LA Porsche and BMW Repair

As automobile electrical and charging systems have become more complex, the battery has had some difficulty following suit. The standard automotive lead acid battery has remained relatively unchanged since its inception. Today’s automotive electrical systems are becoming too de­manding for anything other than a modern AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt) battery. 2005 and later Porsches, such as the 9PA (Cayenne), the sports cars i.e. 987 (Boxster and Cayman) and 997 (911) and now (espe­cially) the new 970 (Panamera) operate using CAN (Controller Area Network) type bus systems that allow advanced communications between and within the many systems in the vehicle. The CAN-bus system is intended to share information and operational responsibility between controllers and control units that can be physi­cally located in different areas of the car. With all of this in mind, we often forget about the stringent demands the electrical charging system and battery are ... read more

This month we cover issues relat­ing to the lead acid battery and what to do when you have trouble with one. Last month we looked at the components in the electri­cal system and how they interact. A typical battery problem scenario: you’ve been driving for a half hour or so (your Porsche is running great), you stop at a store for about 15 minutes, return to your car, insert and turn the key to start the engine and hear a rapid clicking noise (sometimes you will not hear anything). The engine is not turning over, so you try it again — nothing. You may have headlights and instrument lights and everything ap­pears to be OK, but your car will not start. The old adage of if the headlights come on doesn’t apply any longer. The battery may have enough voltage to run various items, but not the starter. Your car has a dead battery, so what do you do now? We will get back to that, but first some background. Usually a battery will just die from old age. It can ... read more