the oil from the AOS is inside the intake runners them selves, not just the area behind the throttle body. To get it all out, you literally need to remove the entire intake system and clean it manually. If left alone, it will burn off over time, but how much time depends upon how much oil is in there. If they changed the vent line when they did the AOS, there should be no oil in it. If it is a new vent line, and it has oil in it, I would suggest getting a leak down test run on the engine to make sure it is sealing tightly.