Porsche Cayman battery

[alan.jenkin]

Hi New to Porsche. I need to disconnect battery on Porsche Cayman and then replace it.
Please advise how I do this without affecting the settings/ electronics and Scorpion tracker.
The replace it with no problems.
Thank you
Alan

 

[Lancerlot]

Post this again in the Cayman Register forum for a better response. Here technical matters on the Club platform itself are discussed.

Regards,

Clive

 

[Scrounger]

Hi Alan. Welcome

Unfortunately if you disconnect the battery you'll lose most, if not all, your settings I'm afraid. I don't think it'll effect your tracker as that should start up again once the new battery is fitted but if it's a monitored system it may be worth calling the service to let them know you're changing the battery or you'll be getting a call saying the car has been stolen.

Dan

 

[Motorhead]

Hi Alan,

As Dan says, no doubt you’ll lose your PCM settings, etc., but in addition you may need to reset the window limits so that the single-touch operation works correctly. You may get a steering sensor warning when you next turn on the ignition, but that should clear once you start driving.

Apparently sometimes there’s no need to reset anything, so perhaps it just depends upon how long it takes to change the battery, and if you have a battery conditioner you could try leaving that connected while you change the battery?

Jeff

 

[JohnCRS]

Which model do you have Alan? I can only speak from experience that my 981 stood for 48 hours with no battery in it whilst I waited for the new one to be delivered. I said a little prayer (optional) and put the new one in and fired it up. Everything worked fine. Nothing needed re-setting (e.g. windows or steering sensors) and I had no unwantedlights on the dashboard.

My understanding is that, without recoding, (PIWIS required) the battery management system may not be so effective and may result in shorter battery life. That remains to be seen, but so far it has been OK throughout this year.

 

[JMR]

987 Boxster and Cayman have no problems with PCM/radio etc when removing and refitting a new battery.
Steering angle sensor requires you to literally drive the car for a few yards tbh, and window closure settings, thats about it

As far as the tracker is concerned and keeping power to it, it may be an idea to connect something like a CTEK directly to the +ve and -ve cables from the battery to keep a small voltage going through it.

Or even booster cables from the new battery connected to the +ve and -ve cables while you remove the terminals off the old battery and move it to the new one.

 

[malarcy]

Agree with the above - reset of steering angle sensor - ( left a bit, right a bit, drive ahead) - shows as PSM error - teach the windows their limits ( open, let go , open again hold for five seconds, repeat for closed, repeat for other side) - you will lose trip info and clock - but otherwise settings will stick.

Tracker - agree on tell them - but have to say, if you can "break" it by disconnecting the battery - then it's not particularly useful device.

If 981 or above and fitting a new battery - then the car "should" be told about it - otherwise it charges and guesses at it's charged based on it being "x" years old - does it matter.... don't know - but EVERY car manufacturer who fits AGM or equivalent tech and has stop start has the same requirement - and I have read an increasing amount of reports of "dont know what my 2 year old battery is suddenly dead", often followed by "that's just a waste of time and a license to print money by the dealers to code the car..." - but I will note that Halfords, on 8 year old Mondeo's also consider that the battery needs to be "coded".

 

[paul.condren]

Hi.
I'm not sure all this is correct. I had my battery replaced sept last year (by a mobile battery specialist) and had no problems with settings etc at all. Could it be down to how long the battery is disconnected for? If the new battery is there an ready to go it should only be disconnected for a couple of minutes. I watched the whole process and lost no settings or config. This was a 2016 718.

 

[malarcy]

What part ?

Interested to know if the PSM error doesn’t happen on 718, they have electric steering - so maybe the steering angle sensor doesn’t need resetting (don’t know - not swapped a battery on one of those ). Similarly they may retain the time (or reset it straight away if you have gps)

Windows I would expect to be the same it’s a safety feature so it knows when to let the window close rather then do the “fingers trapped” back off. - do your windows work with one touch operation still or do you have to hold the switch. ?

As to telling the car a new battery has been fitted. That “should” be done, does your stop start work as well as you would expect ? Also. If the side effect is the battery doesn’t last as long as it could have - you won’t know until the next time you need a battery.

Point is that if there issues / side effects then they may not be immediately obvious (unlike the PSM error for example )

Every manufacturer has a sequence / process to do it. There is definitely a diags method to do it for a 718 - I have done that part for a couple of folks.

Most “multi model” third party scanners will have a service function to do it.

Can’t comment on the specialist you used but I would suggest that not all of them are the most highly trained or skilled and may not always do the same “battery replacement checklist items” as the manufacturer specifies, but (for example - the RAC battery replacement service specify coding as part of the service.

 

[paul.condren]

All of it. Its been at least 4 months now and have had no problems. No steering issues or warnings, nothing with the windows, tracker, stereo etc. and stop/start is fine too. There was no coding done during the process. Old battery out. New battery in. Done. Its been into the main dealer during that 4 months too for and MOT and the health check. No issues reported. Its all fine.

Maybe I am lucky

I would edit add that I expect most 'modern' cars to have some sort of internal backup battery for short term interruptions, otherwise the whole thing is a little silly. What use is the very expensive official tracker if disconnecting the battery would disable it?

 

[malarcy]

Dealer wouldn't specifically look for "has the car been coded for a new battery" - since they would have to see a new battery was installed and then check if there was a corresponding coding date in the ECU - car doesn't know it's had a new battery - so you cant ask it - thats the point.

Re tracker - yes - I made the same point in my reply to the original post - trackers and alarms have backup batteries ( in later life they often cause issues with parasitic drain on the main battery - because they essentially charge themselves from the main battery).

I have uploaded the Porsche workshop manuals for battery reconnection and replacement for a 718 if you are interested, they have details on pretty much all the areas discussed in the thread - maybe they are over cautious or over zealous or perhaps as you say, some people get lucky - but this is what Porsche "say" should be done, and by and large I find that most of what they put in these docs has merit.

Docs are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dkb7_Bq1qVOpzHEt0D5Z3UycS3ZHavFO?usp=drive_link

We don't know what model the original poster has - but as others have commented the PSM (Steering angle) and Windows are typical. But it also seems a 981 owner hasn't seen anything when the existing battery was reconnected which is interesting - but thats not the same as a new battery - I based my response on 1st hand experience of a 981 which would not stop/start until the recently replaced battery was coded correctly, guess that guy wasn't lucky.

 

[iborguk]

All of it. Its been at least 4 months now and have had no problems. No steering issues or warnings, nothing with the windows, tracker, stereo etc. and stop/start is fine too. There was no coding done during the process. Old battery out. New battery in. Done. Its been into the main dealer during that 4 months too for and MOT and the health check. No issues reported. Its all fine.

Maybe I am lucky

I would edit add that I expect most 'modern' cars to have some sort of internal backup battery for short term interruptions, otherwise the whole thing is a little silly. What use is the very expensive official tracker if disconnecting the battery would disable it?

No coding required for a 987.

For a 981/718 coding the battery optimises the car's charging process, it knows it's had a fresh battery and adapts the charging profile.
You may not notice it but not doing may have knock-on re the battery's overall life-span on a 981/718 and Porsche clearly document the process for a good reason.

For all models other factors like not using the car much or not leaving it on a battery maintainer will have a bigger detrimental effect (ask me how I know)