mother in law problems right from the start ! (Cayman)

pietrzj · 22 Jan 2020

Hi all,

Trying to help my mother-in-law out here - She drives a Cayman (I think post 2005).

Sometimes it just doesn't start. Turn the key, dashlights come on, but no engine crank happens on final key twist.

It's intermittent and it has been with the dealer and guess what: "no fault found". Battery tests are all good. She has it on trickle charge when not in use. and when it starts it starts fine, but even after driving it sometimes it fails to start.

Any similar problems out there?

I can hazard a guess (bad connection on starter motor, computer says no, ignition key problem, immobilizer problem, dodgy connector somewhere), but I would rather see if others have suffered with this problem.

We don't want her trading it in for a non porsche do we.

Lets see what this forum can offer. The 993 forum takes some beating

Jan

deMort · 22 Jan 2020

Ok .. the 993 forum is one i rarely venture into .. the guys there know far more about them than i ever will .. considering i work on these cars along with every other Porsche says rather a lot i feel !!!

To work though ..

First question .. when in start mode is there a single click from the engine ? if so it's probably a starter motor thats faulty .

Very rare as for some reason these don't tend to suffer from starter motors .

Ignition switch is a possible but again pretty rare ... you would need a voltmeter on the starter solenoid wire and the fault to happen to lead you to a diagnosis .

I would assume as its so rare this is going to be almost impossible ..

My suggestion .. and one i have seen .. replace the starter relay ..

At work .. service , car went to be cleaned and then wouldn't start .. traced it pretty quick ( customer was waiting ) to the relay ..

it's not expensive and a good place to start ... an educated guess shall we say .

a fault code read out would be next .. but that's more on the off chance of an immobiliser fault .. which i don't feel is the problem .

Awww .. one last point .. get her to hold the ignition key in the start position when it wont fire .. i want 20 seconds of holding it in the start position .. if you get a message on the dash saying depress the clutch then its the clutch switch thats failing .. used to be very common a few years back and thinking about it i'm moving it to the top of possible items thats causing this .

The car needs about 10 seconds of holding it on start before it displays the clutch message .. people tend to turn off and back on before the message is generated .

pietrzj · 22 Jan 2020

thank you very much demort, I will get her to try the key hold over at least to start with.

Spicer92 · 19 Feb 2020

As above, the clutch switch could be a good place to start! Cheap and easy to do, I think you might even be able to remove it alltogether? Worth a google

mother in law problems right from the start ! (Cayman)

pietrzj

Spa-Francorchamps

deMort

Monaco

pietrzj

Spa-Francorchamps

Spicer92

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