NeoRules

Ok After I purchased the silver 951 that had $9,900. worth of work done on it I carefully looked at everything done to it.

The po had a new aftermarket exhaust put on it and had all the hoses (including vacuum), seals, waterpump, battery, thermostat, coolant tank, brake reservoir, clutch, clutch master, clutch slave, brake rotors, pads etc....

Completely redid the whole car mostly.

So here is what happened.
The po heard a clicking sound when he turned right. The garage @#$$% told him it was the aftermarket exhaust so he paid for a completely new PORSCHE factory exhaust (cat back).

Then he sold the car to me.
The garage @#$$% told me on the phone that they would do the 1500 mile belt adjustment for free. I told them the front wheel bearings were loose and they told me they didn't charge to tighten up bearings and such if they were doing a major service. I also requested that they determine the cause of a nasty vibration under heavy acceleration (especially at high RPM).

I took it to the same garage @#$$% and overheated on the way up to northern VA.
When I arrived I informed them that in stop and go traffic the car overheated and the red lights came on. I dropped the car off about 12 parking spaces away from the shop entrance since the lot was full. They assured me that the car would be ok and should be brought in at night no problem... (the word "should" didn't alarm me at the time).

When I called them two days later they informed me that the person whom I had previously spoken too was wrong and I had to pay for the belt tightening. Hmmmm... but they agreed to give me half off the price of the adjustment.
I said "well how about you do a thorough inspection, a post purchase "pre purchase inspection" if you will and I will pay for that so they don't feel so "shorted" as he put it.

A couple of days later the PPI was done and the car had no known problems.
"even the front bearings?" I asked and they said "no they are just fine". After I stated that I jacked the car up and I know what a loose wheel bearing feels like and these felt loose to me the person on the phone indicated he would have the mechanic double check.

Sure enough when I arrived to pick up the car there was a charge for tightening the wheel bearings, a belt adjustment and the inspection.
I was told the temp and gas gauges were bad and given a price to replace them. The Mechanic told me just to tap the dash when it got high and it would go back to normal. The mechanic also told me the vibration was from "flat" motor mounts and they needed replacing. The mechanic also stated that the car seemed sluggish on the low end even for a Turbo.

When they pulled the car around front the first thing I see is the Porsche emblem was missing off the front. OK Now I am pissed. The tech said your kidding right? Wasn't it missing before? I informed and showed him a freshly washed car with a nice dirt outline of a porsche emblem and told him that it was there when I brought it to them. He stated he would look at the neighboring garages surveillance tape and let me know what he saw.

Never heard back from him...
So here is the aftermath of this @#$$% auto service inspection.

First off I heard a clicking on occasion and when I turned down the radio I couldn't pin point it. It would stop before I could really hear it. But I still had a strong vibration under heavy acceleration.

So one bright day on the way to work I was driving semi hard when I lifted off the gas and "CLICK"!! the clicking became almost continuous and obviously from the rear. I jacked it up and noticed that the CV boots were torn and missing clamps! (didn't I just get a PPI?).
Sure enough the inboard passenger side CV was making the noise and I could feel it grinding when I moved the shaft side to side.

I called @#$$% back and carefully explained all that had happened so far. They stated that they couldn't understand why the joints were missed after the clutch job and all the work they did and would gladly put the new ones on if I purchased them. I told them that the drive up and back to their shop would be longer than the time it would take me to do the work. And I asked "what about my hood emblem?"

He stated that he was sure his mechanic was correct and it was missing when I pulled in but they would replace it. (I had already done this, I wasn't going to take them to task for a $32 part I couldn't prove was there.)

So I offered to let them put my new motor mounts (that weren't the vibration problem under hard acceleration anyway) or refund my money and the hood emblem.
So they took the easy way (I would have too) and indicated they would send a check my way.
Week later no check and my car still overheats when sitting still. Today is 95 degrees. I start the car and let it idle. the temp gauge does it's thing and starts to climb. Give it a thump and it drops down to normal. I get on the road and start driving. Every thing is still reading normal until I hit my first red light. The temp gauge is climbing again and I thump it.. it doesn't go down. I thump again and it doesn't go down. Now the red light is on and the car is starting to idle rough... Hmmmm... I thump it one more time and the traffic light turns green. I put it into first and pull away. As soon as I hit 45 the temp gauge starts to dive down to normal. Not a sudden drop like when I thump the dash but a normal albeit quick descent. So I tap the gauge a few times and it pops around a bit but always goes back to mid range. Then I stop and up she goes very quickly. I thump it and it doesn't go down but up! By the time I get to the parking lot she is red again and thumping doesn't help.

Correct me if I am wrong but this "overheating indication" only happens in stop and go traffic and on really hot days would indicate the car is really overheating and not just a bad gauge. Just to be sure I open the hood and the hoses are very very hot and rock hard. Ughhhh... no coolant loss yet but I am sure that something bad is going on.

Both fans run when I am stopped and it heats up faster when I turn on the AC.
So a couple of questions.

1. Since I have lost no coolant does that rule out the head gasket?

2. could it be the timing it retarded or advanced a tooth?

3. Why doesn't it overheat at highway speeds or on a normal (70-80 degree) day?

These are questions I would answer myself but I am still new to Porsches and wanted to hear Porsche owners experience over my "American car" experience. All cars have their quirks.

Also what should I do with the @#$$% auto service?
They do tech inspections for PCA club events and came highly recommended.
They do state a 12 month or 12K mile warranty but how would I apply this to a missed problem (or three) on an inspection?

They missed the wheel bearings and had to be told to do them.
They missed the axles not once but twice at least (clutch job, customer clicking complaint and my vibration under heavy acceleration complaint)
They did find a flaky gauge but didn't realize that my description (rough idle when hot) was indicative of a real overheating problem.

Ok... I feel relieved now... (not really).. I guess my rant is done but I am really disappointed in the @#$$% auto service.

someone throw me a bone and let me know if they think the sluggish response and the overheating are related? (my experience with a honda accord is that the timing is off by a tooth 3 degrees) what do you ohhh porsche experts think?
Thanks for letting me vent..
and hopefully what I type when pissed off (and hot) makes sense...

JC

stolarzj

The overheating sounds like air in the system. Try bleeding it and see how it goes.

NeoRules

Ya know.. I had to do that like 10 times on my 300M...
I will try that tonight maybe..
Should be easier if I raise the front end slightly no?


Edit: will the lindsey racing steam vent kit help me with the air in the system problem or do I still need to bleed it ?
Thanks
JC

genikz

The best way to vent the cooling system, in my opinion, is to rent a cooling system pressure tester from AutoZone. It's free too (well, you buy the tool and they return the money when you return the tool).

I changed my rad and oil cooler seals, but couldn't get the car to cool. I must have bled the system 15 times by letting it get to temp, shutting down, then cracking the bleeder valve. I finally rented the pressure tester and got all the air out in about 5 minutes flat.

stolarzj

Interesting, my parents 300M just starting running in the red. Guess I need to look at air in it's system. I only really ran into that issue on the Porsche 4cyl's, never really came up on other vehicles.

NeoRules

Yeah... those cars have a similar thing. I didn't know about mine until after I had the radiator replaced due to colision. It overheated on the way home from the body shop.. I called them up and they were like ohhhh yeah.... sorry about that we forgot to bleed the system....
Maybe they forgot the hardner in the paint too

JC