Fred Demara

on a side note....I spent a good amount of time at the dealership, sitting in the lobby, listening to customers come in. I heard no less than 4 people with PDK issues (not shifting out of 1st, thunking, hesitation). One woman's new 911 had less than 5k on it, and it would not shift....hopefully they're just ironing out the bugs.

Wanted to give everyone a recap (warning, this might be boring) hopefully it will help someone down the road.

01 Box S, tip with 77k miles. Was leaking oil (very tiny drops) about a month ago, so figured I'd do the IMS retrofit and RMS at the same time. I removed the tiptronic myself (I highly recommend NEVER removing your tiptronic), and had the car sent to Jim Ellis Porsche in Atlanta. For 410 bucks, they did the IMS and RMS. The car was towed home, and I re-installed the tiptronic, and drove the car for about 250 trouble free miles....

...then, while driving on the highway, I noticed the CEL, and at idle, it felt like it was "surging"...got codes p1340 and p1341

My first reaction (as with many here) was that the tech at Jim Ellis must have done the IMS incorrectly. In fairness, (and Jake confirmed this) if the dealership had done the job incorrectly, the CEL would have triggered immediately...it was just very bad timing (excuse the pun) that the CEL came on so quickly after the IMS.

As it turns out, it was the variocam (the accuator sp?)...Jake discovered a very small piece of debris had gummed it up. No bent valves, so engine doesn't need to be replaced (not yet, anyway).

If I could go back in time, I would have just had Jake do the IMS and RMS from the start. Not that the dealer did anything wrong, but just that Jake does SO much more than put the IMS in - they replace, test, drive and retest , and, of course, because Jake's level of knowledge is second to none.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Jake personally called me this afternoon - looks like the varicam needs to be replaced...he told me it didn't look like any bent valves....fingers crossed...very, very happy I took the car to flat6 - I'll keep everyone posted.

.......... Is Jake refering to the chain tensioner guide?

I'm not sure...my head still hurts from all the possible things it could have been...could be a few weeks before I hear anything - Jakes shop was spilling over with failed engines, Boxsters and 911's...

Car is currently at Flat 6...had a chance to meet with Jake Raby, and it was an honor. The shop is off the beaten path, but once you're inside, you realize very quickly that flat6 is more like a lab than a shop.

Seems pretty unlikely that I could have driven the car 200 miles without triggering the p1340/1341 - for now, it's just a coincidence that it failed so soon after the IMS retrofit.

Bank 1 is out of time by 23 degrees - it's more than likely the engine will have to be replaced...but we're not positive yet. According to Jake, a guide rail might have gone, and he hasn't ruled out the accuator yet,

I'll keep everyone posted...and thanks again for the replies

is it possible for the car to "jump time" on the 1st bank? Seemed very odd...

Well, Jim Ellis Porsche of Atlanta called to say it might be an accutator, or it might have just "jumped time"...either way, it's 1300 just to remove the cover and take a look and figure out what's wrong. Which seems a bit odd, because (according to flat 6) the variocam job total is 1,000...

They also stated that the recent IMS job and the timing issue have no chance of being related.

The car is heading to another shop for another opinion.

Car is back at Porsche, I'll keep everyone posted - and I wanted to say thanks again to JFP and Loren for the info!

Retiming is not required if the IMS change out is done correctly. As yours is a five chain motor, it should have been a relatively simple job to lock the engine down before changing the IMS. Without a full analysis of exactly how the service was done, it is difficult to positively connect the two incidents; but I have to add that if your cam timing is off, it would not be the first time I've seen this happen...............

seems odd the cam timing would be off after 200 miles - it was a rather sudden event - one minute, it was fine - the next, rough idle. Had the IMS been done incorrectly, wouldn't have the engine thrown a code and started rough idling immediately?

one other question - if this were a faulty sensor, which sensor would I be looking for?

Thanks

Thanks Loren

I removed the tipronic, then shipped the car to Jim Ellis Porsche in Atlanta - One of the notes I put down was, please advise if car needs to be re-timed after IMS installation...I believe I read somewhere that it would need re-timing, but the tech that did the IMS stated that re-timing was not needed because the car was never out of time.

I can not say thank you enough for your reply.

it's been over 200 miles since the IMS - seemed to have been running fine - then today, I felt a slight (what I can only describe as a misfire) rough idle at stop lights. Seems to be running fine - I reset the codes, and they came back within 20 miles.

Any advice or suggests are greatly appreciated, thanks

01 Boxster S tiptronic 77k miles

well, this one is a mystery

hooked the durametric to the box s, and it said "0 errors"...but even with zero errors, the P/d4 alternating blinking was still happening. I clicked "clear codes" just to see what would happen, and sure enough, the alternating flashing stopped, and the error code went away.

If I had to guess, the tip threw the code because it was disconnected...

hope this info will help someone else who ever removes there tiptronic

I think your engine size matters (so a 2.7 tip would not match the tip from a 3.2)...my understanding is your tip has a part number on it...and the transmission you replace it with must have the same part number.

good luck

Tiptronic trans was working fine before the removal - it was removed with no problems, and I made a custom craddle for it, to ensure it's safe removal and storage while out.

Everything is back together, car is running fine, but I am getting an error code (flashing p then d4) from the tiptronic - I don't own a durametric yet...just wondering if anyone here has removed and replaced their tiptronic, and wondering if I've missed something simple...I have two idea of what it could be -

1) the coolant was low in the trans when I first started the car

or

2) the tiptronic was locked out at TDC...after re-installing the flywheel, I hand rotated the crank to make sure the LN retrofit IMS had no contact issues (it didn't). But the engine was no longer at tdc...does the flywheel only attach to the torque converter in 1 position?

Thanks in advance for the help!

01 box S tiptronic 77k

thanks loren... is getting the ipas code near next to impossible?

tia

Yes, I used the search function, here's what I came up with.

yes, a 3.6 will fit into my 02 S, the engine will have to be lowered, and it'll need some tweaking..

please correct me if I'm wrong, by my car as the 7.2 DME...I would need a 7.8 DME..not a problem...

My question is, aren't my keys programmed to my 7.2?