alexaqui

Hi all. I'm curious if I'm missing something. My CPO Cayman S was in the shop getting a new tire installed due to a flat. About 300 miles before the flat, my TPC went haywire and told me it was malfunctioning. It iddn't say "flat tire"; it said something like "TPC is off due to malfunction". It eventually went away. When I brought the car to the dealer to have them check it out, they didn't find anything wrong. Somehow, even though the car is under "warranty", since they didn't find anything, I now have to pay for the labor. I understand paying for new batteries, etc. is not covered. In this case, I only asked them for a repair related to what was reported by the computer. Am I completely missing something here?! I'm pretty furious about this...

alexaqui

So I called Porsche directly. Apparently, if you have a CPO car and want warranty coverage, make sure there is a real problem, regardless of what the computer says. As a result, next time the check engine light comes on, I will ignore it. Who is to say the problem is a real one? Also, a telling comment was that the dealer "may" actually charge regardless of whether a repair is warrantied or not; they may charge more than what Porsche reimburses them. Excellent program! NOT.

Macster

The factory issues guidelines that the techs must adhere to in order for a car to qualify for warranty work.

Generally the way it works is the tech must observe a problem be it a leak, a noise, odd/abnormal behavior of the car or any of its systems, or a warning light be on and the tech can obtain meaningful error codes.

In the case a check engine light or other warning light is on there may be further diagnostic steps required to pinpoint the most likely source of the problem.

If the car is not manifesting any signs of any problems (in your car's case the warning you observed was not present) then the tech will have to reproduce the symptom in the service bay or drive the car -- for a reasonable amount of time which generally is not that long -- in hopes the symptom appears.

Thus if the symptom is not active it is very important when you take a car in that you can detail under what circumstances the symptom or behavior shows up to help the tech.

Unfortunately when you brought the car in it was not manifesting any symptoms.

The dealer is within its rights to charge you for the labor for the vehicle was found to be "performing within Porsche limits" (I think this is the wording or something close to it), though this was probably not made clear to you before you left the car, which is not good service and goes against Porsche's customer service guidelines it gives to its dealers.

Also, the dealer/service department would have likely gotten more from you in the long run had it waived the labor charge -- as a customer goodwill gesture -- because nothing was found. But this was not done either.

Sincerely,

Macster.