Let me know if anyone has experienced the same thing.

I drove up to Cars and Coffee this morning in Irvine. On the way home the rain started coming down pretty good and I started to hydroplane/fish tail slightly. Soon after that my CEL came on. My buddies immediate response was that my "new to me" Porsche must not like the water. But, I was worried about my newly installed Cats causing the problem even though I have driven close to 500mi with them and not had a problem.

Well, when I arrived home I decided to disconnect the battery and check to see if maybe the CEL did have something to do with the hydroplaning or rain. After resetting the battery the CEL was off but I got both the PSM and PASM FAIL messages. I decided to go for a short drive. After about 100yds of driving both messages cleared and my car is back to normal.

Anyone else have a similar experience? It would be nice if the car was just freaking out from the little bit of hydroplaning and not the cats....

Jason

 

Grab an OBD2 scanner if you can but these cars are ultra-sensitive to after-market cats so that's a distinct possibility. Once you have the code you'll be in better shape as to what it could be (i.e. 0xygen sensor related?)

 

Any chance it has to do with the PSM? I have heard that some sensors in the PSM system are tied into the CEL? However, your right I need to get my own scanner. I have one for my M3 and it comes in handy a lot!

Jason

 

You'd get a PSM/ABS related error if that were the case but until you have a code that you can get from the OBD2 scanner we'd be speculating;(

 

I guess my next question is, do you normally get PSM and PASM FAIL after resetting the battery?

Jason

 

Yes you will get a PSM and PASM fail after resetting the battery. Go to Autozone and have them read the code and post it.

 

You will and it'll go away almost as soon as you drive away...

 

Jason trust me on this..go out and spend $100.00 on a OBDII scanner and reset tool. It will be the best investment you can make. It could be one of the connectors on the engine wasn't secured completely and it got a tad wet. I have had 200cpi AWE cats on my car now for almost 2 years without a CEL. However without the scan tool we are all just guessing at this stage. If you were closer I would say come on up and I will scan it for you..

Dave

 

Do you have a good link for somewhere I can order one?

Jason

 

Jason, any AutoZone, Sears, PepBoys etc... will have one for around $100.

 

Cool, I figured they might be more specific.....

Jason

 

PSM PASM FAIL light is normal after battery reset. Something I read while researching CEL's is that sometimes a cracked coilpack or something like that neaer the spark plugs can get wet and cause a CEL.

 

Well I purchased a scanner today for Kragen AutoParts. After plugging it in the scanner said their were no DTC's (Data Trouble Codes) present which leads to me believe that either disconnecting the battery permanently deleted the fault code (although I was pretty sure these were all stored even after being reset), the CEL was induced by something outside of what the scanner can read (possibly hydroplaning did cause the fault through the PSM etc..), or the computer is acting up. I would guess either disconnecting the battery erased the CEL and the memory or the CEL was not emissions related.

I drove about 20mi since resetting the CEL and it has stayed off so who knows....

Thoughts?

Jason

 

Jason if it's a CEL caused by the cats it will come back..don't pull the battery cable and read the code. That's what was kind of neat about BMW's, if it was a emission code the SES light would go off but not causing any performance issues or really that serious. If the CEL light kicked off it was something serious, serious enough to put the car in limp home mode. With Porsche they lumped emissions and major malfunctions in one lamp.


Dave

 

Yeah I am hoping it was not the cats and it does not come back! Hopefully it was a just a fluke in the rain. But your right, BMW's are a little easier to diagnose as you know the CEL only really has to do with emissions, evap, or something worse pertaining to the engine alone. But, I guess we will see...

Jason