The 996 search - The Chronicles of Ken

[daveyoul]

1 hour ago, raafrebel2 said:

I had my 996 (when I owned one) checked out by Autohause . They never said anything about the IMS either. I asked them about it and at the time they said that they have only ever seen 1 example of a fail , and it was on a car that was regulary tracked...

i never had mine done, and gave my Carrera a great time in the high rev range often. 

 

ill have to start my own thread shortly... 

my 997s is totaled after a head butt with a pole at 80plus k an hour a couple weeks ago. Devastated ...

plucky I wasn’t hurt 

i will be looking after I get back from the Isle of Man next month 

enjoy your 996, they are great cars 

Oh no, sorry to hear about your 997! What happened? 

 

Trying to think whether I have any updates on Ken...

Oh... new plates have been ordered, "Ken" won't be KEN for much longer. 

I've added a discreet charging input so I can keep him charged in the garage. 

I'm sick of the VDO head unit already. It looks good during the day when the car's off, but that's about it. The bright blue backlight stands out like the proverbial during the day... and doesn't dim at night. So that will be removed in the not too distant future. Hopefully for something that has similar period looks, but with some better detail. 

Got a half full cart at Suncoast with bits and pieces hopefully close that off in the next week or so and get it delivered. 

Aside from that, I think I'm just driving it. Had a meeting in the southern highlands last week and I had a little spare time after. So I did what any sane person would do... took a quick squirt down to Kangaroo Valley and back. I was relatively well behaved (of course) but had a great time bonding, learning about how Ken likes to be driven. The flat 6 sound echoing off the walls was amazing. Had 2 cars pull over for me to pass on the way down, and a totally clear run on the way back up. 

So much fun.

[TwoHeadsTas]

1 hour ago, daveyoul said:

Oh no, sorry to hear about your 997! What happened? 

 

Trying to think whether I have any updates on Ken...

Oh... new plates have been ordered, "Ken" won't be KEN for much longer. 

I've added a discreet charging input so I can keep him charged in the garage. 

I'm sick of the VDO head unit already. It looks good during the day when the car's off, but that's about it. The bright blue backlight stands out like the proverbial during the day... and doesn't dim at night. So that will be removed in the not too distant future. Hopefully for something that has similar period looks, but with some better detail. 

Got a half full cart at Suncoast with bits and pieces hopefully close that off in the next week or so and get it delivered. 

Aside from that, I think I'm just driving it. Had a meeting in the southern highlands last week and I had a little spare time after. So I did what any sane person would do... took a quick squirt down to Kangaroo Valley and back. I was relatively well behaved (of course) but had a great time bonding, learning about how Ken likes to be driven. The flat 6 sound echoing off the walls was amazing. Had 2 cars pull over for me to pass on the way down, and a totally clear run on the way back up. 

So much fun.

I reckon the Continental is the go for a replacement for the radio.  Looks to be reasonable price, and display is orange to match.  http://www.soundlabsgroup.com.au/c/Continental-Car-Radio/  May be cheaper on Ebay perhaps????  Comes in Bluetooth version etc

[daveyoul]

2 hours ago, TwoHeadsTas said:

I reckon the Continental is the go for a replacement for the radio.  Looks to be reasonable price, and display is orange to match.  http://www.soundlabsgroup.com.au/c/Continental-Car-Radio/  May be cheaper on Ebay perhaps????  Comes in Bluetooth version etc

Yes! That's exactly the right style. Thanks! 

[daveyoul]

Ok, time for an update. 

KEN has been going well - been away for a couple of weeks, so left neglected on the charger in the garage. Interestingly, there seems to be a consistent current draw of about 0.5A - which seems really high to me. Has anyone else had this experience? Any more than about 18 hours and the battery will fall below 12.0v, which isn't great for it. I've rigged up quick access for the charger, but would like to work out what is causing the draw. 

I did a leatherique treatment on the seats too while I was away, which has put some softness back into them and cleaned them up nicely. 

Had a nice drive up the hill on the OPH north of Sydney - a little bit more understeer than I was expecting on a couple of occasions. Need to explore that a little more - could be that the front hoops are 2012 manufacture, compared with fairly new rears. Will update as I experiment a little more. 

Highlight is new plates. KEN is now only by name, the plates have been replaced with something far more appropriate (IMO). Hope you like them. 

[firstone]

Is it possible you're not locking it? Or maybe the frunk light isn't going off?

[Peter John]

Thanks for the update! When you say hoops you mean the tyres being 2012? If so that would def change things by getting fresh rubber.

[LeeM]

New tyres are a MUST mate! 

 They will transform the handling

[daveyoul]

9 hours ago, firstone said:

Is it possible you're not locking it? Or maybe the frunk light isn't going off?

Draw seems to be the same, whether locked or not. I've left the frunk open for a long time, and the light has turned off - so I think safe to assume it turns off when closed. 

9 hours ago, Peter John said:

Thanks for the update! When you say hoops you mean the tyres being 2012? If so that would def change things by getting fresh rubber.

 

9 hours ago, LeeM said:

New tyres are a MUST mate! 

 They will transform the handling

Yeah - 7 year old tyres. A little surprising given KEN owned a tyre shop... but then maybe not so surprising... 

Will deal with a few other things on "the list" first, and then see where that places me in regards to new tyres. They aren't THAT bad... was pushing pretty hard and just needed to reset the throttle to get some weight back on the nose. Will see how much it annoys me in the mean time. 

[ANF]

1 hour ago, daveyoul said:

Yeah - 7 year old tyres. A little surprising given KEN owned a tyre shop... but then maybe not so surprising... 

Will deal with a few other things on "the list" first, and then see where that places me in regards to new tyres. They aren't THAT bad... was pushing pretty hard and just needed to reset the throttle to get some weight back on the nose. Will see how much it annoys me in the mean time. 

When it comes to tyre age I tend to listen to the experts https://www.michelin.com.au/auto/tips-and-advice/when-should-i-change-my-car-tyres

From my own experience (and searching along with talking to rubber experts) tyres can still be good after the "5 year rule" (tyres should be checked after 5 years, not blanketly replaced), especially if your car is stored indoors. My 2011 manufacture PS3 tyres were just great when my car was unfortunately "parked up" 18 months ago... now that it has been sitting stationary for that period I will replace when I get it mobile again, but there are still no signs of cracking - if you really want to make sure get a shore hardness tester (tyre durometer).

Great looking car by the way! Love the series 1 996!!

 

[Nugget]

23 hours ago, daveyoul said:

Ok, time for an update. 

KEN has been going well - been away for a couple of weeks, so left neglected on the charger in the garage. Interestingly, there seems to be a consistent current draw of about 0.5A - which seems really high to me. Has anyone else had this experience?

Yes I have the same problem, battery is only a few weeks old, yet after a 2 hour drive on the weekend the battery had 12.3V in it when I got home. Charged it for a few hours til it read 12.75V, connected the terminals, left it for 24 hours and it was down to 12.4V.

Seems we are not alone, many other 996 owners have the same problem. I'm going to change as many globes as possible to LED and see if that makes a difference. I will keep searching the net for more answers.

 

 

[daveyoul]

@Nugget it seems like you might have a slightly different issue as well. I'd expect that after a 2 hour drive, if your alternator is charging correctly, you should see up around 13v at the battery. I think my alternator is slightly less effective than it should be, but still charges at a minimum of 13.5v and up to 14ish sometimes. 

Make sure too, you let the battery rest for 5-10 minutes after charging to take a reading. 

 

[firstone]

Yes, I'd be checking your charging rate.

[Stephen Tinker]

1 hour ago, daveyoul said:

you should see up around 13v at the battery. I think my alternator is slightly less effective than it should be, but still charges at a minimum of 13.5v and up to 14ish sometimes. 

 

Just as a heads up, these are the voltages for a fully charged 12v battery:

100% charged = 12.6v max.

75% charged = 12.4v.

50% charged = 12.2v.

25% charged = 12.0v.\

The above voltage values are indicitive of the state of charge of the battery - it is not representative if the battery is in good condition or not. You need to load test it to confirm its good. 

A 12v alternator charges between 13.5v min to approx. 14.2 max depending on the condition and state of tune of the battery, electrical load etc., so what you are seeing on the voltage gauge looks OK.

How are you testing for parasitic draw on the system - 0.5A is a very high discharge rate.....

[daveyoul]

Thanks @Stephen Tinker,

 

I've always understood that 12.0 was about 50% - seems to be the accepted wisdom (at least across AGMs, where I've had more experience) - at any rate, it is best to keep them above 50% SOC or 12.0v.

The battery is in good condition - I have a battery tester and it has tested fine, in fact, I think it got a 97% health rating - which was surprising knowing it has seen at least a couple of high discharges (down to low 11s)

I've tested in 2 ways. 

1. Measured resting volts across a time period, and calculated the draw based on power taken from the battery over the period of time. 

2. Confirmed with a power meter

Totally agree - 0.5A is a high discharge rate - which is why I'm investigating. It isn't a big deal when I'm using every day, however, it still isn't right. 

I'm planning to change the aftermarket head unit in the not too distant future - so that will probably be the first check. 

[Stephen Tinker]

If you want to quickly check where the parasitic draw is coming from and you have a half decent multi meter (MM),

1} Disconnect the + battery cable, select A or mA on your MM and connect the MM leads in series between the end of the disconnected cable and the + side of the battery. (Red MM lead on the battery post, black lead on the cable). With the ignition in the OFF position, your MM should be showing the discharge rate of xxx A or mA.

2) Its now time to remove each fuse and mark down any difference in mA showing on the MM. The frunk & interior lights should be removed or switched off.

3) Add up the discharge mA of each fuse and see what the total is. If what you say is correct (0.5A draw), the offending circuit should jump out convincingly.

The difficult bit is tracking down the offending equipment on that circuit....

Hope this helps.

[daveyoul]

Thanks @Stephen Tinker, that's helpful. Will report back findings (eventually!). 

[GC9911]

8 hours ago, Stephen Tinker said:

Just as a heads up, these are the voltages for a fully charged 12v battery:

100% charged = 12.6v max.

75% charged = 12.4v.

50% charged = 12.2v.

25% charged = 12.0v.\

The above voltage values are indicitive of the state of charge of the battery - it is not representative if the battery is in good condition or not. You need to load test it to confirm its good. 

A 12v alternator charges between 13.5v min to approx. 14.2 max depending on the condition and state of tune of the battery, electrical load etc., so what you are seeing on the voltage gauge looks OK.

How are you testing for parasitic draw on the system - 0.5A is a very high discharge rate.....

Agree with Stephen, you should see somewhere around 12.6+v at least after a full charge, charging typically is around 13-14.6v. 0.5v parasitic draw to me means “something” is on or you have a “small short/leakage”.

[Morpheus]

On 30/04/2019 at 21:59, LeeM said:

New tyres are a MUST mate! 

 They will transform the handling

Can attest to this. Also, wheel alignment- mine were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out...

Love the plates @daveyoul !

[daveyoul]

Ken has enjoyed stretching his legs over the past week - road trip to the Gold Coast for work meant a quick shuttle up and down the PAC Hwy. Unfortunately I mostly needed to stick to the lemmings route, but managed an early morning blat down the Wootton way through the old Buladelah bends on Sat morning. According to the gps it only added 2 minutes to my journey (and plenty of smiles).

Most of the journey was in the rain and the car felt great, even over damp patches when pushing through the bends, plenty of confidence. 

And the economy for this stuff blows me away. New pb of 8.76 l/100km, and always under 10 when on the freeway.

Looking forward to a PCNSW drive next weekend - spose I should wash it, absolutely filthy after last week!

[daveyoul]

I blame my last post. 

Everything was going so well... the sun was (metaphorically) shining, we'd just done close to 2000km in a week and the relationship blossoming. Tucked up inside the garage (although not yet washed) for the week and looking forward to getting out again for a blast through the mountains with PCNSW. Forecast is for snow - no problems for a C4! 

Open the garage on Wednesday evening and Ken's disgraced himself. Pool of red wee below his hind leg. Upon topping up the coolant the drip started again - but there was no way I could find where it was coming from. Above, below, mirror etc... no idea. Dropped it down to the local Porsche Whisperer, and hoped for the best. Surely it was just a hose I couldn't see, maybe a crack in the tank (although it looks fairly new). 

Hear back from The Whisperer at lunch and the news isn't good. Seems there's a solid coolant pipe that goes from the reservoir to some evil and wretched location towards the front of the car. A crack in the offending pipe is causing the leak. However, due to the wisdom of Hans when he designed the path of the pipe, the whole engine needs to be removed to replace the one bloody pipe. 

CRAP - This is going to cost me a reasonable little runabout. 

Not just due to the cost of the repair per se - but of course while the engine is out, we might as well look at... *ahem*

IMS
Clutch
Flywheel
AOS
RMS...

Oh, and can you have a listen to those couple of noises on cold start too... 

On the bright side - they will probably wash it for me when they are done! 

If you're looking for me, I'll be curled up in a foetal position in the corner sucking my thumb. 👍

 

[TINGY]

Oh no, do the water pump as well while your there, what's another $600 bucks, makes a cheap car start to look expensive.

[Jason E]

4 minutes ago, TINGY996 said:

Oh no, do the water pump as well while your there, what's another $600 bucks, makes a cheap car start to look expensive.

Welcome to the story of my life.

[GC9911]

21 minutes ago, daveyoul said:

I blame my last post. 

Everything was going so well... the sun was (metaphorically) shining, we'd just done close to 2000km in a week and the relationship blossoming. Tucked up inside the garage (although not yet washed) for the week and looking forward to getting out again for a blast through the mountains with PCNSW. Forecast is for snow - no problems for a C4! 

Open the garage on Wednesday evening and Ken's disgraced himself. Pool of red wee below his hind leg. Upon topping up the coolant the drip started again - but there was no way I could find where it was coming from. Above, below, mirror etc... no idea. Dropped it down to the local Porsche Whisperer, and hoped for the best. Surely it was just a hose I couldn't see, maybe a crack in the tank (although it looks fairly new). 

Hear back from The Whisperer at lunch and the news isn't good. Seems there's a solid coolant pipe that goes from the reservoir to some evil and wretched location towards the front of the car. A crack in the offending pipe is causing the leak. However, due to the wisdom of Hans when he designed the path of the pipe, the whole engine needs to be removed to replace the one bloody pipe. 

CRAP - This is going to cost me a reasonable little runabout. 

Not just due to the cost of the repair per se - but of course while the engine is out, we might as well look at... *ahem*

IMS
Clutch
Flywheel
AOS
RMS...

Oh, and can you have a listen to those couple of noises on cold start too... 

On the bright side - they will probably wash it for me when they are done! 

If you're looking for me, I'll be curled up in a foetal position in the corner sucking my thumb. 👍

 

If it’s any consolation, at 10,800ks, the pool of pink wee. Where the metal pipe meets the flexible. Apparently happens for no reason, there’s an O ring equivalent in the connection that just fails. Thank the lord for Porsche warranty, all fixed at no cost.

 

[daveyoul]

Thanks @GC9911 - that does make me feel a little better - at least this one has lasted 266000km!

[JWM]

55 minutes ago, daveyoul said:

Not just due to the cost of the repair per se - but of course while the engine is out, we might as well look at... *ahem*

IMS
Clutch
Flywheel
AOS
RMS...

If it makes you feel better, I am just doing the same list after hearing a noisy lifter... 

Based on you, me and @PIC doing the same, I'd say PFA is singlehandedly preserving a large percentage of the 996 fleet in Australia right now... Truly inspirational stuff that future generations of bad headlight lovers will thank us for... 😂