Slipstream - July 2013

Cliff’s Ramblings: That’s Not Possible!
By Cliff Blackshear
Editor’s Note: Cliff
is already back at
work after his scare
at the COTA Club
Race in May (see
last month’s Ramblings
for details).
However, he was not
quite ready to put out another article,
so here is a classic from January 2010.
Every now and then something
shows up in the shop
that we need Porsche to
help us get to a correct resolution.
There are times that only they
can find an answer. It does not
happen often, but it can happen.
I was involved in one case that
could only be solved by them in
a reasonably timely manner.
It was a check engine light issue
on an ‘04 Boxster. The owner
said that the check engine light
was intermittently flashing while
driving. It didn’t do it every day
but it happened pretty often.
So we checked the DME (fuel/
ignition microprocessor) for
fault codes. No faults recorded.
I drove the car and after a while
I experienced it. Duplicated the
symptom. Brought the car into
the shop, and kept it running to
preserve everything possible in
system software and interrogated
with system tester. No faults.
This is not ever supposed to happen,
per EPA-mandated OBD-II
(on-board diagnostics version 2)
requirements. The OBD system is
there to help keep cars running
cleanly. The combustion process
has to be very complete under all
circumstances. The monitoring
software is designed to be very
sensitive to any minor abnormality.
A flashing light is supposed to
be the highest-priority warning.
It means that a problem has occurred
that can damage catalytic
converters and totally compromise
not only emission output, but
performance level could be greatly
reduced. With a flashing light
there is a high probability that one
or more cylinders are misfiring.
This ‘04 Boxster ran like a
scalded cat. It never exhibited
any uneven running problems for
me. I got John Gladwill involved
and discussed this with him. His
ability to think out of the box is
unrivaled in my world, and I look
to his thoughts often. (We help
each other -- it is kinda fun.) He
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22 July