Hi,

I am a proud new owner of a 2002 Carrera. It's great so far and I made the right decision in buying it. I wanted your opinion on two things- do you recommend I buy a bra for it? If so, do you recommend a brand?

Second, the car hesitates for a brief second before firing up. Are there any known issues with the ignition, battery, etc. with these cars? If so, what do you recommend I do?

Thanks!

 

Can't help you with the bra question. I prefer to run my cars sans any bra or covering/wrap and have no experience with these. My occasional reading of posts about bras/wraps is I do think the preference is for a clear wrap rather than a bra. The bra can move in the wind and can rub the paint.

If there is a brief moment's delay that the engine reacts to the igntiion key being turned to start this can be an ignition switch problem, a low battery problem, or possibly a problem with the battery leads.

Often a newly purchased used car has a weak/low battery. The seller stops using the car. The seller often doesn't use a battery maintainer, either. The car gets treated to an occasional engine start with little idle time or at best a short run by a prospective buyer.

Might add too the gasoline can be stale and in some cases the owner stops using premium and instead fills just puts in a few gallons of regular.

My recommendation would be to treat the battery to a nice charge/recondition using a smart battery charger/maintainer. The local Porsche dealer has one that can charge the battery, then drain the battery some, then recharge it and do this in a way that helps resurrect the battery. My 996 Turbo is hard on batteries even though I use it several times a week for a 60 mile (round trip) work commute. When I take the car in the tech connects this battery charger/maintainer to the battery and brings the battery back up to snuff.

Unfortunately I don't recall the brand of the battery charger/maintainer.

An older car can suffer from degradation of its battery leads/connections. Maybe not at the battery because those are out of the elements, but the other ends.

Check both battery leads for any signs of overheating, worn through, or cracked/split insulation, frayed wires at the connector, and the condition of the connector at the engine and alternator.

One trick to help one know a battery lead is perhaps bad is to with the engine cold start the engine then turn it off. Then carefully feel the battery leads their whole length for an signs of an area being warm (or hot -- in some severe cases with just a few strands of copper wire carrying the current the wire will glow red hot when the engine is cranking). If you find a "hot spot" this is a sign of excessive current resistence and new cabling could be called for.

Regardless of what you find and address the engine could benefit from a fuel/engine cleaner treatment. My recommendation is to use Techron. Buy a bottle from the local autoparts store and use according to directions. Kind of. The bottle probably will "treat" 20 gallons but I just dump the entire bottle into the tank and fill the tank up. My Porsche tanks hold something just over 16 gallons of gasoline.

Drive the car normally. The rule is if the engine's behavior improves from the presence of Techron to when the fuel with the Techron added gets low -- to around 1/4 a tank or thereabouts -- to add a 2nd bottle of Techron and fill up the fuel tank and use up this tank of treated fuel.

Whether you use one or two Techron treatments afterwards arrange to change the engine oil/filter. The Techron can result in an increae in oil contamination and the last thing these engines need is more oil contamination/dilution.

 

Thanks for all the great information especially regarding the battery. I will have it tested this weekend. It's an Interstate battery with 790 CCA. Is there a brand and CCA level that you recommend? Thanks.

 

Bosch AGM H7 is a good choice as is the Wal-Mart Everstart Maxx H7 - both have good warranties...much better than the Porsche warranty.

 

when I bought my car, it had a H6 battery, and would not start when hot, Wal Mart has a great battery in the Maxx and instead of using the H7, I went with the H8 battery with 1000 CCA and used the third hole for battery hold down been great since then.

 

I have no specific battery recommendations. My experience was the factory OEM battery (Moll IIRC) in my Boxster was superb. It was over 6 years old and maybe closer to 7 and just fine but I "killed it" by leaving the car parked over a week with an OBD2 reader connected.

Replaced it with another factory Moll battery and the battery didn't last very long at all. Techs told me the Moll batteries that were made in Spain were very good. When production shifted to another country (Mexico?) the quality went downhill.

It got so bad that the dealer stopped using the factory Moll battery brand and instead went with Interstate.

My experience with Interstate batteries has likewise been mixed. The battery in the Boxster has been ok, but the one in the Turbo -- of unknown age -- died shortly after I bought the car (used). The replacement Interstate lasted just 7 months then went out and was replaced under warranty. The replacement battery failed after some couple of years and had to be replaced. As an aside the Turbo is harder on batteries for some reason, even though I use the car on average every other day or so and drive it for around 60 miles (round trip) for my work commute.

All I can recommend is you check with Porsche parts department to find out what AH's and CCA's Porsche specifies for your car and buy a battery that meets these specifications and fits into the battery box, has the lead connections at the right places and has the proper vent tube connection and the vent tube can then be properly connected.

Porsche can issue a battery part number change once in a while. I found this out when I went to replace the battery in my Boxster. The new battery -- under a different part number -- had more AH's and more CCA's. And in fact the new battery was slightly bigger, longer, than the old original battery. I was worried the new larger battery would not be a drop in replacement but was pleasantly surprised to find when I installed it that not only did it fit perfectly, albeit taking up a little more space in the battery box, the hold down could be moved out to the next hole and there was a nut there to thread the hold down into.

I would not go overboard and buy lots more battery than specified. My concern, and it may not be justified but I'm not taking any chances, is I would be afraid of overtaxing the alternator in keeping the too large of a battery charged, or something.

 

Early versions of the Moll were size H6 while the standard today is the H7. The H and W dimensions are all the same but the H6 is an inch shorter than the H7 hence being able to use the first hole on the tray for the clamp. Some folks have fitted an H8 in the tray - it is an inch longer than the H7 and you can utilize the third hole on the tray although on some trays the third hole isn't threaded and some mod would be needed. Probably more than anyone wanted to know. Only reason I moved away from the Moll was the warranty Porsche provides - almost non existent while aftermarket batteries usual have a 3 year (or longer) replacement warranty.

 

I have used sears batteries in my boxster and 996tt with success. I have been using my latest sears battery for at least 3 years since purchasing my 996tt. I don't remember the size. I would buy a larger battery and a battery tender. I have a quick connect to the charger attached to my battery cables.

 

Optima battery in mine works like a champ.

 

How did you clamp it into the tray?

 

I use to have an optima in my 986 and used an aluminum plate as an adaptor to mount the battery on top of.

 

The bottom of the battery is clamped to the tray on the short sides. Nothing going over the top of the battery.