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Hello Loren, First of all, thank you for the wonderful work you do! I am having issues locating my radio code. Can you please let me know if you have the radio code for the following: CDR 22 BE 4467 SN# X5018994 Thank you in advance, Alex

Sometimes things are just this dumb. Turns out someone had installed what looks like possibly some type of remote starter or something like that? They tucked the wiring under the dash. The secondary ground for that was tucked under the dash which caused the intermittent starting issues. Last week, I found this wiring under the dash and removed it not thinking anything of it: Notice the ring terminal that was mostly broken Last week I removed this wire almost completely. It ran from the front of the car to the rear and was spliced in near the relay block. Turns out it was connected to the ground wire for the starting circuit. Yellow/purple wire with red stripes The genius who spliced into this wire used speaker wire. I knew last week that something wasn’t right so I left a bunch of that speaker wire behind. While going through the diagnostic at the advice of an independent tech, I started thinking that the jumbled up mess of black wiring likely was the culprit. I confirmed that the relay circuit ground, 85, was the issue by using a multimeter. I got zero volts on the 85/86 circuit with my wife turning the key. Big thanks to the tech who guided me on that. I now have a better understanding on relays. Once I confirmed the 85/86 circuit was the issue, I figured the speaker wire was likely the ground in that jumbled wiring mess so I twisted the two speaker wire ends together and connected them to a ground Car started after this point so I removed the speaker wire and butt connectors then reconnected the ground wire to its original form and put everything back together. Getting my hands in there with barely any slack was a huge challenge, especially since I didn’t want to pull apart all of the cabrio guts. Bad news however, the cabrio window cracked from it being so old and cold out. Special thanks to Loren and the tech (not sure if he wants his name mentioned) who helped me offline. Now to the cabrio top, but at least the car starts and runs!

Never mind (for the time being at least). Before removing the door panel again and diving back into the microswitches and latch actuator, I needed to drive the car somewhere, so on that drive, I decided to go thru the window "learning" sequence again and again (maybe 5 times) but holding the switch up and down longer than 5 seconds (maybe 15-30 sec). When I got to where I was going, I tested both the inner and outer handle drop function -- and it all worked as it should. Maybe it was the repeated re-learning or maybe something in the latch actuator got unstuck or otherwise fixed itself, but I'm going to leave well enough alone and not go back into the door unless the issue reappear. Go figure.

The immobilizer box looks good. I think you are down to tracing wiring. Look for rodent (chewed marks) or poor grounds due to corrosion.

I checked the immobilizer box, but it was located under the driver’s seat. Under the passenger seat was just a point of contact for some grounded wires: . I did pull the immobilizer from under the driver’s seat and pulled it apart. It is perfectly clean: I also installed a new ignition switch. I knew that wasn’t going to help, but I figured I would mention it. To recap: Car does not start unless I install a jumper wire and bypass the relay. The battery is charged. There is no voltage drop between the battery and the post in the engine compartment. The ignition switch was replaced, but that was totally unnecessary. What’s next?

I'm having some problems with the headlights on our '97 986 and having pulled the assemblies out of the vehicle I found the wiring inside was dry brittle and crumbling. Lots of exposed copper, probably caused a short and damaged the lamps. I have been searching for a replacement loom but cannot find anything close. Everything I find seems to be the full harness that goes 'outside' of the headlight assembly, not the internal wiring. Any idea what name/terms to search for, and where to search. Everything I found was on ebay, nothing OEM new. For now I've tried to wrap in tape but worse comes to worse I will cut/splice and put new heat shrink over it all. Unless you guys have any better solutions. The lamps incidentally are aftermarket HID LEDs. I am going to try to replace with OEM bulbs for now. Only the high beam works right now Cheers

So to follow up with this thread, I ended up pulling and reseating the coil packs on all cylinders and sure enough it fired better after that. wierd, but okay. Interesting about anti-sieze. I'll continue to use it. I dont care what the EU says about the environment. When industrial factories are no longer spewing chemical waste into our atmosphere and sewage then we can worry about a little bit of anti sieze on a thread. Cheers

I'm about to install a brake controller for my trailer. I understand that it is supposed to be located under the bash near the steering column. Has anyone done this installation or removed the panels under the steering column? I'm a little concerned about removing the airbag panel under the dash so I thought I'd check to see if anyone had any advice.

I appear to have a passenger door window drop issue on my 1998 986 Boxster that I can't seem to diagnose. Here's the situation. About a week or so ago, the passenger door stopped doing the short "window drop" function when the outside door handle was pulled. The inside handle seemed to enable the drop as did releasing the convertible top latch enable the "long" window drop on both windows. The driver side door short window drop function worked fine with both the inside and outside handles (I replaced the regulator in the drive door 4-6 months ago, so re-did all the up-down and front-back adjustments at that time). Given the above, I decided it must be the outside door microswitch, so I purchased a replacement OEM outside door handle microswitch for the passenger door. When I removed the door panel to replace the outside door microswitch, I discovered that the microswitch at the connector had become disconnected: the microswitch pigtail wiring had come loose from both of the tabs that are supposed to secure the microswitch pigtail to the door body and out of the way of the window, so perhaps the window caught the pigtail on it on a lowering cycle and pulled the connector apart. I reconnected the microswitch (I did not replace it with the new one, thinking I would return it if the one in-place worked), secured the wiring out of the way of the window track with cable ties, and put the door back together. I then reprogrammed the window by holding the window switch down for 10 seconds after each fully lowering, then raising, the window. Now neither the inside door handle or outside door handle work properly with regard to the drop function. The outside door handle, when pulled, does nothing to actuate the window drop function. The inside door handle, when pulled, actuates the window drop function, however when the handle is released, the window goes back to a full upright/closed position. I would attach videos to show the inside door handle behavior but the forum doesn't allow it. The convertible latch, when released, still causes the long drop on both windows. Anyone have any ideas as to what is going on? Given the 2nd and beyond times of doing a job go exponentially faster, I plan to remove the door card/panel again and install the outside handle microswitch (as it is almost cheaper to keep than returning it) to see what happens, but if that doesn't work, would the lock actuator mechanism be the next part to throw at it? Thanks in advance for any help? austinporsche is online now Report Post

Thanks Loren. Will do and will report back.

When I see cabriolets' with starting problems the first I think of is the immobilizer box under the passenger's seat. These are prone to flaky operation once they have gotten wet. I would remove it and open it up to see if there is any sign of water damage.

Today, I checked voltage at the battery and also at the post in the engine compartment. There is no voltage drop noted. Note, I had just taken the battery off of the charger and measured the voltage in the engine compartment first which will explain the higher voltage coming from the engine compartment. Yes, the charger was off although still connected. ….And, the car did start again today with the relay bypassed…

HI, I previously reported that my starting issue was solved. It’s not, and now the car won’t start unless the relay is bypassed. I originally swapped out the starter relay, and same problem came back as evidenced in the video. I purchased an aftermarket relay and installed it. That worked for a few days, and then stopped working. Now, I can only get the car to start if I bypass the relay. I thought if bypassed the relay, then a replacement relay would be the solution, but that did not work. Where should I go from here? IMG_3505.mov Aftermarket relay below: Car starts when the relay is bypassed: Where should I go from here?

Thank you so very much Loren it worked!

I’d like to know whether a multimeter test can be done before I send the replacement switch back to PP

But wait ! The new switch arrived Friday ( Part# 997-613-535-01-A05-OEM ), but when I swapped it in, the fog lights still didn't work ??? Previously, we swapped in a known switch from another Boxster and the fog lights worked fine; this replacement switch won't turn on the fog lights. The switch has a ten (10) pin connector; is there a way to test the functionality ??

I appreciate it

Ordered the replacement from Pelican Parts, $150 and free. shipping. Received the new switch in 2 days (they use Fed-Ex).

At the end of the day, it is your car and your money. Just be aware that there always has been a limit as to how cold an automotive AC can be allowed to get; some manufacturers actually set a minimum permissible temperature for their system in order to prevent some rather strange problems. We actually had a customer that complained his system seemed to be cooling fine and then would just shut off for no apparent reason during a rather warm and humid period. After some intense diagnostics, we discovered that his system was getting so cold (very low 30F air temps), that under some humidity conditions, the car was actually freezing over the inside heat exchanger, blocking air low until it defrosted, giving the appearance that the AC had quit. We traced the problem to an AC compressor replacement prior to his purchase of the vehicle, where the wrong part number compressor was installed that had a higher capacity rating than the factory unit. We evacuated the system, replace the compressor with the correct part number, recharged the system and found the air temps inside the car's ductwork now stayed at around 41F, one degree above the manufacture's minimum allowable internal air temp. The car never froze up again. While getting you system's AC temps as low as possible seems like a worth goal, sometimes the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head............

I do not have a useful recommendation but would suggest contacting your local chapter of the Porsche Club of America as they typically have background on known Tiptronic repair facilities in your geographic location.

Hi, Thanks for the input. Looks like you may be from PA, do you have any transmission shops you would recommend? The Regulator looks easy enough to swap out, but my guess is a run of the mill shop would just recommend swapping out the whole valve body. I want someone whom I can have an honest conversation with. If they’re going to be in the transmission, they might as well swap out the #4 Pressure regulator and the torque converter plus check all wiring connections in the valve body. The kit on FCP Euro includes all of the solenoids/regulators so I would probably just have them swap everything out (or do it myself). My guess is a transmission shop would be able to diagnose all of the problems you mentioned and discern if it’s the regulator or the torque converter. That said, there are no drivability issues right now, and the car is not a trailer queen so I’d be inclined to drive a reasonable distance to a specialty transmission shop. Any suggestions?

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