I just went on the GDOT website and here's what it says:

"Welcome
The Georgia Department of Transportation’s team of motivated professionals is working to maintain safety on our roadways and to relieve congestion on our interstates. Our commitment is a 21st century transportation network that moves people and goods through our state in a timely and efficient manner.

STATE OFFICES CLOSED
Governor Deal has ordered State government offices to close on Wed, January 29"

I am not complaining, I had zero expectation that they would be on top of this.

PS: nice pic BTW David, I knew we had at least one snowplow!!!

 

My cars and me stayed in yesterday and watched the madness on TV. I love my 911tt but I'm in no hurry to sleep in it.

 

Not a 991 post (but pics were taken from my 991...).

Coming back from lunch today, I cam across a new C-Class Benz in disguise. Not exactly sure why they are still disguising the new C-Class (it was unveiled at the Detroit motor show), but I guess it is the rule until the car is formally launched in the US. The car should make it to the dealership in the Fall so it is still time to tweak the car a bit for the US market.







Looks better without the black wrap...

 

Off topic: But I have been seeing more camo cars here in ATL lately. A pack of prototype BMW small SUVs and a prototype Kia. Is this the new hot spot for researchers?

 

BMW's and Kia's are not surprising given where they are made. MB is a bit more unusual for an imported model but maybe they had been told that they could test the car in ice storm conditions in Atlanta

 

Not a bad place to be stuck for 24 hours.....

 

Das Schild

Like many other forum members, I ordered the 991 Schild.
Nothing spectacular to post but here are a few pics:

The Schild seems sturdy and rigid enough. Rubber is adequately glued at the back to avoid scuffs in your paint or rattling of the Schild:



You only need 6 clips and the installation is done in approximately 15s. The easiest way to proceed is to plug the clips into the Schild first and then install it under the frunk.



15s later...



Nice and clean. For those of you who are obsessed with the weight of their cars (I sometimes am), the total weight of the Schild + 6 clips is 744g / 1.64lbs. It is not going to make any difference on your lap time but it may prevent dents and dings in your frunk when you carry your toolbox

PS: going off topic, "Das Schild" reminded me of other products made in the USA with a bit of a stereotypical german name... Das Beer Boot and Das Horn.
Nothing to do with Porsche and nothing offensive to our German friends I hope (or at least a lot less than 'let Germany brew your beer' from the Fiat Chrysler commercial). So stereotypical in fact that it makes it funny. OK, it's a matter of taste.

 

Serge, were you having lunch at Longhorns? On the snow day

 

Yes that's what got me. Almost no snow... stopped for lunch... Caught in the "storm". My plan was to be home by 2pm but the snow was on us sooner than expected...

 

Too funny!! I missed you by a little bit then. My wife and I were there earlier and decided to leave. By the way, I was at Hennesey recently and talked about you with Bruce Pinder. Good guy.

 

Solenoids failure

A few days ago my exhaust got stuck in loud mode and would not switch back to quiet mode, whatever I did. The new exhaust was of course a prime suspect. Inspecting it, valves were just fine and vacuum lines were intact. It could only be something happening upstream and the exhaust was judged non guilty!

Moving on into the engine bay, I started checking the solenoids of the various vacuum lines and found 3 defective solenoids: one in the symposer/intake flap circuit, one in the exhaust circuit and a third one for which I have not tried to identify the function. Checking the solenoids is fairly easy and you can use a simple 9V battery. If you do not hear the solenoid 'clicking' when you apply voltage, it most likely means that it does not work anymore. I double checked with a good 12V source and got confirmation of my initial findings.

My dealership had 4 solenoids in stock and after replacement, everything is back to normal. My new AWE Switchpath exhaust has never sounded better (real quiet in quiet mode again). I still wonder why I had several solenoids failing at the same time. It may well be that others had failed before but that I only realized it when the exhaust solenoid stopped working. The fact that the dealership had 4 solenoids in stock (this part is unique to the 991 and is not something you would typically keep in stock on site at the dealership shop) made me raise an eyebrow. I asked a technician if there was a recall campaign going on or if other 991s have had the issue and the answer was negative. The guy may not have been up to speed and I keep finding it odd.

Here's a picture of the 'solenoids' (change over valves) that failed. The design is fairly common and the same supplier provides similar parts for most german car manufacturers. The exact size of the part, the 3rd metal fitting and the position of the clip to attach it are specific to the 991 though.



At the end of the day, it was not such a big deal and was easy to diagnose, but I am posting so that other 6speeders keep an eye on this in case they experience a similar issue.

 

Two quick questions!

What is the sound level like when valves are closed? Close to stock?

And do you think the AWE would pair well with the Fabspeed headers / Fabspeed maxflo mufflers ?

Thank you so much in advance!

 

The sound level with the valves closed is in fact very close to stock. Maybe a little bit louder, but not significantly and cruising on the highway, the engine/exhaust noise is not as loud as tire or wind noise and you can perfectly listen to music and appreciate your sound system.

Due to the solenoid issue and the weather, I could not record sound clips last week end, but this is on my to do list for this Sunday.

As far as headers and mufflers are concerned, I would be more cautious. I had asked the very same question to AWE and they legitimately responded that the system has been designed to work with OEM mufflers and headers. The system currently works great and does not cause any drone. Once you start replacing other components, there is a risk to alter the frequencies and create a drone issue (which can be worse in case you have PDK running in automatic mode and do not control your rpm's).

I would definitely stay away from the mufflers. Exhaust gas go through the mufflers in quiet mode only (in loud mode, most of the exhaust gas go through the past of least resistance and very little of it go through the mufflers). The only benefit of replacing the mufflers would thus be a lower weight, but it is not worth the risk of getting drone IMHO.

Regarding the headers, if you do it for the performance improvement, you already get some upside from the exhaust and I am not sure than the benefit of headers would simply add up (1+1 is often not equal to 2 in this case). Overall, considering the price point, the exhaust is the best bang for your buck: pricing is similar to headers but you get the better sound (main motivation), lower weight weight and the same performance bump. If you want to go further, headers can be an option, but again, there is risk. The headers work well with the stock exhaust, I do not know what happens with aftermarket exhausts.

Hope this helps.

PS: if you ask the question because you already have headers and mufflers, I would go and get the exhaust and if there is a drone issue change back to the stock mufflers first, check again and if the headers are causing an issue go back to stock headers too. You should easily find someone who is interested in buying Fabspeed headers and mufflers Just saying -because I like the new exhaust a lot

 

I had 7 of those replaced on my Jan 2012 build car on a campaign last summer.
Now I know what they are ! lol

 

Thanks a lot for the heads up Chuck!. This confirms what I suspected. I'll get the car checked by the dealership as they may be more than 3 (out of 4 that I checked) that are bad on my car (november or december 2012 build, but if the issue happened once...)