cadetjoe

Just wanted to leave follow-up for the issue above (I find it frustrating when someone posts an issue and doesn't follow up with what they did to fix it). My local German import shop recommended using mid-grade fuel - apparently the winter blend of premium gas used around here had been causing starting issues for the imports. I filled the tank with 89 octane - CEL came on within 5 minutes and engine started running very rough. It would blink for 20 seconds after every engine start and then go steady. However, the lower-grade fuel did seem to help cold starting - maybe because lower-grade fuel ignites easier? I carefully checked all the coils and tested their resistance and the voltage on the coil connectors and all checked out good. Then, for the heck of it, I vacuumed out the air intake (there was a little bit of leaf debris in there) and put in a new air filter. This instantly cured the engine problems I've been having, even while still running mid-grade fuel, and the CEL turned off within a couple drive cycles. I was surprised because I replaced the filter relatively recently and it didn't look too bad, but I guess looks can be deceiving. I feel a bit silly after all the troubleshooting that it was something so simple, but the symptoms were bad enough that I though it was something a lot more serious. Anyways, thank you folks for your help and inputs. Much appreciated.

logray, I haven't yet tested for fuel pressure/volume. Just took a look at the Bentley manual, though, and it says that normal fuel pressure/volume testing (e.g. with an inexpensive test kit) only applies for '97-'01 models. The '02 and newer models have a non-serviceable "lifetime" fuel pump built into the fuel tank. According to Bentley, on these MY's, fuel delivery tests require PTS2 and are "beyond the scope of this manual." wvicary, is there a simple way to test the condition of the coils? I suppose I could swap coils around and see if the misfire cylinders follow the swap. But, somehow I don't think it's the coils since i had misfire codes on three different cylinders - I would think it rare for three coils to go bad all at the same time. I suspect the codes are a symptom of whatever else is causing the engine to stall when cold.

Hello all, My '02 base Boxster, (e-gas, 73K mi) has developed an idling problem that occurs only during cold starts. When I first crank, the engine catches and begins to rev, but will not hold idle, stalling and dying almost immediately. I can get the car started if I immediately gas it from about 3k-6k RPM for 30 seconds or so. Once it's warmed up a bit, it will hold idle as if nothing ever happened. If I restart the engine within a few hours of shutdown, again, it starts normally as if there were nothing wrong. Only when it's dead cold will it not hold idle. Never got a CEL. Here are the steps I've taken thus far: - Pulled codes using OBD II. Only codes were a few pending ones for random cylinder misfire and misfires on 3 cylinders (i don't remember precisely which cylinders). I'm assuming these are for misfires that occur when the engine runs rough/stalls during a cold start. - Checked air filter. Filter didn't look too dirty, was replaced <15K miles ago. I might go ahead and pop a new one in soon just to be sure its good. - Inspected/cleaned out throttle body. It wasn't too dirty to begin with, because I cleaned it about a year and a half ago when I replaced my AOS - Disconnected battery and reconnected to reset DME/computer. - Changed engine coolant temperature sensor (ECT). Tested both the old an new sensors and both showed appropriate resistance for the ambient temperature. Also tested the wires leading to the ECT and those showed appropriate voltage - Inspected all ignition coils (they all looked good) and changed spark plugs (old plugs looked normal, no oily residue or wetness) - Did a preliminary check for vacuum leaks. After the car was warmed up, I pulled of the oil cap, and the engine started running roughly, which is to be expected. Smoothed out with cap back on. Also tried opening the AOS hose connector a bit with the same results, so it looks like the intake is holding a good vacuum. I haven't yet hooked the intake up to a vacuum gauge or smoke machine. I don't think its the MAF, because from what I've read on the boards, a bad MAF doesn't generally cause idle problems, and my engine runs normally otherwise. Could it possibly be a bad AOS? I replaced my original AOS only about 1 1/2 years/10K miles ago A little more info: I recently did an oil change and a coolant drain/refill. May have slightly overfilled the oil. When I inspected the throttle body, I saw a little oil in the intake manifold, but not much. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. There wasn't really any oil in the throttle body or the intake tube that leads back to the MAF. I also noticed last time I ran the engine that there were a few drops of oil that had splashed out of the tailpipe onto the ground. In any case, I drained some oil, and oil level is now halfway between MAX and MIN. Anyone have any thoughts on what could be causing this? I'd appreciate your advice and suggestions. Thanks!

Time for me to put in my request: Becker CR-220 Type 4362 Serial: 15003219 Thank you very much in advance.

CEL came on this week with codes p1128 and p1130, and also noticed that the engine was squealing while idling after having warmed up (giving it throttle made the squeal go away). As I'm not particularly mechanically inclined, one of the first things I did was start searching the boards here, and found several threads on these topics. So today I cleaned the MAF (it didn't look dirty at all) and throttle body (slight buildup), then checked to see if there was a vacuum leak by trying to take off the oil cap with the engine running. I couldn't get the cap off. A lot of threads pointed to a bad AOS as a primary cause of vacuum leaks. The car is at 64K and it seems like a lot of AOSs fail around this time. So I called up the local Porsche dealer, and they had the AOS in stock ($108) and I was able to get it the same day and put it in, thanks to Mike Focke's excellent DIY. No suction at the oil filler now, and haven't heard any squealing yet, so it looks like that was the problem. Just in time for autocross tomorrow too!:drive: So I said all that to say thanks to the Renntech community for all of the great information! It helped me diagnose and solve a scary (for me) problem quickly. I would have probably spent 4 or 5 times as much taking it to a mechanic for diagnosis and installation, and it could've taken a lot longer to get fixed. A few good searches of this board can really be productive! :renntech:

Just did a test drive with the new cap. Temp remained steady at what it is normally, and no warning lights. No evaporation out the back. :D It looks like all is well. Wow, I make a long panicked post, and Loren solves the problem in exactly nine words. Thanks Loren!:thankyou: Hopefully, nothing else will go wrong this week, and I can take the car to my first autocross this weekend :drive: My luck seems to be thin this week - while conducting the above test drive, got pulled over in a low speed zone I had no idea existed. Cop let me go with a warning, though. Also found out my wheel lock key is cracked, and its gonna take a week to get another. Just have to avoid getting a flat between now and then... Thanks again guys for your help.

Hey wvicary, thanks for the reply. No, sorry, I don't have an oil temp gauge - I meant the coolant temp gauge. It was around 200F. I removed the plastic cover and didn't see any leaks. I waited for the car to cool down and then refilled the coolant reservoir last night. There was no leaking from underneath the car this time. Took the car for a short drive this morning. Everything started normally. Once the engine warmed up, the temperature started climbing back to 200 again - about 20 deg above normal. After about 5 miles, the low coolant light came on again. When I looked in the trunk, I noticed a lot of evaporation coming off of the reservoir. Still no fluid leak under the car. Once everything cooled down, the coolant level was right at the "min" line. I'm gonna try what Loren said and get a new cap today. It's cheap (like $20) and hopefully that's all the problem is. Maybe the cap is not holding pressure anymore and letting the coolant evaporate out? BTW, I check the oil level regularly, and it's fine. And I didn't get any oil pressure warnings when I went for that short drive this morning.

So, I just got my Boxster back from the repair shop yesterday (I took a curve too fast and slid into a curb - had to have the rear struts replaced). Driving home from the shop yesterday, and on my commute this morning, didn't notice any problems, car is running great. When I get in the car to come back home, I got a low coolant warning. I has some coolant with me so I filled it up and headed home. I noticed the oil temperature was about 20 deg hotter than normal, but the weather today was very hot, so I figured that might be all that it was. But then, I started getting a low oil pressure warning that would come on whenever the engine idled, but went away if I gave some throttle. Got home and checked everything over, and noticed a puddle of coolant in my driveway. Whenever I put more in it just leaks right out . The coolant is coming from the overflow hose. I jacked the car up and looked over all the hoses, and didn't notice any leaks or damage to any of them. Whenever I try to put more coolant in, it immediately comes out of the overflow hose. I pulled up the carpet in the trunk and took a look at the coolant resevoir, but didn't see any obvious leaks. When I pour coolant in, it just seems to disappear right out of the fill compartment and comes right out of the overflow hose. My guess is that there's something wrong with the resevoir, but I'm not sure. My first thought was that something got damaged at the repair shop - it looked like they had pulled up the carpet in the trunk looking for the strut mount when they replaced the struts. I've never had any sort of fluid leak problems with this car before, so the timing seems suspect. Would could be causing coolant to leak like this? Would running the engine with little to no coolant affect the oil pressure? I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice you folks might have

So, the fault seemed to correct itself on it's own yesterday. I manually lowered the window so I could open the door - then closed the door again. Tried the 10 second window reset thing again, and voila!, the window 1/2 inch drop started working again, and the alarm system fault went away at the same time (no more double beep). :) Not sure how or why this happened except maybe something in the alarm system was "confused' for a while. But it seems like both the window malfunction and the alarm/locking fault were indeed related. Anyways, thank you all for your advice and help with this. Anyone care to speculate on what might have gone wrong here?

I'm a newbie, but have looked around quite a bit on these forums to see if I might find an explanation for my alarm system fault and window drop problem. Bought an 02 Boxster back in April. This is my first Porsche and I've loved it thus far. But, just noticed a problem this past week. First, the central locking switch (on the dash) light is always on whenever the ignition is on. The switch seems to be functioning properly (it locks and unlocks the doors), but I don't remember the light being on before. Whenever I unlock the car, whether using the remote or the dash switch, I get the double beep fault. But, the system otherwise seems to be working properly. The second problem is that the passenger side window will not lower the magic 1/2 inch when I pull the latch. I don't think its the regulator, because it just stopped working all of a sudden, and I don't hear the window motor at all when I pull the latch (the window still rolls up and down fine with the rocker switch, and also retracts properly for lowering or raising the soft top). It simply does not respond at all to the latch being pulled on both the outside and the inside. It might be the micro switch, like I've read in other posts here, but I am wondering if it might instead be related to whatever the alarm system fault is, since I noticed both of these problems crept up at around the same time. I get the feeling that the door does is not "sensing" whether it is locked or not, and therefore the window is not lowering the 1/2 inch like it should. Could the system have gotten screwed up by locking the door while it was open or something similar? Or could it be that the problem with door latch is telling the alarm system that something is wrong? I did try the window reset procedure, holding the up and down switch for 10 seconds, to no avail. I am aware I should probably get the fault tested with the diagnostic software, but I want to avoid taking it to the dealership if at all possible. Took the car there before to get wheel alignment after putting on new tires, and the quality of customer service was pretty abysmal - they got my appointment date and time wrong, didn't seem interested in helping me out or answering my questions, and then of course, charged about 3 times what a typical alignment would cost at any other place. I could buy the Durametric software myself, but it does not clear alarm system codes for my make/model year, so I would still have to take it to the dealer to get it remedied. I'd appreciate any help or advice on how to best approach this. Thank you all in advance for your help.

Anyone in the Colorado Springs/Denver area? Getting the infamous double beep on the alarm system...