triode

I don't have photos to post, but a guy on the Facebook Spyder group experienced complete shock tower failure on his 12 day old Spyder - in street driving! I don't know much more than that, but this issue had of course previously occurred with 981 GT4s; I had not previously heard of this issue occurring with the 718 chassis.

halfmonkey

This can't be good but hopefully this is just an anomaly. I assume he will get it replaced under warranty barring any user error like crashing into a parking curb or something like that but if it truly is a failure, he should consider asking for the opposite side shock tower to be replaced as I assume the part would have come from the same batch.

911F1

Crap! I had a feeling this might happen. I compared the shock tower of the 981 and 718 when I was at the Los Angeles auto show.
They look exactly the same. I was hoping Porsche made improvements to the material used. But, looks like they might not have.
Hopefully we'll get more insight what happened to this Spyder.

Rxpert

F$@&! I was so worried about this & hoping Porsche resolved it for the 718. Scary that it might not be the case.

From what I recall these issues were NOT covered under warranty by Porsche, even in street driving, and forced owners to either make an insurance claim (and get an accident on their record for hitting an obstacle in the road) or paying out of pocket to the tune of $10-15k.

halfmonkey

Wait! What?! How is this not covered under warranty if it is confirmed that nothing happened to cause the failure such as hitting something on the freeway or crashing into a parking curb?

Rxpert

There’s a massive thread about this somewhere. Can’t find it on my phone right now sorry, but basically Porsche was washing their hands of the issue by saying it must have occurred due to excessive external forces and not a manufacturing defect so not covered plain and simple. There were multiple posts about 981 owners having this happen to them, some on the street as well and ZERO got it covered under warranty.

I haven’t read the thread in awhile though so there may be more updated information. Going to try and find it now......

wizee

As far as I know, every previous instance was related to hitting a pothole or going off track. The final failure may not happen on a major pothole, but hitting a major pothole would create cracks that weaken the strut tower, and it could fail on a smaller later impact. Porsche rejected previous warranty claims by examining wheels associated with the damaged strut tower, and noting the wheels were slightly out of round, indicating an impact of some form happened at some point.

This is still unacceptable. Strut towers shouldn't routinely fail due to hitting potholes, and the wheel should bend severely long before the strut tower should fail, but evidently the flawed design from the 981 GT4 has carried over. We need to raise hell and bring it to the front pages of forums and magazines for Porsche to take action on the design flaw.

Perhaps its time for a sticky thread or database where 981 GT4 and 718 GT4/Spyder owners who had the failure can comment on when/where/how the failure occurred, and how Porsche reacted, so we can get a better idea for numbers. The thread on the 981 GT4 forum was cluttered with too many posts, so it was hard to count the instances and circumstances, but I recall the failures being numerous (I remember seeing at least 5 different reported cases).

Denny Swift

If they Increased the thickness of the aluminum or added a brace between the shock and the underside of the tower, you wouldn’t notice anything.

Yeah, if there is no wheel damage (serious damage), suspension damage, or gouges on the underside body, there would be no way Porsche could claim it was not a manufacturing defect.


Let’s hope there is a valid reason for this particular failure and that Porsche didn’t just ignore the known issue. We are just speculating at this point. However, it’s certainly disconcerting no matter how you think about it.

Larry Cable

+1! - does anyone know of an aftermarket strut tower brace, or does the GT4 Clubsport have one that might also retrofit the GT4/Spyder?

dmk2

Porsche ignored M96 and M97 motor problems. I wouldn't hold your breath.

wizee

The worst part of the issue is that I recall reading of Porsche calling the failure damage caused by external factors, and insurance companies saying it's a mechanical/design failure that Porsche should cover under their warranty since it was not caused by a crash. Thus, owners whose strut tower failed were left holding the bag unless they brought in lawyers and fought endlessly.

Time for someone on Rennlist to start a supplementary strut tower failure insurance program for 981 GT4 and 718 GT4/Spyder owners? It could reduce anxiety for many owners.

aryork

There is a bracket made for the clubsport. RLers determined the bracket was not intended to prevent tower failure, but to prevent the failed tower from going through or doing a lot of damage to the hood...sort of holding everything in place after failure.

I also recall never reading that Porsche covered any failures under warranty. Or maybe better stated - Porsche declined covering all the cases I read about on RL.

aryork

Hopefully the owner had a dash cam running and it is obvious when the failure happened and that nothing considered abnormal was on the road. Otherwise, without tangible proof to Porsche, nada.

SToronto

While I haven't checked those 981 threads in over a year since I no longer have mine, at the time it was not being covered under warranty and discussions were hush hush with dealers on what was being done.

Now I am curious to go back and see what resolution was.

sin911

Does the same damage occur between other 718 variants like the GTS models? Or it this specifically GT4/Spyder related issue (maybe because of the GT3 front suspension)?