So I was casually driving today through the canyons (not fast - totally normal) and all of a sudden my PSM Failure light appears on the display. At that same moment the steering feels strange and inorder to my make my car go straight, I have to have the wheel at a 45 degree angle to the normal straight position.
Additionally, the car feels very loose ... its lowered on techart springs. I pulled over to check and everything visually seemed fine. I parked it for a few hours, drove it home and same issue ...
When I got home, I noticed that the rear driver-side wheel looks like its in a wrong angle. The passenger rear wheel seems fine....
Im taking the car to the dealer tomorrow morning, but I wanted your guys opinions on what it could be ...
Few notes:
- This week I got bigger spacers in the back .. I went from 1" to 1.25" spacers... but I drove the car for a few days and everything seemed fine ...
- Last week, I had the rear tire fixed after I found a bolt stuck in the tire... standard tire repair...
- After the tire repair, I reset the TPMS but after driving for more then 5 days, the sensors still have not found the pressure .. still says learning ...
- When I put pressure on the rear driver side it sounds like a little clunk or something ... the passenger side does not make any noise.
Thanks guys!
First, don't drive it.
Jack up the left rear and remove the wheel to see what is going on.
I agree - Don't drive it. It sounds like the people who repaired your tire didn't torque the rear bolts to the required 96 ft. lbs. Did you ask them to torque them to that? Whenever you remove/change wheels they need to be torqued to spec, then after about 50 miles or so, re-torqued to make sure they're still tight. Most cars' wheel lug/bolt torque specs are about 1/2 the Porsche spec, and it's common for most shops to torque them to about 50 ft. lbs. With the wheel loose back there the PSM sensors can no longer read the rotation speed correctly, that's probably why you have the error.
brad
I never knew the wheels should be re-torqued 50 miles after being taken off. I had my 1st service at porsche and don't know if they took the wheels off or not, and I drove 1000 miles since. Should I take it in for re-torque?
Better safe than sorry . . .
The concern is that if the wheel(s) were slightly off-center when the the wheel was put back on (e.g. not tightened in a star pattern), and/or especially if the lug bolts weren't tight enough, then as you drive the lug bolts could loosen up.
Odds are, that if you took it to a Porsche dealer they torqued them correctly, however it's a good idea to recheck them periodically. Your dealer might do it for free if you ask them - or you could buy a torque wrench (for about $100 or so) and check them yourself whenever you want.
Don't drive it, you are very lucky BTW. The likely culprit is a loose control arm bolt/nut. The same thing happened to me immediately after putting on lowering springs, the shop simply forgot to torque it down....
When you went to the wider wheel spacers, did the lug bolts get changed to maintain proper grip length??
Just got back from the dealer ...
Basically, the rear driver-side alignment was very screwed up and thsi caused me to move the wheel to the position to keep going straight. They also said that all my suspension was loose (as in not tightened correctly).
They tightened everything and did an alignment... problem fixed...
Btw, CEC did my original setup. I will be speaking with them soon
Quick thought ...
Since the spacers are a bit wider, could it cause the pickup sensor for the TPMS to not read it ... maybe since its farther away?
An extra 1/4" will not make any difference... the range for these sensors are in feet, not inches. In fact, I've heard of people's cars picking up signals from extra tires stored elsewhere in their garage.
brad
