Rough Start Up

[glen.culmer]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here and I’m hoping you can shed some light on something that is bothering me.

I purchased a 987.1 late 2007 model Boxster S last October. It has graced the pages of 911 & Porsche world a number of times under the ownership of Johnny Tipler.

The car is great and I’m loving my first Porsche ownership experience, however it has a niggle that is bothering me.

On first start up, it fires up fine on choke, then as it goes through the process of gradually backing the choke off it becomes pretty lumpy, it only lasts a few minutes and when the car is up and running to temp it doesn’t skip a beat. The reason I am concerned is it seems to have got worse in the last six months.

I would be very grateful to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[Motorhead]

This type of problem is very difficult to trace without resorting to a Porsche-specific diagnostic check [PIWIS or equivalent] Glen, which hopefully will throw-up some error messages for guidance. Otherwise it’s just guesswork: ignition, fuelling, camshaft timing … who knows? You don’t want to be replacing expensive components without having some confidence that it will fix your problem.

Jeff

 

[911hillclimber]

I think Jeff is right (as ever), get the car to a good indie and they will go thought the lot by plug-in.

My 987.2, owned for 8 years now starts quite lazy and fires to the usual growl and high tick over, the 'choke' process you describe.
That lasts for about 2 mins and quite suddenly drops to a 800 rpm tick over, BUT the engine is not sewing machine smooth. It drops from 'choke' to normal in about 5 to 10 seconds.

My 1973 911 has a 1985 3.2 in it and that is far smoother at tick-over. It is also 140k miles old.

My 987.2 never ticks over smoothly as I expected it to, but never drops below 800 and never stalls standing there. There is a shake in the engine, not a disconserting shake, but not as smooth as I think it should be.
My Indie dismisses this and just says what a sweet car it is.

Running, it is fabulous free as a bird on E10.

I would suspect a coil pack, but if one is dicky, then which one?
This is why you need the diagnostics check.

Please let us know how you get on, every day is a learning day.
Good luck.

 

[ianthow]

If it was a coil pack, the EMS light would come on and there would be a noticeable reduction in performance. Does not sound like that is your problem. My 987.2 experienced the this. A Foxwell elite 650 diagnostic tool (not Porsche specific) diagnosed the misfire as cylinder 4. To verify it was the coil and not a fueling issue, I swapped no 4 coil and plug with no 5. Misfire then detected on 5. New coils (replaced all 3 on that side) cheaper from OPC than online.

 

[911hillclimber]

Maybe i used the wrong term, I mean the coil on top of the plug tube.
One of mine failed last year in Austria, I had a spare, but bought a new one at the local OPC, indeed cheaper than Design911.

 

[glen.culmer]

Thanks for all the responses, I’m curious to know if anyone has any insight into or indeed has installed high performance coil pack? The extra cost over “standard” coil pack is so significant I am curious to know if they actually make a difference?

 

[Motorhead]

No experience with that Glen, but I would think that unless you’re modifying the engine significantly it’ll be a waste of money. If Porsche are happy with the standard coil-pack that tends to confirm my thoughts.

Jeff

 

[glen.culmer]

No experience with that Glen, but I would think that unless you’re modifying the engine significantly it’ll be a waste of money. If Porsche are happy with the standard coil-pack that tends to confirm my thoughts.

Jeff

Sound advice and a fair point

 

[glen.culmer]

I think Jeff is right (as ever), get the car to a good indie and they will go thought the lot by plug-in.

My 987.2, owned for 8 years now starts quite lazy and fires to the usual growl and high tick over, the 'choke' process you describe.
That lasts for about 2 mins and quite suddenly drops to a 800 rpm tick over, BUT the engine is not sewing machine smooth. It drops from 'choke' to normal in about 5 to 10 seconds.

My 1973 911 has a 1985 3.2 in it and that is far smoother at tick-over. It is also 140k miles old.

My 987.2 never ticks over smoothly as I expected it to, but never drops below 800 and never stalls standing there. There is a shake in the engine, not a disconserting shake, but not as smooth as I think it should be.
My Indie dismisses this and just says what a sweet car it is.

Running, it is fabulous free as a bird on E10.

I would suspect a coil pack, but if one is dicky, then which one?
This is why you need the diagnostics check.

Please let us know how you get on, every day is a learning day.
Good luck.

My indie also dismissed it as normal, but I’m struggling with that as it has changed in the last 2000 miles.

 

[Motorhead]

I assume that your Indie has run a Porsche-specific diagnostic check [PIWIS or equivalent] to confirm that there are no coil-pack or VarioCam solenoid error messages Glen? I think that’s where I’d be looking first, after which you’re into something on the fuelling side: MAF, injectors, etc.

Jeff

 

[glen.culmer]

I assume that your Indie has run a Porsche-specific diagnostic check [PIWIS or equivalent] to confirm that there are no coil-pack or VarioCam solenoid error messages Glen? I think that’s where I’d be looking first, after which you’re into something on the fuelling side: MAF, injectors, etc.

Jeff

Sadly not Jeff, he simply described it as normal for “these” engines. Might have to get a second opinion from another indie. Thankfully I have another one fairly local.