WP0

My local Porsche dealership's service manager told me this morning that they don't want to do a repair for the check engine light for my car under CPO warranty because:

1. if they do a repair and it's not the exact proper repair, and the same fault occurs again, they will not be paid for it under CPO warranty, and since there are several possibilities for causing the fault, they want to troubleshoot it more (by switching the camshaft sensor from one bank to the other, and see if the fault follows the sensor.)

Does anyone know if this is true?

Thanks.

3-Pedals

Which dealer?

erko1905

The details of it shouldn't be your problem. Car is warrantied, they fix it, end of story.

WP0

Here's more detail: while driving at Daytona, after the first session of smokin' the track, my check engine light came on and also had a "reduced power" fault. I took it to a local race team who ran the codes, and said it was a code that indicated either the camshaft or camshaft sensor. They said my weekend was over, and to take it to a dealer. As I drove it slowly over there, during even modest acceleration, the engine made an awful loud, grinding noise from only the left side. It sounded awful, as I'd never heard a Porsche engine make that sound before.

Archimedes

Your original post isn’t clear. You say they don’t want to make the repair, then you say they want to troubleshoot it more. It doesn’t sound like they’re unwilling to repair the car, just that they want to make sure they repair the real problem.

WP0

The problem is that by not even attempting to repair an identified problem (camshaft fault), they are putting me at risk for a more severe problem on the track: they moved the sensor from one bank to the other, without replacing a likely source of fault. The car is only driven on the track, and will probably show up after another 30 minute session, ending my weekend, and possibly leading to a serious problem on the track (stalling while cornering would be disastrous).

Zubehor

is this a .1 gt3 or .2? so they swapped the camshaft sensor and sent you on your way? from your second post you said the car sounds awful did the noise go away? its unlikely that it did. if its a .1 with a failed engine the code will come back as soon as you take it to the red line so drive it hard for a minute and you'll have the faults back right away. it wouldn't even pass their service tech test drive

WP0

They still have the car. It's a CPO 2016 991.1 GT3 RS. . . yes, they wanted to just swap out the sensor and send me on my way, because the check engine light cleared after about five days, and the dealership didn't get the car until the 6th day after the code. They say that it's driving fine now, without a code. . . but I suppose it's just a matter of time until the fault occurs again, and it either causes a wreck, or I just lose the entire track weekend.

Zubehor

so you took the car to the dealer right after your track day but because it sat in their parking lot for 5 days the code cleared? that's not how it works, code don't just clear on their own.
it sucks that its driving fine for now but i would take it back and drive it hard for a bit the code should come back. i agree its a matter of time before the code comes back but its also odd how the code hasn't come back after they swamped the sensors.

look on the bright side you'll get it fixed no matter what under warranty you just have to waste some time before they do. its also hard for them to know what to replace if its not throwing any codes right now.

WP0

The track day was Saturday, Dec. 11. Service is closed on the weekends, so I set up a tow service to pick up the car, and they didn't pick up the car until Friday, Dec. 17. The code cleared as I backed the car out of the garage on Thur, Dec 16 ,expecting a tow to arrive Thursday.
Yes, I slowly drove the car back from Daytona (70 miles), and the code persisted, but it cleared as it sat in my garage for 6 days waiting for the tow to the dealership. The code was gone before the swapped the sensors. They swapped the sensors to see if the code switches to the other bank of the camshaft. . .
I'm leaning towards demanding a sensor replacement on the faulted side, as a failing sensor would be the most likely cause of the fault. . . unless someone else knows that the description of the grinding engine means something else.

Zubehor

Even if the check engine light is off the code in still stored in the dme. They should be able to retrieve it.
You can try and demand a new sensor but without an active code they will most likely fight you on that.
Do you have another track day planned soon? I know it sucks wasting a nice weekend but since the code isn't currently active i don't know if they will do much about it.

WP0

Yes, they could retrieve the fault code, and that's how they knew it was a camshaft error. They got that, and instead of replacing a sensor, they simply swapped them to troubleshoot the error code. . . so in essence, they did nothing but prepare for the next fault code.

Archimedes

And did they or you then drive the car hard to see if the problem resurfaced?

WP0

They drove the car (I guess on the road), where you can't really drive it hard. . . but they said they got it up to 8000rpm once, and I laughed, and told them the PDK shifts at the redline 9000rpm 30+ times each lap. . .

flyjets

Get the car back and drive the RS full revs if it malfunctions send it back to them to replace the motor.
I've seen both .1 and .2 all have the issue you described.