So, I'm back in a Cayenne after a 3 year sabbatical! I had mentioned on Mark's Cayenne GTS progress thread last year that I was thinking of getting another one and I picked one up at the start of December after seeing a for sale post on a Cayenne Facebook group. I had been looking at 958 models with the 3.0 diesel engine but the continual posts I was seeing with issues with the transfer box was putting me off. There was also the issue that this car was primarily to be used as a dog wagon so paying £20k for that privilege seemed crazy given the potential damage a dog does to a car over time and I opted to go for another 955 at the lower price point of the market.
Initially I was looking for a 4.5 S model but given what I was using the car for and the fact I have a fairly quick other daily (Golf R) I decided to keep an open mind and see what came up. With my first Cayenne I was looking for a black exterior and black interior but never got that so this became something I was keen to get for my second one. An ad came up on the FB group and I contacted the seller and made arrangements to go and see it, only for him to call me as I was travelling there and cancel, deciding he was going to keep it. A week later he got back in touch and said he was definitely going to sell so did I want to come and see it. I was apprehensive as I was concerned he'd pull out again but I went to see it and it checked out ok.
It is a decent spec and has the 20" Sport Design alloys, heated front seats, heated steering wheel, cruise control, etc. My last 955 had none of these. He had it dechromed which isn't the greatest when close up but looks okay from a distance. Someone has done it by wrapping it and the job around the windows is brutal at the tricky corners! It's in decent condition externally but does need a good detail with a polisher as some sections of paint are heavily swirled and a bit flat looking. It also has some laquer peel to the front bumper which I might or might not get resprayed. The interior is in really good condition and the leather looks like new but then it only has 93k miles on the clock.
Couple of negatives with the buying experience which to be honest are really my fault, but I was trying to not be as pedantic as I usually would be when buying a 17 year old car. The seller said it had lots of service history but no stamped service book so I kept an open mind on this thinking recent history was more important than the tyres being changed 14 years ago. He had a little service information and receipts for work done over the last 3 to 4 years but showed me digital emailed receipts he had for some major work done, including the differentials having their oil changed and also the transfer box oils done. He said he would email me all these but he still hasn't despite me chasing him several times. Luckily I remembered one of the garages names that was at the top of the email so contacted them and they emailed me all the receipts for the work they had done to it. From the condition of the car and how it drove was what sold it to me. You can tell it's been looked after generally.
The other bigger issue is a vibration noise coming from the car when you get to 70mph. Totally my fault but on the test drive I didn't get the car above 65mph due to the areas we were driving in. It sounds like a wheel balancing or wheel bearing noise but when you lift off the accelerator it stops. It also stops if you knock it into neutral. It only occurs between around 65 to 75mph. You can also feel a slight vibration on the arm rest. I put the car into a local Porsche specialist and they thought initially that it was a rear wheel bearing but then that it might be the wheels needing balanced so checked all those and all were out (wheel bearings were fine). They rebalanced them and said they thought the car was driving much more smoothly but it's still doing it. They told me to contact them if it wasn't better but I feel a bit shortchanged by them to be honest. I've put a call back into them to chat about next steps but they have never called me back. This was about 4 weeks ago. Last week I put 2 new rear tyres on it as I noticed one had a nail in the sidewall but the noise is still there. One thing the garage did mention is that the underside of the car has been completely undersealed (there is a receipt from a 'specialist' for £800 for this work) and the muppets have also coated half the carden shaft, the side that must have been exposed when they had it up on the ramp to do the work. They said it's balanced so couldn't be sure but said this could possibly be unbalancing it and that might be the issue. Again, I've been in touch with the seller to ask him if this vibration was pre or post undersealing but he hasn't responded. I don't really want to be replacing random components to attempt to fix the issue.
In the 4 months I've had it not much has been done and generally it drives great. Feels a lot quicker and sharper than my previous Cayenne which was the same model and engine. I had fitted a set of aluminium pedals from an S and also added a rear cubby panel below the air vents to the rear (it had the blanking panel fitted). The biggest thing I did was fit the twin exhaust pipes to it which have made the exhaust note much nicer. I seen them advertised locally for £100 so decided since I was going to remove the back bumper to try and fix the faulty parking sensors I would chuck these on at the same time. Picked up the exhausts and then realised that the standard rear bumper valance doesn't have cut outs wide enough to accommodate them! By luck I then found someone selling a black bumper in the same colour as my car that had the Turbo valance. I ended up keeping my upper bumper cover as it was in better condition but swapped out the valances. The only downside is the one I bought came from a car with LPG so has the filler cap fitted. It does the job for now until I find a better valance! I also fitted the roof rails found in a local breakers yard for much cheapness.
Other thing needing resolved are that both front and rear parking sensors don't work and a scan at the specialist advises none of the sensors are working. They thought it might be the module in the boot so I replaced that with a known working item but still the same. In the meantime I have bought 12 brand new sensors and am going to replace them all, but will check the wiring looms when I have the bumpers off in case there is a breakage somewhere. I also have the usual problem of it needing new boot struts so have a set of 4 new Stabilus ones lying in the garage ready to go on, but haven't had time to do it yet. Easter hols are going to be busy......
Initially I was looking for a 4.5 S model but given what I was using the car for and the fact I have a fairly quick other daily (Golf R) I decided to keep an open mind and see what came up. With my first Cayenne I was looking for a black exterior and black interior but never got that so this became something I was keen to get for my second one. An ad came up on the FB group and I contacted the seller and made arrangements to go and see it, only for him to call me as I was travelling there and cancel, deciding he was going to keep it. A week later he got back in touch and said he was definitely going to sell so did I want to come and see it. I was apprehensive as I was concerned he'd pull out again but I went to see it and it checked out ok.
It is a decent spec and has the 20" Sport Design alloys, heated front seats, heated steering wheel, cruise control, etc. My last 955 had none of these. He had it dechromed which isn't the greatest when close up but looks okay from a distance. Someone has done it by wrapping it and the job around the windows is brutal at the tricky corners! It's in decent condition externally but does need a good detail with a polisher as some sections of paint are heavily swirled and a bit flat looking. It also has some laquer peel to the front bumper which I might or might not get resprayed. The interior is in really good condition and the leather looks like new but then it only has 93k miles on the clock.
Couple of negatives with the buying experience which to be honest are really my fault, but I was trying to not be as pedantic as I usually would be when buying a 17 year old car. The seller said it had lots of service history but no stamped service book so I kept an open mind on this thinking recent history was more important than the tyres being changed 14 years ago. He had a little service information and receipts for work done over the last 3 to 4 years but showed me digital emailed receipts he had for some major work done, including the differentials having their oil changed and also the transfer box oils done. He said he would email me all these but he still hasn't despite me chasing him several times. Luckily I remembered one of the garages names that was at the top of the email so contacted them and they emailed me all the receipts for the work they had done to it. From the condition of the car and how it drove was what sold it to me. You can tell it's been looked after generally.
The other bigger issue is a vibration noise coming from the car when you get to 70mph. Totally my fault but on the test drive I didn't get the car above 65mph due to the areas we were driving in. It sounds like a wheel balancing or wheel bearing noise but when you lift off the accelerator it stops. It also stops if you knock it into neutral. It only occurs between around 65 to 75mph. You can also feel a slight vibration on the arm rest. I put the car into a local Porsche specialist and they thought initially that it was a rear wheel bearing but then that it might be the wheels needing balanced so checked all those and all were out (wheel bearings were fine). They rebalanced them and said they thought the car was driving much more smoothly but it's still doing it. They told me to contact them if it wasn't better but I feel a bit shortchanged by them to be honest. I've put a call back into them to chat about next steps but they have never called me back. This was about 4 weeks ago. Last week I put 2 new rear tyres on it as I noticed one had a nail in the sidewall but the noise is still there. One thing the garage did mention is that the underside of the car has been completely undersealed (there is a receipt from a 'specialist' for £800 for this work) and the muppets have also coated half the carden shaft, the side that must have been exposed when they had it up on the ramp to do the work. They said it's balanced so couldn't be sure but said this could possibly be unbalancing it and that might be the issue. Again, I've been in touch with the seller to ask him if this vibration was pre or post undersealing but he hasn't responded. I don't really want to be replacing random components to attempt to fix the issue.
In the 4 months I've had it not much has been done and generally it drives great. Feels a lot quicker and sharper than my previous Cayenne which was the same model and engine. I had fitted a set of aluminium pedals from an S and also added a rear cubby panel below the air vents to the rear (it had the blanking panel fitted). The biggest thing I did was fit the twin exhaust pipes to it which have made the exhaust note much nicer. I seen them advertised locally for £100 so decided since I was going to remove the back bumper to try and fix the faulty parking sensors I would chuck these on at the same time. Picked up the exhausts and then realised that the standard rear bumper valance doesn't have cut outs wide enough to accommodate them! By luck I then found someone selling a black bumper in the same colour as my car that had the Turbo valance. I ended up keeping my upper bumper cover as it was in better condition but swapped out the valances. The only downside is the one I bought came from a car with LPG so has the filler cap fitted. It does the job for now until I find a better valance! I also fitted the roof rails found in a local breakers yard for much cheapness.
Other thing needing resolved are that both front and rear parking sensors don't work and a scan at the specialist advises none of the sensors are working. They thought it might be the module in the boot so I replaced that with a known working item but still the same. In the meantime I have bought 12 brand new sensors and am going to replace them all, but will check the wiring looms when I have the bumpers off in case there is a breakage somewhere. I also have the usual problem of it needing new boot struts so have a set of 4 new Stabilus ones lying in the garage ready to go on, but haven't had time to do it yet. Easter hols are going to be busy......
