Hood / Truck dashboard indicator light problem?

[darkhorsemotorcars]

After starting up my 1998 Boxster, the open hood / trunk indicator light stays on. After I begin to drive a little bit, it goes out.

Does that mean I have some faulty sensors? I searched but couldn't find any suggestions on how to fix.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Loren]

:welcome:

Are you referring to the front or rear trunk?

Both have microswitches that sense the position.

[Tool Pants]

Your year did not have a light for the trunks. What you are seeing is the spoiler light that goes off once the cars starts to move.

[darkhorsemotorcars]

Ah, ya I guess the picture in the light does kind of look like the spoiler. I mistook it for the trunk.

So, that is normal operation? It's kind of annoying... oh well.

thanks!

[pk2]

Not hijackin but when is that light supposed to be on and what is it supposed to be telling us? Mine comes on at about 70 and stays on till the next day. The motor for the spoiler works fine. Circuitry miff's me. It's very simple but once apon a time I measured the voltages. When it went up, the voltage on the motor never quit, even once it's at the end of it's travel. Only turning the car off stop it's attemps. I don't know why it hasn't burned out or blown a fuse.

Regards, PK

Edited January 29, 2010 by pk2

[darkhorsemotorcars]

After a quick search, it appears having the light on at start and for it to go out after driving a few feet is normal operation:

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...l=spoiler+light

PK2... the spoiler is supposed to raise at 70 mph... so, either you have fault, or, some owners had done a mod to illuminate the light whenever the spoiler was raised, so that you knew it was up. Not sure how you can check if you have the mod or not... have you searched?

[pk2]

Thanks for the rely.

Yes i did some searches some time ago. nothing particularly applicable at the time but it certain is worth another try. I did trace the wiring as thoroughly as I could. I know exactly what the problem is and whats happening, I just never found a problem in the circuitry. Anyway I just popped into this thread to see if there was any over lap

I don't think it has a mod because it then everything was working, I never saw the light. Then again maybe the light wasn't working when everythimg else was. I'll have to look into it.

Regards, pk

Edited January 31, 2010 by pk2

[ARModen]

The spoiler is supposed to extend at 65mph and be fully extended before reaching 70mph. It then retracts at 45-40 mph I think. My recollection of the lower retract band is fuzzy. The light you are seeing is on till you pass 5mph because the instrument cluster computer is checking to make sure that it can detect a 5mph change in speed. If it can see the 0-5mph change it is confident it can detect the 65-70mph change and extend the spoiler at the correct speed, and then the light goes out.

The light should only come on again if the computer does not detect the spoiler reaching the fully extended position before you pass 70mph. PK2, there is microswitch attached to the spoiler that detects when it is fully extended. If that went bad then the car would never sense the spoiler fully extended by 70, so the light would stay on, and the motor would keep trying to extend the spoiler. This could lead to reduced life of the spoiler motor. According to the wiring diagrams there are 2 relays in the rear relay support that control the motor direction. There are open and shut microswitchs in the spoiler assembly but it doesn't say where exactly. So either your spoiler is extending and the switch isn't working or the spoiler's not fully extending.

[pk2]

Thank ARModen

It was awhile ago that I crawled through the thing with a wiring diagram. I don't think I would have overlooked a couple of micro switches. Come to think of it, there was something weird about the motor. One thing is it was very un-Porche-like in that there is just a two single, live wires going to the motor and they simply switches polarity to reverse direction.

The problem is once the master/activator "in wire" to the "up" relay is activated, it trips the solenoid and up goes the spoiler but, that hot, activator lead to the solenoid never stops juicing, the power just keeps going. You have to turn the car off in order stop power to that relay. Turning the ignition back on, the power to the "up" relay has gone off, then and only then can you activate the "Down" relay and it behaves as it should(impossible to activate both solenoids at one time).

I may have come to the conclusion that the micro switches were inside the motor, don't recall. Frankly with the motor powered up continuously like that though, I don't get why in hasn't burnt out the motor or at least blown a fuse

Hope that makes some sense, Thanks for your input,

Regards, PK

Edited February 3, 2010 by pk2

[ARModen]

What year/model is your boxster? I was in the prints for mine (986) at the time. This was here in the 986, group 9, "circuit diagrams to 99" section because that's the one I was looking at to fix mine. It's on page 109 section P-77/78. There should be a connector with 5 wires.

1-spoiler extend motor power

2-spoiler extended switch

3-ground

4-spoiler retracted switch

5-spoiler retract power

1 and 5 should be 12v and swap polarity if the motor is going in or out. 3 should be 0v, and 2 and 4 should either be 5v or 0v depending on where the spoiler is. 2 and 4 could be 0-5 or 0-12V, I'm not positive. If there are 5 wires going into the motor then the switches are probably integral to the motor. Since there are only 2, if it's the same set up, then the limit switches are somewhere else, probably attached the actual spoiler somewhere.

Edited February 3, 2010 by ARModen