Wondering if I have the infamous alternator cable problem.

Had the alternator checked at a local parts story and it is putting 13.23 volts at the battery. The tech at the store said everything else like diodes checked fine except volts failed. The crank seems a little slow, but not ridiculous as some have described, although, I replaced the battery a couple months ago.

Thoughts?

 

What year is your car?

 

Sorry, thinking it was part of my signature or something...anyway '06 997S.

 

I believe you are referring to the infamous starter cable problem. It runs under the car from the battery back to the engine. It's a fairly expensive job not for the part, but the labor. I also recall it is not an easy diy. I think people often falsely replace the battery when you have slow cranking although there is really nothing wrong with the battery. I had a 997s and it cranked slowly for two years. Didn't change the cable or the battery. Just fwiw.

 

Had that same problem on my 06c2s it sucked! I would drive the car then lets say get gas and shut car off then fire it up again it would crank very funny like almost as if it wont start (choking) had the dealer replace the cable that cost me 1500 and sure enough the problem is still there a year later.

 

That's not cool. There has to be a way to troubleshoot and determine for sure if it is the cable.

 

Not cool at alll esp at 1500. Theres a lot of threads about it on here if you search around but this was like 2 years ago or so. I believe the cable is the problem i think it gets hot or somthing and it acts up cant remember tho. But it would never happen at a cold start or lets say if the car sat for 1-2 hrs it would only happen to me run car hot then shut off then turn back on within 10-15 min of it being off. Its stupid lol but im living with it

 

I have this issue also, replaced battery a few months ago, but still acts up.

 

100% cable gives you that funny crank noise but fires up

 

Ah alas, because the battery isn't the problem. ;-)

 

The problem has multiple causes and it is a shame that Porsche let that slip through their Quality Assurance checking.

1) First you need to have a beefy battery. The original or Porsche battery is worth nothing and should be replaced with after market batteries.

2) The infamous cable... Not all 2006 models were equipped with the infamous cable. Before going through the process of replacing it (which I have described in great details in a previous thread), crawl under the car and see if you can read the part number of the cable (usually a sticker near the gearbox). If it matches what Porsche is selling as a replacement cable (about $100), then I would not bother changing it. If you need to replace it then take a look at this DIY: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tor-cable.html. It is not that easy to do.

3) The starter.... Another infamous Bosch part that creeps into the Porsche engine. Symptoms are obvious: it will not start the engine when hot. A replacement starter can be obtained for $140 (from O'Reilly) and the swapping of the starter is much easier than the cable. How do I know? I did both. I just swapped my starter over the Christmas holidays and will describe the process shortly. There is an excellent DIY at http://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum...l#post11514446 and I managed to do it relatively easily with one modification to the thread: I moved slightly the alternator to pass the extensions to the E-14 sockets to reach the two bolts holding the starter.

Good luck.
Yves

 

The bad starter cable is the one that damages the starter motor I think. I got the cable replaced at an Indy shop, and it cost me ~$800. The actual part is $70 or so.

I have read about using a voltmeter and checking if its the cable that's faulty. Quick search in the forums should do

 

Had a similar problem with hard starts after the car had been driven for a while. I had the starter cable checked by an Indy shop and the dealer as that is most often the cause. Both the Indy and dealer said the cable was fine. Turned out to be the starter itself. Since I had it replaced in November everything has been fine. I dont remember exactly what I paid but I think it was about $1,000.

 

I think suncoast sells an upgraded cable part that is much better.

 

The part that Suncoast sells, is the official Porsche part. I got mine from them and it is the current cable installed on 997.1 cars. It is cheap though ($100) for a Porsche part, proving that they have a problem and intend to make up for it.

Yves