My nightmare 996... need some help...

Hi, To make a very long story very short, I bought a 996 C2 about two years ago in PA, then exported the car to Sweden where it went through inspection with flying colors. About two months later I discovered the "famous" oil in the coolant :-( After a lot of research I decided to install a second hand motor in the car. I left the car at my indy and we did all mods to the new engine, IMS, RMS etc etc. The motor also came with a warranty. The car was in the shop from June last year until March when I got it back, and I was a bit upset that it took him so long to get it together. Since it was there so long the warranty on the motor expired (of course...). After a few miles driving the car with the new motor the CEL came on indicating that there was a problem with one of the cam sensors. I had to take it back to my indy and it has been there ever since..., so it has been there for over 15 months now and nothing is happening. I guess he has no clue what to do and spends his time on other cars instead, I get all kinds of excuses. The problem is that he has replaced the faulty cam sensor with a new one and the CEL still comes on which makes it impossible to get the car through inspection so it is illegal to drive it. My best guess is that there might be a problem since we installed a motor from a Euro spec car into a US spec car, the indy told me there were different intake manifolds on them but he managed to put everything back and the engine runs great except for the CEL. Either something to do with that or some kind of problems with the connections or the computer. Any input you can have might help, I can't do anything with the car at the moment, can't drive it, can't sell it, don't want to part it out when I have spent a ton of money with the installation of the new motor... and no one will pay anything for it with the CEL still on. If he can't solve it in the near future I will have to take it to a Porsche Center and let them check it out but then I will have to deal with the problem of all the time and parts he has put in without solving the problem, not to keen on paying for a job that is not done..., if he had managed to have the car ready last fall I would still have had the warranty but I can't go back to them now a year and a half later. Disappointed...

If you don't have access to a competent mechanic (and it sounds like yours is borderline), you may want to just take it over to a dealership. They may not want to touch it since you did the motor swap, but it would be worth a try. At least there they'll be able to diagnose the fault with a PTS and identify the real root of the problem.

Maybe I should point out that he only works on Porsches, mainly turbos and GT3's, I think he has a GT2 himself. He is regarded as a good mechanic and I was referred to him by a guy that always services his turbo there. Even the Porsche dealership knew about him so he should have been up to the job but it seems that it is not the case with my car.

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Being regarded as a good mechanic and being one are two different things. Not every mechanic can solve every problem. The good ones know that and tell the customer. The not so good ones don't... What are the error codes? Added: Maybe I should state I'm not saying I can help but I'll tell you that way before 9 months passes...

I am referring now to a dodge caravan we have where the CEL came on. Thinking back we had a slight front end smash repaired and the mechanic forgot to put back an air feed pipe in the correct place into its holder. Consequently the pipe rubbed on the fan belt and slowly but surely wore a pin ***** hole into it causing too much air intake which made the cel light come on. Seeing as you have a new engine in the car with slightly different intake manifolds then that is probably where it is sucking air into the system and throwing the light. OR Did the indi forget to connect something causing the light to come on. Don't give up hope. It's probably something very simple. When I had the Auto Zone check the cel light they told me it threw up 3 codes all stating about air intake but just where to look. God only knows. The mechanic spotted it straight away and put a new part on the dodge and replaced it into the holder it ould have gone after the repair. As Macster says. Take it to a Porsche dealer and let them run the correct testers on the car. They can tell you the code and maybe you can fix it yourself or get them to fix it for you.

I would invest in a durametric at this point if I was you. Costs about the same as having the dealership scan it for you once...

did your mechanic reflash the ECU to the euro spec maps? if not that might be as simple as the ecu looking for the secondary air injection system for emissions that I would guess your mechanic didn't put back on since it doesn't come on eu spec engines

Thanks for all advice, I do have the Durametric, but can't use it now since the car is at the shop, I will try to get the codes from the mechanic. 6ta1, good advice, I have no idea if he has done that or not, but I guess he has not done it, I will definitely check that with him.

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Sounds like the shop has zero interest or motivation in fixing your car. I assume he is fully paid, plus he has your car in his workshop? Tough situation, since any new shop will basically start at ground zero with troubleshooting assuming nothing. Could be a costly process... Curious who decided to replace the motor? Did you rule out heat exchanger and aos/vapor separator systems? Even if it was a cracked head, they evidently can be repaired fairly reasonably as long as not too much collateral damage has occured.

Yes I would put more , a lot more pressure on you mechanic, he just letting your car sit month after month. He's taken a lot of your money already time for him to produce, dont be passive, be aggressive , squeekie wheel gets the greas

I agree, he seems not so interested in fixing the car, the situation is a bit complicated with the fact that he has had it for so long and spent time and parts on it without fixing it so there will be an issue if i decide to take it to the Porsche dealership, but that is a decision I have to make soon since I can not have it ilke this for much longer. He has a lot of cars in the shop so he is likely more interested in the fixing the "easy" cars he has there which will give him a quick pay check. As Macster pointed out, I guess he has no clue.., it would have been better if he had told me that he can't fix it. pfbz, it was my decision to replace the motor after I checked the costs for rebuilding the old motor over here, very few shops do it and it is very expensive and so it was more cost effective and if they had done the job from the beginning it would have taken a lot less time to install the new motor than to wait months for another shop to have the time to rebuild the old motor. If I recall I think one of the codes are P1341 (but I am not sure) and the other one something with the air injection which could be explained if the ECU is looking for the secondary air injection system if that has been removed.

Soaringman, I will...

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P1341 is not the camshaft position sensor but the VarioCam solenoid (or actuator). The solenoid is I hear tell not a big job to replace on the 996 If I'm right you can have this done. Then you can drive the car and if the error comes back think about replacing the actuator. Replacing the actuator is more involved to replace. (For my 02 Boxster the solenoid/actuator job cost around $3K, about half parts cost -- those things are expensive! -- and the rest labor.) Up to you but I would probably seek out another shop, even a dealer, to do this work. The dealer can test the solenoid with its diagnostic computer. The problem is the test can't distinguish between a bad solenoid or actuator. I read that there is more on this subject at the Pelican Parts web site. I've not been there to see what's posted but you might check it out and learn what you can. After you get the P1341 error dealt with tackle the secondary air injection problem.

Oh yikes. What year engine is your car and what year engine was placed in the car? P1341 can be easy or really messy.

The car is a -99 and the motor is from a -01. Spoke to the mechanic at the shop today but he was "busy" and asked to call me back in 10 minutes, he never called... surprise... Also spoke to a lawyer and the Porsche dealership so I am on the case. The Porsche dealership thought the engine would work in the car but that you need to change the software in the ECU to Euro spec instead of US spec and the shop where it is should not have access to that software, so they will probably never get it to work properly. I will see if I can call the shop tomorrow and see what they say. It is time to take the car to the Porsche dealership instead. What a mess...

First, sorry for your trouble. These can be hard cars to deal with sometimes. Second, P1341 is a whole lot better than cam position sensor. A new cam actuator and solenoid and you are good to go.

Ok, so the mechanic finally called me today and he had done nothing at all to the car since August..., no surprise. But he finally gave me the actual fault codes and my bad it was not the P1341 as I thought, the fault codes are now: P1602 Supply voltage open circuit P1397 Camshaft sensor bank 2 short to ground P0410 Secondary air injection system cylinder (1-3) signal implausible P1411 Secondary air injection system cylinder (4-6) signal implausible I guess 1602 is not much to care about since it has to do with the battery being disconnected? I am a bit more worried of the other ones. The camshaft sensor is brand new, he has changed it. He can also run the air injection pump thru the software. According to him everything seems to work fine so it might be a problem with the software since we have the Euro spec engine in a US car. He had no idea that it could be a software issue. The Porsche dealership can flash the ECU with the Euro software but they are a bit concerned since he put the intake mainfold from the US engine on the Euro engine. The other option is that the shop has a guy that probably can re-program the ECU and remove those fault codes in the software. That would make those faults go away and it would be possible to get the car thru inspection. But it's not the "right" way to do it and if there ever is a problem with them they will never be seen. The Porsche dealership told me that it might be a good idea to let the shop flash the ECU first and if they mess it up the dealership can always flash the ECU with the original software. Any thoughts on those fault codes?

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Not sure the significance of having a US intake on the Euro engine. What does the dealer/tech have to say about this? My advice would be to reprogram the ECU with the proper DME compatible image for the engine in the car and see what happens. I would not hack the DME firmware to remove/disable the faults. The camshaft sensor error does not "look" like a DME firmware issue, but like a wiring issue. Any chance the engine swap pinched/cut a wire? Crushed a sensor connector? A connector pin is bent/broken off? You (someone) needs to go over the wiring/connectors associated with this sensor very carefully to rule out just plain old physical damage vs. software incompatibilities.

It would be a cold day in hell before I'd allow the guy to work on (or not work on) my car again... Good luck, and keep us posted.

According to the Porsche dealership, the Euro cars do not have secondary air injection at all, but they think the US intake manifold may be connected to that somehow so they think those fault codes may be a problem but they can't tell since they have not seen the car. The camshaft sensor - well I can't rule out that it is not a wiring issue, that was what the mechanic thought himself since the sensor is brand new but the software gives the fault code anyway. I will call the dealership tomorrow again now that I have the fault codes and see what they say. 5CHN3LL..., can't agree more...

you'll clear P0410 and P0411 if you switch to Euro maps. that's what we do here in the US to remove the secondary air injection pump so it should be no problem with your intake

6ta1, thanks! That was what I thought, then there is still the issue with the 1397 code. I spoke to the dealership today and they agree with most on this forum that it is most likely a problem with the wiring since the sensor is brand new. Most likely something must have happened during the motor swap since I did not have the code before. The best thing to do is to test all wires associated with the sensor, according to the dealership it will take a day at most to sort it out, not weeks and months... The first thing they would do is to make sure the sensor is working properly, then test all cables and connectors from the sensor all the way back to the ECU.

I'm glad to hear you're getting somewhere with this. The advantage of a dealership is that they have access to the proper diagnostic information and the necessary troubleshooting guides to help them solve the problem. Many independent mechanics have the same, but plenty of them don't. I know it's difficult to forget about your investment in time or money that you've made with the other mechanic, but you need to focus on what you're losing by not getting this fixed. You're focused on your "sunk" cost and not seeing the "opportunity" cost. Good luck with getting the car back on the road!

Can you get your Porsche towed to the dealer since the indy has shown little interest in fixing your vehicle based on what I've read. Then you'll have a running Porsche back after waiting so long for the indy.

You have to ignore any money you have spent with that shop and move on (or seek competent legal advice about your options). But don't let that guy touch your car any more.

Ok, so I'm on the indy all the time now. He will reconnect all wiring and have the car running next week so I can pick it up (yeah right...). He can flash the ECU with the euro software otherwise I will let the dealership do it, that will at least clear the air injection codes. But the P1397 is what is bothering me a lot. He told me that there was a problem with using the wiring harness from the euro motor so he used the one from my US motor, so he transferred both the intake manifold and the wiring harness from my old US spec motor. The strange thing is he said something about the US �99 spec motor only having one connector to the cam position sensor, it can't be right, there has to be two, there must be a sensor on bank 1 and one on bank 2. The euro '01 motor has two..., he told me to Google it which I have not yet done. But I just found something very interesting in the "The essential companion". The DME 5.2.2 seems to be the original software in the '99 US spec 996 C2 and according to that the P1397 gives CEL in the US. But according to the book, the Euro '01 should have DME 7.2 as standard and there it states P1397 CEL USA: on CEL RoW: off... Now I am really confused. Would it be possible to just flash it with the correct euro spec software and the P1397 would not give the CEL...? Anyone ever heard of this?

Just a quick update, the shop finally flashed my ECU with the euro software and guess what, all codes are gone... Thanks to all input from you guys, you really helped me out! Awesome forum! I will finally get my car back after 16 months...

Woot! Nice!

Congrats on getting it fixed! I can imagine all the weight lifting off of your chest having to deal with that for the last 15 months.

Awesome

I have had this issue occur and the wire harness was at fault. I'd carry out more diagnosis before starting to throw parts at it.