Hello all,

We're having serious electrical issues with my fathers 08 RS60 Boxster. Wondering if anyone has some insight.

I happened to be driving with my fiance and it started to rain very hard. We reduced speed for safety and avoided standing water as much as possible, never running through anything deep. We arrived at our destination and everything was perfectly fine with the car, and had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. We even sat in the car with the engine off, accessories on, for 5 minutes...nothing out of the ordinary.

My father arrives in a separate car and walks into the restaurant we're at and says the tailights are on on the Boxster, which sounded funny because I distinctly recall turning them off. I go outside to find the following problems, with the keys completely out of the ignition:

*windows rolled down half way
*every light on dash lit up
*brake lights and reverse lights illuminated
*interior lights on
*spoiler up
*dash is showing: spoiler error, bring in for service....and several other notifications
*remote locks don't work

The drivetrain works fine, so we drive home, finally manage to get the windows up, but also has these problems:

*climate control system goes on and off by itself
*stereo turns off by itself, but can turn back on
*blinkers work intermitently
*while driving, the roof storage hatch (behind the roof) opens all the way, and won't come back down
*DSC doesn't work

I know I'm missing other symptoms, but theres obviously a catastrophic electrical problem thats affected virtually every electrical component on the car. Whats even more bizarre is that the car seemed to develop the problems while it was parked. I'm sure the heavy rain has something to do with it, but nothing happened while it was being driven.

To make the problem worse, it was Saturday night and we could not bring it to the dealership (car is under warranty), so we parked it at my parents house and had to disconnect the battery as many of the lights were on despite having no keys in the ignition. Having never been in a situation like this with a modern porsche, I close the front hatch not thinking that "how am I going to get the electric lock servo to open the front hatch with no battery connected"? (spare me, I've already punched myself in the face).

The owners manual shows a process to get the front hatch open, however, even with a Porsche dealer mechanic present today, that doesn't seem to work. Further the keys are now stuck in the ignition with the steering wheel locked and the tow truck does not have the right approach to tow the car out (parked in a small driveway on a very tight city street). I can't even imagine whats going to happen next. All of the Porsche guys at Porsche of Annapolis are scratching their heads as well. They don't know why they can't get the front hatch open, nor have they heard of such an all encompassing electrical problem.

HELP!!!!

Any thoughts on this ridiculous situation at all?

Sorry for the long post, but I had to explain the bizarre nature of this problem.

Kevin

 

Very odd. THe only time I had similar experience spoiler deployed, windows rolled down, radio, dash and tail-lights on, fans going full blast... without the top cover opening,... was when I was flashing the DME with a tune. The odd part was that it was doing it by itself - I was standing 5ft away and watch all these things happen. I guess the battery charger I had hooked up to wasn't working and batt was being drained fast.

I suggest heading over to Pedro's board ppbb.com and post this there. Pedro is very familiar with the Boxsters and may be able to give insight.
For me, my batt was flat when it was said and done. I needed a jump start and everything went back to normal. Never happened again and never had it happen again.

 

Did you check under the seats for wet carpet? Did the drains back up and dump some water onto your computer (which is under the seats)? I ask because your story starts with the rain. You have to keep your drains clear.

I had some funky electrical stuff happen as my alternator was dying, but nothing as extensive as what you are talking about.

 

Doesn't the Boxster have an emergency manual cable release behind the left front wheel? You may have to jack the car up and remove some of the plastic liner, I think.

 

Go to Planet-9.com website for directions on how to unlock front trunk with deadbattery - you'll have to search.
can put charger on, then and get key out, and make it towable

 

the car can be towed if you have someone that can push it out of your garage or tight street.

if you want to change the battery to drive the car out, try the manual release or by jumping the battery terminal in the driver foot well. if the car already has power, then there is no point to access the battery.

 

So we got the car running and drove it to the dealership.

It appears that the culprit is a clogged drain in the soft top storage compartment. This allowed water to backup and flow under the drivers seat, soaking a control unit.

The dealership has said that this will be denied for warranty repair as it is an "outside influence", however they are trying to figure out how to get it repaired at no cost as the drains were recently checked during service in December. Car is parked outside, but never under trees and car only has 22,000 miles.