Boxster 981 - Airco and heating stopped working
Discussion
b2tus said:
It has just happened to my 981b.
Car had been garaged for a while (on a CTEK) as SWMBO decided that we needed some sun and off we jetted to the Indian Ocean. Back from the sun, fired the car up yesterday morning and all was fine until I noticed the AC/heater fan was not working. All day I tried to "unstick" it but despite numerous stop/starts and flicking of the switch, no luck so put it back to bed in the garage.
Couldn't be bothered to try the DIY method and bearing in mind it is still under warranty, I decided to call Porsche Tonbridge. They recognised the problem immediately, said yes we have had others with the same problem so bring it in and we will sort it while you wait. So, off I go this morning to visit the dealer and within 200 metres of leaving home, the fan burst into life. Called the dealer who said no point in coming up now it's working and we will order a new updated fan motor today. It should be in within 3 days and we will then fit it while you wait.
Excellent service from the dealer and none of this "see if it will do it again and we will look at it". A new upgraded fan motor will be fitted under the warranty. Not sure how much these motors cost, but reckon it could be a reasonable amount towards the cost of the extended warranty.
I've had two days scheduled for the fix which have been cancelled due the unavailability of the part. Hope you have more luck - but I'll be a bit miffed if you get yours fixed before mine! I'll chase my OPC tomorrow.Car had been garaged for a while (on a CTEK) as SWMBO decided that we needed some sun and off we jetted to the Indian Ocean. Back from the sun, fired the car up yesterday morning and all was fine until I noticed the AC/heater fan was not working. All day I tried to "unstick" it but despite numerous stop/starts and flicking of the switch, no luck so put it back to bed in the garage.
Couldn't be bothered to try the DIY method and bearing in mind it is still under warranty, I decided to call Porsche Tonbridge. They recognised the problem immediately, said yes we have had others with the same problem so bring it in and we will sort it while you wait. So, off I go this morning to visit the dealer and within 200 metres of leaving home, the fan burst into life. Called the dealer who said no point in coming up now it's working and we will order a new updated fan motor today. It should be in within 3 days and we will then fit it while you wait.
Excellent service from the dealer and none of this "see if it will do it again and we will look at it". A new upgraded fan motor will be fitted under the warranty. Not sure how much these motors cost, but reckon it could be a reasonable amount towards the cost of the extended warranty.
Happened in the second week of my new Spyder ownership. The manual blower was on fully but no hot air despite running for more than an hour. It did randomly work and guessed what on the way to the dealership. However, service at Wilmslow diagnosed it to a faulty or sticky heater valve. It's a known issue and Porsche knew about this dodgy party. It happened to some new 911's as well. Any way, despite now being fixed, I still think the heater is not hot enough and doesn't pick up heat quick enough compared to say the old spyder or any other vehicle I've driven. My car was optioned with the manual air con.
b2tus said:
The new fan motor is in today and being fitted next Tuesday.
Good service by Porsche Tonbridge so far and fitting will be while I wait.
Mine's now been fitted, but given that the issue was intermittent, impossible to say definitively it's fixed. Silverstone/Towcester OPC were very good and gave me a 991.2 Carrera S Cabrio for the day (no ulterior motive?!) which was interesting. Good service by Porsche Tonbridge so far and fitting will be while I wait.
The PDK is definitely improved (1st to 2nd change in particular) and the sheer grunt was nice (subjectively far faster than my S - more than the figures would suggest). Personally (shock, horror!) prefer the turbo engine to my S engine, but not the chassis - much worse ride PASM vs PASM and more understeer (as you would expect, though hoped PTV might neutralise that). There was some turbo lag - but with PDK you had to look for it, probably more of an issue with a manual box.
Pope said:
The brushes stick within the motor; open the bonnet, lift the cover and locate the pre-filter (it curls upwards on the nearside). Lift the plastic lid that covers it and you see the fan inside - maybe need a torch. Reach in - ignition off! - and spin the fan by hand - if it's indeed stuck it will free off with a gentle twist.
This little tip fixed mine this morning, thanks 
Pope said:
The brushes stick within the motor; open the bonnet, lift the cover and locate the pre-filter (it curls upwards on the nearside). Lift the plastic lid that covers it and you see the fan inside - maybe need a torch. Reach in - ignition off! - and spin the fan by hand - if it's indeed stuck it will free off with a gentle twist.
Test system, refit covers.
The fan has been modified in the last year or so to counteract the issue
Another massive thank you to Pope for this. My car is a '16 981 Boxster GTS and I read this thread thinking that the modified part made it largely irrelevant to me. Thankfully I remembered it today when nothing would get the fan going for our overnight return journey from France. I managed 200miles with no fan (and frozen feet!) in temperatures just above freezing before a planned stop at services near Caen. 15 minutes later, with the missus holding the torch for me whilst I undid the handful of clips and "flicked" the fan, and we had heat again. Thank Christ!!! That was at 11pm last night. I don't think we'd have made it all the way home through the -3 degrees and fog without this tip.Test system, refit covers.
The fan has been modified in the last year or so to counteract the issue
As my car was one of the last Boxsters off the line I think it's clearly safe to say that this can affect any 981. Well worth remembering to get you out of trouble!
Kevin
Sir_Dave said:
Pope said:
The brushes stick within the motor; open the bonnet, lift the cover and locate the pre-filter (it curls upwards on the nearside). Lift the plastic lid that covers it and you see the fan inside - maybe need a torch. Reach in - ignition off! - and spin the fan by hand - if it's indeed stuck it will free off with a gentle twist.
This little tip fixed mine this morning, thanks Pope said:
The brushes stick within the motor; open the bonnet, lift the cover and locate the pre-filter (it curls upwards on the nearside). Lift the plastic lid that covers it and you see the fan inside - maybe need a torch. Reach in - ignition off! - and spin the fan by hand - if it's indeed stuck it will free off with a gentle twist.
Test system, refit covers.
The fan has been modified in the last year or so to counteract the issue
Hi all, had this problem over the weekend. Luckily I remembered his thread from a while back so got googling! I was already on the move when I realised the fan wasn't working. We got the cover off after removing the black trim but found the fan was too far down to reach. Luckily the other half had a wooden spoon long enough to poke into the fan blades and we got it sorted. Test system, refit covers.
The fan has been modified in the last year or so to counteract the issue
Thanks all!
If this happens to you and you don't want to do roadside "surgery", set the controls on maximum defrost. I know the fan won't work but all the valves are set for directing air to the screen and any heat from the heat exchanger will naturally rise up and do something useful. That's how we managed 200 miles before stopping. It wasn't perfect but forward visibility was adequate. Sideways visibility required use of the electric windows. Just cracking open the windows every so often helped too.
ATM said:
Sir_Dave said:
Pope said:
The brushes stick within the motor; open the bonnet, lift the cover and locate the pre-filter (it curls upwards on the nearside). Lift the plastic lid that covers it and you see the fan inside - maybe need a torch. Reach in - ignition off! - and spin the fan by hand - if it's indeed stuck it will free off with a gentle twist.
This little tip fixed mine this morning, thanks ginettajoe said:
Brilliant, had the same problem myself yesterday!! Because I hadn't used the car for 2 or 3 weeks, I thought I better take it for a run, and discovered the same problem!! Checked the fuses, and thought that it was going to be a trip to the dealership!! After reading this last night, I had it all sorted in about 5 minutes, this morning. My car is a 2014 981 Boxter S. Thanks everyone!!
If it's still under warranty I'd still get the replacement fan from your dealer. (Even if it isn't I'd see what they had to say - it's obviously a known bug).bcr5784 said:
ginettajoe said:
Brilliant, had the same problem myself yesterday!! Because I hadn't used the car for 2 or 3 weeks, I thought I better take it for a run, and discovered the same problem!! Checked the fuses, and thought that it was going to be a trip to the dealership!! After reading this last night, I had it all sorted in about 5 minutes, this morning. My car is a 2014 981 Boxter S. Thanks everyone!!
If it's still under warranty I'd still get the replacement fan from your dealer. (Even if it isn't I'd see what they had to say - it's obviously a known bug).ginettajoe said:
bcr5784 said:
ginettajoe said:
Brilliant, had the same problem myself yesterday!! Because I hadn't used the car for 2 or 3 weeks, I thought I better take it for a run, and discovered the same problem!! Checked the fuses, and thought that it was going to be a trip to the dealership!! After reading this last night, I had it all sorted in about 5 minutes, this morning. My car is a 2014 981 Boxter S. Thanks everyone!!
If it's still under warranty I'd still get the replacement fan from your dealer. (Even if it isn't I'd see what they had to say - it's obviously a known bug).My August 2015 GTS with 14k miles has been doing this regularly over the winter, so I finally got round to calling the new (ish) centre at Wolverhampton as I am working nearby this week. Called to book on Saturday, the service guy agreed without much explanation to have the car today. When I turned up this morning I asked if any new parts had been ordered and was assured they had and were on site. They then called mid morning to say it was indeed faulty and they would be fitting a new heater fan, or heater, can't remember.
Really pleasant experience and the staff were all very helpful. A white GT4 at £94 k and a 2010 GT3RS in the showroom along with quite a few other models.
They didn't even wash the car as instructed, jolly good all round and no rattles detected on the drive home either.
Really pleasant experience and the staff were all very helpful. A white GT4 at £94 k and a 2010 GT3RS in the showroom along with quite a few other models.
They didn't even wash the car as instructed, jolly good all round and no rattles detected on the drive home either.
Hugo911 said:
robj4 said:
They didn't even wash the car as instructed, jolly good all round and no rattles detected on the drive home either.
Why didn't you want the car washed?Also what's this thing about rattles? Mine is going in for rattle/squeaks that are getting worse and worse.
Re. the rattles, by good fortune my car is (touch noggin) completely rattle free, and anytime a car gets taken apart there's a good chance of introducing some..
Edited by robj4 on Wednesday 1st February 08:49
Edited by robj4 on Wednesday 1st February 08:49
robj4 said:
Re. the rattles, by good fortune my car is (touch noggin) completely rattle free, and anytime a car gets taken apart there's a good chance of introducing some..
Interesting. I learn something new every day on here! My 4 week old 997.2 is going back to OPC to rectify rattling noise. Maybe when they prepped it for sale the rattle was introduced?Hugo911 said:
robj4 said:
Re. the rattles, by good fortune my car is (touch noggin) completely rattle free, and anytime a car gets taken apart there's a good chance of introducing some..
Interesting. I learn something new every day on here! My 4 week old 997.2 is going back to OPC to rectify rattling noise. Maybe when they prepped it for sale the rattle was introduced?Gassing Station | Boxster/Cayman | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff