Solenoid Replacement......what else?

[dw215]

Hi Everyone,

My CEL is showing, P1325, P1341, P1411.
I gave the car to a friend who works at the Porsche Dealership to run it through the system. He said the solenoid needs to be replaced.
If i had it done at Porsche it would cost over $6k, because the motor needs to be dropped.
I asked him his advice what i should do, he said the car has 125kmiles..potential IMS problems in the near future..etc putting $6k+ into the car isnt worth it and i should part ways with it.
I'm not ready to get rid of the car.
My independent guy said he would do it for around $3k.

I have attached the report from the CEL from the dealer

My Big question is, while the Engine is out.. what else should be replaced??

1. Solenoid
2. IMS
3. Secondary Air Injection Valve (P1411)

What else???
How many belts(timing chain?) does the car have?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Derrick

Solenoid.pdf

[JFP in PA]

Hi Everyone,

My CEL is showing, P1325, P1341, P1411.

I gave the car to a friend who works at the Porsche Dealership to run it through the system. He said the solenoid needs to be replaced.

If i had it done at Porsche it would cost over $6k, because the motor needs to be dropped.

I asked him his advice what i should do, he said the car has 125kmiles..potential IMS problems in the near future..etc putting $6k+ into the car isnt worth it and i should part ways with it.

I'm not ready to get rid of the car.

My independent guy said he would do it for around $3k.

I have attached the report from the CEL from the dealer

My Big question is, while the Engine is out.. what else should be replaced??

1. Solenoid

2. IMS

3. Secondary Air Injection Valve (P1411)

What else???

How many belts(timing chain?) does the car have?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Derrick

When you start a dialogue like this one, it is always a good idea to include the car's year and model.

That said, I find it a little odd that you suddenly get the same fault code for both banks of the engine; usually parts do not fail this way and the cause is often electrical rather than mechanical. Secondly, the VarioCam solenoids can be done on most models with the engine still in the car by removing the mufflers and the cam covers.

To answer your other questions, if I had the engine out, I would recommend updating the IMS, the RMS, and the AOS while it was out. The chains on these engines are pretty durable, which is a good thing as changing them requires taking a lot of things apart to just get at them.

[dw215]

Thanks for the info JFP!

1999 C4 by the way

Oddly, which i shouldve mentioned also, 2 weeks prior to this CEL showing. i was driving to work on the highway doing around 80mph, when all the electric in the car shut off. luckily i was able to navigate it to the shoulder. I had it towed to my mechanic. it ended up being a blown fuse.

Any correlation?

[JFP in PA]

Thanks for the info JFP!

1999 C4 by the way

Oddly, which i shouldve mentioned also, 2 weeks prior to this CEL showing. i was driving to work on the highway doing around 80mph, when all the electric in the car shut off. luckily i was able to navigate it to the shoulder. I had it towed to my mechanic. it ended up being a blown fuse.

Any correlation?

Obviously, I have to give that an unqualified "maybe". Electrical problems are nearly impossible to diagnose remotely.

A tech should be testing the VarioCam units with a scanner (PIWIS, Durametric) while the car is idling; activation should cause both a jump in cam timing and an abrupt change in the idle as well. If they both do not respond, I would be putting a volt meter on the circuits to see if they are actually getting a signal before tearing the car apart, or you could end up with new units in the engine and still having the same problems.

[Richard Hamilton]

Which fuse was blown? The one for the DME?

I think JFP is correct, and the first thing to look for would be a wiring problem. I have heard of 2 or 3 996's where the feed for the Variocam solenoid has chafed through. shorted to ground, and blown the fuse for the DME.