Qmulus

You can actually use hot water and a good cleaner/degreaser with a toothbrush to clean the boards. I do it all the time. Chances are these boards were cleaned with water after assembly, and _most_ components are designed to be cleaned. The exception is some electrolytic capacitors and non-sealed electro-mechanical devices like relays. Don't be afraid to scrub fairly aggressively and just be careful to make sure that it is thoroughly dry before you apply power again. The key is to get all of the metal salt deposits and mold off, as that is what is conductive and will cause erratic behavior as it will cause shorts between adjacent components. I recently bought a large-ish ultrasonic cleaner that does a really good job of getting off deposits that can't be removed with a brush. If the module was left wet with power applied for a very long period of time, electrolysis will eventually eat away the power and or ground pins until they are totally corroded away and the electrolysis finally stops. Even this damage can often be repaired, but it can be difficult to find and repair all the damage. My original immobilizer/alarm module fell into this category as the previous owner had left it sit for months with a wet module. When I opened it I couldn't even make out the components because of the mold and corrosion. After a thorough cleaning I found that too many of the ICs had corroded power pins and the circuit board itself had a significant corrosion damage, so while I probably could have gotten it working, it wasn't worth the time compared to just getting a used one and swapping over the data I believe that the "lock" signal from the alarm module goes to both doors from the same wire. If you have access to a PST2 check to see what faults are in the module and what it shows to be the status of the door locks, etc.. I am not sure if Durametric will give real time status data from the alarm module. From there you can determine what signals are not correct and maybe where the fault may be. .

Yes, it is nice when people can afford to share all their knowledge. Someone may even share this information. You could also look at from the point of view that if I didn't charge for my services, but just shared everything I learned with the world, then I wouldn't be able to afford to buy the education and thousands of dollars of equipment that I have that has allowed me to do what I do. Catch 22. If I was somehow magically wealthy I could share LOTS of trade secrets. In the past I have shared more than I do now. I have also been burned more than once by people that took knowledge that _I_ gave them and used it for their own personal gain or just so they could be a youtube hero. There are a lot of people these days with what I call a "Google Mentality" in that all knowledge should be free and shared and are offended if you don't answer all their questions or tell them what I consider trade secrets that come from knowledge, hard work and experience. I did that once and the guy made a video of himself doing the repair and posted it on youtube. It took me months to find the exact cause and extent of a certain failure, perfect a process to do the repair and make it so it couldn't happen again. All that was lost, costing me (and my family) a lot of potential income. I don't do that anymore. I have also had an automotive diagnostic product I designed get knocked off by a couple of Chinese companies (maybe more) who still sell it, and definitely made more money off of it than I will, as I spent the years on development. Yes, I am a bit bitter. Sorry for the rant...

Well, no offense, but I consider that proprietary information that took me a bit to figure out. This is how I pay my bills, so I don't tend to give out that information so others can profit from it. I can say that I have done it twice now, on my car and a 996 Cabriolet that got wet. A used module and an hour of my labor is a lot less expensive than a new module, programming and possibly keys from a dealer.

Not true, my module was pretty much trash. The module had been sitting wet for weeks, then a new battery was installed by the previous owner backwards which did more damage. I didn't use the factory tools to read the information. I got it directly out of the ICs on the board, which, in my experience, rarely get damaged. I did not need the programming codes. In fact, I didn't even connect diagnostics to the car for a couple weeks after I got it running. I just got the programming codes for my car a couple of weeks ago. I will say that this is what I do. I have been designing, building and repairing automotive electronics for over 20 years. Porsches are/were a bit new to me before I got the Boxster, but I have since done quite a bit of Porsche work, including 996/986 instrument clusters, ABS modules, climate controls and of course alarm modules. I find Porsches quite easy to work on comparatively.

I am a little late to this, but it is possible to transfer the data from the old damaged alarm module to another used or new alarm module. BTDT with mine. When I got my car the alarm module had been severely water damaged. I found a used alarm module of the same part number, and transferred the data from the damaged alarm module to the used one. The nice thing was that the module was cheap as the seller did not have matching keys or ECU.

I am doing something similar. I have a set of black leather door panels, in excellent shape, and want to swap some of the leather with black Alcantara. The method that I have seen to separate the panels is by heating the "rivets" with a hot air plastic welder with the appropriate sized nozzle and prying them appart. Done carefully, it should go back together somewhat easily. At least that is my hope...

PM sent.

I repaired Matt's cluster, tested it in another 996T here, and it is now on its way back to Dubai. Matt should have it back in the next few days. It took a bit longer to turn around as I was on vacation when the local 996T was available to test it in, but it turned out well. I don't like shipping things half way around the world without being able to test them completely. I can test everything BUT the oil level circuitry in my '03 986 S, as that circuit is a bit different due to the different oiling system on the M96. This does seem to be a common problem with the 986/996 clusters, at least the late ones. His makes the fifth one that I have had to repair with the same issues in just the last few months. The other cars were local, so I would imagine that this is a very common problem.

I have had good success repairing these '01+ clusters. In the last few months I have repair three 996TT and a few 986 clusters with oil measurement issues. The oil measurement circuitry is very susceptible to damage from over or reverse voltage problems. Fortunately, these are repairable and repair cost is generally far less than a used replacement cluster, especially if you factor in getting the odometer reset, etc.

The thing is, if you have a bad connection the needles usually pegs, as the resistance of the sender goes up with pressure. If the sender fails internally it could read low, but a poor connection will make it read high. There are two wires to the sender. One is the gauge signal (variable resistance), the other is the oil pressure switch (on or off) for the low oil pressure warning.

Well, that wasn't actually my intent, but I do think I could handle that if you would like. PM me and we can discuss.

Yes, that would be good. Just code it for km, zero the odo, and swap the main board into your cluster. You just need to remove a few torx screws, and undo three connectors to separate the main PCB from the front PCB that has the gauges. Then sell me your old cluster! :) Alternately, you could check ebay.de and see if you can find a turbo cluster that is already has the speedo in km.

The hardware is the same on the different late 9x6 clusters (with dot matrix OBC), so you could theoretically put a 986 Boxster cluster in a turbo. The problem is that proper cluster for your car will have the speed in km/hr, the correct speed range, the right color gauge faces, etc. Each combination has its own part number. The only one that will be an exact match for your car is that part number. Others will work, but you will have to deal with whatever difference in display, etc. that cluster has. The easiest solution from my point of view would be to fix the existing cluster. Then there is no messing around. Possibly the best solution is to get the main circuit board from another 996 cluster coded and configured as yours is, with zero'd odometer. Then swap that circuit board with the problem board in your cluster and have the cluster matched. The problem is that without having your cluster to pull the firmware from, it may be hit or miss if it is done exactly right remotely, but I think it would be pretty straightforward. If that makes sense... The factory tools will not do this, at least as far as I know. My experience is with Autologic, Durametric and some other diagnostic and programming tools. I haven't played with the factory tools, other than a PST2.

I'm jumping into this a bit late, but I have now repaired a few 9x6 clusters with issues with the oil level sensor circuitry. In my experience on these though the oil level test would generally generate faults and not run the level test (996T), or be very inaccurate. That would usually be consistent. There were difference on the symptoms on the dot matrix center LCD on cars with OBC clusters (like the 996T) or with the standard display (most 996 and 986). I wouldn't doubt the issue is in the cluster, as that circuitry is particularly susceptible to problems resulting from jump starts, etc. Swapping in a used cluster that was properly prepared to test should not be an issue. A normal 996 cluster can be coded to work in the 996T, so you don't have to worry about getting the exact one if you are going to test. That said, if it were me I would just go through the cluster to verify functionality. It would be less time consuming than sourcing and programming up another cluster for your car.