Porsche: Inspection

Ahh...the beginning of Spring Break here at MIT. Only about half of the regulars were here, but it made it much easier to get a concentrated project completed. With the new plates in hand, Joey and Jacob took over putting on the new plates while I stuck my head below the dashboard to try to figure out which wires were headed from the washer switch to the front compartment. Roberto went in search of tubing and taking care of the fittings for the water side of the windshield washer.

We traced the wires to the front of the vehicle, and not surprisingly to the windshield wiper motor. There was only one and it was connected to each wiper with a 4-bar linkage.

The electrical connections for the wiper motor. I thought there would be fewer wires.

The washer pump went in easily enough, but we had to improvise on the washer reservoir. The reservoir we purchased would have required extra fittings, and we were running out of time; so we used a water bottle and went off to the inspection station. As we drove, I wonder how far we had come from the previous group which used a pressurized bottle for the reservoir.

Into the inspection station. Note the EV license plate.

As we got to the inspection station, we failed almost immediately. Something happened between the time I shut down the vehicle in the parking spot, and turning it back on a few minutes later. The horn, signals, lights, and windshield wipers didn't work at all. It was like they weren't getting power. Heads hung low, we drove back to the shop and started brainstorming what happened.

After 45 minutes, we decided to check the low voltage fuses, and found one that was most definitely blown. I posted in July about fuses, and I should have recognized the symptoms earlier. I still don't know why there were so many systems drawing from that one fuse.

Most definitely blown, but an easy fix.

After changing the fuse, we set off again. Since the inspection station wanted the last car to be in by 5 pm, and closed at 6 pm; we were able to fit in at 5:20 since we were there earlier.

This time we passed, with the only closing note being that we should change our wiper blades since the blades were smearing rather than clearing.

On the way back to the shop, we stopped and I asked a good friend (Kaitlin) if she could take a picture since we were the only three still around the shop at the time. Michelle (in the background) is an alum who helps to provide some sanity to all the nutty things that Roberto and I dream up.

Success!

With the title, registration, and inspection in hand, this process began with a thought in June 2013 and work began in July 2013. I can't thank the team enough for keeping me going to press through with getting this process done. The Mechanical Engineering department gave us some much needed help to help us climb Mt. Washington in September 2013, and that experience helped us to build the camaraderie and team skills we needed to make progress through the fall and to this point. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank Sandra Lipnoski from the Edgerton Center, for helping me through the administrative process, and always reminding me to make copies of important documents.