Variocam thoughts and questions

[blue62]

Originally Posted by sfkjeld

Thank you, very interesting. I recently purchased a Foxwell scanner, probably at your suggestion. I’ve used it only to clear the CEL. Are you able to see the timing change on the scanner?

I can on my scanner.
It is the Foxwell NT520 Pro

I went out and hooked it up to my 2000S so I could refresh my memory on how I do it.
I will attempt to talk you through it.

Hook up the scanner
Go to the Porsche program and hit enter.
Go to manual selection and hit enter.
Go down to 986 Boxster/Cayman hit enter.
Go to Diagnosis hit enter.
Go to control units hit enter.
Go to DME (its the top choice on my scanner) hit enter.
Go down to actual values hit enter.
Go to all data hit enter.
Now you should be looking at a list of all the data the DME sees.

With the car running you can watch all this data under different driving conditions.
You can watch all the data the DME sees in real time. You just have to learn what your looking at and what it means.
I have hooked mine up and watched various data over a 320 mile run several times.

Now go down till you see camshaft deviation for each bank
Below that is actual camshaft angles.


so if your at idle watching camshaft angle you should see changes when your Variocam timing actuator kicks in. I think that is around 1500 RPM. then I kicks back out around 5000 RPM. Not positive on those RPM's but I should be in the ballpark.
You can graph it with the graphing feature and see changes over a short period of time.
I think you can also Data log with this scanner but I have never tried it.

Now You can back out to where you found actual values and go down to
Drive links active.
Hit enter
Now you can activate your fuel injectors and your Variocam timing Actuators.
sort of a test mode.
You will hear and feel the difference when you activate the injectors or the actuators with the engine running.
Now simply activating them does not tell you that everything is within spec. but it will tell you if they function, or not.

So that is how it works with my scanner on my 2000S

Hope this helps
Let me know how you go

[sfkjeld]

Originally Posted by blue62

I can on my scanner.
It is the Foxwell NT520 Pro

I went out and hooked it up to my 2000S so I could refresh my memory on how I do it.
I will attempt to talk you through it.

Hook up the scanner
Go to the Porsche program and hit enter.
Go to manual selection and hit enter.
Go down to 986 Boxster/Cayman hit enter.
Go to Diagnosis hit enter.
Go to control units hit enter.
Go to DME (its the top choice on my scanner) hit enter.
Go down to actual values hit enter.
Go to all data hit enter.
Now you should be looking at a list of all the data the DME sees.

With the car running you can watch all this data under different driving conditions.
You can watch all the data the DME sees in real time. You just have to learn what your looking at and what it means.
I have hooked mine up and watched various data over a 320 mile run several times.

Now go down till you see camshaft deviation for each bank
Below that is actual camshaft angles.


so if your at idle watching camshaft angle you should see changes when your Variocam timing actuator kicks in. I think that is around 1500 RPM. then I kicks back out around 5000 RPM. Not positive on those RPM's but I should be in the ballpark.
You can graph it with the graphing feature and see changes over a short period of time.
I think you can also Data log with this scanner but I have never tried it.

Now You can back out to where you found actual values and go down to
Drive links active.
Hit enter
Now you can activate your fuel injectors and your Variocam timing Actuators.
sort of a test mode.
You will hear and feel the difference when you activate the injectors or the actuators with the engine running.
Now simply activating them does not tell you that everything is within spec. but it will tell you if they function, or not.

So that is how it works with my scanner on my 2000S

Hope this helps
Let me know how you go

omigosh, so fantastic!. Thank you So much again. Unfortunately, my $178 Foxwell scanner is an NT150 Elite.

[blue62]

Originally Posted by sfkjeld

omigosh, so fantastic!. Thank you So much again. Unfortunately, my $178 Foxwell scanner is an NT150 Elite.

NT 150 or is it the 510????
Hook it up and see what you can do with it.
You got it with the Porsche program right?
If it is in fact a 510 it will do everything mine does.

[sfkjeld]

Originally Posted by blue62

NT 150 or is it the 510????
Hook it up and see what you can do with it.
You got it with the Porsche program right?
If it is in fact a 510 it will do everything mine does.

Yes, can’t read my own writing. NT150. Thanks. Will give it a bash in the morning.

[sfkjeld]

I am still driving my car until I reach the 1000 mile mark, then the Pcar shop is going to do an engine flush in the hopes of clearing a potential clogged oil gallery that feeds the cam actuator. In the meantime I’m seeing a definite pattern to when the 1341 CEL is thrown. After ~36miles, then I clear the code. It can happen sooner in heavy traffic. But never more than 36 miles, so far. Does That make sense? There must be an algorithm for what activates the Cam timing error code that involves time or miles, huh?

[blue62]

Originally Posted by sfkjeld

I am still driving my car until I reach the 1000 mile mark, then the Pcar shop is going to do an engine flush in the hopes of clearing a potential clogged oil gallery that feeds the cam actuator. In the meantime I’m seeing a definite pattern to when the 1341 CEL is thrown. After ~36miles, then I clear the code. It can happen sooner in heavy traffic. But never more than 36 miles, so far. Does That make sense? There must be an algorithm for what activates the Cam timing error code that involves time or miles, huh?

In real simple terms.
My guess and it's just that, a guess.
Is that a sensor like the cam position sensor has a limit (voltage level) that the DME/ECU sees. when it hits that limit the code is set.
Or the voltage level is far enough out of spec. that the DME/ECU sees it and triggers the code.

I do know that on an O2 sensor when the signal response time slows down to a certain point that the DME/ECU has a response time limit that when hit it triggers a O2 sensor aging code.
I found that info in some literature put out by Bosh.
Bosh developed and produced the DME/ECU in our cars

So I think everything (when it comes to codes being set) is either signal response time or voltage level related as far as the sensors are concerned.

Hope that makes sense.
Remember that's just a guess

[sfkjeld]

Originally Posted by blue62

In real simple terms.
My guess and it's just that, a guess.
Is that a sensor like the cam position sensor has a limit (voltage level) that the DME/ECU sees. when it hits that limit the code is set.
Or the voltage level is far enough out of spec. that the DME/ECU sees it and triggers the code.

I do know that on an O2 sensor when the signal response time slows down to a certain point that the DME/ECU has a response time limit that when hit it triggers a O2 sensor aging code.
I found that info in some literature put out by Bosh.
Bosh developed and produced the DME/ECU in our cars

So I think everything (when it comes to codes being set) is either signal response time or voltage level related as far as the sensors are concerned.

Hope that makes sense.
Remember that's just a guess

An excellent guess too, thank you so much. Unfortunately for me, I think it was my driving pattern that was causing the CEL at nearly the same time. I have more awareness now of what throws the code. It will only throw it in city driving, never on the highway. If I accelerate from low rpms, like 2k, it’ll throw the code. If I ease up to 2.5k I am ok.

So now the shop I’ve been taking the car to, wants to do an engine flush to see if it can clear an oil gallery feeding the actuator. Seems like a Hail Mary, but I guess I’ll do it.

Am still convinced the problem is the green o-rings have disintegrated and may have clogged a gallery, who knows? But when I start the car now, I often hear the clatter of the timing chains for about 2-3 secs until the oil pressure comes up. Tells me the engine is not gonna last a long time.

So here is my question. Would I be well served to run a heavier engine oil? The shop has been using Swepco at $16/quart. I baby this car for the most part, don’t need a high performance oil. Was going to ask the shop to just fill it with Mobile 1 at maybe a 40 weight? Might improve the starting clatter? Unless the engine flush miraculously cures the oil pressure problem in the actuator, I figure to drive it until the car dies. Oddly enough, it’ll probably pass smog tests, as it did last month. And as of now, despite the CEL, it runs great.