Part 1: Why you or your mechanic must have PIWIS III
Porsche Tester Piwis III is a diagnostic and maintenance tool developed by the factory. It stands for Porsche Integrated Workshop Information System. Porsche dealer technicians can use this tool to perform various diagnostic and repair functions on your car. There are 3 generations of testers. I think the original tester can handle vehicles before 2014, PIWIS II can handle cars before 2017 (inclusive), and the current PIWIS III can handle all cars including 2020. . Naturally, if your car is under warranty, you do not need this tool. Let the dealer deal with any problems that arise. However, if your Porsche is not covered by the warranty, please be careful, your dealer will charge a crazy high hourly wage, our current hourly wage is $ 269, and you will be charged the full retail cost. Go to the dealer for brakes and he will quote you a price of $ 4,000. You can pay $ 600 by yourself and $ 900 using factory parts. Do I need to replace the oxygen sensor? There are 4 cars on Porsche, and the dealer will quote you $ 1,200, and then recommend replacing them in pairs, so now your price is $ 2,400. A quick search on Rockauto.com shows that you can buy a Bosch OEM O2 sensor for $ 60. Fortunately, replacing the 02 sensor does not require PIWIS, but the role of the rear rotor after braking is the same as previously found. As many of you have pointed out, if you are a member of Porsche PPN, you can only rent PIWIS from Porsche. Porsche partner network. Your local store can apply to become a member, and then pay $ 18,000 for testers in the first year and $ 12,000 annually thereafter. Few shops will pay to repair a car. Fortunately, our friends in China cloned PIWIS. Since you have not connected to the PPN, there are some errors and it will not be updated, but the function has been disabled in Chinese, and the function will tell the interface tool to check with the factory whether it is legal. What is it, it is basically a PC with some additional software and a special interface between the car and the PC. PIWIS II is a Windows PC based on Vista. Chinese has been improved, SSDs have been added, and some have updated operating systems. Windows 7, but I do not recommend using this version. I have n’t seen PIWIS III yet, so I do n’t know if it is still a Windows PC. Both versions have built-in multimeter functions, but the Chinese version of PIWIS 2 does not come with these cables. PIWIS III has a built-in multimeter and oscilloscope, and comes with a cable. You can see the PIWIS II interface online, the price is 369 US dollars, but it does not contain the necessary software. Purchase the entire device for $ 769, including PC, software, interface, and car connection cable. PIWIS III is priced at US $ 1999, lower than last year ’s US $ 6500. Take this website as an example to understand the complexity of the cloning market. You cannot tell the difference between factory tools and cloning tools. Now why do you or your mechanic need one? Okay, this is something you can do without one
Replace spark plug and ignition coil. (The engine module is self-calibrating and will automatically learn new parts)
Replace the front rotor and brake pads
Replace the switch,
Replace washing machine, wiper, window motor, door lock
Replace most engine sensors
Change your own oil (but you will not be able to reset the maintenance interval)
Change the differential oil
Replace the battery (but you will not be able to tell you the car you changed)
Replace the bulb
You can perform the following basic operations that require PIWIS
Replace the rear rotor
Replace any suspension parts
Replace seat motor
Replacement of any control module (27 of them) requires the VIN code of the car
Replace the battery and record the changes with the gateway module
Reset service interval
Change the PDK oil (actually the PDK oil can be changed without PIWIIS. It is very simple to change the oil. If you replace the PDK filter, you may need it. You may need PIWIS to change the oil because the oil temperature is monitored) V8 needs to cool the oil to a certain temperature in order to drain all the oil in the cooler. V6 hopes to reach a certain temperature to check the oil level during the recharge process. In both cases, it may drive to reach a temperature of ten miles).
Replace the headlight assembly that is not a light bulb
Replacing the clock spring (will require a password that only dealers can obtain, but you can buy it from Chinese
Most importantly, as many of you have discovered, it is nearly impossible to diagnose repair issues without one. The Durametric device just doesn’t come close to providing the information you need and many of the error code labels it provides are simply wrong and will lead you changing parts that don’t need changing. At $769 which is less than 3 hours labor, you can see everything a dealer can see about your car. I have a 2 and I’m going to a 3. If anyone is interested, I can try to post a video of the PIWIS II. It has a simulation mode for training purposes which is helpful. There are 4 programs in the PIWIS, the diagnostic, which is the main program for service, a wiring diagram program, a fault finding program which I haven’t found to be useful running offline and the multimeter function.
If you can share one with a buddy or some Porsche meetup groups that would be ideal. My recommendation, don’t let anyone do repairs on your car that doesn’t have one.
Here are some basic pictures
This is a Porsche PIWIS II which was originally on a Panasonic toughbook shown here
The menu options
This is the unit going into the diagnostic program and it shows a picture of the interface.
Parking brake module extended Identifications. This is where you can change the VIN on a used part or add it for a new part
Part 2: Why you need one piwis III instead of piwis II?
For the newest Porsche model after 2017 year (i.e 2018 Macan), requires Porsche Tester Piwis III;
For the older Porsche model (i.e a 99 Boxster), don’t need the newest version, then piwis 2 is okay.
Question: As I’m researching this myself, given that you don’t have a model year that requires it, what is driving you to upgrade from piwis II, to piwis III? Is it just this: “The PIWIS III tester has a built in multimeter and oscilloscope and the cables are included.”, or other factors that you can note here, for reference?
Reply:
I also have a 2018 Macan that requires the piwis3. I hope to help people in my community and I also plan to rebuild another. I’m excited my PIWIS III arrives tomorrow. I will review after I test it out. I have PSM module arriving Saturday that will need the module replacement procedure.
An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I had just received my PIWIS III and was going to use it to change out the PSM module and before I did I had it run a full diagnostic. At the time I didn’t realize that the unit was in development mode. My PIWIS 2 would only show one code, a faulty recirculation servomotor which I have struggled to physically change due to its location. When the diagnostic was complete two things happened; one I realized it was in development mode since all the responses were in German (in development mode the menus can be changed to English but the responses from the modules appear in German) And two there were more error codes. After having Google translate the German responses I discover that the b piller servomotors were mechanically jammed. It also found a fault in the brake light switch which was working properly. I switched the unit to after sales mode( the dealer mode) and those codes weren’t there Then I used the unit to monitor the servomotors in question. What I discovered was that they were indeed not moving from 0 to 100. After finally figuring out where they were located (under the front seats) I pulled one out and took it apart and the motor shaft was seized. Un seizing it didn’t do enough to fix it so I ordered 3(one for the recirc). Anyways the point is that developers mode not only tested the motors it tried to run them from stop to stop which normal mode does not. The brake light switch after checking the voltage while pressing on the switch was showing only 7 volts so it was partially shorted something else missed by the regular mode. If you have mysterious issues with no codes and have access to Porsche tester, try running it in development or engineering mode as it is sometimes called, and see if it reveals any new codes.
Question:
Do you know if it is possible to activate the rear DRL and the LED Matrix headlamps with the PIWIS III?
Answer:
activation codes are not included with the tester. You can add them if you have them but this is an online programming function and the dealer must pay Porsche for the options that he installed. When he sends a work order to Porsche he receives the activation codes then enters them into the PIWIS. Now there are some Russians who have hacked porches codes and will sell you an activation code for new options. I haven’t tried them but I did pay $125 for my original activation codes so I code reprogram a pcm and a new clock spring.
Question: PIWIS III clone or original, which one should i buy?
Answer:
I recall now that I encountered a Chinese PIWIS at a local “indy” shop. I had my Turbo in there in Sep. of 2019 to get new O2 sensors installed and the tech — recently from the local Porsche dealer I use — was there and after the sensors were replaced he grabbed what looked like a PIWIS but when I expressed surprise that an indy shop would own one he told me it wasn’t the real thing but a Chinese clone. He said it worked pretty good.
Question:
PIWIS Chinese knock-off is way too expensive for me and offers no online updates. Is it true?
Answer: No. It depends on where you buy one Diagnostic Tools Piwis 3, this one comes with U disk update tool and allows user to update online:
Enjoy!
Leave a Reply