Hi Everyone,

My CEL is showing, P1325, P1341, P1411.
I gave the car to a friend who works at the Porsche Dealership to run it through the system. He said the solenoid needs to be replaced.
If i had it done at Porsche it would cost over $6k, because the motor needs to be dropped.
I asked him his advice what i should do, he said the car has 125kmiles..potential IMS problems in the near future..etc putting $6k+ into the car isnt worth it and i should part ways with it.
I'm not ready to get rid of the car.
My independent guy said he would do it for around $3k.
My Big question is, while the Engine is out.. what else should be replaced??

1. Solenoid
2. IMS
3. Secondary Air Injection Valve (P1411)

What else???
How many belts(timing chain?) does the car have?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Attached are some pics from this weekends detail session.

Thanks

Derrick

 

You might be able to remove the valve covers and swap out the solenoids with the engine in the car.

SAI could be the valve:
http://p-car.com/996/diy/sai/mainpage.html

 

Maybe a dumb question, but a solenoid? Is this a reference to the Variocam Actuator/Solenoids?

 

this is the report i received about the CEL

 

My second hand info is the VarioCam solenoid on the 996 engine is rather easy to replace, easier than it is in Boxster engine (which I had to have done some time back).


IIRC the camshaft cover doesn't even have to come off to replace either of the 996 engine's solenoids.


If the actuator is bad the camshaft cover has to come off and the cams have to come out but I believe this does not require the engine to come out as both the solenoid and actuator on the passenger side of my Boxster was done with the engine in the car.


Note that it is possible the solenoid *and* actuator is bad so if you just replace the solenoid you may get errors that indicate the actuator is bad.


However, since the solenoid is rather easy to do you might gamble on just the solenoid.

 

02+ yes, they are just under the exhaust bracket. 99-01 they are under the valve cover.

 

I was working on my 2001 996 the other day replacing the belts when it was slightly raining out. I went to start the car and didn’t have my air box on, car went to start and I saw a small puff of white smoke on the drivers side rear wheel well. Then car would not start and I noticed I blew a fuse C1, which is related to the ECU.
I looked further into what had burned up and I saw a small burn hole in the Variocam Solenoid. This is a 2001 996 3.4l, so it’a part of the 5 chain Family. I’m wondering if I can just replace the Solenoid or should I replace the whole Actuator as well? I have no idea why it burned up like that, maybe bad ground or Actuator went? Let me know what you think. I don’t want to put a new Variocam Solenoid in the car and then have it burn up again!
Also if I go about tackling this job, it’s said that you should lock the cams before replacing the Solenoid? And does the actuator actually need to be vertical instead of horizontal when replacing? Just let me know what you all think and thank you!