PTEC

I would say first you need to determine how water got inside the car. The most common place is the drains in the rear cabtop compartment. Check and make sure they're not clogged and there are no holes in the drainage trays.

Once you figure this out, you'll almost certain need a new immobilizer. If the immobilizer is fried enough there will be no fail safe, the car will flat out not start. A tow is likely in your future. There is a chance if you let it dry out for long enough it may be able to start the car though the car may do crazy things with the windows and locks. There really is no diagnosis when theres water damage involved. Either it starts the car and operates normally or its toast. About the only thing is whether or not the PIWIS tester can communicate with it. If by some miracle it can, the dealer can read out your old keys and transfer them to a new control unit. If not, you're in for all news too.

You can buy an immobilzer from a junk yard and use it as long as you have the correct DME and Immobilizer programming number. There are a few different immobilizers from year to year and depending on the options so make sure you get the correct one. From there you'll need to take the programming numbers to a dealer, or a shop with at least a PST2 so they can program the Immobilizer to your car.

Agreed. Pretty much any time you get a fault for o2 sensor ageing, the sensor is toast.

The dealer is pretty much required to stand behind Porsche's recommendation of not using 19s. Of course there are a bunch of people running 19s without problems but its a CYA thing for dealers. If you're the one person in a million to have problems with 19s you can't turn around and blame the dealer.

RFM and slbates are correct. The sensor is dry, it doesn't actually sit in coolant. It sounds like you need a new tank.

Well the X51 intake is completely different different. The middle section of a normal 997 intake has two tubes with the tuning flap in the rear tube and the throttle body in the front tube. The X51 intake only has one tube and therefore wouldn't have a tuning a flap. So if you have the X51 intake it would make sense that you have this fault. A picture of your engine compartment would help.

The stock valves do fail a lot but they definitely dont send junk into the turbo.

You know this for a fact? I have seen pictures of the damaged compressor after a dv fell apart and went into the compressor.

While I cant say that its never happened, I can say that I've never seen or heard of this happening while working in a shop for since 2003. Having replaced plenty of stock DV's and tearing them apart after they set check engine lights, it would seem very hard to imagine unless you knowingly drove with faulty ones for a long, long time.

Definitely update the cap. I didn't mean to imply that using 2.5L liters of coolant in 7k km was normal. What I meant that its possible that the coolant wasn't at the max level when the car was bought, even if it had a major check. As someone mentioned too it is possible there was air in the system from a previous repair and it worked itself out and the level dropped that way. If its not puking out on the ground the only way he can really do is to put the level to max himself and just drive it regularly and see what happens.

There are multiple causes for the window not dropping. The window regulator is by far the most common cause for this. The problem is very easily diagnosed with a PIWIS tester as you can watch the microswitches inside the door latch and the two on the inner/outer door handles to see if they genuinely are a problem, which they rarely are. The 997 uses a different system than the 996 control the window drop but I still, as a DIY, I would not recommend replacing the door latch before the window regulator.

The interval on the old belts was 60k and when you replaced them always always still looked good. And as loren mentioned usually a broken belt is preceded by a broken pulley.

Definitely check the diverter valves, especially if they're stock.

A small amount of consumption is normal. All water cooled cars will "use" some coolant. Its possible the coolant wasn't topped off at the last service. Top off the reservoir when the car is cold and keep an eye on it.

Diverter Valves and blow off valves are the same. I believe the only difference with tha Agency Power is that their blow off valves/DV is they divert the air to atmosphere as opposed to blowing back into the intake.

So how are they the same? They both perform similar duties in that they prevent damage to the the compressor. The BOV exhausts to atmosphere where as the DV recirculates the charge. Bosch programming is not set-up for BOVs (the car will run rich).

What hes saying is they perform the same function. The only different is where they send the excess air. The stock valves do fail a lot but they definitely dont send junk into the turbo. The stock piece is a simple valve with the vacuum diaphragm that tends to crack internally and therefore leak vacuum. There is an updated part that has proved much more robust.

To test the accumulator you want to run the car for a few minutes to let the accumulator build up pressure. Then shut the car off and depress the clutch pedal, counting how many times until the pedal becomes noticeably stiffer. If it takes less than 15-20 to feel stiff then the accumulator is likely faulty. The main symptom of a faulty accumulator is coming out to the car after a few hours and going to depress the clutch pedal when you start the engine and having the pedal feel rock hard. The normal feeling of the 996 turbo clutch pedal is extremely light, without the boost from the power steering pump the pedal is ridiculously stiff. The accumulator retains pressure and gives you hydraulic assist even when the engine is off, but only for approx 20 pumps of the pedal. If you can press the clutch pedal 100 times after the engine is off and have it feel the same, you definitely have a problem. The most common problem of a clutch pedal that doesn't feel right when depressing it is the accumulator. The clutch fluid over flowing the front reservoir is a different issue however. This is almost always a problem with the slave cylinder. The slave is what connects the two parts of the clutch fluid circuit. You're right on the accumulator not making sense in causing this, there is a valve that fails inside the slave and allows pressurized clutch fluid up and up into the front reservoir. It sounds like you might need both though! Make sure you buy a few cans of pentosin to bleed the system.

Someone tried to do a service action W610 and didn't complete it. Take it back to the dealer and have them re insert the W610 update cd. I've seen this numerous times.

thanks Loren, you helped me out once again.

Regarding the aluminium trim: is it just a matter of pulling it off or do I need to move it sideways before pulling?

Thanks, frank

You dont need to remove the aluminum trim. Remove piece number 8 in the diagram and remove the two t30s, then piece 6 and remove some more t30s. Then there are two t-20s on the lower carpeted portion of the door panel. Then pull it off. The clips are a bit tricky but they run along the outer edge. Theres probably seven or eight all told.

As far as I know the speaker for the turn signals is inside the instrument cluster. Does it make the ding noise if you drive without your seatbelt on? I know for a fact the ding for the seatbelt warning in inside the cluster and I would guess the speaker for the turn signals is as well. The cluster is not serviceable.

When you first insert the key and turn on the ignition all the dash lights should illuminate. Its a feature thats designed as a bulb test to let you know if you have any burnt out bulbs. You can remove the cluster and swap some bulbs around and see if the problem moves around. Its almost guaranteed to be some burnt out bulbs. You should be able to get them from the dealer for under 10 bucks a pop.

As mentioned, If you bring the car back to the dealer they're not going to be able to adjust the caster. If you demand they adjust it, they're just going to hit you with an estimate for a grand worth of new control arms. I wouldn't worry about it. Caster doesn't cause tires to wear so as long as the other camber and toe are good then you're good to go.

Well since you have an 03 you wouldnt have had to enter a radio code anyways. Other than that keeping the trickle charger plugged in wont hurt anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV8PpKJ8Gzg...feature=related

My car makes this odd tapping noise when starting. No other time you can hear it in this You tube clip.

Just as he is starting you'll notice a loud quick burst of defined tapping. It kind of sounds like when you pull the hand brake quickly.

Many Thanks and Happy Holidays!

sounds like a starter motor fault like the cog not retracting fast enough best take it to a specialist

You really think so? It's hard for me to imagine the starter gear making that loud of a noise. It sounds comparable to a bad rod.

Its not the starter. Believe it or not this does actually happen on these cars but the noise is very distinct. It sounds like chain noise to me, especially if the only time you hear it is on start up. Its not really a problem but if the car is under warranty you can mention it and they may replace your chain tensioners.

Loren, I come from the "muscle car" world originally where AIR/EGR was removed quite regularly to unleash horsepower. Do you think these cars will yield a noticeable difference with emissions disabled?

Im not really a muscle car guy but I believe the old smog pumps were driven by the fan/accessory/serpentine belt and thats why they were removed to 'gain' power. The boxsters system is basically an electric fan, so removing it would do nothing for you other than make a nice check engine light pop up.

So what parts did you need exactly? Only the buttons themselves and coding?

Yep thats the secondary air pump. Perfectly normal.

If I have to replace vacuum line I always replace it with the soft stuff. Its much easier to work with and in the future it wont be so brittle. I have no idea why they used the hard stuff in the first place. Just go to autozone or where ever and get the soft stuff in the same inner diameter, I think its 1/8".

Its completely possible something from the road got kicked up and hit the transmission fluid cooler. Guys with 996s and 997s have problems with rocks hitting the condenser and loosing their A/C. Its just a fact of life that you have to hang coolers like these out where fresh air can get to them and along with that comes the fact that debris might hit them. Its no different than if a rock hit and cracked the windshield. Its not Porsche's fault, if you're unlucky it just happens.