'00 Cab-4 electrical system crash on freeway

I was driving into work this AM when suddenly half my warning lights go on all at once. The triangle with the exclamation mark inside of it (forget what that's for), PSM off, ABS, Brake Fluid, plus more. My brakes are fine... so I didn't think it was a critical issue.. just some sort of an electrical problem that I could sort out later. 5 minutes later my airbag warning lights go on, my AC fan stops and my accelerator stops working! My engine is running but my gas pedal does not do anything. The car is in gear but is deaccelerating fast. It was a miracle that I was able to coast it from the fast lane across 5 lanes of heavy traffic to the verge. Once there I switched off and was unable to restart the car. Just a lot of solenoid clicking like the battery was dead. The windows still worked and my dash lights were working but the car would not start. I had it towed to the dealer (who was 20 miles closer than my non-warranty mechanic) for diagnosis and I have not heard back from them yet. Has anybody experienced this kind of thing before? I'm thinking that if it is a bad alternator.. which lead to a low battery, shouldn't I have gotten a warning light a long time ago? There was no warning at all and none of my electrical systems have blinked, dimmed or otherwise done anything strange before now. WTF?

Did you check the fuses? I've had some weird fuses blow and kill the car. Hell for some reason the optional equipment fuse blown won't engage the starter motor :S It could very well just be a battery. I had a similar thing as what u just described happen in a non-pcar yesterday. Battery was crap and had to keeep engine RPM's up to keep the juice flowing.

When my alternator went out on my 993 I had no notice of the problem until the exact same thing happened to my car. Lights started coming on and then the thing just died. There was enough power in the battery to make the lights work, although dim, but that was it. New alternator and all was fine. Good news is that the alternator on the 996 looks to be much easier to replace. BTW it's most likely just the brushes if it as an alternator problem

Thanks. Your feedback plus a lot of other posts I've since dredged up convince me that most likely it is the alternator (or regulator) and that getting no warning is pretty normal. Ugh. So... even after having scanned 150 posts I still can't figure out how you are supposed to tell if the problem is the alternator or the regulator. You check the voltage at the battery (with the car at idle and at 2500 RPM or so) and it should range from about 12V to 14V. The way I read it, If it isnt then EITHER your alternator is bad or your regulator is bad. The alternator could be putting out but the regulator not be allowing the juice to get to the battery. The dealer just called and want $1200 to replace the alternator. He won't replace the regulator or sell it seperate from the alternator... and the Porsche alternator is $900. Hmmm, you'd think for $900 that it would be bulletproof. Well, maybe it IS and the problem is just the regulator. Anyway.... I told the dealer to forget it. I'm calling the tow truck and getting my car towed to my house or to a good mechanic.

My 2001 died on me like that on July 4th weekend of 2001. Had the car flatbedded to the dealer and it was the alternator.

It is likely the Voltage Regulator... but here is the catch. Once upon a time you could replace the regulator, and keep the alternator... but now the parts are interwined, so you can't separate them... hence they will replace your Alternator (which includes the voltage regulator). Usually when this happens the car will throw a Battery dummy light, and that means you have ~30-45 minutes left of power (you are now running off battery) until the car dies... guess you did not get the benefit of the dummy light. Ross

Would not the voltage of the battery (on the gauge) should have dropped well below 12 before these items give up the ghost ?

I'm convinced the battery indicators on most cars is useless. I've had batteries die in two seperate vehicles and I've never seen a low indication on those gauges....

Vertex sells just the regulator for $119. Seems steep but I can't find anyone else who carries them. Could call Sunset Imports and see if they sell them.

Sounds like the alternator as well.. Glad youre ok, good only the electrical crashed and not you

My car will turn the ABS and PSM OFF lights on in some corners, will go away on restart. Drove it rain yesterday and the light came but still could not spin any tires as thought the PSM was still functional.

There was definately no drop in voltage on the gauge. And what's more hilarious is that when all my warning lights lit up it was the first time ever I saw the "PSM Off" warning... it had never worked when I would turn PSM off. Of course, the dealer could not find anything wrong with the warning lights either. Thanks David, that's good info about the regulator being available from Vertex. I searched for a couple of hours on the net yesterday and could not find a voltage regulator for anything newer than a 1991. But based on your info I called Vertex and although they are back-ordered on that part ($119), they did confirm that it is a valid Porsche part number 99661030800. So Porsche DOES sell the voltage regulator seperately. I called the dealer back and spoke to the Parts dept. They quoted me $229 and said they'd have to order it. So I got transferred to the Service dept and asked them why they would tell me a story like that.... that Porsche wont sell or install the parts seperately. Frankly, the guy didnt seem at all concerned that he was so BUSTED. FYI this was Jim Ellis Porsche in Atlanta, GA. I'm going to make sure my local PCA group finds out all about this!

That doesn't surprise me about Jim Ellis. Worse Porsche stealerI'VE EVER SEEN! I had a buyer pay them 300 bucks for a PPI once and they still charged me 50 bucks to turn off the airbag light, even though they were already logged into the ECU. I have other stories about them but get worked up just thinking about them. At least there is now a second dealer in Atlanta, even though they are pretty much out of the way for me.

Hiya Steve, Hope you are feeling better! My brother mentioned that you'd recently been in the hospital. I had the Cab towed from Jim Ellis up to Kinetics Speed Shop. I've been wanting to try them out ever since the P-club had a tech session in their shop a few months back. I had to source the alternator for them ($271 from Drivewire.com) since the best they could come up with was $475 from their local supplier, but hopefully that will be the only bump in the road on this fix. Ironically it looks like the guy who will be working on my car just left Jim Ellis, ha. I'll post feedback when complete for those of us in Atlanta looking for a good shop.

Vette76, Did you try Sunset Imports (Porsche) for the part? They are great to work with and I think they give discounts to Rennlist or PCA. By the way, I just bought the same car that you have displayed in your avatar. I pick it up at the end of this month. I have the same wheels, are they 17 or 18 inch? I am going to put new rubber on mine when I pick it up but don't know what size tires it needs.

Yeah, bad alternator. It is interesting to see Porsche's protocol for shutting down the non essential list of items one by one when it detects a failure of the alternator and then finally the airbag.

I'd be interested in knowing a good shop in Atlanta. I think I have a small oil leak.

Melchior, Yes, Sunset is the best place for official Porsche parts that I know of. But in my case I am going with a $395 Bosch rebuilt alternator from Vertex (Drivewire's was the wrong one). I have the stock 17" wheels. I'd like to get 18"s for sure and possibly 19"s as soon as my current set of tires wear out.