What to do about my Boxster

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by mikstew

If your engine caught fire and melted a bunch of sensors, thus throwing a dozen CELs, would you rush over to autozone to have your codes read? Instead you can simply read the flames coming from you engine. Likewise it would be far more telling to look for water in his cylinders before reading random OBD codes. There is no code for failed water jacket, in case you did not know

If he reads a dozen related codes, he will end up chasing the chupacabra and possibly ignoring the more obvious and definitive symptoms I mentioned before.

The OBD system is meant as a supplement to automotive diagnosis and should not be used as a replacement for standard mechanical engineering experience.

And it would not be the first Porsche to do this and have a bad sensor, or some other non-fatal issue, as determined by reading the codes. In his case, he might not be so lucky, but it never hurts to look at all the available data, which is what I am suggesting. Every car that comes into my shop on a flat bed first gets a code scan before starting further diagnostics, even if there are no active MIL's; and quite often the scan points to a minor issue and the car is quickly on the road. Other times the news is not so good. But in any case, the car does not have to move, the engine does not have to be running, and you can download not only the thrown codes, but also the pending ones, as well as the final PID logs of the engines last running parameters (if you have a more advanced code tool); all in a few seconds and a little to no cost. Will it always tell you everything you need to know? Certainly not; but it usually is a good start...................