Another 992 Battery Issue - Thoughts ?

[Clem Fandango]

So this morning Alarm goes off at 6am and I am locked out of the car. Vodafone call and tell me battery is dead and manage to stop the alarm. AA arrive a couple of hours later and get the car going and suggest I take it as a recovery to local OPC. Whilst at OPC I find out 6 recoveries arrived this morning, 5 Taycans and my 992. Might take a week before they even look at it! Booking from April for anything else so recovery was the way to go.
So I am without my pride and joy for god knows how long and have spent today looking online at the Battery issues on the 992, from what I can see could be a few things I just hope its not the battery as the lithiums are £750 (I asked) and warranty does not cover this. Mine is a 2019 Carrera S and is used a few times a week on local runs. Never had any issues since I bought it last May. OPC will call me with an update hopefully next week once they have fixed a million Taycans, there are software updates to be done as well apparently so let's see.
A couple of weeks ago I had Vodafone call me whilst I was out driving to tell me the tracker had alerted, I find this odd as I had the fob with me at the time , I am wondering if this might be a tracker / fob issue and not the battery. Has anyone had similar? Be good to know.

 

[911UK]

sorry to hear that, any option to get a regular AGM battery in ?
i know the pain of lightweight lithium

 

[Zingari]

I'd stick an AGM battery in but I suspect from Porsche that still the best part of £400

 

[TurboSandGT4]

is the issue related to cars with active tracker?

 

[Clem Fandango]

is the issue related to cars with active tracker?

I am hoping this is the issue, the vodafone call when I was driving to alert me tells me something not right with the tracker / fob. We will see, Ill be upset to say the least if its the battery especially with Insurance renewal next month and all the fun that brings these days.

 

[Chris2712]

Quick update from me - 2019 992 with AGM battery (yes it is £400) and 20,000 miles on the clock I had a couple of problems middle of last year with the car apparently having a flat battery the worst one being at the shuttle terminal in Calais after driving 2000km in 2 days to get home from Spain due to storm Ciaran. It had a full service in November including several software updates - should be sorted they said, in fairness it was until about 4 weeks ago when I had an alert on my phone followed by a call from Vodafone, they said it looks like a sabotage alert frequently caused by a flat battery. Sure enough it was flat, Porsche assist came out and said they believed it was a faulty battery. Managed to get my car into the dealership 2 days later (battery was flat again by this time and Porsche assist again said they thought it was the battery), they said there was a battery drain but tracing it could take days/weeks/months, I was driving to Spain 2 days later so insisted they fitted a new battery. Driving to Portsmouth and got a call from Vodafone, they’d received an alert saying my gsm aerial was detached (???) after further questioning they said it could be a tracker fob battery issue. I swapped both tracker fob batteries. Since then everything has been perfect, even after leaving for 3-4 days stop/start works from about 5 mins after starting, before it took a while ! Sorry for the long story as in summary I still don’t know if the fault is fixed, was is a faulty fob battery causing a battery drain, was it a faulty battery or something else but despite the cost of the battery I’m glad I insisted. Nothing worse than walking to your dream car wondering if it will start - except possibly finding out in won’t start in the middle of one of the worst storms of the year ! Good luck getting sorted !!!

 

[Clem Fandango]

Quick update from me - 2019 992 with AGM battery (yes it is £400) and 20,000 miles on the clock I had a couple of problems middle of last year with the car apparently having a flat battery the worst one being at the shuttle terminal in Calais after driving 2000km in 2 days to get home from Spain due to storm Ciaran. It had a full service in November including several software updates - should be sorted they said, in fairness it was until about 4 weeks ago when I had an alert on my phone followed by a call from Vodafone, they said it looks like a sabotage alert frequently caused by a flat battery. Sure enough it was flat, Porsche assist came out and said they believed it was a faulty battery. Managed to get my car into the dealership 2 days later (battery was flat again by this time and Porsche assist again said they thought it was the battery), they said there was a battery drain but tracing it could take days/weeks/months, I was driving to Spain 2 days later so insisted they fitted a new battery. Driving to Portsmouth and got a call from Vodafone, they’d received an alert saying my gsm aerial was detached (???) after further questioning they said it could be a tracker fob battery issue. I swapped both tracker fob batteries. Since then everything has been perfect, even after leaving for 3-4 days stop/start works from about 5 mins after starting, before it took a while ! Sorry for the long story as in summary I still don’t know if the fault is fixed, was is a faulty fob battery causing a battery drain, was it a faulty battery or something else but despite the cost of the battery I’m glad I insisted. Nothing worse than walking to your dream car wondering if it will start - except possibly finding out in won’t start in the middle of one of the worst storms of the year ! Good luck getting sorted !!!

Thanks for that sounds similar - the stop start you mention , before my incident the SS function was always on, I was over the moon as I didn't need to turn it off every journey, I am thinking i should mention this to the OPC? Will change the fob batteries for sure whenever I get the car back.

 

[Chris2712]

Worth a try. Like I said I’m not sure what cured my problems but I’m glad something did !!!!!

 

[gizlaroc]

Not sure why it would take weeks to find the drain?

Just put a multi meter or a clamp meter on, let the car sleep and start pulling fuses.

 

[Chris2712]

Not sure why it would take weeks to find the drain?

Just put a multi meter or a clamp meter on, let the car sleep and start pulling fuses.

Just quoting what they said ! Hopefully it won’t be necessary !

 

[gizlaroc]

Sorry, when Chris posted "quick update from me.........." I read that as you were posting an update.

I get you were just quoting what they said, and reading it back sounded a bit blunt, I didn't mean it to be, it just annoys me that something as basic as finding a power drain can often take main dealers days or weeks to find, it really is quite simple to find what circuit the drain is on, which really helps eliminate what is causing the drain or even find it straight away.

It might just be your battery is at the end of its life of course, have you ever had to jump start the car before?

5-7 years for an AGM battery with stop/start is about right, it is only 3-5 years with a lithium battery, and with these cars, that we often don't use for a a few days or a week sometimes they take more punishment.


I think I would make sure the voda tracker fob battery is new, see what happens, if the battery goes flat again, swap batteries, or swap to an AGM.

 

[911UK]

Quick update from me - 2019 992 with AGM battery (yes it is £400) and 20,000 miles on the clock I had a couple of problems middle of last year with the car apparently having a flat battery the worst one being at the shuttle terminal in Calais after driving 2000km in 2 days to get home from Spain due to storm Ciaran. It had a full service in November including several software updates - should be sorted they said, in fairness it was until about 4 weeks ago when I had an alert on my phone followed by a call from Vodafone, they said it looks like a sabotage alert frequently caused by a flat battery. Sure enough it was flat, Porsche assist came out and said they believed it was a faulty battery. Managed to get my car into the dealership 2 days later (battery was flat again by this time and Porsche assist again said they thought it was the battery), they said there was a battery drain but tracing it could take days/weeks/months, I was driving to Spain 2 days later so insisted they fitted a new battery. Driving to Portsmouth and got a call from Vodafone, they’d received an alert saying my gsm aerial was detached (???) after further questioning they said it could be a tracker fob battery issue. I swapped both tracker fob batteries. Since then everything has been perfect, even after leaving for 3-4 days stop/start works from about 5 mins after starting, before it took a while ! Sorry for the long story as in summary I still don’t know if the fault is fixed, was is a faulty fob battery causing a battery drain, was it a faulty battery or something else but despite the cost of the battery I’m glad I insisted. Nothing worse than walking to your dream car wondering if it will start - except possibly finding out in won’t start in the middle of one of the worst storms of the year ! Good luck getting sorted !!!

omg Chris that is a real ball ache !

keep us posted !

 

[Jungle650]

Well worth fitting a bluetooth battery monitor on 992 batteries. It provides total peace of mind re battery status at the glance of your phone.

 

[Clem Fandango]

Update - Car back on Friday , source was the dash cam (Porsche) ! They have changed the settings and done the software update. After leaving OPC warning light came on, tracker battery card low !! Like others have said I'm sure it was the bloody fob.

Changed batteries so let's see how we go. Plus point not the battery and no cost to me, now for the Insurance fun and games, prepared myself for a minimum 25%.

 

[Chris2712]

Sorry, when Chris posted "quick update from me.........." I read that as you were posting an update.

I get you were just quoting what they said, and reading it back sounded a bit blunt, I didn't mean it to be, it just annoys me that something as basic as finding a power drain can often take main dealers days or weeks to find, it really is quite simple to find what circuit the drain is on, which really helps eliminate what is causing the drain or even find it straight away.

It might just be your battery is at the end of its life of course, have you ever had to jump start the car before?

5-7 years for an AGM battery with stop/start is about right, it is only 3-5 years with a lithium battery, and with these cars, that we often don't use for a a few days or a week sometimes they take more punishment.


I think I would make sure the voda tracker fob battery is new, see what happens, if the battery goes flat again, swap batteries, or swap to an AGM.

No problem at all - I completely agree with you but just wanted to make the point that it was their comment.

I did replace the battery and then the batteries in the tracker fobs - since then everything has been fine so hopefully it will stay that way !!!!