zareth

Hi All,

I have a 991.1S with PASM, and recently had new front tires installed by the dealer. I noticed afterwards that when making a hard turn I hear a "thunk". It sounds/feels like there is something heavy in the frunk that is shifting weight and hits the side. Further, after making a sharp left turn (and hearing the thunk), additional sharp left turns don't make any sound -- until I make a sharp right turn which then makes a thunk, and then additional right turns dont make this thunk sound. So something is shifting to one side There's nothing in the frunk that is heavy that can make this sound. At first I thought it might be new/cold tires and acorning, but i'm wondering if there is some kind of issue or something loose somewhere. Anyone have any thoughts / guesses what might cause something like this? The sound is definitely coming from the front end area, and almost sounds like its coming from the (empty) frunk. I do have aftermarket wheels which came with the car, but they don't seem to be rubbing or hitting anything obviously.

Thanks!

bb964

Many threads on this:

zareth

Thanks for the video Link! I have actually seen this and read through the acorning threads. I am pretty familiar with the reverse issue as the video shows, and I experienced this before I changed the tires. The hard-left and hard-right turn while driving forward is a bit louder and stranger in behavior so I wanted to be sure it was really just the same acorning issue. In particular the weird part is that the sound only happens on the first hard left (Driving forwards), and subsequent lefts (forward direction) dont make the thump. Then the next hard right there's a thump and subsequent hard rights don't make the thump. It's like some weight is shifting around. I thought if it was acorning, then it should make that slip/thunk on every turn equally? Or is it something in the differential shifting that somehow causes one tire to slip more than the other? Also with my old (nearly bald tires) I had the reverse acorning, but never the thump in the forward driving direction no matter how hard i turned. But with the new tires, I get it the same acorning as before in the backwards direction, and a significant thump turning in the forward direction.

So I just wanted to double-check. That's great if it's the acorning but I didn't hear anyone mention significant acorning when travelling forwards in a tight corner?

asellus

Remount the wheels and double check torque -- unless you've driven a few hundred miles already, in which case if that were actually a problem it would be very apparent by now.

Otherwise the obvious -- check to make sure nothing is rolling around in the frunk.

Check your battery under the plastic cover in the frunk area, make sure they didn't loosen the tiedown or something. The OEM battery tray can fit one size larger than most OEM batteries, so it can shift around a bit if it isn't strapped down.

zareth

Hey Man, thanks a bunch you nailed it with the battery! I totally didn't think to check but it's completely loose and flopping around in there!!!! I did ask the dealer to do a battery test and maybe they disconnected the strap? So I see that there's a metal bar that looks like it is supposed to be strapping the battery in, except that it is floating above the battery. The battery is well below this metal bar and making no contact at all (photo attached). I was thinking i'll just screw it back down but it looks like a part is missing? Anyone know how i'm supposed to secure the battery, or did the dealer remove the strap and I need to go back to them and get it?

zareth

Update:

OK I found the bracket piece at the bottom of the battery that is supposed to be bolted in and prevent the battery from shifting around. It was just lying there near the battery. I can't find the bolt that is supposed to attach it though, so maybe they took the bolt off and never put it back in? I'll give them a call and get it back.

asellus

Bingo, it has a little foot clamper thing at the bottom edge of the battery, driver side if I'm not mistaken. The upper strap doesn't do much to hold it down if I recall correctly.

Sounds like you've got it figured out. If you need pics of what it's supposed to look like let me know and I can go snap some on my 2017 (which should be the same)

Levy

nice! good thing Porsche dealers have trained pro's to work on your car =)

but seriously....what kind of idiot does that? i'd make sure the dealer knows about it AND gives you some kind of discount for next time (in case you ever decide to take it back there). they forced you to waste X hours of your life correcting a screw up that NEVER shoulda happened. they owe you for their bush league service

glad you were able to sort it out

zareth

This is the same dealer that tried to charge me $1,000 more than the other dealers in the area for the Major service (4 year / 40K). Even after i got another quote from a different dealer that was $1000 lower, they kept telling me that they were doing more service than the other dealer and to check all the line items. So sure, I had the other dealer give me an itemized list of every single service item they would do for that price, and I presented to this dealer that written estimate... They went back for awhile and said "oops we were charging you the price of the Turbo-S spark plug replacement" and then matched the price of the service exactly to the other dealer... Wtf? But OK maybe one time is a mistake?

So at the 6 Year service, they once again tried to charge me $1,000 more than the other dealers in the area. Once again i checked other dealer's and brought them the lower estimate. This time the other dealer warned to check if my car has PDCC and that it was a line item this dealer was trying to charge me for. Hint: My car doesn't have PDCC. So after removing that charge to replace something my car doesn't have -- the quote was correct again. And bonus my battery was returned to me unsecured! Really amateur mistake wtf.

This is the nearest dealer to me and really convenient. But I guess it may be worth it to drive the extra 20 miles or so and get it serviced at a more reputable dealer (which i had good experience with before this one opened). Porsche Irvine in CA if anyone is interested is this "Bad" dealer. Seems like their service department is either having lots of "accidental mistakes", or just plain trying to cheat people that aren't paying attention.

Al.Fresco

I’d make the extra 20 mile drive.

Levy

i had to fire my local dealer last spring. gave them 2 tries over a 1 year period and both times they tried to rip me off (succeeded once). fool me once/shame on you.....fool me twice/shame on ME. lord knows i tried and wanted to use the P dealer. no where near as convenient taking it elsewhere but ya gotta do what you gotta do. found a great indy shop that does outstanding work at half the price or less and doesn't cause me any grief or shame. well worth the extra 30 minute drive for me.

best of luck going forward

zareth

Thanks Man,

The convenience of the dealer is nice (especially the loaner cars). And the "supposedly expert factory trained technicians" also sounds nice on paper. I don't might paying extra if im getting better quality service, but damn not if it's actually worse! I'll have to look at some Indy's again as well for some of the more expensive services.

One weird thing is that the dealer sold me tires at a really good price... Quite a bit better than what i could get ordering from tire-rack and installing at a local tire shop. When they called me and told me i needed new tires (which i already knew I did but didnt ask them to do it knowing they're price gougers), i was ready to say no way expecting them to try and overcharge me for that too. But ended up being a great price after i checked online, so i took the offer.. Go figure! Same dealer!

mangu

From the sounds of it (and the dealers antics), I would double check the manufactured date on those new tires. Tire manufacturers recommend tires only be used during first six years of manufacture date. Hopefully they didn't sell you some tires that were heavily discounted because they are close to the 6-years from manufactured date.

zareth

A Final update on this:

I took the car back to the dealer and they fixed the issue. Of course i asked them to check everything again and they found the battery now failed the load test (whereas a few months ago when they did the 6yr service it passed). Since then i had it on a battery tender and didnt drive it much. They initially tried to charge me again a slightly higher price than the neighboring dealer ($100 more labor) but charged the same price for the part to replace the battery. I did raise the question that perhaps the battery failed due to being beaten around the frunk after it being unsecured for awhile, and if they would work with me to give a fair discount on the replacement. They ended up charging me parts only and made the labor for free. I thought that was a great gesture and owning up to their error.

Replacing the battery probably didnt cost them much in labor anyways, but they did the right thing here. The battery itself i haven't changed since i got the car (used) so it's at least 3 years old, if not more. So I know at some point within the next few years it needed to be replaced anyway. Though possibly it could have stretched a little further if it wasn't banged around? In either case i'm happy enough with the results and they did good this time. Most likely i will still do my maintenance at an independent or at the other dealer (that gives lower labor costs out the door) so i dont have to keep price matching them every time i need service.

Thanks to the folks that helped me figure out what the issue was!