I recently bought a 996tt and they had put a new battery in the car back in early december sometime. I'm guessing the lights were left on or something at the auction so didn't think anything about it.

I've driven it with only one issue that I noticed....Sometimes when I first turn the car on and the A/C is on, it immediately stalls sometimes. Once I give it a little gas it's fine. This hasn't happened the past week or so.

So the other night I installed some LED lights throughout the car and changed the HID bulbs only.

Car turns on and runs fine, no big deal but the voltage with the lights on, radio on, no A/C was around 12 volts while driving home?

I stopped and idled to test turning off accessories one at a time, very very small difference. Tried driving with no lights on to see if it recharges but still around 12-12.1....

Is as low as 12 volts on the gauge cluster ok with accessories on?

 

Is that all you have? Could be anything. 12 volts seems low though.

You really need a data logger. Durametric $300 (you need a laptop).

 

Not anything, but one pretty expensive part: the alternator.

 

I read somewhere someone did just a voltage regulator and it fixed it or do I definitely need the alternator?

I guess I need to figure out the best way to test the alternator.

 

No, check first First of all make sure the battery is good. Did you tried to put another battery in?

 

Will check the battery charge to see if it's good or bad.

What do you think of the hitest alternator--$135 with a core fee is super cheap.
http://www.racepages.com/products/?D...94965444&Nty=1

 

Make sure to post the results after you test. As for hitest i don't have any experience with them. Good luck!

 

I just had charging and voltage issues 2 weeks ago..... first replaced the battery. Then it would not hold the voltage above 12, so the alternator was the next obvious culprit to check. Had that replaced (Bosch unit for $480) and voltage holds between 13-14 now. Problem solved.

It sure sounds like the alternator could be your problem. Good luck.

 

If the car is running fine and will start ever time, it seems to me that changing an alternator this early is premature. I'd say keep driving it for a while, keep a battery tender on it, and see if you run into any problems.

 

I had the same problem , change the alternator problem fixed!

 

I'm going to drive it again today and see what happens. I may end up changing the alternator next week. I saw the write up on it and it looks moderately tuff.

I need to change the muffler to some straight pipes too, would that project work well at the same time?

 

Yeah, i don't see why it wouldn't. What straight pipes are you getting?

 

UPDATE:

So I took the car out and ran around town to a dozen different places. Watched the voltage and played with the accesories to see what happens. Everytime i turn the car on it would go up to 13-14 volts and then slowly inch back down to a consant 12 volts depending what accessories I had on. At one point if I had the a/c on and driving on the highway it would read 11.8 volts. I let it idle at my house outside for a good 5 minutes and the voltage eventually dropped down to 11 volts.

I put it in the garage and when I went to turn it on again, dead! Won't crank, I get lights but not enough juice, it was reading 11 volts or so.

I took the battery out to Walmart (2 yr replacemant warranty)...freakin guys told me 5 minutes and then it took an 60 minutes at the end. The battery is rated at 780 cc amp, it had 710cc amps so it was still good.

One of 2 options:
1) Alternator is dead
2) turn signal LED bulbs, side marker bulbs put in the other day is putting a drain on the car even when not in use?

I'm 99% sure it's the alternator. I have soem AWE straight pipes that I need to put in but don't have a flased ECU, I know I'll get some kind of check engine light but will the car run ok this way?

If the alternator and removing muffler don't have anything to do with each other then I'll just do the alternator this week. Thanks for the opinions and help guys.

 

Check out this thread
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...e-replace.html

Apperently it worked just as well as the OEM porsche unit for 1/10 of the cost.

You can do alternator replacement from the top, the straight pipes will have to wait till better time then!