Anyone have any experience with a P137X series code? This is on a 2010 997.2 Turbo. Durametric is showing it as:

1373 - Valve Lift Control - One bank in wrong lift

Searching online I see references to other cars and a generic description across all the various makes:

1373 - Ignition coil cylinder 3 early activation fault

It triggered at low RPMs, around 3-4K-ish. Twice it happened in stop and go traffic. The other two times in 30-35 mph city street driving. Never when I'm pushing the car at higher RPMs and never at high speeds on the freeway.

I cleared it twice on the recommendation of the dealer. On the third time I took it in and they swapped the coil pack in cylinder 3 with another cylinder and said the fault had moved with the coil pack. So they changed out the coil pack under warranty. That was 2 months ago and the car was fine. But the light just came on again last night and again, same cylinder 3, P1373. The car doesn't feel any different when the light goes on. No roughness. No strange noises. Nothing. Just the light comes on and that's all I know of it.

I have however noticed every once in a while that after pushing the car a bit and then coming to a stop, the car hunts for steady idle. It recovers after a few seconds and then is fine. This happens every so often and rarely but I've noticed it a few times. I have not noticed any boost leak or strange boost noises.

Car is 4.5 years old. 16K miles. I'm the second owner and purchased the car at 9K miles. It has an EVOMS tune and 200 cell Cargraphic cats and both went in around 11K. It also has the IPD plenum and y-pipe, and sharkwerks muffler bypass.

From reading various threads, I probably should swap out the spark plugs as I believe they are the originals still and I'm over the 4 year mark. But everyone tells me the usual misfire is a P03xx code, not a P137x code and this could be something else. And when the dealer replaced the coil pack, he said visually the spark plug looked ok.

Dealer wants me to rule out the tune so I'm going to Sharkwerks to flash back to stock. Once ruled out, I'm guessing plugs and injector are next? What about MAF, cam sensor, fuel filter, anything else? It's unfortunate the spark plugs in this car are so damn hard to reach otherwise I could have ruled out a few more potential causes myself.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. I have gone through threads on the P03xx series codes but I have not seen one on the P137x.

Thanks.

 

Good luck! Not familiar with that issue....but the plugs on the .2 are not as difficult as on the .1...You can probably do that yourself.

If you start changing all you listed here you are going to have one heck of a Dx bill..

DC

 

Thx. I still have a CPO warranty (which covered the coil pack change with the dealer a few months back). Hoping most of this will be covered under the CPO although I know the plugs won't be. The spark plug change DIYs I have read are nightmarish!

 

That is good news on the CPO. On the plugs, they are really not that bad. I wrote a DIY on them and you just have to take your time. And honestly the .1 TT are more difficult than the .2.

If you lived closer I would even help you do it

Hope you get it figured out...

DC

 

Sorry I can't help with the specific code but;

When a dealer wants a tune to be flashed back to stock, it generally means they have no idea what's wrong or they don't want to mess with it. Software code simply does not re-write itself and since you've had the car for ~ 9K miles that is very unlikely unless the ECU has been corrupted which is rare although not unheard of.

You don't specify what Evoms tune you have but generally speaking they recommend changing plugs every 10K miles and using the Denso Double Platinum PK20PR - P8. This is emphasized and you're overdue.

IIWU, I'd call Evoms and discuss your situation with Sam although since Sharkwerks is an affiliate and they have a great rep, you're in good hands with them.

The "hunting at idle" is almost always indicative of a boost leak and unless your dealer is willing to really go after it, it can remain undetected longer than most suspect and escape normal leak tests.

Call Sam, get it into SW and I'll bet they'll sort it out pretty quick. GL

 

Thanks!

I have the stage 2 tune. Sharkwerks put it in and Alex is helping me out so I have no concerns there. Awesome guys at Sharkwerks. I agree it's not the tune but given that's what the dealership wants and it will at least rule out the tune, I figure it's the right path to take for now.

I only posted as it was also clear to me that the dealership doesn't seem to have a good idea what the issue is and Alex@Sharkwerks also mentioned he hasn't seen this specific code before. So I thought I'd reach out to see if anyone has more info.

I'm hoping a plug change will resolve everything. But by allowing us to rule out the tune, I can rest assured the dealership will eventually figure it out and cover it under the CPO.

 

If it's a leak, wouldn't it hunt for idle all the time or most of the time? I see this perhaps once every 10 times I take the car out?

 

That's a good point and I honestly don't know. If you are getting large, transitory swings, say 800 - 1500 rpm swings, I would still suspect the leak. These problems can be difficult to diagnose and resolve - ask me how I know. My shop spent more than several hours @ $145 per hour before they finally tracked one of mine down a couple of years ago. You just can't give up in the absence of anything else that makes sense. Diagnostics are the hardest part of the evaluative process and a line mechanic at a dealership is especially unprepared to deal with it.

But it could be something entirely unrelated and that's why Alex and the gang need to put their hands on the car to figure it out. A CPO is great insurance when it works but, in my experience, Porsche dealers have their hands full dealing with factory setups and have little time for tuned cars. That's not a knock on them - one of our local dealerships is intimately involved in the track scene - but they make no bones about it. They don't want to invest the time and deliver a big bill that gets wagged about the community for something that they had nothing to do with building or breaking. Can SharkWerks do something under the CPO? Once the car is modded, you're pretty much on your own unless it's a straight part swap and even then some dealers are great and others not-so-much. Let SW do the diagnostics and if they can nail it and have the dealer do the remediation, that's the best outcome. I wouldn't expect the dealer to be sophisticated enough but since I don't know the dealer, that could be wrong too. Good luck.

 

Ugh, sounds like you've been through a lot.

The hunting seems to be from 700-1000 where it's bogging. Does that for a few seconds once I pull to a stop and then goes away and then doesn't happen again. Very weird.

This dealer has been great about mods. Helps that Sharkwerks is in the area and this particular dealer seems to respect them. This dealer has covered past issues under the factory warranty and the coil pack I mentioned under CPO already even with my car obviously modded. I think they just don't know much about the tune and want to ensure it's ruled out before they dive into it.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it's a simple issue.

 

Sam from EVOMS has been completely helpful and told me the P1373 code for Porsche is not the generic valve lift issue on cylinder 3 but the following:

-- cut --
P1373

Diagnosis information - Control unit DME (DFI)

Valve lift control Bank 2

Diagnostic conditions
Short test perform
or:
Oil temperature Engine less than 111 °C (°F)
Small stroke:
Engine speed 1,500 ... 3,000 1/min
Mass air flow
more than 500 ... more than 100 mg/stroke (depending on: Engine speed)
Large stroke:
Engine speed 2,000 ... 5,000 1/min
Mass air flow
more than 700 ... more than 300 mg/stroke (depending on: Engine speed)
Possible fault causes
Dynamic driving style when oil level is near minimum (oil foaming)
Oil supply too low --> (e.g. Soiling (Oil circuit), ...)
Large differences in exhaust backpressure between banks (e.g. due to constricted or blocked passage of an exhaust branch).
Electronic adjuster for turbocharger detached
Timing incorrect, a bank (Intake camshaft or Exhaust camshaft)
Solenoid valve, hydraulic camshaft adjustment Faulty --> (Mechanical fault or Electrical fault in circuit)
1 Oxygen sensor(s) aged or Faulty
Fault setting condition(s)
Diagnosis detects via the lambda controllers that all the valves on the bank have either not switched to the other lift or have not switched quickly enough during valve lift switchover.
-- cut --

I'm posting this for future search reference. So it's all of bank 2. I guess I'm hunting for a leak to rule that out first.

 

1.) Short Test - performed by dealer in January and passed - CHECK
2.) Dynamic driving style when oil level is near minimum - I checked the oil level and it looks good - CHECK
3.) Oil supply too low - is this just the oil level check or?
4.) Large differences in exhaust back pressure between banks - I need to check this for leaks/clogs
5.) Electronic adjuster for turbocharger detached - I need to check this
6.) Timing incorrect
7.) Solenoid valve or hydraulic camshaft adjustment faulty
8.) O2 sensor bad

What sucks is that it's hard to repro. So far it's been once a month (Nov/2014, Dec/2014, Jan/2014, Feb/2014).

 

Sounds like your car may be a female Could not resist....sorry.

Hope you get it figured out..

I had a similar(not exact)issue, and I cleaned both Variocam Actuator Valves and swapped them....ran cleaner (Seafoam) in oil (1 oz per quart of oil...make sure it does not overfill)....then changed oil & filter and topped it up (it was one bar low prior)...

So far so good.
DC

Example of what the 996/997 Actuator looks like:

 

Hahah

 

Car's going into the dealer next week. We took the tune out and the code still fired. I'm hopeful the dealer figures out what's wrong. Glad I'm still under CPO.

 

Good Luck! Keep us posted on what you discover...Hope nothing serious.

DC