Rear Spoiler Extension Question

[kas996]

Over the Christmas Break I installed an LED that tells me that status of the postions of the spoiler. The LED flashes when the spoiler is in motion (opening or closing) and stays on solid when the spoiler is extended. My question is: My spoiler is extending at 50 mph and lowers at 25mph (I verified this by having someone following me). My understanding is that is shouldn't extend until 72mph is reached and lower at 37 mph. Is there a way that I can change this on my car? I'm not sure why my speeds are different, but I did install a new cluster and had it programmed by a local Indy). I'm just wondering if this setting can be changed?

Thanks

Keith

[rrspikemarty]

Over the Christmas Break I installed an LED that tells me that status of the postions of the spoiler. The LED flashes when the spoiler is in motion (opening or closing) and stays on solid when the spoiler is extended. My question is: My spoiler is extending at 50 mph and lowers at 25mph (I verified this by having someone following me). My understanding is that is shouldn't extend until 72mph is reached and lower at 37 mph. Is there a way that I can change this on my car? I'm not sure why my speeds are different, but I did install a new cluster and had it programmed by a local Indy). I'm just wondering if this setting can be changed?

Thanks

Keith

kas996,

Can you provide details of the spoiler LED indicator installation? Sounds intriguing.... (BTW, i'm assuming the LED is 'off' when the spoiler is not deployed?)

[Foster]

I thought a 99 was 37 and 75 mph.

I've always been told the speeds were not programmable. Maybe they are?

Would you happen to know the part # on the cluster?

You might also ask the indy what tool he used and what version it was.

I've been thinking of hacking the spoiler speeds for a while.

My first thought was to use the 'speed gong' speaker output to trigger a relay.

I went so far as to completely disassemble the cluster down to the board to find the speaker.

There's what looks like a little speaker clipped to the board and it has 2 leads.

I was about to cut it off but in a fit of temporary sanity I checked the MSRP on a new cluster. OUCH!

Adding to that, I'm not positive that's where the tones come from. It could be something else. (Temp sensor?)

So I chickened out, and decided to find a more elegant solution.

I looked around for circuits that could use the speed signal. I THINK that radio control hobby servos use a similar signal.

I haven't had a chance to get a meter on these signals yet.

I stumbled onto a very very interesting site.

AutoSpeed

NOTE: The good news is prices are AUD so they're not as expensive as they look. Bad news, shipping from AU was $18 for my order.

It should be here any month now.

I ordered the voltage switch and frequency switch kits to experiment with.

They also sell a book that I think has diagrams for most of these circuits.

I bought the kits for the convenience of the printed boards, but I will probably end up buying the book as well.

These circuits could be used to control just about anything on the car based on speed, RPM, pressure, temp, etc.

A few project I'm considering;

Adjustable spoiler speeds.

One touch convertible switch. Switch disabled above X speed.

Adjustable rev limiter.

Adjustable redline indicator light.

Adjustable flux capacitor speeds. :)

Adjustable PSE activation speeds.

You get the Idea.

I have a lot of things going on right now so it will probably be a month or so before I get to any of this, but

if I come across anything interesting I"ll post it here in the DIY forum

Edited January 14, 2009 by Foster

[kas996]

Over the Christmas Break I installed an LED that tells me that status of the postions of the spoiler. The LED flashes when the spoiler is in motion (opening or closing) and stays on solid when the spoiler is extended. My question is: My spoiler is extending at 50 mph and lowers at 25mph (I verified this by having someone following me). My understanding is that is shouldn't extend until 72mph is reached and lower at 37 mph. Is there a way that I can change this on my car? I'm not sure why my speeds are different, but I did install a new cluster and had it programmed by a local Indy). I'm just wondering if this setting can be changed?

Thanks

Keith

kas996,

Can you provide details of the spoiler LED indicator installation? Sounds intriguing.... (BTW, i'm assuming the LED is 'off' when the spoiler is not deployed?)

To install this indicator light is really pretty simple if your familiar with removing the instrument cluster and the radio/climate control surround. The kit comes with the LED assy which replaced an unused dummy switch and 5 wires that you connect to various locations on the 3 connectors for the cluster. Feeding the wiring is easy. To answer your question, yes, when the spoiler is not deployed, the led is off.

Back to my problem: My cluster was programmed with a Porsche PST2 tester. The PST2 was used to extract the parameters from my old cluster and then download them into the new one. Everything in the cluster seems right, speeds are in mph, exterior temps are in F, distance in miles... but it almost seems as if the spoiler is reacting to KM/Hr and not miles/Hr. I'm going to have the Indy hook it up and see if we can find something wrong in a setting or something. Stay tuned!

[Foster]

I've been looking at some circuits, and I'm pretty confident that the spoiler can be made to be

completely adjustable, and have a LED.

And I think I can do it without soldering anything, or even cutting any wires on the car.

It would probably cost around the same as the LED kit and a dash switch.

But it'll be a little while before I can get started on it. I've got projects lined up for a mile.

[Foster]

OK, since I'm gonna be experimenting with the spoiler anyway I just had to order one of these lights.

So it arrived today and when I opened it I immediately noticed the rectangular lump under the hear shrink.

I was hoping it was a microcontroller. Then I looked at the instructions and the wiring diagram.

I saw that one of the wires goes to the speed gong setting pin. So it has to be a microcontroller!

Nope, when I looked closer, the obc speed gong setting wire and the spoiler extended limit switch wires

are the same color and on the same plug.

So, me being me, I cut the thing open to see what makes it tick. I drew out a diagram. Nothing special.

The dip is just an octocoupler. A couple resistors, a few diodes, and a flashing led. No joy.

You'd think for the price the guy could've at least used a little piece of perfboard. :rolleyes:

kas996,

If you find you can't reprogram it for a higher speed, and you're determined to change it. You could use the "frequency switch" kit from

the link I posted above. You would just unhook the extend relay wire and extended indicator wire and use the kit to operate the

porsche relay. That would bypass the cluster completely. You may need to make a minor mod to the kit, but it would be completely adjustable.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Foster

[CMiYC]

This may not lead to an answer but I thought your 25/50 speed was interesting.

50mp/h = 80km/h

25mp/h = 32km/h

It is probably just coincident.

[kas996]

I finally had a chance to take the car back over to my local wrench. He recoded the spoiler and now the spoiler extends at 75 mph and lowers and 37 mph, so problem solved.

[cakasa]

Over the Christmas Break I installed an LED that tells me that status of the postions of the spoiler. The LED flashes when the spoiler is in motion (opening or closing) and stays on solid when the spoiler is extended. My question is: My spoiler is extending at 50 mph and lowers at 25mph (I verified this by having someone following me). My understanding is that is shouldn't extend until 72mph is reached and lower at 37 mph. Is there a way that I can change this on my car? I'm not sure why my speeds are different, but I did install a new cluster and had it programmed by a local Indy). I'm just wondering if this setting can be changed?

Thanks

Keith

Like RRSPIKEMARTY, I'm also interested in your LED spoiler position setup. Can you provide us with a photo of the switch installed in your dash? Thanks

[kas996]

I finally had a chance to take a pic of my final set up. I had two empty slots beneath the traction control switch, so I removed one of the blanks and installed the LED there. I've seen pics that actually have an image of the spoiler to the left of the LED, unfortunately, mine only has an LED color = red when the spoiler is extended.

[wvicary]

I finally had a chance to take the car back over to my local wrench. He recoded the spoiler and now the spoiler extends at 75 mph and lowers and 37 mph, so problem solved.

I didn't realize you could change the spoiler settings. Just wondering what got changed around.

[judgejon]

I finally had a chance to take a pic of my final set up. I had two empty slots beneath the traction control switch, so I removed one of the blanks and installed the LED there. I've seen pics that actually have an image of the spoiler to the left of the LED, unfortunately, mine only has an LED color = red when the spoiler is extended.

good job... where did you get the kit, and $?, if you don't mind.

[kas996]

I finally had a chance to take a pic of my final set up. I had two empty slots beneath the traction control switch, so I removed one of the blanks and installed the LED there. I've seen pics that actually have an image of the spoiler to the left of the LED, unfortunately, mine only has an LED color = red when the spoiler is extended.

good job... where did you get the kit, and $?, if you don't mind.

I purchased the kit off of ebay for $30, which I think is well worth it. If you can find a version with a graphic of the spoiler on it, I'd probably go that route if it doesn't cost much more.