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991 Cab - HELP PLEASE - 6 MONTHS OF CONSISTENT PROBS

Oldvicar

New member
Joined
9 Feb 2014
Messages
3
Hi All

Your help appreciated in reviewing and advising on the following position:-

I have a 991 Cab PDK on a 2012 plate that has now covered just over 21K miles, bought from Silverstone, regularly serviced at Reading.

6 Months ago I first started having a series of faults appear ultimately rendering the car stuck in the gear it was in, at the point the second fault below was reported.

In terms of sequence the following three faults appear :-

1) Fault Engine Control - Possible to Drive On = orange engine symbol illumination
2)Gearbox Fault - Poss. no R gear - Drive on Poss. NB at this point the car becomes locked in the gear it was in immediately before fault displayed.
3)Start/Stop Operation Deactivated

I first reported the above in July to Porsche Reading on a service and whilst the car was under warranty.

The initial diagnosis and maintained position was that the battery was at fault and should be replaced, the logs cleared and a new battery encoded to the car.

In the interim the battery was fully charged and I drove without incident from Reading to Windsor. The very next drive same messages same sequence - same result.

Took the car to Silverstone (drove manually and not above 3rd knowing outcome). Silverstone replaced the battery, however, claimed they could not clear down the logs - also subsequently learned they had not looked at battery drain / power down etc that would present warranty on battery. Drove car home again in manual not exceeding 3rd gear.

Booked car into Reading two days ago - left overnight. Reading charged for 1 hour diagnosis, cleared the logs, undertook two test drives (less than 10 miles each) reported problems cleared and advised collection. Picked up the car this morning - 15 miles down the road exactly the same faults and now car stuck in 7th. Pull over on M4 hard shoulder, two hours later car recovered.

So here I am 6 months later, with a customer complaint on Porsche GB and a car which is effectively useless at 21K miles on the clock.

Having been back and forth between Reading and Silverstone, paying monies for sub standard services and which have not solved my problems I no longer have any faith in the Porsche brand.

Have any of you had similar challenges and if so what remedial action was undertaken to resolve the challenge?

I have been asked recently on a number of occasions if I would recommend the 991 - I can no longer support the Brand and unfortunately based on my own car and experience at the hand of Porsche Reading and Silverstone advise Caveat Emptor.

Thanks for taking the time to digest - your advice, response and guidance appreciated.

Oldvicar
 
Wait for Demort and 911uk to reply, they will answer all your questions :thumbs:

Shame that you've lost faith but I can't blame you really :dont know:

Maybe in another 4 years time you will be back :grin:

(that was a joke BTW) :thumb:
 
I hope you had it recovered back to the OPC who had it yesterday and told them to not give it back until it was fixed?

The way I read your post you've had 2 faults in 6 months, if that was the case I don't follow how you could have lost faith with the brand assuming everything else was tickety boo, especially if everything other than servicing has been covered by warranty?

Apologies if I'm missing something but I think I would be irritated/annoyed rather than this reaction.

:dont know:
 
When did you buy the car?

If the problem was first reported when it was under warranty and it hasn't been resolved I'd be looking to Porsche to get it sorted once-and-for-all and at the their cost.
 
Interesting .. i see OPC still struggle with intermitant faults .. for me the car was not tested long enough and kicked out as job done and move onto the next job .. poor service .

The brand is not at fault here Imho .. just some OPC,s that are too quick to want to move onto the next service rather than investigate a fault further .

Ok your problem .. confuseing .. the car when a fault occurs will go into Limp home mode .. reduced engine power and a resticted gearbox change (up / down the gears ) and gears which can be selected .

It doesnt lock the car to a certain gear (well .. a pretty major fault for that ) .. it doesnt say you have no reverse.

This to me atm seems more like a gearbox fault than a battery.

Certain engine faults will drop the gearbox into limp home mode but you have not mentioned any running problems and again .. this doesnt sound like limp mode .

If a faulty battery .. well when the car is running then the alternator supplys the power .. you can only have a problem on starting not when actually running so again im confused by this .

Battery fault and you HAVE to check for charge rate and again a discharge check .

Offhand ive not seen this particular fault but i also have very little to go on im afraid .. i would need to do a full scan of the vehicle control units for fault codes , drive the car and experience the fault .. we have a 6 mile road test route and a 20 mile for things like this .

Im also pretty far from you which is a dam shame .. i like faults like this .. sigh .

If you can get any fault code info and that needs to be from every control unit then ill see if i can come up with ideas .

Btw .. im Ex OPC and now at an Indy .
 
Its horrible when you get a repeating issue that an OPC cannot find or fix . as you reported the fault under warranty there should be no risk of it falling out of warranty , although assume as it was brought from an OPC you got 2 yrs warranty with it.
Usually at this point and as its under warranty the OPC would be seeking assistance from Porsche GB and Germany to see what other cars have had this and what they did to fix it .
Remember OPC techs in 2018 are only fitters all they are capable of doing is looking on the PIWIS seeing what it says and following the approved direction of what part to replace, they have virtually zero diagnostic or trouble shooting skills ,as those with experience the old school techs now mostly work at Indies.
So firstly I would be making sure that the tech working on my car was what Porsche call a GOLD tech as these are supposedly the more experienced. I would be insisting that the OPC involve Porsche GB , I realise you will have been given a curtacy car and hopefully and if not insist it is a like for like car. but I would be getting some advance agreement to compensation this will ensure the dealer principal becomes involved as its going to start costing them money. and my last suggestion is that you sit down not nasty but focussed and forcefully insistent that they establish a gameplay with timelines, ending with a clear picture for you of what will happen if they cannot resolve the fault
At minimum this will focus them and allow you to know a clear set of plans with timescales and outcomes .
Also at this point bypass the junior staff, involve the general manager and the service manager. in a planned structured sit down meeting. as its only really corporate practices they understand and can relate to. make notes during the meeting and copy them in on the notes.

In the real world its called making a total pain of yourself but in a focused structured way that they understand ,
So many make the mistake of being meek mild and accepting or the other end of the spectrum and highly aggressive and insulting neither of these practices work as you end up labeled" silly old git" or "rude geezer no-one wants to help "and will go out of three-way to annoy you.
Good Luck and keep us posted
 
Demort wrote

Ok your problem .. confuseing .. the car when a fault occurs will go into Limp home mode .. reduced engine power and a resticted gearbox change (up / down the gears ) and gears which can be selected .

It doesnt lock the car to a certain gear (well .. a pretty major fault for that ) .. it doesnt say you have no reverse.

This to me atm seems more like a gearbox fault than a battery.

Certain engine faults will drop the gearbox into limp home mode but you have not mentioned any running problems and again .. this doesnt sound like limp mode .


For clarity once I get the second fault - I lose all gears except the one that it is in at the time the fault is displayed e.g if I am in 6th and the fault appears I am stuck in 6th. At this point the car does not enable any further gear changes either automatically of 'manually' via the padels etc.

This forces me to pull over for an indeterminate amount of time seeking assistance.


Kind Regards,

Oldvicar
 
Aghh i see .. the engine fault happens first .. then a bit later the second one which locks it into what ever gear you are in at the time .

The sequence would indicate an engine fault ..but to have the gearbox do what it does is almost like a second fault with the gearbox control unit ..

It does seem power related then and effecting more than one system .. hence i guess why the OPC is going down the battery replacement route .

This makes a bit more sense to me now .

Downside is there are a lot of things that could cause a comunication or a power issue with the systems .

Im still back to a full readout of every control unit for fault codes .. the car WILL be logging codes for this and im expecting there will be a lot .. 40-50 codes is not uncommon and its difficult for a Mechanic to pick up on what codes are the relevent ones .

If by any chance you can get me some fault codes i can investigae it further .. in other words say what the codes relate to .

Any fault codes in something called the gateway would be helpfull .
 

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