Sharing my experience with everyone incase anyone runs into a similar problem.
Driving over to the in-laws (about a 4 mile stretch) and i noticed the car suddenly sounded like a V8...At first i was tempted to smile and pretend it was normal until i noticed the tick over was no longer smooth.
Then at a set of lights, the Engine light came on along with the red exclamation mark on the dash. My instant reaction was to pull over and turn the engine off.
Not having warranty i thought to myself could it be.....
a)Its a minor issue with something and i can drive it further for about 0.5 miles, luckily my father in-law is a auto-electrician, where i can get the diagnostics machine plugged in.
b) Its something serious and i could risk doing more damage.
c) I don't have the foggiest idea what the hell is going on.
I decided to go with my heart "a" although my head was saying "c", whilst hoping is wasnt "b", i started her up and headed onwards for about 0.5 miles.
Got there and my father in-law, said instantly.."Coil pack". So i plugged in the diagnostics machine and found code p0303...something about misfiring on cylinder 3. Again, he said "coil pack".
Then i went down to the local porsche parts supplier and picked up a spare coil pack. Took off all the coil packs and inspected the spark plugs. Found the spark plug on cylinder 3 to be blacker than the rest and the coil pack cracked .Replaced 1 coil and all the plugs and put everything back together.
Started her up again and wow....instantly noticed a difference.
Now i'm not saying this is the only cause for this misfiring problem, just merely pointing out that sometimes..although we can feel very low when our cars give us problems, because gut reactions are to say..."$hit...its gonna cost me loads!"...sometimes luckliy they can be pretty straight forward.
I still love the porsche, although i had expected better build quality by the germans. The cars done 30k and is a 06 reg cayman s.
Based on the title I thought sounds like what I get on the track with a left right high G flip flop, followed by a misfire, engine light and a huge cloud of smoke. AKA Oil Ingestion.
Coil packs on many different cars are known for having failures, so it is not a Porsche specific thing and actually as they do not manufacture or design the coil packs it is hard to hold them repsonsible. My Audi 1.8T has been through a number of coil packs, but in most cases if one has failed it's worth replacing them all and keeping the others as spares......obviosuly dependent on price.
Your father in-law knows his stuff it seems and I'm guessing is in the business or heavily into cars. Certainly he wouldn't have always been right but it is the most common thing to cause a misfire out of the blue and bring on the engine check light.
Yea suppose your right, i guess porsche need to find better coil packs then.
But yea, father in-law is a 40+ yrs experienced mechanic and auto electrician.
Thanks for posting.
I have a mysterious CE light once in a while too but nothing is logged in the computer when I take it in.
+! Thank you for sharing... God bless you!
