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wwest

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Posts posted by wwest

  1. I have been considering purchasing K&N's new Aircahrger Intake Kit for the past 3 weeks. The kit was just released and shipped two weeks ago, but there were many backorders, so I imagine one of you has received and installed it. Any difference in "seat of the pants" power or responsiveness? How about sound? Any idle or driveability issues with MAF relocation? Any feedback would be appreciated.....

    IMO that's a lot like asking how many idiots there are out here in Porsche land...!

  2. Help! I have a 2002 C4 cab with Litronic and the lights aim themselves very low (100' visibilty or so--very dangerous) about one out of four or five times that I drive the car. The other times, they aim up just fine. Both sides aim equally.

    It first happened when I bought the car (used, with 20,000 miles) and the battery was weak. Replacing the battery seemed to help bring the light aim up to approximately normal (though perhaps still just a tab bit low). Manual adjustment seemed to make no difference.

    So I began to think it might be voltage-related and I started watching the dashboard voltmeter. There may be a correlation, but since the voltage variations (between 13.4 and 13.8 volts or so) are small, it is difficult to say with certainty that there is a correlation. But it does seem that when the lights aim themselves low, the voltage is relatively low (closer to 13 than 14) and that when they aim up more normally, the voltage is closer to 14.

    Has anyone experienced this problem? What is the cuase and the solution? I drive a lot at night with deer on the road and need a solution ASAP. :) Thanks.

    Provided this was factory installed the angle at which the headlamps "level" too is determined by a height sensor mounted on the rear suspension assembly. If you have rear seat passengers the headlamps will "level" to a lower angle to compensate. This sensor is the most likely place to start trouble-shooting.

    The Porsche aftermarket Litronic used a level sensor in a small plastic box generally mounted, velcroed, somewhere in the boot.

  3. Have noticed the air conditioning is not blowing very cold last few times. Maybe a little cold but not enough to be comfortabel when it is hot outside. I'm going to take it in next week. Just wondered if anyone has had this issue and what the fix was? My car is a 2000 C2. Any thoughts? Thanks.

    For some strange I cannot myself grasp once the cabin temperature reaches or nears your setpoint the system opens the airflow to the windshield. If you over-ride the system and select dash outlets ONLY it seems to help cooling the passenger cabin dramatically. Cooling airflow to the interior windshield surface is not only a total WASTE it can result in condensation forming on the windshield exterior surfaces. Not a serious problem during daylight hours but at night your forward vision gradually declines.....

  4. Last weekend my wife was driving my car with the air on and she told me that cold water dropped on her foot. I am assuming that this was condensation liquid but how would it get inside? Any comments or suggestions? What should I be looking at?

    There is a condensate drain hose/pipe from the catch pan under the A/C evaporator that may be plugged up. Check from underneath the car just forward of the firewall toward the US passenger side wheelwell.

  5. After reading posts here, I ordered the Schnell air intake hose and I plan on performing the Intake Air Box Modification thanks to Izzy (http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6422&hl=schnell). At the very least I'd like the benefit of better sound even if I can't feel a difference in power.

    I also know many here have added aftermarket performance air filters, such as K&N, and I'd like to know what people think of them. Did you experience an increase in power, improved gas mileage, or any other appreciable benefits? Were any problems experienced with a new air filter?

    I think squeezing out a few extra horses and better gas mileage would be great, but I am skeptical. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.....

    Look at it this way, absent track time, 99.9% of the time the throttle plate, buttefly valve, is THE major restriction against airflow into the engine. That other 00.1% of the time, at WOT and engine RPM on the high end, the OEM filter represents at most about 5% airflow restriction. So, with improved aiflow you gain 5% airflow 00.1% of the time.

    Someone needs to design an engine sound synthesizer synchronized with engine RPM/loading and become a millionaire.

  6. 2002 996 cab w/26000 miles. Green indicator will light in dash when stalk button depressed but none of the functions on the stalk will work. Any ideas?

    Make sure all the brake lights work and are of the OEM specified incandescent type including the high mounted one(s). When I put a led light in the high mount light the cruise would not work until I added a load resistor.

  7. Hi,

    What are the differencies between those headlights... some seem too have a white and an amber bulb in the indicator, some have two amber bulbs and in addition some seem to have almost transparent indicators and other don't...

    I don't know about rest of the world models, but in the US they initially had amber headlights (early 99). The outside surface had amber blended into the plastic itself near the turn indicator area.

    An example : p996_01.jpg

    After that they had clear headlights. By clear what they did is they made the outer surface of the headlights clear and moved the amber inside the headlight assembly (between outside and bulb) and used clear bulbs at the core. This is how most cars have been since then and that's how you can see some of that amber plastic when you look closely at those lamps.

    Since then some enterprising people decided to get rid of even that inner amber plastic and simply use amber bulbs or (a step furthur) use clear bulbs that glow amber. Excellent thread covering that here.

    OF course, this may/may not be the case with european models ... hope that helps

    Sid

    Or....

    You can remove the interior amber lense and use an LED "lamp" that is dual "filament", blue/white normally and switches to amber with turn signal impulses.

  8. How well does the windor seal against the a pillar? Is any of the door seal misplaced? Does the window rattle?

    No rattle from the window, it seems very solid. The window appears (visually) to seal well against the pillar. How do I judge if the seal is misplaced? By the way this is a C4 couple in case it matters (just so nobody thinks I'm talking about a cab).

    Remove the wipers and check to see if the wind noise goes away, mine did.

  9. i recently had the horn pad retainer replaced as it was difficult to honk the horns. Now i get an irritating static that seems to emenate from the dash speakers (with the radio on) everytime i press the horn buttons. is there something grounded or was the horn pad retainer not proprly installed?

    thanks again for ur responses.

    Well...DUH!

    Assuming the horn sounds as you press the horn buttons how do you manage to even hear the static?

    Be-that-as-it-may the current flow for the horns is extraordinarily high and the horn "sound" is made via the contacts of a vibration relay. That rapidly interrupted, on and off, extraordinarily HIGH current flows into an electro magnet that also inadvertently serves as a really efficient wideband radio frequency broadcast attenna.

    So yes, since you are operating an old Marconi style radio transmitter it is highly likely you will hear "static", white noise, in any nearby electronic sound reproduction system.

    But luckily there is a solution at the ready.

    Don't use the horn needlessly.

    If you happen to be a New Yorker I trust you will ignore that last sentence.

  10. The MAF reading is used by the ECU at ALL times the engine is running, whether at idle or at WOT. The MAF measures the amount and temperature of the air passing by it and in turn, the ECU (based on it's mapping) decides how much fuel to inject into the engine. During times where you are not at or near WOT (closed loop), the O2 sensors then sense how rich or lean the burnt mixture was and will adjust the amount of fuel injected to obtain the proper Air/Fuel balance. As long as the O2 sensors remain within range, there should be no CEL.

    At or near WOT, the car goes open loop at which time the readings of the O2 sensors are ignored and the amount of fuel injected is controlled only by the MAF readings alongs with the fuel maps of the ECU. The O2 sensors continue working, but do not make any adjustment to fuel.

    The sensitivity and range of the oxygen sensors is such that they are used only in an OFF/ON sequence. At idle the engine ECU continuously modulates the A/F mixture slightly above to slightly below the target, the ideal A/F mixture from the standpoint of minimizing emissions deemed harmful to the environment. So at idle the exhaust flow alternates between absolutely NO oxygen content and the base minimum. In short the output of the oxygen sensor, ideally, will vary up and down continuously as a function, and in sync with, the modulation of the intake A/F mixture.

    There are actually two parts, components, to the MAF "module", the mass airflow sensor and the IAT, the intake air temperature sensor. Colder air is denser air and at low intake flow volumes, near idle, the IAT plays a bigger part in the computation. Not to say, by any means, that it isn't always a part of the computation.

    As you open the throttle initally above idle, and then more and more, provided the engine is under load, the A/F mixture will begin to move away from the ideal A/F mixture insofar as emissions are concerned, and into the region of higher, richer, A/F mixture ratios wherein the oxygen sensor becomes totally and completely useless. The engine is now operating "off-the-curve" of the oxygen sensors sensing capability.

    It is in these conditions that the MAF/IAT module signals come into play for controlling the optimum level of fuel to mix with the intake airflow volume. As a trial I have inserted resistors in the IAT circuit, series and parallel (at different times) to modify the intake sensed temperature above and below the actual intake temperature, ~72 actual to 92F "sensed", and 72F actual down to 45F. False sensed voltages were verified via AutoTap's OBD-II scanner/reader.

    There was never an indication that the engine ECU "knew" or detected the flawed intake temperature signals apparently accepting them as "true" readings.

    The test runs, typcally over 400 miles of highway driving at a reasonably constant ~70MPH, of the vehicle in question, a 2001 AWD RX300, resulted in no meaureable difference in average MPG with the intake temperature falsified above, below or with actual sensing.

    But I fully believe that had I tested on a dyno the available engine HP output would have changed in the range of +/- 10% or more. So the IAT false "cold" modification that resulted in an even richer mixture than the factory default target would have undoubtedly shown itself at track time.

  11. You will find that with RoW cars (like mine) the CEL is NOT triggered for certain emissions-related faults. P1123 and 1125, for example, do not show the CEL on UK cars, but they do on US cars. (Ask me how I know).

    Yeah, the European flash ignores many of the sensors (as far as emission faults are concerned), where here in the US, we have all the bells and whistles. However, the US chips can be reflashed with the European program if you don't mind not being able to pass emission testing and can find someone willing to break federal law.

    When the engine is at idle the primary A/F mixture control is the oxygen sensors between the engine and the catalyst. The MAF can be, is, checked for validity at this time. But during acceleration or high torque developement by the engine the A/F mixture is enriched beyond the "detection" capability of the oxygen sensor.

    There are numerous simple HP improvement devices on Ebay that simply add a small value resistor in series with the IAT section of the MAF/IAT module. These work by making the engine ECU "think" the incoming airflow is colder than actual, say 45F intead of actual 72F, and that results in a richer mixture.

    Insofar as I know the engine ECU has no method of detecting a "lying" (failed??) MAF/IAT module other than at idle.

    A 20,000 ohm 1/4 watt resistor in parallel with the IAT sensor changes the ECU's intake airflow measurement from 72F actual to 92F according to AutoTap's OBD-II parameter readout screen.

    Hope that answers your question.

  12. I live in Alabama and thier are many empty roads, especially on Sundays while all the Bible thumpers are praising the Lord . You can drive and not see another car for very long intervals. I don't drive at these speeds unless the road is empty. Even then for short stents only.

    I am planing on going to Barber motoer sports for some track time, Posche driving school is thier and I got two days of schooling as a Chrismas present.

    As for the possibility of hitting someone else it is thier responsibility to get out of my way :clapping: , If I hit somebody at that speed I don't have to worry about it.

    I picked up my 2001 C4 at the factory and it was quite stable well above 130 mph. It has been driven cross country twice, summer of 2001 from POE, and 2005 returning from Daytona, and in MT WY and TX it was as stable as one would wish. On the track at Pacific Raceways and Daytona it was as if on rails even at or about 130 mph judging from knowing I was often at the top end of 5th.

    But then my 2001 C4 does have the full factory aerokit.

    And by the way, on the AutoBahn drivers are required by law to yield the left lane right of way. In the US. Nevada included, many drivers think they OWN the left lane. And if not that some of them will actually move into the left lane to block you from "speeding".

    But then in MT I have had ranchers intentionally drive a herd of cattle out in front of me, across the highway. Apparently in hopes my insurance would reward them for all the calves the cows I killed didn't have. Luckily I was a better driver than they thought. And for Godsakes do not drive I15 in Northern NV or southern Utah at night at any speed, slaughter alley for deer, is that.

  13. The criteria for brake pads should NEVER be anything but BRAKING HP and lack of fading, the more the better. It's a whole lot easier to clean wheels than it is to stand up with 6 feet of dirt on top of you. If by the time I install the second set of pads my rotors aren't worn down to the point of discarding them my brake pads aren't EATING themseleves nor the rotors fast enough.

  14. Not necessary since any water that gets in will drain from filter housing anyway. Howver, the proper response to your dad would be something like: "great idea Dad, you are soooo smart".

    Yeah, what every dad needs is a wiseass sarcastic son.

    Better to remain silent.

    It's quite possible that "Dad" long ago realized that those water drain holes in the bottom of the filter "box" are a possible source of heated intake airflow and intentionally blocked them off so that the engine only gets the "cool" inlet airflow from outside the engine compartment.

  15. Both front radiator fans have a low speed and a high speed mode. If one of the fans happens to not work at all, or its low speed is out, that can be your problem. The system brings on the fans at low speed first and then switches to high speed if the coolant temperature continues to rise.

    If one of the fans doesn't work at low speed then by the time the system switches it to high speed its too late to catch up, especially on the track or operating the A/C on an especially HOT day.

  16. Why would/does someone think lower braking (torque/HP??) at the rear versus the front is incorrect?

    All cars have better, beefier, braking at the front due to the laws of physics. The Porsche has an even greater F/R braking differential since the engine is in the rear vs the front. In the early days all cars had mechanical fluid proportioning valves so the high pressure required at the front did not inadvertently "lock" the rear wheels resulting in a spin-out, loss of control.

    These days that function is done, at least on a modern day Porsche, via the skid control ECU functions, sometimes referred to as EBD, electronic brakeforce distribution.

    My guess would be that the NJ inspection procedure is wrong.

    All vehicles will have lower BHP at the rear vs the front by some ratio but since your Porsche is rear engined that ratio will be somewhat greater than "normal". I'd bet NJ procedures aren't adjusted for rear engine vehicles.

  17. There is NO reflector integral to HID lamps/"bulbs" for automotive use.

    The "ignitor"/ballast module maintains the arc current flow at a constant level throughout the life of the bulb so there is no brightness variation due to the arc itself. Yes, the arc may move over the life of the bulb but not even 10% of that of an equivalent incandescent filamant bulb.

    Any deposition of material, assuming there is some, on the inside of the glass encapulation would quickly result in failure of the bulb due to the level of heat then trapped within the encapsulation.

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