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| Hey, remember my Boxster? I think... MarcW - 7 years ago |
I'll finally get it out of the shop today.
The hold up has been the instrument cluster repair.
This has been a real pain.
A problem was the first choice: Palo Alto Speedometer repair; doesn't "repair" Boxster clusters. The shop just replaces a suspected bad one with another cluster. This ate up a week or so. Then there was some mix up at the dealer and the car kind of got shuffled off to one side. The dealer service department was/is buried with work. I dropped the car off and kind of forgot about it until a few weeks had gone by. Also, I've been really busy with work and lost track of time and just never thought of the car.
When I asked for an update then I learned the cluster still had not gone out. I contacted the other repair facility (was VDO Repair in Lake Havasu City, AZ, now autoparts.repair in Las Vegas) and laid the groundwork for getting the cluster repaired there.
Then there was a death in the family that ran this repair business which had the place shut down for a while.
More recently the hold up has been the tech there reports he can't find a problem.
The tech says the cluster is not as sophisticated at I was led to believe. The 2002 model is kind of a hybrid in some respects as it is between the previous MYs and the more recent MYs in its instrument cluster implementation. The airbag warning light is not controlled by the cluster controller but by the DME. There is a line from the DME to the warning light and it is the DME directly controlling this line that determines whether the light is off or on. The tech at the repair facility believes there is a a wiring (or electrical connector) problem responsible for the light being on. This is contrary to what the tech (no longer at the dealer so I can't talk to him about this) told me.
The cluster repair tech did offer to replace the cluster circuit board with one out of a donor cluster just to eliminate the cluster as the possible problem and I would have had him do this but for the fact it would have tied up the car another week or so.
I need the car back. Its registration expired earlier this month. I paid the registration fee at the local CSAA office but the clerk noticed the car was scheduled to have a smog check this year. I missed that when I glanced at the registration renewal notice. The car had a smog check last year and I thought it was every 2 years, but maybe the car's age now requires a check every year, or because last year the car failed its first test and even though a couple of hours later when retested passed with flying colors the car got flagged for a test this year? Who knows?
Regardless, I can't get the new license plate sticker until I submit proof of a smog test and of course the car passes. I don't think this will be a problem. Save for one O2 sensor error a month or two before I put the car in for service -- and requested the O2 sensors be replaced -- the car has been running just fine.
I've been driiving the other car but now it is time for its service, its 145K mile service.
So the cluster is scheduled to be here mid-day today. The SM said he'd have the tech install the cluster as soon as it arrives and then the car is finished. All the other work: oil/filter service, 4 new O2 sensors, new serpentine belt; has all be completed. Oh, and the battery was connected to a fancy smancy battery charger/conditioner and has been on this now for around 24 hours.
I'll have to dig out my 64lbs of Boxster manuals and find the 3-ring binder with the wiring diagrams and look into this airbag warning light circuit and next time I have the car in then maybe have the dealer tech try to find the problem. I'm sure the techs have access to these if not in hard copy form in digital form but I want to study the diagram so I am at least part way up to speed on this.
The hold up has been the instrument cluster repair.
This has been a real pain.
A problem was the first choice: Palo Alto Speedometer repair; doesn't "repair" Boxster clusters. The shop just replaces a suspected bad one with another cluster. This ate up a week or so. Then there was some mix up at the dealer and the car kind of got shuffled off to one side. The dealer service department was/is buried with work. I dropped the car off and kind of forgot about it until a few weeks had gone by. Also, I've been really busy with work and lost track of time and just never thought of the car.
When I asked for an update then I learned the cluster still had not gone out. I contacted the other repair facility (was VDO Repair in Lake Havasu City, AZ, now autoparts.repair in Las Vegas) and laid the groundwork for getting the cluster repaired there.
Then there was a death in the family that ran this repair business which had the place shut down for a while.
More recently the hold up has been the tech there reports he can't find a problem.
The tech says the cluster is not as sophisticated at I was led to believe. The 2002 model is kind of a hybrid in some respects as it is between the previous MYs and the more recent MYs in its instrument cluster implementation. The airbag warning light is not controlled by the cluster controller but by the DME. There is a line from the DME to the warning light and it is the DME directly controlling this line that determines whether the light is off or on. The tech at the repair facility believes there is a a wiring (or electrical connector) problem responsible for the light being on. This is contrary to what the tech (no longer at the dealer so I can't talk to him about this) told me.
The cluster repair tech did offer to replace the cluster circuit board with one out of a donor cluster just to eliminate the cluster as the possible problem and I would have had him do this but for the fact it would have tied up the car another week or so.
I need the car back. Its registration expired earlier this month. I paid the registration fee at the local CSAA office but the clerk noticed the car was scheduled to have a smog check this year. I missed that when I glanced at the registration renewal notice. The car had a smog check last year and I thought it was every 2 years, but maybe the car's age now requires a check every year, or because last year the car failed its first test and even though a couple of hours later when retested passed with flying colors the car got flagged for a test this year? Who knows?
Regardless, I can't get the new license plate sticker until I submit proof of a smog test and of course the car passes. I don't think this will be a problem. Save for one O2 sensor error a month or two before I put the car in for service -- and requested the O2 sensors be replaced -- the car has been running just fine.
I've been driiving the other car but now it is time for its service, its 145K mile service.
So the cluster is scheduled to be here mid-day today. The SM said he'd have the tech install the cluster as soon as it arrives and then the car is finished. All the other work: oil/filter service, 4 new O2 sensors, new serpentine belt; has all be completed. Oh, and the battery was connected to a fancy smancy battery charger/conditioner and has been on this now for around 24 hours.
I'll have to dig out my 64lbs of Boxster manuals and find the 3-ring binder with the wiring diagrams and look into this airbag warning light circuit and next time I have the car in then maybe have the dealer tech try to find the problem. I'm sure the techs have access to these if not in hard copy form in digital form but I want to study the diagram so I am at least part way up to speed on this.
I the past, smog checks could be a little annoying as the smog station had to get into the engine bay for a visual inspection. Last month, I took my Boxster in for its smog check, but had the hardtop on, and thinking I am going to have to help the inspector take the top off, and get into the engine bay. However, all the inspector did was read the codes and didn't even put the "breathalizer" up the tailpipe or run the car through certain speed cycles. He indicated that in California, only urban areas (SF east bay where I lived before) required such a rigorous test, while rural areas (Santa Cruz coastal areas) fell under a lesser inspection standard. I had never heard this before, but the inspection was a breeze as there were not codes spitting out, and $70 and 10 minutes later I was out the door.
None of the smog tests/checks have had the tech paying much attention to the car. No tech has ever asked to view the Boxster engine. I think maybe the Turbo has had its engine compartment lid open once for a brief "inspection". Neither car as been lifted up and checked from underneath for exhaust mods.
With my two Porsches I've been through both the sniffer test and the car (the Boxster) on the roller -- the Turbo can't be placed on the rollers because its AWD -- and just the plug in to car's OBD2 port for a "scan" of the readiness monitors, active/permanent/pending codes, and possibly a check to ensure the DME's flash image was "stock".
Just a brief update: The Boxster is running just fine and I'm not sure I'll run the gas tank level down too much more before I fill it up with fresh gasoline and seek out a place to get the car smog checked today. I do want to take the car out for a longish drive though as it has been treated to a number of "short" trips as it has been shuffled in and out of the service bay over the last month or so. The "cobwebs" need to be blown out. Oh yes they do.
With my two Porsches I've been through both the sniffer test and the car (the Boxster) on the roller -- the Turbo can't be placed on the rollers because its AWD -- and just the plug in to car's OBD2 port for a "scan" of the readiness monitors, active/permanent/pending codes, and possibly a check to ensure the DME's flash image was "stock".
Just a brief update: The Boxster is running just fine and I'm not sure I'll run the gas tank level down too much more before I fill it up with fresh gasoline and seek out a place to get the car smog checked today. I do want to take the car out for a longish drive though as it has been treated to a number of "short" trips as it has been shuffled in and out of the service bay over the last month or so. The "cobwebs" need to be blown out. Oh yes they do.
| Cobwebs are blown out... MarcW - 7 years ago |
| Smog test/check completed this AM. Takes almost more time to write about it than... MarcW - 7 years ago |
it took to do. Tech remembered me from my drive by Saturday. I pulled in and walked into the office but no one there and both bays were busy so I left.
Anyhow, tech quickly checked to ensure the readiness monitors were all set to complete. I was pretty sure they were as I have driven the car over 100 miles since I picked it up Friday night after work. But he said better to check -- it would be free -- than to hook up the test equipment only to find one or more not set to complete. If he hooked up the test equipment and found any not set to complete the car fails and he has to charge me and I have to bring it back for a retest.
They were set to complete and the tech pulled the car into the bay.
A few minutes later he was done. All he had to do was hook up the emissions test computer to the car's OBD2 port. No sniffer test.
Have to admit I was not paying much attention. I was a bit distracted watching B-25 Mitchell aircraft flying over the smog test station heading to the Livermore air port. Even hundreds of feet above the ground the 2 engines made a heck of a racket. What sound though! Some WWII air craft were in town for a Memorial Day event. A woman waiting for her car told me she was at the airport yesterday and rides in the bombers were available for $450/ticket. The plane had seats for 8 paying passengers and it was kept busy.
Anyhow, tech quickly checked to ensure the readiness monitors were all set to complete. I was pretty sure they were as I have driven the car over 100 miles since I picked it up Friday night after work. But he said better to check -- it would be free -- than to hook up the test equipment only to find one or more not set to complete. If he hooked up the test equipment and found any not set to complete the car fails and he has to charge me and I have to bring it back for a retest.
They were set to complete and the tech pulled the car into the bay.
A few minutes later he was done. All he had to do was hook up the emissions test computer to the car's OBD2 port. No sniffer test.
Have to admit I was not paying much attention. I was a bit distracted watching B-25 Mitchell aircraft flying over the smog test station heading to the Livermore air port. Even hundreds of feet above the ground the 2 engines made a heck of a racket. What sound though! Some WWII air craft were in town for a Memorial Day event. A woman waiting for her car told me she was at the airport yesterday and rides in the bombers were available for $450/ticket. The plane had seats for 8 paying passengers and it was kept busy.
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