Cabin Interior dome light alarm motion detector on a 993 option code 520:

Done Light Sensor front & center between the sun visors

Dome Light Sensor

Dome Light Sensor internals

Review of an inexpensive touch screen Carplay and Android compatible head for a air cooled 911

 

AWESAFE CLP4A US

Summary:

• Fit of the unit in the dash is good for an older pre-1998 Porsche 911
• Audio quality is poor for music, even taking into account the noisy cabin in a 911 call
• The touchscreen interface is difficult to use due to icon sizes on the screen, low dash placement in a pre-1998 Porsche 911 and slow, inconsistent responsiveness to touch
• No connections for a rear amplifier or speakers, most cars are equipped with.

Installation impressions:
(1) The CLP4A head is always live when the ignition is on; it has no on/off switch.
(2) The screen is too small and too low to use as an alternative to the phone's map display when the phone is in a cradle near the clock.
(3) I can't seem to disable the map display function separately from the music/streaming app function.
For this reason, it can't be connected to my phone for streaming music when I want to use Google Maps on my phone's display. 
(4) I did purchase a fader control for the rear speakers.
(5) I used an aftermarket adapter between my old Alpine 16-pin plug connections to the 8-pin connector for the new unit. All the wiring colors and many of the point-to-point wiring on the adapter are wrong, so check the actual pin-to-pin connections and so I had to cut and resolder the adapter wires to map the pins correctly.
(6) I attached the antenna amplifier to the ignition switch plus wire in addition to the radio, so both are powered when the ignition is on.
(7) I attached the switched 12-volt antenna wire on the new unit to the power control wire going to the power amp, so the amp powers up when the unit is powered.
(8) The new unit has one left and one right speaker output on a 2nd 8-pin connector. I did not use these features. The outputs to the speakers are relatively low power, so I can't be sure the quality of the sound using the unit's internal power amps will be satisfactory.

AWESAFE CLP4A installed in the dash

Final Review:
The result is disappointing, and the performance is inadequate.

• Fit in the dash is good.
• Sound quality is not nearly as good as the previous Alpine head. Distortion is high enough to cause hearing fatigue at medium volumes, very disappointing. This alone is reason enough to not recommend the unit.
• Has a non-parametric equalizer but seems to have a fixed low-frequency cutoff, so DSP enhancement of the bass response is not possible.
• Touch screen sensitivity and reaction speed are not ideal, barely adequate, and annoying to use.
• When transferring display and input functions from my Android phone, I can't selectively decide what applications to access through the head vs the phone; the phone goes dark when the radio head display is live.
• This makes the use of Google Maps not feasible on the unit due to the location and size of the display. The only workaround is to decouple the phone from the head entirely. This precludes streaming audio or using the head's hands-free phone function at the same time as Google Maps on the phone display.

Future plans:

Alpine UTE-73BT

• I will be replacing the head with the latest Alpine UTE-73BT single-DIN radio head.
• https://www.alpine-usa.com/product/ute-73bt
• Where all controls remain on the phone, and the hands-free calls and audio are played through the radio head using a Bluetooth connection to the phone.

Andy

Idle adjustment for modified intake or chipped ECU cars via altering the Idle Stabilization / Control Valve

 

911/993/964 Cup holder options:

Porsche Dealer Offering

Sleepers Speedshop Cup Holder 
https://sleepers-speed-shop.shoplightspeed.com/sleepers-cup-holder.html

Fast-Ind two cup Offering

Rennline Adjustable Seat Mounted Cup Holder 

https://www.rennline.com/rennline-seat-mounted-adjustable-cup-holder-sku-sa05-06/

CNC ALUMINUM CUP HOLDER
https://www.autoatlanta.com/Cnc-Aluminum-Cup-Holder-For-Porsche-911-1965-98-Parts-PN-RAIR1.html

magnetic-seat-rail style 
https://classicmotorshop.com/products/cupholder-porsche-modelle-1980-1996

Rinashi cupholder 
https://i0.wp.com/rinashi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DSC08179_optimized_250-e1720027992462.jpg?fit=750%2C420&ssl=1

Amazon offering.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=porsche+993+cup+holder+insert

Prestige Parts Center Console Cup Holder
https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/PELCH964.htm

Aftermarket Keyless Entry for most any 911 equipped with central locking!

 

Since the 911 with the Central Locking feature already has door lock actuators adding remote entry fobs to these cars is exceedingly easy.

Please read this entire document before moving forward with this installation.

 Any Remote Entry Fob kit available on Amazon or other sources includes features such as an alarm that can be used. None of these additional features need to be implemented for installing remote entry, greatly reducing the complexity of the installation. Since the remote fob feature-only installation does not interfere with any other system in the car including an old dead or unused alarm/fob system nothing in the car needs to be modified/disabled or removed to install this update.

All these kits can be configured in various ways so read the instructions with the kit purchased.

For all these kits there are usually only 4 wires connections that need to be made for Remote Entry:

• A ground wire to a chassis ground;
• Two wires one each to be attached to each side of the central locking rocker switch on the console;
• A constant hot wire to the battery, easily obtained running to the radio Block A Pin 4: +12Vconstant (red). If you plan to put the remote fob control module under a seat the alternate constant hot wire can be picked up there. See the below section on this. Also here is a page discussing how to remove a seat without drama. 

Other aspects of the installation:

• There may be some dipswitch or other configuring of the kit to make the installation operate correctly.
• When placing the control module's antenna wire consider positioning it so its radio reception is maximized. The factory runs the wire antenna up the "A" pillar. That is the windshield frame on the driver's side of the car.

If the plan is to place the Remote Entry control module under a seat:

The heated seat circuit uses an easily accessible connection point. Its under-seat connection plug is designed to be disassembled to add a wire soldered to Pin "2". This pin is the hot (+) pin for heated seats internal to the seat's connection plug. When soldering to the pin, completely remove it from the plug housing to avoid melting the plug during soldering.

On my 1996 USA Left-Hand Drive Carrera, this approach uses fuse #25 in the fuse box in the frunk. The fuse is likely already present even if the heated seat option is not installed in your car.  

WARNING the above information about fuse location in the fuse box may be different for Right Hand Drive cars and cars delivered to countries other than the USA so for cars delivered outside the US check the label in the fuse box on the specific car.

If you found this page informative return to the main page and bookmark it for future 993-related servicing, repair, and upgrading guidance & information. If it saved you some time, aggravation or even some coin consider a donation through the button on the top left margin of this page.

Bumper Sticker

 

Jonny Retrofit speaks about the dual fan/alternator belt system on a 993

https://www.classicretrofit.com/en-us/pages/about

Ok, I'll chime in here. As we [Classic Retrofit] develop high output alternators, we always pay close attention to the belt temperature and slip. Although we recommend a serpentine for running our units at high loads, I did want to find out what causes the alternator belt on the double belt setup to fail. The short answer is heat and belt speed.

These tests were done with a high output unit producing 80 - 90A. When the car is driven, the engine fan serves to cool the belts and even with a high load you will rarely see the belt temperature above 70 deg C (measured with an IR gun). When you stop, however, the temperature in the engine bay rises and the cooling effect is less so the belt temp climbs. The belts are good for about 80 deg C but in traffic, on a summers day, after a fast run I have seen over 100 deg C which is beyond the temperature rating of the belt. Now, in this condition the worst thing you can do is switch the car off. When you do that the hot belt will take a 'set' to the pulleys - if you take it off the next day you will find it is no longer round but egg shaped like the pulleys. So, you start the car, the battery demands some charge and the belt shreds itself in the first few minutes of the drive.

We converted over to the Turbo pulleys and they are 'better' but still we shredded the alternator belt eventually so I started to look into this a bit closer as we never have belt issues with older 911's running the single belt. The problem is that the 993/964 pulley drive ratio is something like 2.6 times the crank speed whereas the 911 is only 1.8. This seems ridiculously high and puts a lot strain on the belt as 1) it is turning fast and 2) it has minimal contact area around the small circumference . What to do?

I noticed that for some reason the recommended size alternator belt rides very low in the pulley compared to the fan belt. Just look at Jlaa's picture above. Why is the belt so low in the pulley? They all seem to do this (even with the correct length Porsche belt) - it doesn't seem right.

I ended up buying a Gates belt that is 3mm longer than standard. With this belt, when shimmed, it sits in the top of the pulley (like the fan belt does). This gives the belt more contact area around the circumference and also slows the alternator down. No problems so far.

belt

belts

shredding

dual

9mm

pulley 

update

993 Paint Codes Interior Codes, Color, Leather & Vinyl

 

Here is a compilation of option, paint, and other codes if you did not find what you are looking for above.

If you found this page informative return to the main page and bookmark it for future 993-related servicing, repair, and upgrading guidance & information. 

#Paint

#Codes

#interior

Paint Codes

Interior Codes

Leather

Vinyl

Working with fasteners on your 993/964 or really any series of Porsche.

Early in my career, I worked at a large industrial distributor doing catalog photo work. It was a fastener house among other things. The fastener testing lab was right next to my studio where the engineer there and I became friends doing technical & instructional materials. As a consequence, I became somewhat familiar with how fasteners work. Some of the anecdotal things I learned along the way documenting fastener failures apply to servicing one's Porsche.

A bit of nomenclature:

A cap screw is only called a bolt when it is used in conjunction with a nut. Otherwise, it is called a cap screw, socket head cap screw, or hex head cap screw for example.

Steel is actually very elastic, much like a rubber band. A successful installation of a cap screw has to do with it being stretched by applying installation torque into its elastic range,. In most applications, it should only be stretched to the point where if released it will return to its original length. To ensure this, torque values are specified for various fastener grades & sizes, and application combinations. 

 If installed within this range and the forces applied to the joint do not exceed the clamp load supplied by the installed fastener it will generally not come loose over time. If stretched beyond this point at installation or the joint is subjected to cycling forces beyond its clamping ability it begins to lose clamping force and is subject to failure. This is one of the reasons why torque values are specified for fastener joints on our cars. For our cars, almost every fastener joint has a factory installation torque value specified.

Both an under-torqued or over-torqued fastener invites its failure. Under torqued capscrews will invite loosening from load cycling and will fail. Over torquing will result in stretching the fastener where it loses some of its claiming ability and will also fail.

A stretched Cap screw

Many joints held by fasteners in our cars are in material that is too soft to bring the faster into its elastic range. In such cases, things such as a thread locking compound or lock washers are used to keep the fastener from coming loose. An example in our cars is the steering rack mount where the steel fasteners are threaded into soft aluminum. A very low torque value is specified and a locking compound is pre-applied to the fastener intended to keep the joint from loosening. This is probably why the factory does not recommend reusing these fasteners as the compound may have become compromised.

A lower grade capscrew has a lower capacity for clamp loading
and so a lower installation torque value. However, it generally has a broader elastic range than a higher strength (grade) one and so is more forgiving as to the exact torque applied when mounting them. This is why in many applications where a failure would be catastrophic many times the engineer specifies multiple lower grade fasteners versus fewer higher strength (grade) fasteners to achieve a desired total clamping capacity. 

Three Grades of Cap Screws

A Fastener clamp load
testing machine

Similar thinking is likely applied to our cars when it comes to wheel mounting. A five-bolt pattern where each wheel nut is torqued to 96 foot-pounds of torque is used on the wheels intended for street use whereas a single center locking attachment fastener mounted with an astounding 442 foot-pounds of torque is used in certain racing applications. Center lock wheels create a single point of attachment and so a single point of failure and so must be mounted very carefully with properly calibrated torquing tools, using specific lubricants, inspected often, and worn attachment components replaced regularly to avoid catastrophic failure. This is not practical or achievable in a typical retail servbicing or tire shop. 

This also suggests when one returns home from a retail servicing/tire shop where the wheels have been removed one can consider loosening the wheel nuts and retorquing them in a star sequence at home with a known good click style torque wrench to ensure their proper mounting.  For dry wheel studs & nuts on a 993 the wheel mounting studs should be tightened to a torque value of 130Nm or  96 ft-lb.

A general-purpose click-stop torq wrench can generally be accurate within +/- 4% between 20% to 80% of its torque setting range and is less accurate at the ends of its torque setting range. The accuracy of a given new wrench is usually listed in its documentation. To retain its accuracy its adjustment vernier should be unscrewed to the low side of its value range to release its internal spring's loading during storage and occasionally tested and calibrated.

Depositing skin oils on a cap screw's dry threads by simply touching them will profoundly influence the clamping load produced for a given applied torque value. This is why torque values are specified for dry or lubed threads and for critical applications the threads need to be cleaned before using the torque wrench with dry value specifications.

Typical Torque Cart for Lubed/Dry Fasteners  

Washer tech:

A minute scratch on the fillet radius where the head of a capscrew meets the shank profoundly weakens the fastener by providing a propagation point for a head failure (pop-off)

Washers have a top and a bottom, the top being smooth

bottom having rough stamped edges. If a washer is put with the bottom facing the cap screw head it can score the fillet radius where it meets the fastener head and significantly weaken the fastener.

On our cars, a critical joint, where having the washer faced up under the capscrews ( 900-119-030-02) are the screws holding the front seats down. If the washers are placed with the sharp face faced up under the capscrews it can seriously compromise the attachment of the seats.

Here is a page that discusses removing and reinstalling the front seats.

When one gets older their head fills up with experience-based information like the above, approaching yield strength and one has to be careful about scratching their neck or their head might just pop off!
Andy

If you found this page informative return to the main page and bookmark it for future 993-related servicing, repair, and upgrading guidance & information.

How to remove the bushings from an "A" (lower control) arms without drama.

When rebuilding the front suspension "A" arms on a 993 removing the old bushings can be a real bear of a job. Traditionally a hack saw is used to cut through the bushing's outer tube that is pressed into the "A" arm casting. Then I ran across this approach, using a puller to remove the  "A" arm bushings. I wonder why I never came across this before? 

Here is the video:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/211727354790398

Dual Distributor Ventilation kit TSB 9403 1989 964 & Forward

Dealer kit 000.043.202.52 & Porsche Technical Service Bulletin (TSB). The sparks made under the rotor cap create ozone that attacks the dual distributor's internal rubber belt. The added hose kit moves just enough air through the distributor housing to keep the ozone level down. 

In the metal side of the primary distributor is an oblong hole that may or may not have a plastic plug seal in it. To install pry the plug seal out and snap the hose adapter into the hole then attach the hose to it. The other end of the hose attaches to a nipple in the heater ductwork leading from the engine compartment blower. 

This modification should be present on the later 993.

Vacuum Lines & Hoses

 The 993 engine has a vast network of hoses and vacuum lines to it. Here is some information that may help one find there way to where to reattach that loose vacuum line or hose.

Don't replace the ABS pump so fast!

Folks seem to have the habit of pointing their finger at the most expensive and messy part to replace first as a root cause of a problem with their 993/964. This seems to include the ABS pump.

I have a theory that in the case of what appears to be a non-functioning ABS without any On-Board Diagnostic Codes (OBDC) thrown, a pair of faulty wheel sensors that don't signal may result in what appears to be a pump not functioning. When both are faulty or not in position correctly and are not sending a signal to the controller, perhaps, the controller may think the car is simply not rolling.

Wheel Sensor
in Position

Wheel Sensor Replacement Part

What led me to this theory is I once had a left front wheel sensor OBD fault code that I ignored for a long while as it didn't cause a check engine light (CEL), make the car unsafe to drive and it subsequently simply disappeared.  

Subsequently, the ABS seemed to not kick in so I replaced the relays and checked all the fuses, and from their left things alone as I wasn't prepared to mess with the ABS pump. It got me thinking as to where did the fault go? Then I hit upon the idea that if both sensors were not signaling the ABS controller would think the car is at rest without either wheel turning and so the controller's diagnostics saw no functional problem. I have not gotten around to testing this theory by replacing both of the front wheel sensors but eventually, I will. So, for now, it is just a theory however one that is worth taking into account before contemplating replacing or servicing the very expensive ABS pump.

If one's ABS pump is not working I would test the wheel end sensors to check their position and clean their connections before diving deep into the pump. Also, it seems to me that applying 12 volts to the pump and seeing if it runs may be a good test of the pump. It can also be actuated by some OBD readers however using a reader is also testing any control circuit/relay along with the pump.
Ultimately the 993 pumps can be cleaned or rebuilt if needed.

If you found this page informative return to the main page and bookmark it for future 993-related servicing, repair, and upgrading guidance & information. If it saved you some coin consider a donation through the button on the top left margin of this page.

Climate Control Unit (CCU) Knobs and Repair Parts

CCU Part Numbers:

993 659 047 00, 993 659 047 01, 993 659 048 00, 993 659 048 01, 993 659 047 00, 993 659 047 01

993 659 048 00, 993 659 048 01, 993.659.047.00, 993.659.047.01, 993.659.048.00, 993.659.048.01

993 659 047 00, 993 659 047 01, 993 659 048-00, 993 659 048 01

 CCU Switch Part Numbers:

944-653-205-00-01C Slide Knob

964-659-146-00-01C Fan Switch Knob 

944-653-208-00-01C Temperature Switch Knob

944-653-922-00 A/C Switch

944-653-921-00 Defroster/Recirculation Switch

The below switch seems to not be available as a specific part number from Porsche or Bosch any longer. However, Tore at Berggvill F/X offers a replacement at:
https://mailchi.mp/bergvillfx/is-it-time-for-fixing-the-ccu-front-panel

Faceplate 993-659-147-00-1DB,Supersedes Part Number(s): 964-659-945-00

964-659-148-00 Sensor Fan See the "What is that buzzing behind the dash?" section on this page.

Also if your CCU doesn't seem able to control one of the HVAC servomotors, after you have verified the motor works correctly Tore at Bergvill F/X offers the following:

https://www.bergvillfx.com/products/tca-2465-servodriver-ic