Bummer Weekend
Posted 04-02-2008 at 03:49 PM by KS-CS
I don't know how else to describe it . . . It started out well enough - my first track event of the year (known locally as HST - High Speed Touring) at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in northern Oklahoma.
Saturday was a pretty good day; the weather was a bit cold (50 F) but otherwise I enjoyed myself. I did 5 sessions with steady improvement in my times, which I thought were pretty good for running on street tires (my nearly terminal PS2s). There was a good variety of cars in my run group including a Boxster S, a '93 911 RS America, and a Ford GT (gorgeous).
On Sunday, the weather turned foul; it was warmer, but foggy and overcast with a fine drizzle throughout the day. It was just wet enough to make the track wet and slippery, but not enough rain to wash the track clean. My first run of the day, like everyone elses, was about 20 sec. slower than Saturday, because everyone was driving so gingerly.
There were other races and qualifying going on at the same time as our HST and apparently somewhere between the 1st and 2nd sessions, some racecar bled oil or power-steering fluid around the track. When we went back out for our 2nd session, the corner workers were displaying the Oil Slick Flag all around the course, which meant we weren't driving much faster than a parade lap.
On my second lap, I was thinking I might just pack it in for the day after this session, since it didn't look like the weather or track condition was going to improve, when all of a sudden I sensed a misfire or hiccup in the engine, and the CEL started flashing (
not good!). I started to slow and it went away, but after a couple of hundred yards it happened again, and I seemed to lose power (limp mode?).
I immediately exited into the pits, and when I came to a stop I noticed a loud "ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka,. . . " sound coming from the engine, which was idling roughly. I pulled the car up to the Tech Shack where the local track mechanic (who is pretty familiar with Porsches) said he thought it was a valve lifter problem - which might, or might not be serious - but suggested that I might not want to run my car anymore that day. I limped back to the paddock cringing at the sound my sick CS was making, and my heart sunk even more when the engine died as I was trying to park it.
I managed to get it started again and ran it long enough to pull it on to my trailer. My wife, who had had a premonition (dream) the night before, that something bad was going to happen to me that day, had already called me 3 times to make sure I was okay, and was relieved to hear that only my car was broken.
When I got home, I managed to get the car into my garage, and the next morning after discussion with the service advisor at our local Porsche dealer, I decided to call Porsche Roadside Assistance to have it taken to the dealer, rather than risk driving it anymore. Their preliminary diagnosis is also a bad valve lifter, but they won't know what might have caused it until they take it apart.
Of course, on return home I went on the C.C. to search for reports of a similar issue, and much to my surprise I discovered that K-Man S, our founder, suffered the same malady with his Cayman, so in a way, I felt a little better, but still bummed-out overall.
Saturday was a pretty good day; the weather was a bit cold (50 F) but otherwise I enjoyed myself. I did 5 sessions with steady improvement in my times, which I thought were pretty good for running on street tires (my nearly terminal PS2s). There was a good variety of cars in my run group including a Boxster S, a '93 911 RS America, and a Ford GT (gorgeous).
On Sunday, the weather turned foul; it was warmer, but foggy and overcast with a fine drizzle throughout the day. It was just wet enough to make the track wet and slippery, but not enough rain to wash the track clean. My first run of the day, like everyone elses, was about 20 sec. slower than Saturday, because everyone was driving so gingerly.
There were other races and qualifying going on at the same time as our HST and apparently somewhere between the 1st and 2nd sessions, some racecar bled oil or power-steering fluid around the track. When we went back out for our 2nd session, the corner workers were displaying the Oil Slick Flag all around the course, which meant we weren't driving much faster than a parade lap.
On my second lap, I was thinking I might just pack it in for the day after this session, since it didn't look like the weather or track condition was going to improve, when all of a sudden I sensed a misfire or hiccup in the engine, and the CEL started flashing (
not good!). I started to slow and it went away, but after a couple of hundred yards it happened again, and I seemed to lose power (limp mode?). I immediately exited into the pits, and when I came to a stop I noticed a loud "ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka,. . . " sound coming from the engine, which was idling roughly. I pulled the car up to the Tech Shack where the local track mechanic (who is pretty familiar with Porsches) said he thought it was a valve lifter problem - which might, or might not be serious - but suggested that I might not want to run my car anymore that day. I limped back to the paddock cringing at the sound my sick CS was making, and my heart sunk even more when the engine died as I was trying to park it.
I managed to get it started again and ran it long enough to pull it on to my trailer. My wife, who had had a premonition (dream) the night before, that something bad was going to happen to me that day, had already called me 3 times to make sure I was okay, and was relieved to hear that only my car was broken.
When I got home, I managed to get the car into my garage, and the next morning after discussion with the service advisor at our local Porsche dealer, I decided to call Porsche Roadside Assistance to have it taken to the dealer, rather than risk driving it anymore. Their preliminary diagnosis is also a bad valve lifter, but they won't know what might have caused it until they take it apart.
Of course, on return home I went on the C.C. to search for reports of a similar issue, and much to my surprise I discovered that K-Man S, our founder, suffered the same malady with his Cayman, so in a way, I felt a little better, but still bummed-out overall.
Total Comments 4
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be sure to give an update on what this is! glad the premonition was about nothing worse than $$$ and track time...
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KS-CS,
I saw that you did a flashback to stock on your Softronic recently for an AX and had some CEL problems. Could that have caused this? Good luck on getting her healthy again. Mike |
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mojozone:
I wondered about that myself - actually, I was running on the Softronic modified map at the time; the only time I have had a CEL was when I started my car right after switching from modified to stock - and it went away promptly. I think that occurs because the O2 sensors or cats see some transient change in the A-F mix or temps on start-up. This seemed to be different, and not an electrical/DME glitch to me (especially since it didn't go away after restarting the car and disconnecting the battery). |
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UPDATE:
Posted in my thread on the Complaints forum but short version: The problem appeared to resolve itself while at the service dept. When they actually started to work on the car, it was running fine and the PIWIS scan didn't show any problems or stored faults  .They initially tried to blame it on the fact that they thought my oil was old and dirty (at 20K miles), but I informed them that I had changed it 3K miles ago (in October). They apparently still think it was a stuck lifter from some transient obstruction in the oil channel, so they went ahead and changed the oil and filter again. They strained my oil when they drained it and didn't find any metal or particles. They test drove it 2 days in a row, and say it is working fine, so I am picking it back up on Monday. I am hoping it was just a one time visit from some weird engine gremlin.  |
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Updated 04-05-2008 at 01:56 PM by KS-CS |
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