CEL P0021 and P0018

[sjlee001]

Hello everybody,

I'm moving from Chicago to San Francisco and decided to drive my 2005 Boxster S. While I was in Nebraska, my CEL and "Check Engine See Workshop" message came on the dash around 5 PM on Friday. I was about 50 miles from a Porsche dealer in Omaha but they had already left for the evening.

I bought a code reader and the first code it gave was P0021 and since I couldn't do anything about it, I reset it and drove on. The CEL came back on this morning and the code was P0018. From what I've read on this forum and others, it's not a critical warning. It's been driving fine for the past 700 or so miles so I'm not going to delay my trip, I'm in Salt Lake City and am suppose to report to my new job on Monday.

There's not much I can do at this point but I'm just wondering if there's any additional insight into these codes....

Thanks!

Stephen

[paulv]

Hello everybody,

I'm moving from Chicago to San Francisco and decided to drive my 2005 Boxster S. While I was in Nebraska, my CEL and "Check Engine See Workshop" message came on the dash around 5 PM on Friday. I was about 50 miles from a Porsche dealer in Omaha but they had already left for the evening.

I bought a code reader and the first code it gave was P0021 and since I couldn't do anything about it, I reset it and drove on. The CEL came back on this morning and the code was P0018. From what I've read on this forum and others, it's not a critical warning. It's been driving fine for the past 700 or so miles so I'm not going to delay my trip, I'm in Salt Lake City and am suppose to report to my new job on Monday.

There's not much I can do at this point but I'm just wondering if there's any additional insight into these codes....

Thanks!

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

The "18" code has to do with the crankshaft position in relation to the intake camshaft position. The "21" code has to do with the intake camshaft being off timing. A common recommendation for both of these is checking the cam adjusting solenoid to see if it's dirty of has failed. I'd recommend that you bring it to a dealer or a good indy shop. Usually, all P00xx codes are related to cam timing issues. Good luck!

Regards,

paul...

[paulv]

Hello everybody,

I'm moving from Chicago to San Francisco and decided to drive my 2005 Boxster S. While I was in Nebraska, my CEL and "Check Engine See Workshop" message came on the dash around 5 PM on Friday. I was about 50 miles from a Porsche dealer in Omaha but they had already left for the evening.

I bought a code reader and the first code it gave was P0021 and since I couldn't do anything about it, I reset it and drove on. The CEL came back on this morning and the code was P0018. From what I've read on this forum and others, it's not a critical warning. It's been driving fine for the past 700 or so miles so I'm not going to delay my trip, I'm in Salt Lake City and am suppose to report to my new job on Monday.

There's not much I can do at this point but I'm just wondering if there's any additional insight into these codes....

Thanks!

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

The "18" code has to do with the crankshaft position in relation to the intake camshaft position. The "21" code has to do with the intake camshaft being off timing. A common recommendation for both of these is checking the cam adjusting solenoid to see if it's dirty of has failed. I'd recommend that you bring it to a dealer or a good indy shop. Usually, all P00xx codes are related to cam timing issues. Good luck!

Regards,

paul...

Here's a little more info taken from http://www.equus.com -- look under the Support tab and select OBDII Definitions:

Code Make Description

P0018 Generic Crankshaft Position - Camshaft Position Correlation - Bank 2 Sensor A

Code Make Description

P0021 Generic Intake Camshaft Position Timing - Over-Advanced (Bank 2)

Note: bank 1 has cylinder #1 so this is the other side.

Regards,

paul...

[sjlee001]

Paul,

I will probably take it to a shop in the South Bay this weekend, hopefully it won't have to pull the engine out and charge an arm and a leg....

Thank you!

Stephen

[sjlee001]

Thanks Paul,

The dealer said it was the IMS, extended warranty (Lexus) offered a used engine with 20k miles, dealer said "no"....

Stephen

Paul,

I will probably take it to a shop in the South Bay this weekend, hopefully it won't have to pull the engine out and charge an arm and a leg....

Thank you!

Stephen

[paulv]

Thanks Paul,

The dealer said it was the IMS, extended warranty (Lexus) offered a used engine with 20k miles, dealer said "no"....

Stephen

Paul,

I will probably take it to a shop in the South Bay this weekend, hopefully it won't have to pull the engine out and charge an arm and a leg....

Thank you!

Stephen

With a flakey IMS, the cam timing would have started to vary too greatly causing the P0021 and once it remained way off, the P0018 got set -- I was hoping that it was one of the "easier" fixes. Good luck with this and I hope everything works out in your favor.

Regards,

paul...