freeman

Given that Porsche makes access to a dead battery in a locked car such an adventure, it seems prudent to carry a portable jump starter in the car. They appear to come in two flavors: those that fit in the trunk and provide an instant jump through the fuse box to open the trunk to access the battery for jumping and those that fit in the glove compartment and provide a 10-minute charge through the cigarette lighter outlet to provide enough power to open the trunk or, in fact, start the car.

Does anyone have experience with either of these in a 991? If so, which of the above two approaches do you use? What is the brand and model number? Also, what are the cautions when using either of these approaches to jump a dead battery?

A search of Rennlist revealed a number of posts from 928 to 997, but no 991. There appeared to be many cautions.

Carrera GT

I've had four 997's -- they all had a habit of draining the battery. I've had a 991S for over a year and with no change in my habits, the 991 has not had a flat battery. I didn't bother carrying anything in the 997's beyond a cell phone and a card for AAA and Porsche Roadside service.

The only "precaution" advice I have is to buy the wheel and tire insurance -- those 20's are thin and heavy, and very easy to damage the tire or the wheel. I've had to replace a tire already (at maybe 2000 miles.) One replacement is a break-even on the policy. Most 'insurance" is useless and wildly expensive, but this wheel-tire product is a veritable bargain given the thin sidewalls and horrible roads around here.

jlanka

how much did you pay for the tire policy?

kosmo

um, how does one open the car's frunk when the batterys is dead?

Carrera GT

There's a positive battery "jump" terminal in the fuse box behind a kick panel in the driver's foot well. The + terminal extends out enough for a typical "alligator" clamp, then the ground is taken from the striker bar of the door lock. This provides enough energy to release the key from the ignition and to actuate the frunk release. It can be quite a dance to get the frunk to release once the car is dead. Using the button in the door sill might not work and using the key fob might do the trick. Waiting a few seconds for some ergs to get into the system can help. Turning off any and all other drains (PCM, radar detector, lights) can help, but the system can still be finicky, so persistence is the only solution. A little jumper pack can sometimes simply not overcome the loss in the system. Reversing polarity seems to do no harm, even when a high current source is connected. But still, it's worth being cautious rather than lucky. Once a lead-acid battery has suffered a complete drain, it can be a struggle to revive it to a normal state of charge. Charging in parallel with another healthy battery can give it the motivation to reassemble its chemistry.

Carrera GT

I was trying to remember when I posted, but I have only a vague recollection that it was around $700 and the sales process is to offer a minor discount on the initial price.

It's based on the particular car. There's (I paid a higher price for a Mercedes GL with 20 inch run-flats) and in each case, it works out to be a couple $100 more expensive than the first replacement and then it's a "free" (ish) replacement for each subsequent event. There's fine print, but it explicitly says that so long as the tire is road legal (impossible to prove for a Sport Cup f'rinstance because it's already too shallow in the tread depth) then they'll replace the tire. I don't recall any specific mileage limit and the years duration was variable and I think lined up with the warranty life of the car. I have to admit, it's the service and convenience as well as the risk mitigation aspect of this product, more than the pennywise cost benefit analysis that swayed me. Plus, I've had first hand experience a couple of times (with prior SUVs) where having a $$ SUV tire replaced gratis (an earlier policy from Mercedes didn't even ask for a deductible amount.)

jlanka

I know there's another thread about this but my dealer wants 1600 for 5 years

Carrera GT

I haven't seen the other thread (or I've forgotten about it) but I think $1600 is too high -- that's more than two tires or at least one wheel and tire complete replacement. I think the fine print says it won't repair curb rash, but I had a wheel damaged (San Francisco pothole swallowed up one wheel) and they chose to repaint it rather than replace it. In another instance, I had a fender bender and the wheel and tire policy stated that I couldn't double-dip and claim from them for a wheel and tire, and the insurer, AllState, wanted me to have the wheel painted, so I didn't have the time to battle it out. It's never going to be a perfect win-win, but I think around $700, it's a bargain. Even at $1000, while I think that's a psych number that makes me say "never mind" it's still probably prudent for a three or five year coverage. Five years? My SUV tires last two years tops and I'm just not going to run around in winter on tires that have covered 20-30K miles ... I think that's false economy, so I don't expect the policy to be of value beyond 1000 days ... $1/day ... that sounds okay to me. Note:all insurance is an actuarial sleight of hand conjuring rip-off. No two ways about it. But I think this policy is a valuable premium service, not what I think of as "insurance" which is, in my humble, the precaution against an unsustainable loss. This is a premium service for which I've found we have a very high likelihood of usage.

jlanka

Thanks for the insight. I think they may have lower time periods available, I'll look into that.