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JeTexas

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Everything posted by JeTexas

  1. JeTexas
    Look on the bright side. I had a 66 Mustang with a ruptured line between the front and rear fuel bowls. I started smelling gas as I was driving to dinner. While sitting at a stoplight someone slowed down to yell, "You're on fire!" About the time they yelled that, the first flames jumped up through the crack in the hood. I got into a parking lot just in time to get out of the car and watch the entire front end burn to a crisp. At least your Porsche isn't toasty!
  2. JeTexas
    A failing torque converter might cause surging. That's all I can think of in the transmission that would cause anything other than slipping or grinding noises. Despite your confidence in tire size, try driving the car with the Traction Control turned off. If the problem remains this will eliminate the ABS and traction control system, which can affect the idle air control valve position. I spent almost a year with my car surging at constant speed and hanging at high rpms during idle (I have a 6-speed) with no codes to go by before I finally tracked it down to the traction control system. An intermittent misfire or momentary lack of electric power, perhaps from a bad ignition switch, might cause surging, but I think you'd feel it more like a lag instead of a surge. Good luck.
  3. JeTexas
    Ok, got the top working again tonight. The allen screw on the left is the one that pressurizes the pistons for the top. Make sure it's righty tighty all the way or the top isn't going to move. The allen screw in the black cone on the right has to do with the rear deck cover. Apparently, it can't be screwed too tight or that thing won't move, which was my problem. I'd unscrewed it thinking it was the one to manually release the top when my control unit died, but then realized it was the wrong screw and screwed it back in too tight. Tonight I loosened it up and suddenly the deck lid came back to life. Once the deck lid came back to life, the PST-2 calibrated everything no problem, and I'm back in business. So life is a lot better tonight since all in all, I correctly diagnosed the bad control unit, replaced it for $150, and then (eventually) got the top working again. However, I could kick myself for not paying more attention when I was screwing and unscrewing things in the first place since troubleshooting my own mistakes are what's taken me a month to figure out. Thankfully, I didn't break anything else except that wiring attachment in the hardtop mounting hole, but I'll start a new thread for that. I'm not tackling it tonight.
  4. JeTexas
    What size tires do you have on the rear? I had a similar situation with some surging and with the idle hanging at a high rev when I let off the gas that finally got tracked back through the traction control system to the fact that I had 265/40 tires on the rear instead of the correct 265/35. If this is the case, turn off the traction control and all the symptoms should immediately disappear.
  5. JeTexas
    99 C2 Cab is my daily driver. I bought it with 80k miles on the odometer just a little under 2 years ago, and now I'm at 114k. I drive at least 50 miles roundtrip to the office five days a week. On the weekends, it usually goes much further. Lots of trips to Galveston, Austin, etc. Before that was 2 years driving an 04 Ford Escape XLT (boring but reliable, had gotten tired of getting stranded by the Mustang, dumped it for the Porsche). Before that was a 1966 Mustang 289 Coupe. Before that was a 1987 Mustang LX Convertible Before that was a 1983 Pontiac Bonneville Station Wagon (with sporty mag wheels)
  6. JeTexas
    How do I set the potentiometer? From what I understood, I could just plug in the PST-2 and choose to calibrate the top no matter which position things were in. Anyone know?
  7. JeTexas
    My hatch won't move after manually opening/closing my top as well. I have a PST-2 to calibrate it, but that's not doing the job either. If it stops raining I'm going to pull it apart again this weekend to further troubleshoot. I'll let you know what I find.
  8. JeTexas
    I pulled the latch off last night and worked it over. The ratcheting lever seemed to be stuck. Got it working again and reinstalled. That's a relief. However, it didn't solve my timeout error. Now I seem to be getting motor noise on all my drive links except for when I try to open the rear deck cover. It just makes a click. If it stops raining this weekend I'm going to track down that motor and see if I can't revive it. Otherwise it looks like that's my problem. With the functioning latch I can now manually close the convertible top, so that's progress. Unfortunately last night I also broke some kind of plastic ring that has wires running to it in the little hole on the driver side where the hardtop pin seats. I'm guessing the wire to it is for the rear defroster or speakers - but I'll tackle that issue after the top works again.
  9. JeTexas
    I think I may have found a solution for the dragging window seal problem. For my underwater camera housings I have to use silicone grease on all the rubber to lock out the water and make a good seal. This is essentially the same stuff as dielectric grease like you'd use on your light bulbs or spark plugs boots on a car, so I switched over to using that because it's 99 cents a tube at the auto parts store instead of $6 plus shipping from the camera stores. My windows were driving me crazy because they weren't rolling down without me pushing on top of them due to the grabbing rubber weatherstrip, and I have to roll them down every day to get into my office parking garage. I just hadn't had time to order the new seal and pull the doors apart. Well, in desperation, I slather those seals up both inside and outside with dielectric grease. I especially ran my finger over that leading edge many times and tried to rub off any sharp burs that seemed to be sticking out. I let it sit for a day and then gave it a good wipedown since I don't want that stuff on my arm or shirts everytime I reach through the windows. It's been six weeks now, and neither seal has stuck on the window again. The passenger side makes a fingers-rubbing-a-balloon sound, so I need to work it over again to see if I can stop that, but I'm so happy to having them sliding this long without a problem. Plus, it saved several hundred dollars.
  10. JeTexas
    I haven't found one for our headlights, but if you search youtube and the web, there's instructions as to how to put reflectors and HID into other types of headlights. They all seem to have the same watertight seal that has to be heated with a heat gun to soften it up and then they just pull apart. I keep thinking I'll buy Litronics and then make a DIY with my old halogen lights on how to convert regular lights into litronics with salvage parts from eBay, but I just haven't been able to justify the cost of the project yet. Too many other things are actually broken and need fixing.
  11. JeTexas
    Your son's got some serious talent! It looks like he did all the filming with a handheld. I think he deserves a crane jib and a steadycam rig for all that editing work. Then again, that's probably going to cut into your car budget. lol
  12. JeTexas
    Now that my controller is working, it seems my top latch is not. I've gone through the instructions in the manual over and over trying to manually release it, but I can't get it to budge. I'm thinking there must be some kind of ratchet switch I'm not finding. Does anyone have a photo or exploded view of the top latch? I'm pretty sure that's what's broken, but it's $450 for just a salvage latch, so I wanted to work through this one first.
  13. JeTexas
    Progress. I got a salvage convertible top control module from Oklahoma Foreign for $150, and it now speaks with the PST-2. I'm getting error 5 Maximum Time Exceeded (timeout). The info screen says: not present Counter: 53 Convertible top raised Convertible top compartment lid locked Right side flap down Left side flap down When I try the drive links, I can get every motor to make noise, but nothing ever moves. Likewise, when I try to calibrate, I hear motors turning, but nothing's moving. Question, does the hydraulic system move the rear cover or does it only move the top itself? Because the rear cover isn't moving at all. If it's on the hydraulic system then maybe I just need to top off my hydraulic fluid. However, if it's not, I'm not sure what to look at next.
  14. JeTexas
    Back in the day when I had my 66 Mustang, a black 911 cut me off on the freeway. I was pretty proud of the engine work I'd done on that car, so I said to myself, F U Porsche, and I punched it to go around him and cut him off. Instead, there was a loud clanging from my motor and smoke started pouring out of my exhaust. I limped to the side of the road. I had a valve break and imbed itself into the top of one of my pistons. Had to do a complete rebuild. Learned my lesson not to be a hotrod douchebag. Now in my 996, it's mostly really beat up little Hondas or Chevy Cavaliers that always pull up at lights and start revving their motors, but if I'm out on the freeway it's Mercedes, Nissans or souped up Mustangs/Camaros that all try to zip by me and pull in front of me.
  15. JeTexas
    Are the side flaps not operating when you attempt to retract the top or do you think the process is just too slow? Those flaps are on a nylon bearing that moves up and down a screw drive that can be accessed and greased through the panel behind the back seat. If they're not moving, most of the time it just takes some grease on the big screw, but if they are moving, I don't think you can make it all function any faster.
  16. JeTexas
    The HID lights aren't legal in some states/countries if they do not have a reflector because without a reflector focusing the light, they shine in the eyes of other drivers. You can buy salvage Porsche reflectors on eBay, but you'd have to heat up and open the headlight, then drill the lens to install them, then glue it all back together.
  17. JeTexas
    If it's noticeably leaking out like that, I wouldn't drive it. You can get away with seeping, but not a big leak.
  18. JeTexas
    Update, according to Sunset, there is no convertible top relay. I was thinking the Cab spoiler relay was for the top. We can scratch that off as a cause.
  19. JeTexas
    There's stuff like this everywhere - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1138084373294 I'm sure you could find something compatible with your unit. Or you could just find a cup that fits your cupholders well, put a weight in the bottom of it, put your mount inside it, and fill it with resin.
  20. JeTexas
    The whole GPS thing has been kind of driving me crazy. I've been too cheap to pay for the whole in-dash thing. Then, last year I saw a deal on a Pioneer unit that hooked into the stereo and your iPod, phone, etc. It seemed amazing, but then I had to buy another $100 worth of cables to connected the iPod. So now I've got this big Pioneer unit hooked to the windshield with 6' of cables hanging off one side for the iPod connection and the Aux to my Becker, then I've got 3' of cable hanging off the other side for power. Then, even though I used shielded cables and a ground loop isolater for my Aux hook-up, apparently the Pioneer unit itself wasn't shielded/grounded, so I had the worst alternator hum coming through it, which then negated the usefulness of running it through the stereo and using it to control the iPod/iPhone. Plus, I had the same dilemma of attempting to hide all that equipment every time I parked the car. The thing was such a big, wiry, messy hassle, I only used it twice. Now, 8 months later, the Pioneer unit has been relegated to use as a remote video monitor for my film work (using the back-up camera input), and my iPhone 3Gs does all the navigation work. The technology is changing so fast.
  21. JeTexas
    Apparently nobody can diagnose the controller unit out of the car, but I don't have time to put it back in the car until this weekend. I also don't know how they'd diagnose it since I can't get the PST2 or Durametric to connect to it anyway. I ordered a new convertible top relay from Sunset because it's a cheap swap as a "just to make sure" thing. I also pulled the dash switch to check the wiring, but it all seems to be connected, and the switch itself seems to be working. The controller unit is $458, so I'm not in a hurry to spend that before I've exhausted all my other troubleshooting options. Anyone know if there's a way to test each microswitch?
  22. JeTexas
    I wouldn't do anything too permanent that you might regret. I think within two years everyone will just be using the GPS on their phones, so all you'd need is a phone mount coming out of your cigarette lighter.
  23. JeTexas
    Just an update (if anybody cares). After work today I turned on the car, which I'd fitted with the hard top since I wasn't able to get the convertible top latch to unhook. (Don't know what the trick is, but there was no sliding the allen wrench into those holes and turning the gears like it shows in the owner's manual.) Anyway, as soon as I turned the car on, all four windows started erratically rolling themselves down. They'd just go down an inch or two at a time, trading off which one was moving every 30 seconds or so. I kept rolling them all back up, but after 20 minutes, I gave up and just rolled them all down. When I finally stopped, I couldn't get them to roll all of the way back up. They'd go halfway and then roll back down. I finally turned the car off and turned it back to accessory, and they acted normal again. On my next trip the window gremlins were playing again, but unfortunately when I finally got it into the driveway and started it up with the video camera to send the tape in to Ghost Hunters, it had quit. Since the convertible control module isn't speaking to my PST2 or my Durametric, and it's the only thing I can think off that would control all four windows, I'm assuming it's gone bad. I pulled it out, so I don't have to deal with devil windows the rest of the week. I'm going to call the dealership tomorrow to see if they can test just the module. If they can't or if it tests bad, I'll order a new one and see what happens.
  24. JeTexas
    When I try to check the convertible module with my PST2, it just says it can't find module. When I connect to the DME, it has no codes. All the fuses are good. The top warning light doesn't stay on. It comes on when I start the car and then goes back off like everything is normal. All I can think of is maybe the relay went bad? Perhaps a sensor somewhere died? Any ideas?
  25. JeTexas
    So the passenger side flap on my 99 C2 Cabriolet quit moving, so I put the top in service position and removed the line and the panel behind the backseat to grease the screw drive and see if I could get it working again. Well, with some grease, and a couple twists on the manual crank to break it loose, it started working again. I put the top up and down a couple times, but then it quit. So I cranked it with the manual crank again, greased it again, and tested it again. Well, I watched the flaps go up and down twice, just flipped the cab rocker switch back and forth through that part of the cycle. Then NOTHING. Now my top is 90 percent of the way down, but when I press the dash switch or try to actuate it with the key in the door, I hear a click, then nothing. I tried disconnecting the battery to reset the computer. I tried starting the car. I tried resetting the parking brake. It just seems dead. What should I try next? I don't want to manually close the top if I don't have to because in the owner's manual it says you have to have it serviced to get everything re-calibrated.
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