Ignition Lock Faulty - solved!

[Markjames1200]

Ladies and gents, hello, had the dreaded "ignition lock faulty" warning on dash. Problem was the common water getting in from air-con (*correction - seems it was the sunroof drain) in footwell. Passenger side as I'm in the UK. All the cable loom looked fine until cutting into the fabric sleeve and found 4 groups of cables repaired. Water had got in again and started to corrode the thinner of the cables into a very delicate state. The cable that made all the difference was a very skinny single black cable. There were other bunches of (black) cables broken twisted together in bigger groups of 4 or 5 but this particular one was the thinnest of the gauges. I disconnected the battery, repaired that skinny black cable with a crimp and waterproof tape, connected the battery and the beep - beep - beep of before didn't happen. Car started, problem gone. So find that broken skinny black cable and breathe a big sigh of relief! 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Markjames1200
Correction, better info

[JFP in PA]

1 hour ago, Markjames1200 said:

Ladies and gents, hello, had the dreaded "ignition lock faulty" warning on dash. Problem was the common water getting in from air-con in footwell. Passenger side as I'm in the UK. All the cable loom looked fine until cutting into the fabric sleeve and found 4 groups of cables repaired. Water had got in again and started to corrode the thinner of the cables into a very delicate state. The cable that made all the difference was a very skinny single black cable. There were other bunches of cables broken twisted together in bigger groups of 4 or 5 but this was the thinnest of the gauges. I disconnected the battery, repaired that skinny black cable with a crimp and waterproof tape, connected the battery and the beep - beep - beep of before didn't happen. Car started, problem gone. So find that broken skinny black cable and breathe a big sigh of relief! 

 

Welcome to RennTech

Always be careful about using crimp style connectors in these wiring looms; a lot of circuits in these cars are low or even fractional voltage systems, and crimp connectors can cause dissimilar metal corrosion over time, leading to increased resistance and unending problems.  We always solder these connections and use heat shrink tubing over the solder joints.

 

We recently had a Boxster in the shop with complaints of weird idle problems and occasional stalling issues.  This car had been in and out of a handful of shops trying to solve the problem, and had gone through the replacement of O2 sensor for over $1K, new MAF (twice), etc., with no improvement before it came to us.  When we tested the car, we noticed wildly fluctuation in the MAF readings, so we popped in a known good sensor, with no change in the readings.  When we tested the MAF sensor wires for resistance, we found one wire had low, but measurable resistance.  When we traced that wire, we found a repair done with a crimp connector and heat shrink tubing over it.  We cut the repair out, soldered and heat shrink wrapped the new joint, and the MAF readings immediately became normal and steady.  The car has run perfectly ever since.  Crimp connectors are not always your friend...................

[Markjames1200]

Thank you for the welcome! 

 

They were telephone connections i had at hand so used for very low voltage. A crimp connector wasn't the best description to be honest, fresh twisted bare wires placed into one cavity of the connector and crushed down, more as a device to protect the connection rather than make the connection. Then that sealed in almalgamating tape.  I've no mechanical background, websites like this allow me to take on braver diy tasks than usual and save a fortune. So thank you very much. 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Markjames1200
More info...

[trevorhp]

used this to fix my multiplr problems and it wortked fine just solder the wires back together and heat shrink the joint