genevagear

Yesterday I took my base Cayman to a Porsche service center for its 4-year service. They did everything that is on the list at 4 years including an oil change. Service took 5 hours and I drove the car home with no problems. In the early evening I went to drive the car and found a pool of oil underneath the vehicle. I'm guessing 1/3 to 1/2 a quart leaked. After cleaning up the oil I spent some time with a flash night trying to find the source. I believe the leak is around the filter housing. The housing has a funnel and the oil is dripping from the funnel spout. That was the best I could see trying to wedge my body under the car. I stuffed some paper towels around the funnel spout and the next morning they were wet and needed to be replaced. At this point, I know the source of the leak and the fact that it isn't spilled oil from the process of servicing the car. I can't drive the car due to risk of oil starvation. I can't check the oil level without starting the engine and letting it get up to temperature. There's an exhaust manifold near the leak so I am lucky I didn't have a problem on the drive home. There have been threads on leaking oil and fires. The car will need to be towed. It's a holiday weekend and nobody is available at the service department to discuss the next steps. I called PCNA and filed a complaint.

If the car was critically low on oil I would have gotten a warning on the drive home. I did check the oil after I picked it up. This was after 10 minutes of driving while at a traffic light. The gauge indicated it was 3/4 full.

I am quite aggravated to say the least. I acknowledge the difficulty of accessing the filter on these cars, but that's no excuse. The risks are damage to the engine and/or an engine fire. You would think there would be better checks. I expect more because the technicians are supposed to highly trained by Porsche. So far I have had this latest oil leak problem, air in the brake lines after the 2 year service with repeated visits to fix the issue, and wrong engine codes installed which resulted in a misfire, and stall, after delivery of the car. All are technician errors. All three errors were at different Porsche service centers. Yeah! Every time I have a problem I go somewhere else, but I'm running out of options. Luckily I live in the northeast so there are many, but this is quite aggravating and pathetic to say the least.

I usually check carefully over the car after it gets serviced. I'll have to add crawling under the car for a look before I drive off.

Bob Z.

Bad luck indeed and not a representation of Porsche dealers in general; however, I do avoid them except for warranty work, mainly due to their prices for service. They will take care of it and it will not cost you anything but I agree it is a hassle!

CaymanMatt

Which dealer?

mfbmike

Yes, when the oil filter housing is "cracked" open, the oil will begin to funnel out via the spout you mentioned. Sounds like someone didn't tighten the housing enough. Mind you, it doesn't require much more than 25 ft lbs.

As someone who has done an oil change on his own 718 in his garage on his back, a Porsche tech should do better.

worf928

The person at the dealership doing your oil change is the one lowest on the totem pole. More, often than not, they are a tech from the dealership across the street (owned by the same entity) that is on “try-outs.”

genevagear

I called Porsche to confirm whether the vehicle was still under warranty because I knew I was close and was hoping they would take care of the towing. The vehicle warranty ended in August and they told me to arrange towing with the dealership. When I called the dealership they said I had to take care of it myself. If the leaking oil was not due to something I had done to the car, then they agreed to reimburse. I was a little put off by the fact they didn't want to assist, or just agree to settle up once the vehicle was assessed by their techs. So I arranged the tow, and it was picked up and dropped off at the dealership. After the assessment by the techs it's not clear what was the problem. I probed and was told it was most likely residual oil in the filter funnel and elsewhere. That doesn't make sense to me because of the volume of oil that leaked onto the garage floor. They did confirm that it was definitely leaking from the filter housing, but it's unknown whether it wasn't torqued correctly, if there was an issue with the gasket, or if the housing was cracked. I can say it's fixed because it's not leaking anymore. I did speak to the service manager because I felt the customer service part of this entire ordeal was lacking. He acknowledged there were issues that needed to be addressed. In the end they also reimbursed me for the tow. I'm not going to name the dealership. I don't see any benefit in doing that.