txhokie4life

Just a guess -- but it might be the cam sprocket slipping on that bank. the timing chain is attached to a sprocket, which has oval eye holes which has 4 bolts that connect the sprocket to the camshaft. If you pull the oil pump on that side of the engine see if the bolts are at the limit of the eye holes. Generally they should be in the middle. I don't understand the design -- seems like they would be prone to slipping. I've been told this has been revised in future engine revisions -- don't know when they changed it. Pic of Cam Sprocket Mike

No wiring changes, I don't know the source of the dme/immob/fob. I could probably extract that info via Duramatic. Is there a way to see if the pill mates with the IMMOB other than just trying to turn over car? I'd like to isolate my failure mechanisms. thanks, mike

Does the tipronic computer have the same security code feature as the DME/IMMOB/FOB? Reason I ask is that I have a car where I had an IMMOB disintegrate due to water. For testing purposes I replaced the IMMOB and DME with a matching set from Oklahoma Foreign. I've got the dme and Immob talking to each other but the car will not try to start and when I use the duramatic i get a CAN BUS Failure Tiptronic Implausible. I forgot the exact code value. Also does the Tip Computer have to be talking to the DME/IMMOB to allow the starter to fire -- or am I looking at multiple issues here? thanks, Mike

thanks for the picture -- might be easier to get to it from the trunk through the wire connector rubber grommet hole...... either way should be a good PITA! thanks again, Mike Wow what a royal PITA! Took me about 3 hours -- but I finally got it out and the new one back in. From above you can get the engine side -- but the firewall side I had to attack the clip from down below -- but I couldn't quite snag it -- was able to do it once but couldn't move it -- I than attacked it from the engine wire harness hole. Then a major tug of war to get it off.... Fortunately assembly was not the reverse of removal. It was much easier. I made sure I aligned the clips in a way I could easily attach the spreader. thanks for the picture tho -- as that helped me have the right game plan. mike

thanks for the picture -- might be easier to get to it from the trunk through the wire connector rubber grommet hole...... either way should be a good PITA! thanks again, Mike

My oil fill tube is cracked and I need to replace it? got the tube and know how to get the engine side off and back on, but I can't tell if the tube connection to the rear trunk is clamped or not. I just can't seem to contort myself to get a view -- or get a mirror down there to see. 2000 Boxster S any help? thanks, Mike

Thank you for your family sacrifices.... Many folks, myself included take for granted what we have the ability to enjoy in life thanks to contributions like you and your son. Hope for the best for your son and expanding family. Make sure he takes advantage of the GI Bill so that he has a way post Army to not continue to be WIC eligible. Mike

A good way to do this is to pull the fuel pump fuse, and just let the car crank via the starter without providing gas. This will help prelube to some extent. Do not run your starter for extended periods of time -- maybe 5 or 6 cranks of 5-10 sec each should do the job. It is likely your battery will have drained down prior to this -- so put it on a charger before doing this cranking. If the battery needs periodic maintenance -- check the water level and add distilled water if needed. mike

The sound is a little hard to explain but a little like this when i was pedaling the gas Right now the car is locked up somewhere in Copenhagen, Denmark. I cant get to it right now and i actually have to get it towed to a porsche dealer tomorrow. Worst thing is the waiting time and not knowing whats wrong with the engine. Yikes -- that doesn't sound good. Hard to tell for sure -- but I would expect broken valves hitting a piston or a broken crankshaft or rod hitting the block. Sad to say the engine is probably in bad shape. 1) check compression on all cylinders 2) check the timing by looking at the cam shaft position relative to TDC. 3) see if you can turn the crank by hand and see if you feel interfernce 4) if you can turn the crank, see if the relationship between the camshafts remains the same as you go around, two complete revolutions is one complete camshaft revolution Should be able to tell a lot by those 4 things without pulling the engine or dumping the oil. If you still can't find something wrong -- check your oil and oil filter for particles. Hope you find something benign but I'm afraid that is wishful thinking. m

Can you define what you mean by chopping? Have you checked the dipstick (still have those on '03s right?) CEL is Check Engine Light Where is the car now? can you get under and see if you have any signs of an oil leak? Maybe even a heavy oil leak? Where are you located? thanx, Mike in Austin

What might be making it difficult is the hex shaft from the ims that feeds into the oil pump. When I have done it in the past, I pulled the oil pump apart, pulled the hex shaft out with quite a bit of effort, then wiggled, twisted and ever so gently pried, the oil pump housing away from the block. It took quite a bit of effort and some patience. I think the gasket has some ridges in it that when you clamp it down once fills the space, but since you undid it, you can never get it to seal quite right again. I don't remember the gasket for that piece -- but a similar gasket at the lower right hand where the coolant hose connects drove me bonkers due to this. good luck with it. Mike

As long as it is not too far -- you should be ok. I have not had an AOS fail yet -- so I can't say definitively. You might smoke like a chimney -- but < the 15 minutes you already were idling should be no worse. What is happening is that oil is being placed back in your intake, as the AOS fails it will get worse and worse. You just don't want to be burning oil too long as it will foul the plugs and mess with the cats. someone else might be able to define too long. mike

Search AOS failure. from : http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/problemareasMike Focke's Web Site: 3. AOS "The air/oil separator is essentially what was called a crankcase breather hose in earlier days. It's simply a vent from the crankcase to the intake. In the past, the crankcase was simply vented to the atmosphere releasing any volatile pollutants directly into the air. Nowadays, the crankcase volatiles are vented to the intake where they are burned in the cylinders. It's a hydrocarbon emissions reducing measure. To reduce the sheer amount of oil that gets drawn into the intake, they developed the air/oil separator which is designed to condense the higher boiling components and the oil mist (very fine droplets of oil that form when warm oil is mechanically whipped up continuously like it is inside the engine) and allow it to drain back into the crankcase. There are two "failures" with the air/oil separators that I can distinguish. The first is simply a torn accordion looking tube (sometimes referred to as the "bellows tube") that goes from the crankcase to the bottom of the separator. This causes an oil leak and also a vacuum leak to the intake. The vacuum leak to the intake causes a lean running condition, which the ECU detects and adjusts to by enriching the mixture. Ultimately, the ECU maxes out its enriching ability and triggers a check engine light with the fault codes associated with enrichment limit: P1124, P1126, P1128, and/or P1130. (Note that this end result is general for any intake vacuum leak, not just the that caused by a torn AOS tube.) The other failure mode is the failure of the air/oil separating ability of the separator. I don't know the exact nature of what happens in this case since I've never disassembled an air/oil separator. When this happens large amounts of oil can get sucked into the intake causing major oil smoke from the tailpipe. If this is allowed to go on long enough, spark plugs will become fouled, and I believe the catalytic converters could be permanently damaged. In the worst case scenario a cylinder could even fill up with enough oil to cause a condition known as "hydraulic lock" in which the piston now tries to compress an incompressible fluid in the cylinder on the compression stroke. The oil can't be compressed so something has to give, and kablooie... big problems." the above contributed by Brett from San Diego Symptoms of AOS failure are typically huge oil clouds on startup or under hard acceleration, braking or cornering. Replacing the AOS can be a ~$120 Do It Yourself that takes several hours. It is more dirty work than smart work and anyone can do it. Instructions are on this site. There is a racing AOS from the GT3 that can be fitted that is said to be more robust but it is much more costly and is not a direct fit.

Am I to read that new lifter should have no movement and used lifters should not? confused, mike

Actually not as far fetched as you think --- I am dealing with a similar issue with a project car as he is. I was a bit nieve about buying the car that was not running at the time. So I didn't check the electricals. Fortunately -- or not -- we finally had a ton of rain in late September and I had the car sitting outside. The floor was soaked -- that started me down the path of checking the source, than pulling out all of the carpet only to find the IMMOB (which looks like a DME unit on the surface of things) was literally disintegrated. I continued to pull the entire interior out -- than the convertible top, top liner, roll bar and every piece of padding in the car. Found the source. A combo of a torn convertible liner, clogged drains, and missing liner to drain tubes. I'm now working to get back to even being able to start things -- I don't even get to the point of the solenoid clicking with a new (used set) DME/IMMOB/FOB. I'm sure I'll be working on this for the rest of the year...... (if its only that long!) So I believe that this is a plausible story -- he just lacks terminology and experience with these model year Porsches. cheers, Mike

Well those pics of the old vs new IMS was due to me dropping in a 55K miles 2.5L in a 92K mile 2.5L that had an IMS failure. So YMMV, but I've seen up close and personal a 92K mile failure. Mike Mike-- Sincere condolences! Just curious: what were the conditions at failure? Hard to believe the anecdotes of it occuring at idle! RdR I bought the car with the IMS already gone -- so I really don't know. I think a different poster (maybe named Mike) had one fail at idle. We have not taken the engine that failed apart yet to see the internals -- but the oil pan and filter were filled with metal sludge and specks/shards. I'm sure when we do start pulling it apart -- it won't be pretty. mike

Well those pics of the old vs new IMS was due to me dropping in a 55K miles 2.5L in a 92K mile 2.5L that had an IMS failure. So YMMV, but I've seen up close and personal a 92K mile failure. Mike

possibly the timing chain guides for the tensioner? Pix of damaged guides

Yeah, I want to go ahead and replace the IMS while I'm at it. I'm still a little confused about that. Does the IMS replacement consist of that triangular flange and the bolts or just the bolts or the actual bearing? I talked to Sunset yesterday and was told that my 02' should already have the updated IMS. I'm confused, could anyone shed light on that? I'm also considering replacing the RMS too. Check out this photo album -- hopefully it will shed some light. IMS Pictures The IMS was messed with continually by Porsche until they finally designed it out of the engines in '09. I believe that all IMS's prior to '06 can be retrofitted. www.lnengineering.com should also provide some good information. Mike

If you were in Austin -- I would recommend my mechanic :-) Are you going to replace the IMS while you are doing the clutch? mike

I know it may be painful to do -- but I highly recommend pulling the cylinder head covers and inspecting that the cams did not jump teeth If you don't know how to do this --- email me # mike@lonestarrpm.com and I can walk you through it. Why? -- well I know from experience that you can be off a few teeth and still not have interference when cranking by hand -- but you may have trouble starting. I got lucky and no damage occurred -- cheap tuition. Also if you are off in the direction that the vario cam increases -- you could then put you valves in harms way. I don't know if you could actually get that far -- but who knows. I know you have been through a lot -- but an hour or two -- plus 24 hours of drying time for the cam covers maybe worth the alternative. Mike

The answer is simple -- they are the same engine design and thus are just as susceptible. Manual Transmissions on P-Cars often need clutch replacements at some point in their lifetime. The additional labor to do the IMS is small -- thus it is economical to consider an IMS-Retrofit at the time. I have one Tip that i have done and IMS Retrofit for -- but we were swapping the engine DUE TO AN IMS Failure. I have a second Tip that will get a new transmission, and I will do an IMS Retrofit when I pull that transmission. Mike

Don't consider it doom and gloom -- consider it knowledge and guidance -- which is what you asked for. if everyone said things were perfect -- than you maybe misguided and jaded if and when something happens. Buy it, stay informed, consider options when they are available, and enjoy it. Mike

You don't want that water pump to take your engine with it -- replace it now! Mike '00S rebuild due to water pump @ 33.5K miles. Thanks, I am convinced. Thank God I stopped driving it after I figured it was coolant fluid. I originally thought it was oil, dirty at first, till I saw that the color was green. Yes, the original coolant is still in there. So, how does a bad water pump ruin the engine? Overtemp? Got to call Jeff at Sunset so why am I typing this message R. See my picture story here My '00S with Water Pump Failure and the engine rebuild