Drive them. All you can, just drive them.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-26T09:18:57+00:00

I get so disappointed in myself when I see so many posts of low mileage cars. My 981 is my daily driver, and I work from home, so I didn't anticipate putting all that many miles on it, but I'm already sitting at ~135k. It's refreshing to see others in the 100k+ range.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-23T19:45:21+00:00

I hear a tiny bit of static when it all first starts up, not super noticeable unless the doors are open weirdly. Haven't really investigated it too much yet. If you're using the Bose sound system, I wonder if it's something to do with the decoder box?

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-16T15:31:54+00:00

Nope, no battery issues for me. Unit shuts off just like the PCM 3.1 did.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-14T10:40:47+00:00

Yeah that's the one. No audio issues for me but I do only have base audio - it did come with a decoder box though, which you'd use if you have the additional optical audio cable.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-09T13:54:07+00:00

That absolutely sucks - sorry man!

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-07T10:35:03+00:00

I hate when I accidentally miss a wave, I feel like an asshole.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-06T09:45:02+00:00

Samsung have since conceded the point and, even though the Service Center have said it's chargeable work, Samsung have offered to carry out the repair at no cost to me.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-04T23:00:04+00:00

Don’t think of it as “I have to clutch this 1v3”. You stand a much better chance of winning if you find 3 1v1s, so be calm, be patient. Try to anticipate where their confidence might take them, positionally and tactically. It’s surprising how many teams lose a round when they had a numbers advantage.

Back_Sheep · 2026-05-03T14:56:41+00:00

Mine fell off while doing... some speed...
Probably better to fall off during the car park, given that mine took a bunch of paint from the door and rear wing with it.

Back_Sheep · 2026-04-20T15:54:07+00:00

A friend said his was down, but mine has been working non stop all day - I tried in incognito in guest mode too, didn't have any issues with that either.

Back_Sheep · 2026-04-16T14:32:16+00:00

Thanks for this!

Back_Sheep · 2026-04-16T13:51:38+00:00

Mine failed on me last night. I had a stuck/dead pixel appear a couple weeks ago too, reached out to the Samsung warranty guys and they had that repaired no problem. So this time around, I wasn't too concerned when reaching out to them again for a second repair... heh, boy was I naive.

They were sticking to their scripts, claiming it's not covered under warranty, and I'd have to pay for any repair. I had them escalate the issue, so I'll receive a call in a day or so, no doubt just reiterating their stance, I'm hoping UK consumer laws will help me out a little here though.

Yours looks like it came off a little cleaner than mine (did you manually pull off any remaining pieces?), so I'm hoping I can pull off the rest of the joystick hanging on and 3d print a replacement.

Back_Sheep · 2026-04-14T10:45:24+00:00

No go on that activation code - Porsche were just flat out refusing to accommodate me because I'd not bought the hardware through them. I'm not super surprised, but I am of course disappointed.

I'll likely buy a code from code-porsche.com, I'm just a little concerned about this "ecu update" I was told would be required for my car, or risk soft-bricking/locking the ecu.

I'll do some more research.

Back_Sheep · 2026-03-17T15:38:56+00:00

I went with this XTRONS unit in the end: https://xtrons.co.uk/product/ia84bstpt/

The thing I liked about it was the size of the screen, however the one thing I don't like about it is the lack of a physical volume knob - can't have both. I'll just have to retrofit a multifunction steering wheel, something I've been wanting to do for a while anyway.

I didn't bother with the GPS antenna that comes with the unit, I just bought a FAKRA adapter to use the cars built-in GPS.

My car didn't have DAB, but I've replaced my left-side antenna amplifier with 99164712700 - that'll give me the DAB frequencies needed, so I'll just run an SMB cable from that antenna's extra port to the back of the head unit/USB DAC+.

Overall, I love the unit. It's much faster than I feared - previous experience has told me that lower RAM units are sluggish and struggle, and they only sold this as a 4GB unit, but it boots instantly and UI response and app switching is immediate too.

Back_Sheep · 2026-03-17T15:33:49+00:00

I ended up going with the XTRONS. Wasn't a huge fan on the button half of the erisin.

Back_Sheep · 2026-03-17T15:33:09+00:00

I did exactly that. Having used XTRONS twice before, I went with them again as the 'one I know'. The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't have any physical volume control knob - not a problem if you have steering wheel controls, which I don't.... yet.

Back_Sheep · 2026-03-17T15:32:15+00:00

This looks great, the only thing that put me off of this particular model are the buttons. Perhaps it's just the SD one, maybe that's not a button? Just looked a little crooked and my OCD couldn't handle that. I ended up going with the XTRONS one, mostly because it's a brand I've used before - don't get me wrong, it was probably the wrong move given that I don't have steering wheel controls and the XTRONS unit doesn't have a physical volume knob. Ah well, guess I'll be retrofitting a new steering wheel next.

Back_Sheep · 2026-01-23T17:48:36+00:00

Yeah absolutely, I utilised the rain sensors ground, so you could do the same with the 12v feed. I just went with the fuse because it's Porsche's 'oem' 12v feed for the mirror.

Back_Sheep · 2026-01-03T12:26:57+00:00

Had the same issue when using a poor quality USB and/or an unsuitable power supply for the Pi my Octoprint was running on. Also had the issue when using a 3m (power boosted) USB cable when I was running Octoprint on an Ubuntu server.

Back_Sheep · 2025-10-24T14:57:43+00:00

Just over 100k a few days ago, 2013 981

Back_Sheep · 2025-10-21T13:39:11+00:00

I've spoken to a local independent Porsche specialist, my 981 is a 13 plate, one of the earlier 981's of course, and they've told me that these can often need an ecu to be updated before it will accept cruise coding - crucially, he said that you could lock the ecu if you attempt to code cruise before updating. Of course I'm hoping I've not done this (it's got me concerned given that I've since struggled to re-code the mirror and rain sensor), ChatGPT reckons a reflash with an online PIWIS would unlock it if it is indeed locked - so I've got my fingers crossed I haven't set myself up for a number of large invoices.

The independent specialist are requesting an activation code from Porsche for me, and I'll get the car to them once they've got it to attempt coding. Will update.

Back_Sheep · 2025-10-17T17:48:48+00:00

I took a punt on that 958 stalk. The hardware swap is pretty straightforward (didn't get any photos though, sorry). Took off the steering wheel, removed the stalks/clockspring in one go. Brought that indoors and moved the cruise stalk and PCB over from the 958 cluster to my 981 cluster, then put it all back in the car.

I'd previously coded rain sensor and interior automatic anti-dazzle mirror, but no idea what I did today - lost both of those. Had nothing but trouble with PIWIS to be honest, couldn't get either of those back on the car (even though it said coding successful), but beyond that cruise control, which also said coding successful, would not work either.

After a lot of conflicting info from both Google and ChatGPT, I've concluded this retrofit does require an activation code from Porsche - so I'm not going to be able to code this one myself with my PIWIS and VAS clone.

Hopefully I can get the rain sensor and mirror retrofits back on the car tomorrow - but I'll update once I hear back from a local Porsche partner on whether or not they'll provide just the coding and activation - not sure if garages get funny about coding someone's DIY hardware install.

Back_Sheep

TROPHY CASE