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Rotary Switch to Manually Turn on the Cooling Fans Porsche 996/986 So the rotary switch has a fan symbol that lights up the same colour as the rest of the buttons in the car when the headlights are turned on. To turn on the low speed fans, rotate the dial up and the symbol lights up blue. Turn it down for the high speed (and the engine fan as well) and it turns red. The automatic function of the fans is not affected by this at all. In fact, the indicator lights will turn on when the car switches the fans on, so you can tell when the high or low speeds are on, which is cool. So the function of the rotary switch will be: -when at rest and headlights/parking lights are not on, fans are not on and the indicator light is not on. -when the dial is turned up, low speed fans are on and the indicator light illuminates blue. -when the dial is turned down, the high speed fans are on along with the engine bay fan and the indicator light illuminates red. -when the headlights/parking lights are on, the indicator lights orange. We will need 1 RGB LED, 1 diode, 1 resistor of 500 ohms, 1 resistor of 1000 ohms, 1 resistor of 5000 ohm (this may be different depending on the LED you use) Here is the wiring diagram that we will follow to make this work. First you need the headlight level switch. It was available only on the 996.1 cars and is part number: 996 613 230 01 You need to disassemble it, as all the circuitry inside will be replaced, and the headlight symbol removed. Remove the circuit board now, as it will be replaced with one we will make from scratch. Remove the LED as well and all wiring inside. Now you need to make a new circuit board to replace the old one. You need to visit an electronics store and get Ferric Chloride and copper clad board. Cut a piece of board to match the size of the old circuit board. Cut it roughly with a saw and then use a file to get it down to exactly the shape and size you need. Peel off the protective film and then lightly sand off the bluish film off the board until you have only copper exposed. Now you need to draw on the circuit onto the copper with a sharpie. I did it backwards, but it is soo much easier if you sand off the blue film and then draw the circuit. The chip will now go into the Ferric Chloride. The liquid will eat away all of the copper except for the parts you drew in sharpie, as the liquid does not react with it, leaving the copper underneath protected. When you take it out of the Ferric Chloride, you will have your chip. Clean off the sharpie with rubbing alcohol. Now you will drill 3 small holes in the bottom of the chip for wires to attach to. You will need to solder in bare solid wire into each of the holes. One contact will be for high speed, one for low speed and one for ground. Here you see the chip in place with the wires leading out of it. Each wire will need to be soldered onto a contact in the switch that leads to a pin. Now for the LED. You need a frosted 5mm tri colour RGB LED with a common cathode. The ground for the LED will go to pin 4 in the switch - same as the grounds for the high and low speed for the fans. The lead for the green will go to the 3rd pin. There is not enough pins for everything, so you will need to add more. I did this by putting a noche in the base of the switch to allow a couple wires to run out of the switch to another connector. I just picked up a male/female 2 pin connector from ebay like the one below. You will need resistors for these LEDs. Green is much stronger than red, so I used a 500 ohm resistor in series for the red LED, and 5000 ohm resistor in series for the green LED. 1000for the blue. You will need to test the light intensity and how the colours mix to get you the orange you need using different strengths of resistors to match the rest of your buttons. There is not much room inside the switch, so I placed my resistors and the diode outside the switch, which you can see here. Next is to make the fan symbol. Sand off the headlight symbol from the indicator piece. I had a tiny fan laser cut by a shop for me onto vinyl, which I then placed on the piece and painted black. Removed the vinyl, and now there is a perfect symbol of a fan that the LEDs will illuminate. Place back in the switch and now put it all back together. Switch is done. Now to wire everything up to the switch. The diode has to go where you see it in the diagram. It allows current only in one direction. Again, there is no room for it in the switch, so I have it in the wiring outside the switch. The diode will allow current to flow from the power supply for green LED to the red LED (this will make orange). You may need to test different resistor values to get the right colour of orange. Now to make it all work. We will need four 12v relays. I installed all 4 relays in the relay tray above the fuse box to make it look as OEM as possible. But they could go anywhere. You will need 4 relay plug with the metal connectors if you do what I did. Part number is 928 610 511 00. You need to locate the 2 low speed fan relays and the 2 high speed. The low speed relays are numbers 19 and 21, while the high speed relays are 20 and 22. Disconnect the battery in the car. First remove the fuse box panel. It is held on by 4 screws. You can then just pull it out. The relay box is above it. It is best to remove the relay box. It is held in place with a single nut, and clipped in on the opposite end. Flip the relay tray around so you have access to the back. I removed plugs that were in my way. Now use the wiring diagram from earlier to make the wiring connections you need. The proper routing and connections of the new wiring is all there in the diagram. The relays labeled as normally open or normally closed are the new relays you are adding. The purpose of these relays is to turn on and off the appropriate LED colour to indicate whether high or low is on, and to turn off the orange (if headlights are switched on) when fans are in operation. If you want the engine bay fan to also turn on with the high speed fans, then you will need to run a wire splitting off from the wire runs from pin 85 from relay 22 all the way to the back behind the rear passenger. There is another relay box there. I removed the rear quarter interior panel to help with running the wire as well as the bonnet/engine cover release panel trim. But you don’t have to, just tuck the wire in. Remove the carpet in the back to expose the relay box. It is on the right and is held in place with a nut in the centre and 2 screws on the right. You can see the wire I ran from the front. Flip it over and find relay number 8. You want to tap into pin 85 of that relay. Put it all back together. Now wire up the switch. The wire from pin 85 from relay 22 goes to pin 1 of your plug for the switch. The wire from pin 85 from relay 21 goes to pin 2. The wire from pin 87a from the normally closed low speed relay (see diagram) goes to pin 3. The wire from pin 87 from the normally open low speed relay (see diagram) goes to the connector you added to the switch - green wire The wire from pin 87 from the normally open high speed relay (see diagram) goes to the connector you added to the switch - red wire From the switch, we have a ground wire. This can go to any ground point in the dash. I found a spot close to where the switch goes and grounded it there. There is one last wire, and this is to get power to the red/green LED when the headlights are on. You can wire this to any switch in the car that illuminates. I took power for this from the intermittent wiper in the dash for power. Now with everything wired up, this should work. With the car on, but no headlights and the switch is at rest, there should be nothing. When the headlights are turned on, you should have the fan symbol light up in orange. Turn on the high speed fans, and you should have the engine fan and the 2 front fans on and the symbol should be red. On low speed, only the 2 front fans will be on at low speed and the symbol should light up in blue. The car will still turn on the fans automatically, and when it does, the fan symbol will also light up to let you know the car has turned on the fans at either high or low.

Today I did front final drive gear oil change. This DIY will show you how I did it. Since I had a hard time to access the drain plug, I removed fill plug and used a pump to suck out the final drive oil. Worked really well, and helped avoid messy drain, which puts oil onto the lower axle carrier frame too. FSM calls for change quantity of 0.42L, and I managed to remove about that much from the drive, so I feel confident I got it all. Used empty oil can go suck old oil into it, and another empty oil can to put same amount of new oil it, making sure I fill with what I removed. I actually filled the new oil can with maybe 1/4" more oil, to accommodate for some oil that pump cannot take out of can, and some oil left in tubing. Oil used for change: Mobil Delvac 1 full synthetic gear oil 75W-90 (direct cross reference to Shell TF0951 - factory fill oil) Oil refill quantity: 0.42L (bit less than half a quart) New fill plug part number: N 902 818 02 Fill plug tighten torque: 25.8 ft/lbs Fill plug removal tool: ratchet, extensions (at least 6"), 5mm hex socket, shop towels Look at this DIY before you do the change. Make sure you have all materials and time to do it. Expect about an hour to hour and a half to complete. Let us know if you have comments. Thank you.

I will be posting a starter repair/cleaning tutorial for the Porsche Cayenne. I bought a 2006 S a few months back and it had the startup whine that I believe is common to this vehicle. I have replaced the old starter with a Chinese $130 job, but I don't trust that the starter will last. I was amazed that no one had posted a DIY for this since the new Bosch starter is so **** expensive. As of right now I have most of the starter disassembled (which was not difficult except for one part that I can't figure out). As I clean and put back together I will post pics and advice. I found a few sites where you can get starter parts, mostly in Great Britain. I used a parts company called saverepair.com. Unfortunately, Bosch doesn't supply a lot of parts specific to this starter. The starter number is 0 001 125 025. Other good reference sites are aspwholesale.com, https://en.as-pl.com and this parts breakdown helped TREMENDOUSLY http://www.woodauto.com/Unit.aspx?Man=BOSCH&Ref=0001125025 (which wood auto was my second choice for parts but they cost a bit more.) What I could order from saverepair.com were these parts. bsx208-209 Bosch Starter Motor brushes 5.8 mm x 18mm x 14.6mm. 1 €3.60 €3.60 wsbu9016 Starter Bushing 10,08mm x 14,04mm x 9,90mm Rear bushing for Bosch,Front Bushing for Valeo D7E, and Centre for Ford Motorcraft. 1 €0.55 €0.55 wsbu9022 Starter Bushing 28,47mm x 32,30mm x 10,00mm. Front bushing used in Self-Supported Bosch starters. 1 €1.72 €1.72 wss0020 Starter Solenoid for Saab 9-3 Turbo 9-5 Turbo 900 9000 Opel Astra F Corsa A B Kadett E Vectra A B Lancia Fiat and more. 1 €18.00 €18.00 Pretty cheap parts as you can see. When I received the parts I was a bit concerned that the solenoid wouldn't work (I basically picked it by cross referencing starters that were close to the number range and had the same type of connectors). This solenoid is a bit larger than the old one, but the screw holes match up perfectly. I have never replaced bushings or brushes before, so this will also be an adventure I'm sure. On a side note, I REALLY wanted to replace the main bearings on the starter, but there are a few things I can't figure out. There is a part called the bendix that has the gear at the end that also holds the bearings. It is also attached to the stationary gear and a spiral gear shaft. I can't figure out how it all separates. If I did, I could just replace the entire bendix with the bearings on it. I'll see if I can attach a pick of what I'm talking about. If I can't get them separated I think it will be fine as the bearings still turn. I believe the major points of wear on the starter is the bushings. There is wiggle and play on the shafts on the bushings, which is probably why the starter was whining. Stay tuned! One more thought on removing the starter itself. There are write-ups for that so I won't delve, I will say, it is a relatively easy job of removing parts to get to it, but it does take a lot of time. I was able to remove the starter also without disconnecting coolant lines. I also added a pic of me after ripping the engine apart, with a much rewarded pipe blend called "quiet nights" (completely irrelevant to the post, ha!).

About 3 weeks back I started getting a CEL with a Code 0335 Crankshaft Position Sensor "A" Circuit. Upper Limit Exceeded. After clearing the code it kept coming back within a day or two and the car stalled on two occasions. Based on research on the forums, this seemed very much in line with sensor failures on 955's and a DIY existed for these model years, but not the 957. My 957 now has around 120k miles, and the engine runs incredibly well, aside from this one recent anomaly. I ordered a replacement sensor, from Pelican Parts which arrived the next day (very impressive service) :lowdown: thanks Pelican Crankshaft Sensor Brand: Bosch Note: Engine Type: 4.8L 4806cc V8 (3.78x3.27; 96.0x83.0) (2008 Porsche Cayenne S Sport Utility) Part #: 0-261-210-292-INT As there was no info available on this DIY for a 957 so I'm hoping the following will help others get this done easily when needed, and in particular so you can save the 2 hours extra it took me to figure out where and how everything was located, as well as how to get to it. Which I did while I was waiting for the new part to arrive However once that research was done, the actual job of replacing the sensor took about 45 minutes. The main challenge is that the connector is difficult to access as it is behind and below the fuel pump on the right hand side as you face the front of the car. Even with an inspection scope it was difficult to locate. It was only once I looked from under the car that I could see where it was located. Also the connector plug is attached to a rectangular section of plastic tubing/conduit on the wiring harness, by a clip which is very rigid. After multiple attempts to release this clip it broke off. I think give the location it gets very hot and over the years becomes brittle. You should remove the engine compartment trim at the rear of the engine for better access. I also borrowed a few pics of an engine on the web to mark the location: I also found that removing the harness from the engine made it easier to get my hands around the connector to get the two ends separated. Once you have the old sensor disconnected, attach the new one and and tape the end of the new sensor tip with some painters tape just for protection and slowly lower it down into the engine compartment. It will end up either side of the primary cat where it is easily accessible from below. Also let the old sensor cable drop into the engine bay as you will then extract it from below. Now move to underneath the vehicle. I only needed to jack up the front left of the vehicle (jack stand + jack for extra safety). No wheels need to be removed. Do not jack up the car before dealing with the connector at the top of the engine bay as it will make it difficult to reach. Between the connector and the sensor, the cable is secured at 3 locations. See pictures below. The cable is pretty easy to remove and secure from below the vehicle and it can be seen and accessed without removing any of the under trays (depending on your level of flexibility). The lowest retaining clip is a push in type retaining clip where you simply press the cable into the tensioned clip. The two upper retaining clips are circular in shape and hinge open and closed. With a built of gentle persuasion you can pull them open and the cable comes out easily. I could not get the uppermost one in the pics but it is similar to the 2nd one shown in the pics. The sensor is held in place with a single torx T5 screw. Once you have the old sensor off you can pull it out and put it aside and attach the new one. I suggest attaching the sensor first and the attaching the cable to the retaining clips. Very rewarding and inexpensive fix, and everything is back to normal. No more codes and the car runs beautifully!

My Porsche is a 1999 996 C2 Cabriolet. The convertible top compartment lid (the “lid”) is attached to the body via two hinges which each have two arms. The front arm on the left hinge was broken, so I replaced the entire hinge, as replacement arms are not available. Here is the step by step process of how I did it :(I had a bunch of great photos with this article, but for some reason they did not copy and paste with the article) (I'm what you might call "format impaired".) : Tools needed: Flat Head Screw Driver 10mm Box Wrench T-30 Torx Bit 13mm Socket Short Socket Extension Electrical Tape Parts Needed: Replacement Hinge Part #996-561-907-02 (Left side) Replacement Seal Part#996-561-904-00 (“Cabrio Plate” in Porsche terminology) 1. Open the top partially so that the top is open about half way and the lid is in the fully open position. 2. Disconnect the cables that keep the rear-most part of the top secure to the car. There is one cable per side. Push the cable inward (toward the center line of the car) to release it from the ball connection. Release both cables. 3. Let the top move forward toward the closed position and push the window section up and out of the way. 4. Use the flat-head screw driver to remove the 4 plugs that keep the rear carpet in place. Remove the carpet, starting at the top and working it around the trim. 5. Once the carpet is out, follow the lid stop light wire down and disconnect it. It simply unplugs. 6. Release the wire from fastening elements (Porsche terminology) on the rear arm of the left hinge. 7. Mark the location of both left and right hinges in relation to the lid, then use the 10mm wrench to remove the 2 nuts securing each hinge to the lid. Prior to removing any parts, cover the drain hole below the hinge with a paper towel to prevent any small bits from falling into it. Once broken loose, they can be turned by finger. (This is probably better done with the assistance of a helper to support the lid, but can be accomplished by one person working alone by removing the rear nuts first and supporting the lid in place with one hand while removing the front nut on each side with the other hand.) Remove the lid from the car by lifting it up off the hinge. 8. (For the left hinge, only.) Remove the plastic fasteners for the lid stop light wire from the hinge for reuse on the replacement hinge. These both just clip on and can be easily remove with needle nosed pliers. 9. Remove the additional flap for reuse with the replacement hinge. The flap is removed by pushing the locking lever forward, then pulling the flap backwards and pulling downwards out from the underside of the hinge top. 10. Undo the motor drive from the hinge rear arm by removing the 2 Torx screws with the T-30 Torx bit. 11. Disconnect the motor drive push rod from the front locking hook at the front of the hinge by releasing the small clip retaining it. It should come off by releasing the locking tab slightly and pushing down at the same time. 12. Remove the motor drive body from the body of the hinge by removing the 2 Torx screws with the T-30 Torx bit. It’s not necessary to remove the pin with the flat head slot on it in order to remove the motor drive from the hinge. It may take a little rocking, but the part should come right off without much effort. 13. To give more play in the hydraulic line to the motor drive to be able to get it well out of the way, with the flat head screwdriver release the tie securing the line to the bottom of the compartment. This just pops off and presses back onto a threaded retainer. 14. Move the motor drive out of the way and with the 13mm socket remove the 2 nuts and 1 bolt attaching the body of the hinge to the body of the car. The 2 nuts are clearly visible, but the bolt is concealed behind a plug in the trim piece covering the front of the hinge. To access the bolt, remove the plug with the flathead screwdriver. (Be careful not to drop the socket or the bolt behind the trim piece as fishing them back out may be a challenge.) Once the nuts and bolt are removed, the hinge can be gently removed from behind the trim piece by pulling up on the back of the hinge and rotating the entire hinge about 90 degrees counter clockwise and pulling up and back while gently prying up on the trim pice with the other hand. (This is probably the hardest part of the entire procedure.) 15. Adhere the seal to the back of the new hinge replicating the position of the old seal on the old hinge. Clean up around the openings in the body panel to remove debris left behind from the old seal. Remove the backing film from the seal before installing the hinge. Make sure the contact surfaces of the hinge and body are not adhered over by the seal. Installing the new hinge is the reverse of the removal procedure: Work the front of the hinge back behind the trim piece; Attach the hinge to the car body with the 2 13mm nuts and the 13mm bolt and torque to 7.5 ftlb.(I used the electrical tape to temporarily secure the bolt to the socket and the socket to the extension to ensure I didn’t drop either down behind the trim piece.); Attach the motor drive to the hinge body with the 2 long T-30 Torx screws and torque to 7.5 ftlb.; Attach the motor drive to the rear hinge arm with the 2 short T-30 Torx screws and torque to 7.5 ftlb.; Reconnect the motor drive pushrod to the lock hook at the front of the hinge with the small clip; Re-secure the hydraulic line tie in the bottom of the compartment; Attach the brake light wire fasteners to the rear arm of the new hinge; Reattach the additional flap by inserting it onto the pins on the underside of the hinge and pulling it forward then pulling the locking lever backward until it locks; Install the lid, leaving the 10 mm nuts slightly loose and press the stop light wire into the plastic fasteners and plug it back into the connection; Reinstall the carpet; Reattach the rear roof cables; Next align the lid, so it will close properly aligned with the body. Using the marks made at the beginning of the process should make this a bit easier.

Posted this on the 986 forum, thought I'd share it here... here's the link to the 986forum.com post in case there might be any relevant discussions 986 forum DIY

Replacing Switch on Transmission for Reverse Lights / Back-Up Lights Replacement Parts: 1. SWITCH, BACK-UP, part number 996.606.103.01 (This is the correct part number for my '99 911 Carrera 4. Check with your local dealer to confirm the correct part number for your car.) (Cost at my dealership on 21 Oct 2005: $8.16 + tax) Tools Required: 1. 19mm box-end wrench 2. Medium-sized flat-blade screwdriver Procedure: 1. If you are working under your pickup or SUV (and the wheels are still on) and the jack breaks or your stands slip, at least there is enough space for your body under that vehicle when it comes crashing down. Under your Porsche, there is no room for you unless you are only 3.6 inches thick. If the jack fails or the stands slip and the car falls, you will either die, or at least be crapping in a bag for the rest of your life. So lift the rear of the car up in a very SAFE and STABLE manner. I recommend the use of ramps, as shown in the picture below. Note how the front wheels are chocked, the ramps are super-sturdy and have stop blocks at the ends, and the car is in gear with the handbrake very tightly engaged. 2. Locate the reversing light switch on the portion of the transmission that is furthest forward in the vehicle. The switch is mounted in a hole in the transmission housing that faces directly up, and has a two-wire snap-on connector. (This is the location for a '99 911 Carrera 4 with the 6-speed Getrag transmission; your car may be different. Regardless, it shouldn't be hard to find.) 3. Using a medium-sized flat-blade screwdriver, pry the snap retainer of the wiring connector open slightly so that the connector will come off. Note that you will have to pry the connector so the plug can slide out, while at the same time applying pressure to the plug to push it out. The green rubber portion of the connector is to keep water out of the connection area, but it also adds some friction to the connection. You won't have to push too hard, so just make sure you're moving the snap retainer out of the way enough. 4. With the connector removed, drop your 19 mm box-end wrench over the switch from above. There should be plenty of room and it's easy to access. The threads are standard, so lefty-loosey righty-tighty. You should only have to turn the switch with the wrench about 1/12th of a turn at the most to break it loose, it should come the rest of the way out very easily with your fingers. When installing the new switch, be sure the switch body is aligned with the axis of the hole! The switch body material is either aluminum or magnesium, so be careful not to cross-thread the new switch upon installation. The new switch should screw all the way in VERY easily with your fingers. Apply a small amount of torque to the switch with the wrench when bottomed out. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN the switch, you wouldn't want to strip the threads of the new switch. There is no seal ring between the switch and the transmission housing. When fully seated, the barb/emboss on the white plastic part of the switch (that the snap retainer snaps onto) should be facing the front of the car, approximately. (See photo below.) 5. Reinstall the wiring connector, be sure to push it all the way in so no green rubber boot is visible, and you hear the *click* of the snap retainer. Cheers! You've just saved yourself over $100...

Here are the pictures and instructions. This TSB is easy to do, and the range in my key remote went from 4 ft to 30 ft. 1999 996 Cabrio. Here are the tools you will need. The following steps: 1. Remove the sun visor. It simply pulls out 2. Use the small flat screw driver to pry of plastic cover on visor base. When removed, you will see the Hex bolt heads 3. Use the 4 mm Hex wrench key to remove both bolts. Hold on to the part, it has washers on the other side and can get fall off if not careful. 4. Now pull off the A-pillar cover to reveal the cables underneath. 5 Pull out the cables that are held in place on the foam sleeve. There is double sided tape holding it in place, pull carefully but firmly. From the top down 6. After pulling it, undo the foam by pulling apart the seam. The white wire is the antenna we are looking for. 7. Keep peeling off the foam until you get to the black sleeve on the antenna. 8. Measure off 130 mm from the end of the black sleeve upwards into the white antenna, and cut the the rest off. You need to keep 130 mm (25 mm is about an inch) of antenna above the black sleeve. 9. Pull the antenna wire off the foam sleeve, and enclose the rest of the wires with the foam sleeve. 10. The picture shows the wire after being secured with electrical tape to the OUTSIDE of the sleeve, and towards the inside of the cabin when the foam is taped back to the A-pillar. 11. The two sided tape on the foam is sticky enough to simply push the foam back into its original position. 12. TEST the remote now before assembling the trim. Walk away from the car, lock and unlock it, and grin. 13. Replace the trim, it just pushes back in, do it from the bottom up and ensure it is on the inside of the rubber gasket. 14. Secure the sun visor base with the two Hex bolts. Careful you don't loose the washers. Then push back in the sun visor and you are done. I changed from the TSB the location of the antenna wire to the outside of the foam sleeve, and added the bit of electrical tape to hold it in place and avoid any issues when reassembling the trim. It worked for me and I have tested and enjoyed up to 30 ft of range with the remote in open lots, and covered garages. Enjoy..