Purchased Durametric

[swede-man]

Received my Durametric cable today to clear my airbag code that I generated after disconecting the side airbags by mistake. It cleared all just fine so all good!

Out of interest I also checked Motronic but can't make much out of all the info-values.

Does anybody know if they are looking all right?

The car is showing 129500 Kilometres.

============ECU Info===========================

Number of ignitions range 1 12801 / 2548.6h

Number of ignitions range 2 0 / 0h

Operating hours counter 2754.5

Data version 0041550737010527

Type ID DME control unit 996RDW01

==============================================

[Ahsai]

Looks like a mildly driven car. Range 1 indicates the number of ignitions during which the rev limiter was hit (harmless). Range 2 indicates over-rev so 0 is good. Your range 1 happened when the car was relatively new (~9,700 km estimated) since 2548 hour is close to the total number of hrs on the engine (2754 hours).

FRAs and TRAs look normal. You took these numbers when the engine was NOT running? The rough running should be non-zero and fluctuating when engine is running. Also camshaft deviation most likely is not 0.0 but I suppose it could be. For segment A and B, see this thread logray posted. http://forums.rennli...uired-easy.html . Not sure about any conclusion but at least one person has the same segemnet A-B values as you.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Ahsai

[swede-man]

Ahsai, thank you for your time and and easy to understand explanation.And you were wright that the engine was not running when I took the read out.

I am starting to enjoy playing around with my Durametric and have now also discovered that by going into my instrument data,I could actually activate a digital ambient-temperature gauge that was never there before! but very handy to have.

[gigi02]

Hi swede-man,

Just out of curiosity is the cable which is sold on the Durametric website and the software which seems free are the only things needed? Any extra charges like activating the software etc.? Do you know anything about this three VIN limitation and how it works?

Thanks a lot.

[swede-man]

Bonjour Gigi02,

I opted for the 'Professional cable' as I have several friends with Porsches and I didn't want to be limited to only 3 cars.

You just buy the cable and download the software from Durametrics website and the rest is plug and play.

I am now learning to understand all the different data that I can read out of my car.

[gigi02]

Merci Swede-man. Tempted to go for the pro cable as well. I am pretty sure you end up with a lot of friends when you have such a capability.

[Y2K911]

Swede-man;

For comparison's sake, you might be interested in my Durametric data taken on 30 Sep 12: (my car is a recent new-to-me acquisition)

Number of ignitions in range 1: 1,566/1,901 hrs

Number of ignitions in range 2: 0/0 hrs

Operating hrs counter: 2,975.0 hrs, for an average of 47.3 kms/hr.

Your average is 47 kms/hr so our cars have been driven at about the same rate, which is a bit above average, I believe.

The interesting thing about mine is that the 1st owner is likely the one who did almost all of the range 1 excursions within the 1st 5 yrs. His successors have not been nearly as enthusiastic as he was with the accelerator: Older drivers, I believe.

Your # of excursions in range 1 are much higher than mine; ie, about 8 times, so your 1st owner was very 'passionate' for high RPM regimes. Good or bad, we could never be sure and I hope this does not open a huge debate à la rennlist.com. At least, none of our cars reached range 2, which is a very good thing, indeed!

Salut!

Martin

[swede-man]

Y2K911,

Yes those numbers look very similar indeed.

My car has had 2 previous owners, the first owner on the title shows it was the local Porsche centre that owned it for 8 months.

So it more than likely was there demonstrator back in 1999 I guess, which would explain the 'passionate' driving :)

Anyway, I am glad it never reached range 2.

[creekman]

Question... can any Apple/Mac products work with the Durametric system. I saw on their web site that it is only compatible with P/C platforms. Is there any alternative to that?

Thanks,

[judgejon]

many have faced this same issue, including me. I've had some really good communication from the nice folks up at Durametric too. (ps: when I first installed my durametric software several years ago I was having a minor problem, called the company, and Duram actually walked me thought the install process. Most recently have communicated with William and Owen and they are really helpful.)

So, you can do this two ways: 1) put emulation software that runs windows into your mac, put windows o/s into your mac, then you can download Durametric and way you go. Or, 2) you can get a windows notebook, not a tablet, download Durametric, and use the tablet as your "car computer."

the good folks on this forum have been really helpful on this point as well. I've wrestled with the question and decided to just get a small windows notebook for using on road trips and just leaving my lovely macbookAir at home. But others have noted they have no problems using the emulation software approach.

[creekman]

Jon,

Thanks , really helpful information...

[creekman]

Tonight I was reviewing the Durametric tool and if I'm correct the only difference between the Professional model and the Enthusiast model is the limitation of only be able to use it on 3 cars, total. Also this code Question:

What is the difference between the Enthusiast kit and the Professional kit?

Answer: In Durametric version 5, the difference is the number of cars the kit allows you to work on. The Enthusiast kits are limited to use on 3 cars - managed by VIN, not model. The Professional kit has no limit to the number of cars on which it can be used. With the introduction of Durametric version 6, the Professional kits alone gain the ability to perform Coding changes on supported control units.

My question is do I really need to perform Coding changes, and if so what would they be? It appears that if you wanted to perform Coding changes the control unit on the car would have to let you do that first. I'm just trying to validate whether it's worth spending the extra $300 plus for the Professional unit? Also I saw on the Q&A that you can turn back your Enthusiast cable for a Professional at only the original cost difference. On the surface for me that seems to be the way to go... Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[judgejon]

I'd say that those persons willing and able to do engine repairs and mods and maintenance service, pro mechanics or serious amateur, including those who race/track there cars, or just like to tinker with horsepower mods, or just plain like doing this kind of stuff and happen to have a Porsche, might want the pro kit. my inde mechanic has one, but I have the regular-folks version. But if a person wants to make friends with the cadre of compulsive Porsche people, and has money to burn, then go for the gold. there are many posts from members looking for others with a durametric to share. all imho.

[creekman]

I hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread... I'm trying to find my way around my new Durametric tool. Here's my ECU information reading:

1. Range 1 -

Number of ignition starts - 2586 - for 2224 hrs.

Does this mean the car has been started or the key has been turned on 2586 times for a total run time of 2224 hrs?

2. Range 2 -

1/1925.5 hr.

This means that the car was over rev one time at 1925.5 hours?

3. Operating hours - 2258.2 hrs. - Why is this different from the Range 1 hours?

4. If you figure that my car has 60,000 miles on the clock and it took 2224 hrs of time, then that averages out to 27 MPH. Could that be right?

Thanks,

Mitch

[Ahsai]

You have a total 2586 number of spark plug firings during all range 1 rpm (Rev limiter was hit) where the last occurrence was at 2224 hr of operation of the engine. Similarly, you got only 1 spark plug firing during range 2 rpm (mechanical overrev) which occurred at 1925.5hr. Your engine has a total of 2258.2 hr.

[creekman]

Ahsai, thanks for the explanation, I think...

Are you saying that I've had 2586 spark plug firings that were at the rev limit? And the last firing at the rev limit occurred at 2224 hrs? I understand that I had a mechanical overrev at 1925.5 hr. The computer information doesn't count 6 spark plug firings, only one? So the Range 1 and 2 numbers have nothing to do w/ the hours?

Does the 2258.2 total running hours equate to the 60,000 miles? Is there a comparison here, hours vs miles?

Thanks for your reply, remembering that I'm of the timing light generation...

[Ahsai]

Yes, 2586 spark plug firings, which is 862 revolutions (3 firings per revolution) ...at redline that's about 9 seconds worth total for the whole life of the car up to now.

The hr shows the time of the last occurrence. The 1 firing for range 2 means practically the redline was exceeded for only 1/3 of crank revolution, which means nothing practically.

Yes, 60k miles in 2258.2hr equates to 26 mph averaged over the whole life of the car up to now.

[keytohwy]

Question... can any Apple/Mac products work with the Durametric system. I saw on their web site that it is only compatible with P/C platforms. Is there any alternative to that?

Thanks,

I recently got the Pro version (to share with "the cadre of compulsive Porsche people") and use it on my MacBook Air. On the MacBook, I run virtualbox with Windows XP. So, it will work on a Mac, but it needs to be inside of a vm. Let me know if you need more details.

keytohwy

[creekman]

Question... can any Apple/Mac products work with the Durametric system. I saw on their web site that it is only compatible with P/C platforms. Is there any alternative to that?

Thanks,

I recently got the Pro version (to share with "the cadre of compulsive Porsche people") and use it on my MacBook Air. On the MacBook, I run virtualbox with Windows XP. So, it will work on a Mac, but it needs to be inside of a vm. Let me know if you need more details.

keytohwy

keyto hwy... I ended up getting an old PC lap top from my Daughter. I'll buy it off of her since she just had it gone through it. It's not the fastest thing going, but will get the job done. I purchased the Durametric Enthusiast. So far it's been great, however I need to learn a lot more to be able to use it effectively. Loren has been a big help, as well as JFP IN pa, and Ahsai... You guys really make this site the best, many thanks...