Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi,

Got a few weird electrical problems with my s2... basically they are...

1. I notice that sometimes after startup and until turned off again the engine oil and handbrake warning light stay on permanently... the next time you could start it up they could both go out as normal.

2. Sometimes the brake pad wear warning light by itself will stay on (nothing wrong with pads)

3. With just ignition on certain warning lights will work and some do not.. and sometimes they all will.... for example the brake pad wear and one of the red lights below oil pressure (and others) dont come on sometimes.

4. Noticed the instrument lights are not working...think this happened after i was altering up and down the instrument brightness dial. Looked at fuse 38 ? and it was blown but when i try to replace it the thing just blows instantly.

Any idea what is going on here ?

Thanks!

Hello, If your having electric gremlins then the best option is to buy a multi meter & start checking the wiring for breaks & damage. These kind of faults cost big money to trace using sparkys as it can take ages to find. But you can diy at your leasure. First check the handbrake on switch which is on the back of the handbrake lever & gets fluffed up with the carpet. To fix the dash lights you will need to remove the console & check for power from the brightness pot to the console lights. (It comes out with the wheel in place if you are careful. There are 3 plugs that are clipped on from behind that you have to take off gently by braille.) Often cleaning the contacts will sort them. Replacing the bulbs with LEDs at the same time might help you see whats happening at night! Should be some pics on Clarkes garage I think. Good luck!
Since this is your first post how about some pics of your car!

Hi,

Thanks for the help. I was thinking maybe my instrument dimmer switch has gone faulty and that is why it is blowing that fuse as soon as its put in ? (is that possible?) Car has had new handbrake cable recently so maybe that handbrake switch is faulty in some way.. will take a look.

Nice car, welcome Electrical gremlins just take time and patience. Work you're way through them one at a time and you will get there. Sounds like alot of problems, but apart from the handbrake and the dimmer pot you will only have a couple left. Club meetings are a good place to ask about other owners issues, and someone always wants to tell you about their problems so you might get useful information from them. And you might find another owner close to you who would help. Good luck.

Nice car, did you fit the roof ariel, must have been a fairly big job, as for your electrical gremlins is there not an earth screw behind the instruments which can come loose and cause wierd problems ?

Roof aerials are relatively easy, used to fit lots as a car radio fitter back in the dim & distant past.

The aerial was on it when I got it so I assume from what you say its definately not original then ? Think I will take the dash out and clean connectors and see what happens.

Would be worth stripping & cleaning the earths adjacent to the headlamp pods & on the bulkhead first as these are easier to get to.

Also pull, clean & reseat all fuses & relays.

It looks like Cobalt Blue to me.

It does look darker in them pics funny enough but its definately the turquoise colour (on v5 and original sale invoice) and looks lighter in colour than them pics. The instrument dimmer switch is blowing the number 38 fuse.. with the dimmer on low setting it doesnt but when turned up the fuse blows. Ordered a new switch so will see what happens It looks like colour below in the flesh ..

Can't help with the electrical issues but I thought the only turquoise colour for 944s was similar to mine.



Any excuse to post a picture of mine before I took it apart

Its different to that. See this link for another example...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/Sales/1586331.htm

Yeah that's the one, it changes quite a lot in different light conditions.

I don't think mine's exactly that colour but a similar one. Mine was originally black but resprayed at some point during its past of misuse and neglect.

Well I got another dimmer switch and its still the same. But now for some reason it is heating the dimmer switches up once connected (even at lowest setting) and they start to melt! No dash lights are working as are none of the heater dial lights etc and the fog lights wont work (even with working fuse 38) I took dash cluster out and cleaned/reseated connectors - no difference. Im wondering is there a resistor or something on the circuit board of the cluster not working ? Could a problem with the cluster unit cause this do you think ? All guages work on cluster just no lights. Anyone got any idea ?

Thanks.

Sounds simple but, Have you changed or checked the 3 main bulbs? That they ant 2 high a wattage? Iv just changed mine as the glass cracked, my new cluster is dimmer, less refecltion on the lights. Anyway over on reenlist there's seem. 2 be a problem with dim lighting and use off higher wattage blowing the resitor and melting the light pod basis.