I bought a 2008 Porsche 997.1 turbo cab 6 speed. Had it Porsche pre-inspected and it passed without a single issue. 22,000kms. The car as as close to new as I could find. It’s my dream car and after learning my 14 year old son has terminal brain cancer last December and living with him at Sick Kids for almost 5 months. I decided life is just to short and felt what better way for us to enjoy his last few months together.

I drove the car home from the private seller and the car performed as imagined. A few days later and after learning more about the car I decided to plug in the Cobbs tuner that came with the car along with a car cover. I read the instructions both on paper and online and videos. When I plugged it in and when to ignition state nothing happened. The screen never lit up at all. I checked connections pushed a few buttons wondering if it needed waking up but again nothing. I thought it was broken. I unplugged and took the device to my computer. After plugging it in a few minutes later the screen lit up. I figured the device must have an internal battery that was dead and needed charging. Happy to see it alive I updated the latest software versions and let it charge overnight.

The next day I went to my car to start it up and and it would not start. It did a half turn over but that was it. Just about every error light you can think of was lit. I tried checking over the vehicle, clutch switch, fuses, battery terminals, disconnected the battery swapped batteries. Nothing. Called Cobbs and they went over the device while on the phone, had me plug it in and try installing, uninstall etc. No luck. When trying to back up or install maps it communicates fine with my ECU but stays at 0%, same with installation. The cooling fan runs on and off while the Cobbs is plugged into the ECU for some reason. Anyway I sent the Cobbs and my ECU to Cobbs. 2 weeks later it was returned to me with a request that I tow the car to a Porsche dealer as they felt the problem was fixed and now all that was needed was the dealer to use their PIWIS to force reprogram. 30 minutes tops and the car should be fine.

The car was towed and after waiting 3 days the dealer Pfaff Porsche Vaughan Ontario they said it was a no go and that I needed to buy a new ECU. 4,000 plus plus plus. I decided to sent the ECU to a rebuild and repair shop in Toronto.

5 days later they responded saying there is nothing wrong with the ECU and the hardware seems fine. They did say that I likely have a software problem and said you better talk with Cobbs. I have once again been in touch with Cobbs and I can tell they are shrugging their shoulders and saying perhaps you should just buy a new ECU.

They have suggested trying to have the car towed to another Porsche dealer as the first one was perhaps just trying to sell me a highly marked up and profitable new ECU. I have spent close to $2,000 in towing, diagnostics, troubleshooting and shipping. at this point and the car has now sat for 4 weeks.

I am at a total loss at this point in what to do or how much more money I spend towing the car from place to place. Cobbs seems to feel the problem is no one I have gone to yet knows what they are doing and are not using the Porsche PIWIS system properly to reload the perfectly fine ECU.

Porsche can only recommend replacing the ECU with a new one. The ECU repair shop says it’s likely Cobbs that has their software bricking the ECU and says to hold them accountable for this mess.

Basically all three are pointing at each other. Has anyone every had a situation like this that can make any suggestion of what you would do in this situation?

This car was intended to provide some positive distraction and therapy. Something fun that my son and I can enjoy together during these dark days. If anyone can help or know if a tuner in the GTA that has Porsche PWSIS that can do more then changed parts or can provide any experience with this problem please let me know.

thank you!

 

Just friendly advice but I think you'll get more responses if you break that lengthy post into paragraphs. When I see a post like this I don't even read it. Too much work keeping track of which sentence you just left and where you're going next especially once you get a ways into it.

 

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation. This is a potential outcome when tuning any car with Off The Shelf (meaning pre-packed one size fits all features/functionality) tuning hardware. I would take the car to Porsche dealer with a good reputation and don't take the car from there until its working. Towing it around to get different opinions is just costing time and heartache. It is likely an expensive lesson, but one that you can deal with something that can be replaced (money) instead of wasting something you can't get back (time).

Porsche will happily take your money and they have experts at getting the car running so that will be the quickest (and likely most expensive) way to solve this mess that you yourself created. There isn't much wrong with tuning a car, but it should be approached with eyes open and done in a way where you have recompense (ie, take the car physically to a tuning shop, have them tune the car, and leave with it running just like it was when you showed up.)

 

So sorry to hear about your son.

I believe there's a RUF dealer in Canada. They are very experienced with tuning and modifying cars, but probably won't mess with a 3rd party tune. I'd bet they'd be willing to install a RUF tune into your car and sort out the ECU issues as part of the process. It's going to cost some money, but you'll likely end up with something better performing than what you bought.

 

update and some great news.


Jim from AMT tuning took on the challenge and managed to clone a identical ECU for 997.1 turbo manual and flashed my ECU. He was able to also determine that the software that Cobbs had loaded was for the correct year and model as mine but was not for sport chrono.

He also noted that likely when the Porsche dealer was trouble shooting the car they removed some fuses for inspection and forgot to return one for the starter. Long story short he was able to help after I had the car towed to him in Vaughan and one day later he had the car running again. I also had him do a stage one tune and the car is running beautifully.

Jim was very affordable for the time and equipment he used to help but also for the tune and software he flashed. I would highly recommend AMT to anyone as Jim was very easy to communicate with and seemed to know exactly what was needed and how to help. Highly professional and his shop was like a work of art.


I now have one Cobbs AP that will likely go straight to the garbage can. I will certainly never use the device I have even after Cobbs has confirmed it is working as it should and has been updated with current firmware. After it left me in this position and no assistance was available from Cobbs or Pfaff how could I make sense of trying
it again?

They could and would only recommend buying a new ECU for a cost of 4,000 +++ not to mention a 3-4 week wait time. I will say Cobbs was good about returning calls and messages but in terms of offering any real assistance or recommendations to who could or would help me there was nothing.

The support they did offer actually cost me close to a thousand dollars in diagnostic fees, towing and hours. They loaded the wrong software on my ECU and that was part of the problem as it turns out. I told Cobbs that I could not trust using my device again for fear it could be defective or not working correctly and I wouldn’t even feel comfortable selling
It to another Porsche owner after my experience.

I have asked if they would replace the device with new or offer an equivalent credit for the value of the device. No response yet.

Thank you for offering the assistance and interest.

 

Just heard back from Cobbs. They politely said to enjoy my car with my son and suggested I shouldn’t use the Cobbs tuner again. No offer to replace the tuner or related credit. I know it’s not my car or ECU as AMT did a flash tuning and the car is running Amazingly and accepted the flash without any issues. Cobbs is aware of this thread. They are correct with their advice however and I would never use this product again. One Cobbs tuner going straight into the garbage!! Life lessons learned.

Just glad to have the car running again and in time for the best of summer.

 

Thank you again to AMT (Jim) and Rennlist members!

Just want to say thank you again to Jim of AMT Tuning and 6speed members. The car is running as well as I could imagine. Many have asked about my son and I sincerely appreciate your warm thoughts and wishes. If any are interested in his battle I welcome you to join me on Facebook. Glenn Meyer.

As one of my sons hockey coaches I took Reese Meyer off the ice during a rep level hockey practice late last November. He was having difficulty with his balance and his left hand began to close to form a fist against his wishes. 6 hours later we were told he had days to live if nothing was done and they were unsure anything could be done given the size and location. The tumour is in the Middle of his brain and was the size of a quarter.

Sick Kids did a biopsy to determine what kind of cancer tumour it was and when doing so they
poked the bear and Reese lost partial eye sight in his left eye, the use of his left arm and most of his left leg. After discovering the type of cancer he has from the biopsy we opted to do an emergency and highly risky surgery. The procedure was to attempt to gut the tumour much like hitting an egg from the inside but not touching the outside for fear of damaging the brain further.

The procedure went as well as could
possibly be hope for and Reese made it through surgery with no further loss of physical features. They removed 75% of what the could but have him 6 months if he did chemo and radiation.

Reese spent 4 months in Sick Kids and Bloorview hostipal in Toronto recovering and doing daily treatments, occupational therapy and physio therapy.

He is once again home and we couldn’t be happier to all be under one roof again. My wife and I were taking shifts 2 days on 2 days off living with Reese 24/7 while he was away from him.

Reese is having a very hard time with Chemo treatments but continues to wow us with his resilience and sense of humour.

The car has offered a form of therapy for me for sure but I have not yet gotten Reese to join me for a ride. I have owned the car for 5 weeks but only got it running last week since bringing it home 5 weeks ago and plugging in the nightmare Cobbs tuner.

Reese wrapped up a week of treatment 2 weeks ago and is starting to feel strong enough again to show interest in getting out with me very soon.

Thank you again for the sincere best wishes and interest in how he is doing. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He is truly a remarkable 14 year old who has never complained once of what has happened to him or how hard this has been for him. In fact the only comment he has made close to a complaint to why did it have to be my brain of all the places to get cancer.

We love him to pieces and cherish every minute we have with him.

Reese June 30th with his chipmunk friend.

30 days 30 treatments.