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My 718 Spyder (Update 4 Nov 24)

Tracker issues

So the Spyder has gone back to Porsche Stockport, as the tracker has been playing up pretty much ever since I got the car.

Basically the system doesn't update and can go days without any update to location and non of the other features work (horn beep, mirror folding etc.)

I've been told this is a known issue with all new Porsches and that they think it's related to 5G! They're saying that they might have to fit a third party tracker until they resolve this issue with this one.
 
Well it’s been a while since I updated this thread (three years in fact). And I’ve owned my Spyder for three years now which blows my mind, time flies!

I recently took the car to the dealer to get a new warranty as the manufacturers one was expiring and the car needed its first MOT.

I made a video and had a look around the dealership (includes looking at a 997 GT2 for sale). I also do a very quick review of a Taycan (courtesy car).

 
Thought I’d post a link to this video here to update the thread. Features Harrie’s new Spyder RS!

Collecting a Brand New Porsche 718 Spyder RS!
 
Also the latest video and reigniting the oldest Porsche debate!

Is Porsche PDK (Auto) Better than a Manual Gearbox?
 
So took my car out yesterday for a short drive. In that 2 miles drive I was showered in hailstone (luckily I had the roof up), I had my tracker people calling me thinking my car was stolen and my car inundating me with messages, my tracker battery is low, my tyre needs air and one more message that’s not easily fixed!

The worst and expensive message, was as I pulled away from the lights after losing traction slightly in the wet I had the dreaded PADM failure service required driving permitted message on my dash.

This is not the first time I’ve had this message, last year I had the message and it resulted in having to send the car to Porsche to replace one of the engine mounts. The cost of this would have been £1500 according to Porsche if I didn’t have the warranty.

As I’m staring at this message on my dash, parked at Screwfix, I man taps on the window and says ‘I think you’re leaking oil’. I get out the car and there is oil running down the road seemingly from my front driver side wheel.

I’d only driven a couple of miles!

Luckily the oil was not from my car it seems. However I now have the very real situation of having to have (I assume) the second engine mounts replaced. I assume it’s the second one because the other was just replaced last year and the car has only done a few hundred miles since then.

Amazingly the car has only completed 3490 miles and I’m needing a second engine mount be replaced. Luckily I have an extended warranty or it would have been an expensive trip.
 

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I felt lucky mine never failed on my 981GTS, you shouldn’t have to feel lucky that parts don’t brake that are well known to be sub optimal but porsche is just happy to fix them when they break …..with the same parts that fail……you really could not make it up.
 
I’m intrigued to know if it’s the original one that’s failed, or the new (same as old one) unit.
 
Aren't these mounts made by Lucas, made in UK? Sort of sums it up 🙄

It's somewhat annoying that these seem to be 'not fit for purpose' but outside of warranty you have to swallow the cost and Porsche are more than happy with that arrangement rather than offer a low/non-cost solution to owners. Despite this part having been 'revised' several times over what is it now 12+yrs they still can't get it right.
 
our gt4 has had its first fail and replace -under warranty
 
Thank goodness for warranty
 
I was told by someone at Porsche dealer that it’s just the electronics getting water inside and failing and not anything in particularly wrong with the actual part. So like others have said you’d imagine they could have resolved this by now.

Not sure what it is supposed to feel like when it does fail but from previous time it doesn’t feel any different at all. Is that because it’s just an error message being thrown by the car and the part is working or because it doesn’t actually make that much of a difference?

Shame you can’t get the RSS version for this car, because out of warranty I wouldn’t want to be spending on this.
 
I thought they worked with the magnetic oil type stuff so if the electrics are shot then you'd assume they can't work as designed. Whilst mine never actually failed I had read that but for the warning notification you could not actually tell......makes you wonder if they did actually make any real world difference outside of motorsport :unsure:
 
Magnetic particles in the oil get magnetised to harden the damping in the gearbox mount. When they don't work they default to normal. It would appear only someone with the skills of an F1 driver can tell the difference 🙄 For mere mortals it's smoke and mirrors.

In an 'ideal world' you'd be able to code these out and fit passive mounts, but so far I haven't found anyone with the skill to do it although it's been talked about on several forums. Some have taken their defective mount apart and it appears the seal separating the oil from the small PCB can fail leading to a short circuit. The PCB is resin sealed preventing anyone taking it apart to discover Lucas/Tandy components I suspect. The plug to the PADM is the standard VW wiring plug you get on the lights and most components so I can't see it being water ingress as you could theoretically dry it out?

In the words of Boycey "To make them work on the British system, would take a transformer the size of a suitcase, and an electrician of such genius I'd have to go head-hunting at Cape Canaveral!"
 
When they fail it just puts them into ‘hard’ mode - so they haven’t actually broken - hence no one notices the difference between working or broken ones
 
Update

So the drama with the above fault, the PADM error as yet to be resolved, the car is going to Porsche this Wednesday as I write this. Interestingly I also found after scanning the car with the iCarly device a number of other issues to do with engine cooling and a couple of other error codes. I'll be interrogating the Porsche technicians on Wednesday when I get there. Will be interesting to see actually if they actually find the same error codes.

I also was informed by a Porsche specialist that I should check the rear tail lights as they both fog up, and he believes that could be an error there also.

Anyway took the car to Tech9 last week and had BMC air filters fitted. I've seen some videos on YouTube talking about fitting these filters was a big upgrade in terms of the sound. Quite a number of people saying the sound was reminiscent of the RS version with those crazy air intakes. I did not want to replicate that because I believe it's too loud but I thought if I could get 50% of it it would be a worthwhile upgrade.

So off to Tech9 with the car and a slot to have them fit them for me. Surprisingly when I arrived fill the owner of Tech9 had his spider there. A 987 variant of the spider of the original if you like, and he offered for me to take it for a drive whilst they fitted my air filters. I wasn't sure what to expect because it is an old car now in comparison with my 718 spider and I suppose I was not expecting much from the car. Which is in my opinion when you often are surprised pleasantly about the product when you have no expectations. I've owned 2 987 boxes in the past and I know them to be great cars I suppose my point was that because of the advancements I expected it to be a much lesser product than my 718.

Boy was I wrong! What a great car that is, pretty much everything from the engine sound even at low revs or waiting at the junction the engine sounded so smooth. And then when I eventually opened up the car it was amazing the audio coming from the exhaust was great. And it was the standard Porsche PSE exhaust on the car no modifications. The 987 Spyder looks tiny next top my 718 as well, which is amazing as the 718 is considered to be the better, smaller choice now against the 911.

If you want to see more I made a video which I will put a link in at the bottom, but I drove both cars back to back and had a thoroughly great afternoon.

So I got my car back with the BMC filter is fitted and I headed home. To be honest I didn't notice that much difference. I've seen like I said many videos where people were saying they got goosebumps and they were so excited and they felt it was the best upgrade ever et cetera et cetera but for me it was a little bit of a disappointment. I suppose if I studied hard enough I could hear a slight difference in intake noise but for the most part it was the same.

I need to drive the car more really to experience it's at hi revs, but on the first drive I was not impressed too much.

Interestingly Phil told me that his spider was the original Porsche Press car, and that's why it had such a high specification, including bucket seats and ceramic brakes, removal of the PCM unit and no AC unit to make it as late as possible.

What a great car.


Some of the error codes I got when scanning the car with the iCarly device. The one in German reads "Water valve, short-circuit against ground or interruption".

BMC filters installed in my car.
1.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg

IMG_5975.PNGIMG_5976.PNGIMG_5977.PNGIMG_5978.PNG
 

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