OBDII Scanner for Porsches

[lincolnb]

I just bought a 2000 Boxster S & recently had 2 occurences of the Check Engine Light (CEL) coming on. The first one happened right after getting emissions tests, where the tech removed the gas cap while the car was running. It took about a week & the light went out. I suspect that was due to the gas cap.

The light came on again about 2 weeks ago on a quick day trip down to Silver City. The light hasn't gone off this time & now I'm starting to suspect something more sinister may be at work here... Can anyone provide guidance on the model/type of OBDII meter & any connectors to help read the codes? Tried one from the local Checker without any luck & figured that it had to do with the adapter...

Thanks for any feedback.

Linc.

[RandallNeighbour]

Swing by an Autozone or Pep Boys and they'll use their OBC reader to give you some error codes, and possibly turn it off for you.

It can illuminate for a bunch of different reasons, but the most common ones have to do with the MAF or the 02 sensors from my personal experience and the posts from many, many other Boxster owners on this forum.

I hope you're successful getting it turned off permanently. It absolutely drives me bonkers when my CE light is on!

[deliriousga]

Any OBDII will work, but you sometimes have to work the connector on well. The problem is the connector in the Boxster. Some people have been turned away from emmission inspection sites because they just plug it in and it doesn't read anything.

If you want more than just a code reader, go to http://www.autotap.com and check out their real-time OBDII diagnostics software. It's $180 and I love it. I also have an el cheapo reader/code clearer that I bought on eBay for $25 that works with all of our OBDII cars, including the Boxster.

[lincolnb]

Ah, thank you both. Tried the scanner from Checker & it didn't work, needed a different adapter for the plugin. Autozone was successful with the stadard Actron reader in reading the codes (P1115 & P1275), but they said they wouldn't reset them for me.

I have some about clearing the soft-faults by disconnecting the neg. battery cable & that I may have to reset the radio if I do that & I do have the serial number if needed. Any suggestions or BKM (best known methods) on this?

Based on what I've found the errors are:

P1115 Oxygen Sensor Heating 1 After Catalytic Converter - Above Upper Limit
P1275 Aging of Oxygen Sensor Ahead of Catalytic Converter (Cylinders 1 - 3) - Below Lower Limit.

Will try to reset the CEL, if these come back, I guess I'll be replacing the O2 sensors...

I can only find gasoline with a 91 MON octane rating around here, could this be a root cause? Do I need to add some octane boost since it's reommended to be running 93 MON????

[blinkwatt]

BUMP... I would be interested in hearing how to clear the check engine light as mine came on today(technically this morning).