update on noise and stuff

Well after my 3rd CEL went off I reset myself by disconnecting the battery (negative side) for 12 minutes or so. Reconnected, CEL off, and car sputters and runs like POOP. RPM's drop down to 500-ish and back up to 750-ish stablizes a while and then all over again. But no fluctuation at all with the a/c on. (Well at least I know the ICV works. LOL) I took the car to my personal mechanic and told him to have his way with it. The car sat for 2 days before he was able to look at it, and of course when I pass by to check up on the car, its in the garage with the engine running and my mechanic smiling, saying, the car is running perfectly, no idle jumping, or sputtering or anything. So typical, take it in to get fixed and the symptoms dont replicate. I guess I really cleaned the hell out of the MAF, I also ran fuel injector cleaner through a half tank of gas, and maybe this in conjuction with reseting the CEL, and driving some caused the computer to recalibrate or something. Hell, i dont know!! But the noise issue... TRANSAXLE!!! didnt sound cheap when he told me then, and it still aint cheap while i am typing it here now!! I am very hopeful that the extended warranty will cover it. And maybe while the whole engine is out, I'll check out the clutch too. Has anybody else had transaxle problems, and if so, what were the signs that led you there. Thanx, all!!

All this collective experience and no one has an answer for my question. Huh?

Did you read the code before you reset the ECU? Why take the car to a mechanic after the code is erased and now running fine? I should just drive it more and pull the code to locate issue

Well, I just went through this. I had all sorts of crazy things going on. You can search for my debacle. I think you should invest in a code reader to start. It can save you a lot of money, and "focus" you independent garage. Is the car under a Porsche warranty? If so, next time just take it too a dealer (not that you need lecture). They have a computer that can diagnose your car, better than any indi can. That said in the end, the dealer computer didn't find a thing wrong with my car. They also had the car running with no replication. The difference being, I didn't clear the codes, so they had something to work with. The injector cleaner is good. You should also try a dry gas additive. The recent heavy rains can have several impacts and some other things might make this all the more common. There is a chance that some water got into your system. After some more research, I discovered that Porsche, BMW, MB and some other car manufacturers have filed complaints with several gas companies about declining quality level of gas in the USA, especially in the NE. Finally, I was also told that many of the local gas stations have NOT been filling their storage tanks, especially with such volatility in gas prices. So, as they say, don't leave your car with less than a 1/4 of tank, the same sort of holds for storage tanks of gas. Finally, I had an indie completelty misdiagnos a front dif problem. He was going on how it had to be replaced and in the end, it was nothing.

Can't help you with the transaxle issue...however, I can give you some insight into why your idle hunted and car ran like "crap" after disconnecting the battery. After the battery is disconnected you are suppose to turn on the car an let it idle for 5-10 minutes. It will run rough with a varying idle. It is during this running peroid the ECU/dme/etc. reset all the parameter for making the car run correctly. I think the manual even indicate this (not sure haven't read it in a while). The drive time from your house to the mechanic allowed for the car's electronics to sort themselves out. This is why it did not run like crap for the mechanic. Your mechanic should know that. As for the the CEL codes...drive it let the car through another CEL and then take it to someplace that has the PST2 let them read the codes and see what else is stored in the memory. I was confused by your post is the mechanic saying the CEL and noise are related and is the transaxle? If so, this sounds strange and I would seek out another opinion from a very Porsche specific mechanic.

thanx so far all, djantlive and yetis, my mechanic had read the cel codes the first two times it went off, and the codes were p1124 p1126. Which is why I cleaned the hell out of the MAF. The third time the CEL went off, i didnt want to go back to my mechanic and say please clear it again, so I decided to try the battery disconnected route. Probably not the best route I know, but i cant stand seeing that CEL in my face and the car would run better every time my mechanic cleared the CEL so I decided to do it myself. I was confounded as to why it ran like crap when I reset it, but the explanantions provided so far makes sense. bet, no the mechanic is NOT saying the CEL and the transaxle are related. I have two separate issues at the same time and am trying to resolve both. Sorry for the confusion. But in actuallity, the loud noise, which my mechanic says is the transaxle, and the CEL, and what sounds like a vacuum or exhaust leak all occured at the same time (within days of each other) so that is why I am thinking there must be some common factor causing all the problems. This is going to sound dumb but, if you say the letters frtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrt quickly, that is the sound that I am hearing (like an exhaust leak or something). oh yeah yetis I forgot, I have a 3rd party warranty coverage, TheSelection, which I called and checked and it does cover my MAF and RMS. I am still going to check and see if it will cover whatever issues my mechanic uncovers. I do want to know if the 02 sensors and cats and mufflers are covered by factory or 3rd party warranty.