New Owner - Electrical Problem?

[DiscobayJoe]

*Electrical

Hey All,

I am the new owner of a 57K Mile MY02 6-Speed 996 Cabriolet. I purchased it from a reputable high-end car dealer (Hummer's & exotics, but not a porsche dealer) with a 3 Month / 3600 mile dealer-supplied warannty.

I'm noticing a little odd bit of oddness. It seems like it could all be related. I don't have an owner's manual to see how it's actualy supposed to work.

1) When I turn the car off, the Instrument cluster (Trip Computer, Digital Speedo, etc) does not shut off unless I use the KeyFob to lock the doors. I've watched it for atleast 5 minutes and it didn't turn off until I press the remote.

2) The first night I brought it home the interior lights faded down and then turned right back on and acted like the dash (turned off only with remote). Now they seem to be behaving as I would have expected (fade off and turn off in about 30 seconds).

3) There are three buttons on the right side of the Radio . The Middle is the rear defroster and the bottom is the power top. The top switch has a lock indicator and appears to be the door lock controls. When I press one side it appears to lock the doors and the other side apppears to unlock them. If I push it while driving the horn beeps twice. Until today it has never been lit. Today while driving I hit a small bump and the red light on this switch turned on. It procceded to turn on and off as I went over bumps.

Do I have some sort of Locks/Lights gremlin that is well known? I plan on taking my car to a SF Bay Area Dealer (any reccomendations?) for an inspection & service before the warannty runs out , but if this is an easy DIY fix (loose wire/connector/etc) I would attempt correct it myself.

Any thoughts would be great!

Edited December 9, 2006 by DiscobayJoe

[Loren]

1 & 2 sound like a bad ignition switch. 3 could be the same as a bad ignition switch will cause some strange electrical problems.

The switch panel where the door locking switch is comes off easily if you want to look for a loose connection (perhaps from the previous owner changing the radio).

[DiscobayJoe]

OK, I spent a little quality time with the car today and my original post wasn't 100% accurate.

The Spedo / Odo / Clock turn off after 4 minutes. They also come on when you open the drivers door. Is this the correct behavior? I can see that the trip computer turns off when I remove the key.

Also, I believe the door lock problem is somehow related to the passenger door. Today I tried to open it and the window did not drop down. When I shut it it almost broke the window because it was still 100% up. When I played around with it a bit it seemed confused.

What should be the normal operation of the red light on the dash-mounted door-lock switch? Mainly, what does continuous-on mean?

The horn seems to honk twice alot when I lock/unlock the car. I assumes this also indicates some sort of problem?

[Richard Hamilton]

You can download the '03 manual (which would be very similar) from the Downloads section, but you'de need to be a Contributing Member ;) It isn't expensive to buy a copy from your dealer, or Sunset.

The instrument display seems normal to me - I don't think you have an issue there.

If you are getting a double-beep from the alarm when you lock it then you have a fault. Because the passenger door window isn't dropping when you lift the handle, my money would be on there being a problem with the door handle switch unit. It is a common problem for one of the microswitches to fail, but you have to change the whole switch assembly.

The red LED on the door lock switch on the dash will light continuously when you lock the doors with the switch, or if you have the door locks programmed to autolock.

[DiscobayJoe]

If you are getting a double-beep from the alarm when you lock it then you have a fault. Because the passenger door window isn't dropping when you lift the handle, my money would be on there being a problem with the door handle switch unit. It is a common problem for one of the microswitches to fail, but you have to change the whole switch assembly.

Is this switch assembly located in the door handle itself?

After playing around with it more, I can reproduce the problem on the passenger door. When I pull the handle the window drops but as the door begins to open it pops back up. With the door open I can either tug twice on the inside handle OR lock the doors with the remote to make it drop again. Once I shut the door it goes back up.

Any idea on a porsche part number?

[Richard Hamilton]

Yes, the switch assembly is right by the door handle. If I were you I'd get a test done with a PST2, which will show all the alarm faults and tell you what is wrong. You can download a parts catalog from here: https://techinfo.porsche.com/techinfo/pdf/e...USA_KATALOG.pdf