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Old 02-05-2018, 04:40 PM   #1
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Help...Replaced Electronic Ignition same problem...

I have an 03 boxster and I haven't seen the resolution written about so far.

I have to turn the key and hold it in the far position. I hear slight click and if I leave it turned for sometimes 1min sometimes 40 mins it will always start right up. No clue what else to check.

So far my battery is 100% alternator 100% I checked fuses by the clutch and also pulled the relays to check for corrosion. I did the same in the trunk. I replaced the electronic ignition switch and here we are... Still have to sit there and wait forever to get it started...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Old 02-05-2018, 04:56 PM   #2
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Check your battery cables then test your starter next...
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Old 02-05-2018, 06:15 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wjswireless View Post
I have an 03 boxster and I haven't seen the resolution written about so far.

I have to turn the key and hold it in the far position. I hear slight click and if I leave it turned for sometimes 1min sometimes 40 mins it will always start right up. No clue what else to check.

So far my battery is 100% alternator 100% I checked fuses by the clutch and also pulled the relays to check for corrosion. I did the same in the trunk. I replaced the electronic ignition switch and here we are... Still have to sit there and wait forever to get it started...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
That's weird, by design if you turn the key to on position and leave it there without starting the car, after a minute or two it will no longer start the car unless you turn it off then back on. It may be your transponder not sensing the frequency from the key?
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Old 02-05-2018, 10:38 PM   #4
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Along Boxstard’s tack... have you dropped your key recently? If so, might be worth opening up and seeing if the little transponder pill is damaged or something. Your issue sounds distinctly like a short, or something not talking to the other thing...
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:58 PM   #5
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I had a similar problem to this - it was intermittent sometimes it would fire right up, other times had to hold the key and wait. Very frustrating for a race car when you are headed to grid.

Turned out to be a failing relay in the alarm box. I opened it up and replaced the relay on the board and it was good to go, but the easiest way to fix it would be swap in a matched set of ECU, Key Pill and alarm box
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Old 02-10-2018, 06:51 AM   #6
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I had a similar problem to this - it was intermittent sometimes it would fire right up, other times had to hold the key and wait. Very frustrating for a race car when you are headed to grid.

Turned out to be a failing relay in the alarm box. I opened it up and replaced the relay on the board and it was good to go, but the easiest way to fix it would be swap in a matched set of ECU, Key Pill and alarm box
How do you go about determining if one of the relays are bad? I don’t want to do more harm than good. You must have had to open up the immobilizer or whatever?
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Old 02-11-2018, 10:30 AM   #7
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To isolate the problem I jumpered the start lock relay in the trunk so that it didn't need the signal from the alarm box to allow cranking. Once I did this i could crank the car every time, but it wouldn't always start. This showed me that the starter and ignition switch were fine.

This led me to the alarm box, as if the ecu does not get the correct signal on the W line, it wont allow the injectors to fire and if the start lock relay is not jumpered, it wont allow the car to crank.

So then I hooked my oscilloscope up to the W line to see what was happening - when the car would fire right up, the signal was being sent straight away, and I could hear a relay click in the alarm box when it did so. When it did not fire up, no signal on the W-line and no click.

I checked the signal from the key decoder to the alarm box, and that signal was being sent every time, so I made the assumption that something was wrong in the alarm box. I opened it up and checked the signal to the clicking relay - it got a signal every time, but didn't always switch over. swapped it out, and it was good to go again.

If you are not comfortable with electric and electronic fault finding, I recommend just buying and ECU, Key pill and Alarm box matched set from Woody and swapping them out. Its a pretty simple job to swap them.
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Old 02-13-2018, 05:55 AM   #8
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I had a starting issue. Sometimes she refused to fire .Replaced ignition switch .replaced steering lock.Checked relays checked clutch switch.Finally got fet up and took her Porsche they said my starter had a short inside drawing too many amps 1800.00 bucks later and a hole in my top and the problem has gone away .
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Old 02-13-2018, 12:58 PM   #9
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Best way to check if its a starter or alarm box fault is to short the start lock relay. If it cranks every time, but no start, its an alarm box issue, if it doesn't crank every time its a starter or ignition switch problem.

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