Stumped, where to start...Electrical?

[otisdriftwood]

Long time away from the forum, which is a good thing, meaning that I have had no issues with the box, except for the P0400 and P1411 codes, but I have that under control. Until the other day........

I went to put the top down and nothing... Looked at all the fuses listed in the repair manual (B3 and D6 i think). All seemed to be good. Then I went through and read all the parts of this forum that dealt with top problems and was going to do some further investigation this weekend, like checking the microswitches at the roof and b pillar, but when I checked the fuses after I was finished, started the car and the CEL was off (was on previously) and the brake indicator on the dash was not illuminated when the brake was on. It was visible previously. Checked with my ODB 2 and the codes mentioned above were still there in memory. And today, after work, started mycar to come home, and it was like the battery had drained some, meaning that the milage had reset to 0 on the trip meter. All lights on the dash are on when the ignition is on, prior to starting, meaning no bulbs are burned out.

Seems very suspect to me that the CEL and brake indicator stopped working at the same time. I really have no clue where to start and electrical is definitely not my favorate thing to mess with, other than fuses.

If my battery is weak, could this cause some of my problems? Don't have the bucks to go to a stealership at the present, so any advice or guidance that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

[Ahsai]

How old is your battery? You can get it tested at Autozone or alike. When you said brake indicator on the dash, do you mean the handbrake indicator?

[otisdriftwood]

Battery is probably 3 years old, just guessing, and yes I was referring to the hand brake.

[Ahsai]

On my 996, there's a microswitch benealth the handbrake to detect its position. I would think yours is similar so maybe the connection or that switch is not working. Oh yea, definitely check the battery's health and make sure the battery cables are not loose. It's possible the battery is so low that the ECU got reset which also reset the CEL (but the stored codes remained in teh non-volatile memory). The CEL should come back later when the fault triggering logic is met again (may take multiple drives).

Edited July 4, 2013 by Ahsai

[Ahsai]

FYI http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic/31271-handbrake-light-wont-come-on/

[1schoir]

..., started the car and the CEL was off (was on previously) and the brake indicator on the dash was not illuminated when the brake was on. It was visible previously....

On a 986, if pulling up on the handbrake does not illuminate the idiot light on the dashboard, there will be no power to the convertible top mechanism.

As the link provided by Ahsai shows, either clean the contacts on the microswitch under the handbrake or replace it.

Sometimes if you keep pulling up and down on the handbrake with varying degrees of force, it will free up the switch and the idiot light will go on. When that happens, you will again have power to the top.

Regards, Maurice.

[Ahsai]

..., started the car and the CEL was off (was on previously) and the brake indicator on the dash was not illuminated when the brake was on. It was visible previously....

On a 986, if pulling up on the handbrake does not illuminate the idiot light on the dashboard, there will be no power to the convertible top mechanism. As the link provided by Ahsai shows, either clean the contacts on the microswitch under the handbrake or replace it. Sometimes if you keep pulling up and down on the handbrake with varying degrees of force, it will free up the switch and the idiot light will go on. When that happens, you will again have power to the top. Regards, Maurice.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense, Maurice. So it's a safety feature to make sure the handbrake is on before the car supplies power to the Top. Clever. Edited July 4, 2013 by Ahsai