I am taking my 08 in for service at an indy shop. Oil and filter, and 12K service. The 12K looks mostly like a lot of inspection and fluid level checks, not a whole lot more, but it will still cost a few bucks. Aside from oil change, it seems the major part of this is hooking the car up to a computer to look at "codes" etc. What if anything can I learn from this? And, what might I ask in particular for them to look at and report to me? That is, at 12K what, if anything, do I want to know about my car from the car's computer?

Thanks, Bob

1999 Arctic Sivler/black/black (sold)
2008s Silver/black/black - so predictable
2011 Outback
8/24/2011 first Grandson

If you take the car in and it is going to be subjected to one of these fault memory reads not only are you entitled to know what's being obtained but I think you should get a copy of what was obtained.

This subject came up a while back and the tech told me that when a car comes in on a warranty claim and there may be other times too the car is hooked up to the PST2/PIWIS and now the PIWIS2 computer system and a dump of the DME's 'fault memory' is done.

(Besides the fault memory dump in some cases an oil sample is collected and sent to a lab designated by Porsche for analysis.)

Fault memory is just kind of catchall term for memory in which info deemed important is stored, say how many warmups the engine has had, running time, distance traveled, engine overrev counts, any coolant or oil or converter overtemp readings, any oil pressure alarms, and so on. The list can be pretty long. The tech told me that the report -- sent electronically to Porsche -- can run '20 pages or more'.

I asked for a printout of a full readout from my Boxster so I'd have something to post but a communications mixup ensued and all I got was a page or so printed from the report. But I was not charged for the time to acquire this.

A full readout can take an hour's time and for some special readings (I wanted oil pressure read at various rpms other than idle) it would have cost the labor of two techs. Faced with a cost of maybe $300 to get this report I got a sudden case of the cheaps and declined to spend the money.

Sincerely,

MarcW

I am having the 12k service, including the memory dump, done at at indy shop, so I doubt an e-copy of the memory dump will be sent to Porsche. Service does not have to be done at a dealer to maintain the car's warranty, but I wonder then who is best to give me info from the memory? Without any dash lights coming on, might there be any information from the memory that indicates something needs to be done under warranty? Is a dealer or an indy more likely to provide this information? A dealer gets paid for the warranty work, but an indy may have incentive to show me work that a dealer needs do to under warranty to show that he did a good job on my car. Any thoughts?

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Bobtesa
I am having the 12k service, including the memory dump, done at at indy shop, so I doubt an e-copy of the memory dump will be sent to Porsche. Service does not have to be done at a dealer to maintain the car's warranty, but I wonder then who is best to give me info from the memory? Without any dash lights coming on, might there be any information from the memory that indicates something needs to be done under warranty? Is a dealer or an indy more likely to provide this information? A dealer gets paid for the warranty work, but an indy may have incentive to show me work that a dealer needs do to under warranty to show that he did a good job on my car. Any thoughts?

untoward behavior I seriously doubt a dealer would advise you to have anything done warranty or no based on what was in the report.

Now the above doesn't include if the tech spots something else amiss, like say a fluid leak.

As an aside: When I took my 996 in for a tranny fluid change the tech spotted a fluid leak -- selector shaft seal -- and the original tranny was replaced with a new (manufactured) tranny under the CPO warranty. Had the tech not spotted the leaking seal I would have been blissfully unaware of the problem until it got bad enough to have fluid showing up on the ground and maybe out of warranty. You do not want to know how much that seal would have cost to put right.

Another problem with this car was a radiator fan wasn't pulling air through the radiator duct. Now there was no error code, no signs of any overheating (even though it was hot (just under 100F where I was) but the front of the car on that side sounded too quiet and on a hunch I got out and checked and found the air wasn't moving and I could hear the motor/fan wasn't running. But it wasn't until I had the car in the shop the true cause of the problem was found: motor shaft had snapped and let the fan hub assembly fly about; and fixed: A new fan motor, new fan hub/fan assembly; a new radiator (dented but not holed); and some brackets/hardware.

The only other thing I can think of is if there's some recall/TSB or something similar that your car is due for and the dealer would of course apply that under warranty while the indy likely knows nothing about it and even if he did he probably doesn't have the ability to do the work (say if the DME needed an update applied to it).

But IIRC you can call PCNA customer service and with your car's VIN ask what recalls/TSBs the car is supposed to have and if it has had them applied. If you learn the car is missing one or more than you can arrange to have this taken care of at the dealer.

Sincerely,

MarcW.