Stability control failure?

[jfoxny]

My 06 997.1 C2 started to act strange on the way back from a long trip this weekend. It was raining pretty heavily so I slowed down. Out of the blue, every little bump started to feel like I was hitting a really bad pot hole. Also, even at low speeds, handling seem really compromised - the front-end was moving around quite a bit.

My girlfriend and I thought that perhaps we had a flat (or at least a poorly inflated tire). So, we pulled into a gas station, shut off the car and checked the tire pressures. However, all of the tires were properly inflated. So, we restarted the car and headed out. Everything from that point on was fine. Could this have been a PSM failure even though no fault was thrown?

Two notes:

1) The car has the standard suspension (i.e., not PASM).

2) The PSE had failed earlier on the trip - no faults - just stopped working.

I'm brining the car in next to diagnose the PSE failure. I've been having other electrical issues with the car (including PSM failures - but always with a fault) so it might be related, but, who knows. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Jason

Edited August 28, 2013 by jfoxny

[spiffyjiff]

i would think PSM issues are more related to traction, limp mode, triggering brakes/ABS unnecessarily etc. but what you're describing is a harsher ride which i associate with PASM and/or coils and shocks. maybe one of your shocks or springs up front is on it's last legs (or broken)?

[jfoxny]

i would think PSM issues are more related to traction, limp mode, triggering brakes/ABS unnecessarily etc. but what you're describing is a harsher ride which i associate with PASM and/or coils and shocks. maybe one of your shocks or springs up front is on it's last legs (or broken)?

My thoughts too. However, the odd thing is that after a restart the car was fine, like immediately fine.

[spiffyjiff]

a year ago when trying to diagnose what was eventually a mechanical suspension issue, my indy tried to chase down an electrical cause (no doubt due to my novice inability to describe the symptoms/realize what was happening!) anyway, they removed the batt and tray to get at some sort of "plug" that they contend could corrode or simply come loose/lose connection over time due to front end vibration. i'm not sure exactly what this plug connects or supplies power to but the only reason i mention is that you said it was raining - maybe water penetrated something it wasnt supposed to in between firewall and frunk? just throwing it out there...

[Loren]

Sorry, everything here is a guess until the car is put on a Porsche PIWIS tester and had diagnostics run on it.

[jfoxny]

Sorry, everything here is a guess until the car is put on a Porsche PIWIS tester and had diagnostics run on it.

Taking it in on Tuesday. I'll post what they find.

The car has had all sorts of electrical issues as I mentioned previously. The starter is going to be replaced during this service too as it's drawing too many amps (340). The dealer insists that the ABS Pump needs to be replaced but the warranty company will not cover it unless they physically observe the fault (and not until the dealer opens a technical service case with Porsche). However, the warranty company's adjustors come from some 300 miles away and are given two days to get to the dealer. So, catching the fault and showing it to them has proven difficult if not impossible.