I am putting this out here in hopes that someone especially with in Porsche (the company) or a high end Porsche tuner can shed some light on this and help.

I had PSM Failure this weekend during a DE at Daytona Intl Speedway. I was not the only 2009 997S that had this problem. This pretty much ruined my entire expensive track day!

This was my 1st time to Daytona and on the 1st day I did not get PSM Failure. However on my 2nd day as I got up to speed I got this failure on each and every run.

I have 8 track days with my 09 997S at Sebring with no issues. I have 4 years of DE's with 06-07 997S cars with no PSM issues. I talked with a few people at Daytona this weekend and they believe it is the high banking at Daytona causing this. Weird thing is the 05-08 997 cars are not affected! There was another 09 997S that had the same problem. It does not matter if PSM is ON or OFF...I still get the PSM Failure issue.

On my last run this weekend at Daytona I kept my speed on the NASCAR Turns 1-2 and 3-4 (31 degree banking) under 125mph. I went full bore in the infield. I got no PSM failure. As soon as I go up to 130+mph on NASCAR 1-2 or 3-4 (31 degree banks) I get PSM failure.

I am hoping someone from Porsche or any of the tuners out here knows of a solution. I believe the accelerometer that PSM is connected to and the PSM software "thinks" the car is in trouble and overloads and goes into failure mode.:crying:

 

Yes indeed - the high banking causes the PSM Failure to trip. The sensors in the car are warning that the car may indeed roll-over. The PSM has yaw, roll and other angle of departure calculations that are running while you are driving.

When I was running laps on Bristol Motor Speedway, which has some pretty steep banks (36 degrees on the turns, 16 degrees on the straightaway), the same issue occurred. Every 997 and 987 driver I spoke with had the same problem.

In the end though, I'm not sure why this is a problem for you, other than the light flashing. The car still runs and handles just fine, and at 130 mph, I'm not sure PSM is going to save you from a catastrophic failure anyway.

 

Gundo, good to know I was thinking correctly on why this is happening.

Here is why it effects driving at the track when PSM failure happens:

- Turns off Sport Chrono Plus and this affects PDK and how fast it up and down shifts
- Turns off PASM Sport for the shocks and the the car has toomuch body roll in normal mode.

I can drive with PSM on or off...I rarely ever trigger PSM...only sometimes when I am throttle steering or trail braking. So I really do not car if PSM is working or not. What dissapoints me when I have PSM failure at the track is the system turns off the modes I need with Sport Chrono Plus and the stiff PASM shock setting.

 

Amazing that the SCP gets turned-off - I understand why this would be especially important in a PDK car.

As for the PASM, my recollection is that my car stayed in PASM Sport mode, but I could be mistaken as that track had me pretty tense and focused more on not hitting the wall than on the shock setting.

I'll ask some other guys that were with me to see what there experience was.

I'm not aware of any tuners that modify the PSM system with their coding, but I'm sure they can.

Another reason we don';t hear about this much is that few if any of us have the chance to tackle tracks with banked turns - road coarse set-ups seem to be the most frequent.

I wonder if your dealer, or if someone like Flying Lizards can help you.

 

Very interesting thread. Mike, I'm wondering if disabling PSM entirely for track days is the answer. I believe there is a disconnect needed near the brake to fully disable PSM, though not sure about the '09's and PDK.

-Steve

 

I am looking into that. I only had this issue on the 31 degree bunpy banks at Daytona. I have not had this issue at Sebring which is flat.

 

I had it happen on the Turbo . It turned out to be a defective Blistein strut and they replaced it but what I learned was that the sensors are sensitive. I imagine that the type of driving you faced at Daytona was enough to set yours off.

I agree that the lack of chrono and suspension settings goes into normal mode plus having the light on is a nagging reminder of the problem.

Perhaps Porsche has the settings on the 997S more geared towards street driving and maintaining warranty demands of 4 years 50k miles .

 

This was a very common problem that we ran into with the 2005-08 997 in Koni Challenge. We have not built a 2009 997 yet so I can not speak from first hand experience for your specific problem. The earlier cars would have the PSM interupt that would cause the pulsing of the brakes and or engine limp mode. Most definate cause of the engine limp mode was people driving "heel & toe" or applying the brake at the same time you are stepping on the gas. There were some very big crashes due to people going into the braking zones at very high speeds ( with 17" wheels which did not help ) and the computer thinks you are trying to kill your self and it applies more breaking than you need.

The solution was a costly one that upgrades the ABS controller, ABS ecu and has its own yaw sensor. All problems were removed and life went on. I find it very interesting that your car was turning off shock and chrono but you had no brake pulsing.

I am afraid that it is just going to be something that you will have to be aware of while you are at a banking track. Did you upgrade your wheel size or tire compound from stock?