I was thinking of it, and in the good old days, our alternators worked at 100% all the time and things were just fine then too.

 

True.. but the demands of better fuel economy really have been somewhat of a benefit to all of us. Lots of the performance capabilities of modern engines is directly related to engineering that originally was done for fuel economy reasons.

 

Just a followup.. posted this also in a thread on RennList where we were discussing the same issue.
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Just an update..

Took the P!G to an independent shop near me that seemed very good and professional. They had quite a few different scan tools, including the horribly expensive SnapOn tool. They tried to reset it - and said they could get to the settings, but nothing was registered in the settings - they were blank, and when they went to register settings for the new battery nothing "took".. so no charge, sorry we couldn't help sort of thing.

I'd been looking at the Launch ICarScan tool - only available from China. I was familiar with Launch as a company since I did an article for the BMW-CCA magazine Roundel testing all sorts of diagnostics aftermarket tools on BMWs to see what they could do. Launch was one of the better ones, with an extensive selection of vehicles and in-depth coverage for each vehicle.

Anyway - the ICarScan tool cost about $170, and after ordering it - it arrived DHL 2 days after I ordered it - from Hong Kong (outstanding service!) The tool comes with a the ability to select and download 5 car brands included in the price of the tool. Any additional brands are sold on a per-brand basis for $66/each. It consists of a small OBD-II dongle that hooks up to an Android phone via Bluetooth. The software runs on the phone.

Hooked it up yesterday, downloaded the Porsche package and went exploring. It has features to flush the ABS/brake system, reset oil and service reminders, etc - and what I was interested in - battery registration.

Opened this function - and as the guys in the shop had found - nothing was registered under the various fields (Battery size/type, brand, SN, PN). I tried entering some data - and told it to send it up to the PCM. Ended up getting a communications error message, and nothing was changed when I read the values.

My WAG - it simply isn't implemented in our Cayennes. That would also explain why TWO Porsche service departments told me to "forgeddaboutit.." that they never do it.

Battery registration on the 958 Cayenne not only isn't a big deal - it's impossible - meaning unnecessary.

As far as the rest of the tool - found some interesting stuff. O2 sensors on our P!Gs apparently are wide-band that stay at a constant voltage rather then switching like early O2 sensors did. No more saw-tooth pattern. Lots and LOTS of variables go into making these beasts run, and all of them could be read/monitored with the tool. Found 2 fault codes stored - one in the airbag system (not currently present) about a passenger detection error, one in the ECU where a process hadn't "completed".. Cleared them and they didn't come back.

Also found why sometimes my right-rear TMPS sometimes appears slow to register on the display. My guess is the battery is on it's way out on that sensor. All the other sensors showed 48 months of battery life left - that sensor showed 0 months, and a bizarre pressure reading (5Bar - about 75PSI). Interestingly it does display correctly on the dash display, and the sensor does work sometimes since it did warn me about pressure dropping in that wheel when on a trip last week (it was a 2" long piece of 1/4" rat-tail file, right through the center of the tread. Got it patch/plugged for $20 at a Firestone store in North Carolina, including R&R of the tire from the rim, and an internal combination plug.)

So far - I'd recommend ICarScan. I have a Durametric - but it seems rather limited compared to the ICarScan, which also has no limit on VIN#'s it can be used with. If anyone wants to know the vendor I bought it from - ping me off-line. Excellent service IMHO. Faster then Amazon prime.

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9000 - if you're around - did you try changing and saving the values? What you showed on your screen was exactly what I saw before I tried saving new values - and exactly what I saw after failing to save new values. Explains why 2 dealers told me not to bother.

 

Don,

Are you saying that even the size and manufacturer input fields gave you an error when you tried to register using the icarscan? What about doing one field at a time?

Unfortunately, I did not try changing any of the values when I was looking through various menus. If you refer back to one of the screenshots I posted, there is a "version information" menu. When I selected that one, I remember seeing all kinds of information regarding my current battery. I think the part number and serial number were among those listed. I will double check tonight and report back with a screenshot to your PM. I didn't post last time because I don't feel comfortable posting that kind of information.

 

Version Information only listed a bunch of battery hardware sensor information. It was actually under "Read Data Stream"


I looked under "Battery change history" and "Battery"


This is what's listed under "Battery." I think that's a bug for the amp calculation.


Listed under "Battery change history." I googled the part number and it came back as a VARTA. The manufacturer is listed as MOLL though. Anyone want to chime in about this?

 

Yes - error message telling me it failed to communicate. Didn't try one field at a time though. Might be worth trying.I didn't look at all the version information listings since they generally just gave info on the version of the module it was looking at. Since this was the "GATEWAY" (part of the PCM I believe) which is where everything in the car gets together to talk to each other - I didn't think the version would give me battery info. I'll give it a try and see.

And I'd be very interested in what you find..

 

Don,

The battery part number and serial are listed when I went to "read data stream" > "battery change history". As mentioned above, the part number I googled came back as a VARTA battery. Also note on the bottom of the screenshot, there is a bunch of fields for "data record 2" listing. I am guessing this is where it displays your newly installed battery after it is registered.

 

Found it - and it had identical info to what your data stream showed - except my sitting battery voltage was somewhat higher (12.40V) open circuit voltage 12.7V.. and some of the current readings are a bit different. The numbers vary a bit - but basically the same. Some of the numbers reflect my battery being newish. What is interesting is the type/date don't change, and looking through the numbers for Porsche PN, and battery SN, they are listed correctly for the battery I replaced - ie - the old one. So somehow at the factory they can set these values.

I'll have to try entering acceptable values (my old one was a "Banner" made in Austria, which isn't shown in the readouts - it shows it as a MOLL.

It's all still a mystery..

Let us know if you can write any values to the entry fields and have them take. I consistently get a communications error message when I go to save the values. And you can't enter just one value at a time - the "SAVE" button doesn't appear until all the fields are filled in.

And yes - I saw there are 5 positions for battery data - so #2 should be where it would store it. Nothing there now.

 

Just tried entering the same values as were stored for battery #1 - and still get an error message for communications when I go to save them.

 

That's the error message I get when I go to upload the entered data. Might see if I can figure out how to contact them and see if I get a response.

 

Don,

I'm going to try it tomorrow and record it for you.

I'll PM you their website so you can contact them

 

Just tried it myself this morning. I got the same error as you.

Here's something else that was interesting, after I typed in the same battery number as in my screenshots, the status was "not ok." It changed to "ok" when I used 958-611-105-21 by googling "Porsche Cayenne Battery Part Number 958."

I will try to contact their customer support and see.

 

What happened there is the field for battery number requires at least 11 characters before it turns to OK.. so ABC-DEF-HIJ will also work.. (I tried that.) It can be longer (but longer but not shorter.) For some reason under the stored values only 10 characters show. Go figure.

 

BTW - there was a new release of the Porsche package - it's 21.60 now, mine had been 21.51. Updated it smoothly, but now both show on the display and it's not obvious how to remove the old version.

 

Hi there,

My name is Nick and I live in The Netherlands and I am new to this forum. I own a 2010 Cayenne (958) and have been searching on the internet for a while now to find a tool that correctly resets the oil change and maintenance indicators. The dealer is charging a fortune for maintenance so I would like to reset the indicators myself.

I bought a Launch Creader 7S because it was suppose to reset the oil and maintenance indicators but that thing does not what was promised. It sets back the oil change indicator and the intermediate indicator but not for the correct number of days and mileage as mentioned in the Porsche instruction manual. It resets to 730 days and 20,000 miles. I haven't tried the full maintenance because that's due over 20,000 miles. So according to my Cayenne, both the intermediate and full maintenance are up in 20,000 miles.
I will be returning the 7S and I am looking for another device that sets back the indicators in line with the Porsche instruction manual.

I have read on this forum about the Icarscan device which is ironically from the same company where I bought the 7S from. I am thinking about buying one but I want to know for sure this time that the device does what it is suppose to do. A few questions I am hoping the Icarscan users can answer:

- When you have reset the oil change indicator, intermediate interval and/or the full maintenance interval indicator, to which mileage and days did the Icarscan reset your Cayenne to? If I am not mistaken, that should be 40,000 miles for either maintenance and 10,000 miles/365 days for oil change right?
- Any tips or advice to take into account before buying an Icarscan?

Your help is much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Nick