2006 Cayman S Not Starting (Video)

[Doug&Julie]

So my beloved Cayman S isn't starting. It has been sitting for about a week and a half after a full week of driving w/o any problems. I did kinda feel the starter was struggling a bit the last time I drove it, but thought maybe it was the cold. Anywho...the non-start for this car is very unusual to me, so I thought I'd shoot a video of what it's doing.



Note when I turn the switch the lights flash but nothing mechanical seems to happen. When I took this video, the passenger side window actually went up and down with the pulsing of the lights. Strange. The driver's side window automatically lowered it's 1/2" and stayed there. I get a couple of error notes on the dash...ABS Fail and PSM Fail, I think.

Electrics seem to turn on fine, so I'm thinking starter over battery, but with all this weirdness I thought I get some opinions here.

Thanks in advance!

[Meirschwartz]

Looks like dead battery or bad ignition switch.
Assuming that you checked it ,and The battery is fully charged, then it's the switch.
If it was a starter issue, the lights in the cluster wouldn't have flash.
The crazy behavior of the window just support this theory.
Let's see what's the rest of the gang think.

[Doug&Julie]

I need to get a new battery tester tonight so I can check the battery. Let's hope it's just that. I guess I thought it wouldn't be the battery with so many electronics still working. But reading Wayne's book I guess batteries can fail at different rates...allowing some (most?) electronics to work.

[KCinBR]

I would check the battery. A while back I left the key in my 05 boxster for a couple of days and It killed the battery, key not turned on just sticking in the switch. when I tried to start, it was doing really screwy things.


New battery = cheap fix.

good luck.

[Doug&Julie]

Got a new voltage meter and...9.94v. So that's a dead battery then. Well I feel a little stupid...

[randy_k]

Originally Posted by Doug&Julie

Got a new voltage meter and...9.94v. So that's a dead battery then. Well I feel a little stupid...

Ya but nice video! At least you have that going for ya. Glad you figured it out.

[Doug&Julie]

Ha! Thanks. I've never had a dead battery issue look like this. Very unusual to me. Guess I'm older than I thought.

[Doug&Julie]

OK so we replaced the battery and it fired right up. PSM error messages are gone and everything seems to be working fine...except the heated seats. Neither of them work now. I thought maybe we blew a fuse when replacing the battery? ..but of course I can't find the fuse for heated seats. The list has seat controls and memory seat controls, but nothing specifically for heated seats. Any ideas? Maybe I'll start a new thread...

[paulv]

Originally Posted by Doug&Julie

OK so we replaced the battery and it fired right up. PSM error messages are gone and everything seems to be working fine...except the heated seats. Neither of them work now. I thought maybe we blew a fuse when replacing the battery? ..but of course I can't find the fuse for heated seats. The list has seat controls and memory seat controls, but nothing specifically for heated seats. Any ideas? Maybe I'll start a new thread...

Doug,

Looking at the Mitchell wiring diagram for my 07 Box, the fuse that feeds the controller for the seat heaters also is for the wiper/washer. Sounds like there's a fault code stored in the controller that needs to be cleared -- know someone with a Durametric or PIWIS? BTW the fuse is F2 (80 A).

Regards,
paul...

[Doug&Julie]

Awesome, thanks. I've got a co-worker that I believe has a code reader. Meantime I'll double check the fuses you mentioned.

[Doug&Julie]

So just to finish up here (and on the other thread), I checked all the fuses (which were fine) then kinda chickened out on the reboot technique, so ended up paying our dealership to do it "properly". All is well now...