Our new Porsche PIWIS III diagnostics systems and PIWIS III tester arrived at the end of December. We’ve been enjoying the huge increase in speed and agility offered by the latest Porsche systems and reaping the benefits of our Porsche PXN access and daily software updates.
“PXN stands for Porsche (e)Xternal Network,” says JZM technical director, Steve McHale. “This means that our new machines log in to the main Porsche factory network and have access to all the latest technical updates and coding capabilities. It is impossible to work on Porsche’s very latest cars without this technology.”
JZM has invested in factory training and official diagnostic technology since 1973, when Steve did his first official Bosch training course. Since then, we have maintained a close relationship with the technical team at Reading and regularly attend the manufacturer’s courses. Two of our team went for training on the new PIWIS III system.
“Porsche tell us that JZM is the only specialist on the UK mainland using PIWIS III. That’s not a huge surprise when you consider the costs involved,” says Steve. “It’s easy to buy some second-hand manuals, watch a few DIY videos online and start selling yourself as a Porsche specialist, dealing only with air-cooled and early 996s, but the newer cars are so technically sophisticated that it is impossible to do anything without having the proper technology to talk to every ECU. This costs money that small operations simply do not have. Our technical partnership with Porsche goes back decades, so it is something we have always factored into our business.”
A good example of how important this is to JZM was a recent repair to a 991 Turbo. These cars have active rear wheel steering, which is controlled by an ECU: one for each side. A bodyshop repairing damage to a 991 Turbo had changed a damaged rear steering arm, but there was no way to tell the car what had happened, so the car was showing all kinds of errors. We had to recode the entire car to let it know that something had been replaced.
PIWIS III brings serious computing power to Porsche diagnostics, so much so that the older cars including late 997s simply do not talk to the system quickly enough and have to be reset manually. Newer cars have a lightning-fast onboard network, saving valuable hours in diagnostics when problems arise. This new system is incredibly quick and automatically downloads daily software updates from the factory. If something pops up that we’ve not seen before, we can send the data to Reading and on to the factory until we get a solution. We also see at a glance whether a car has had all of its recall campaign updates applied.
We’re delighted with the new systems and are pleased to offer the Porsche PXN service to all of our customers at no extra charge above our regular fixed-price servicing. Contact service@jzm.south.co.uk to discuss your Porsche maintenance needs.
