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Here's my take. There are any number of possible failure points on any modern car which can leave you stranded somewhere. Many of them. I'm not going to worry excessively about one in particular.
Also, the 3G sunset theory has (IMO) already grown even less likely than before. If 3G loss was causing this, EVERY VTS-equipped Porsche in a region where the shutdown has been completed would be dead. Not just a few cars, not 25%, but ALL of them. As a cause, lack of 3G would not disable just a few cars.
For example, we know that @Buddhamonk in or near Portland Oregon has experienced it, and Sunset has told him that several Macans have also failed recently. But what about all the other several hundred or thousands of late model Porsches in Portland? If there's no 3G, shouldn't they all be dead?
I'm putting $10 on this comment being completely ignored by the conspiracy theorists, but will quote-reply to it here just so it's repeated again in the off chance they accidentally read it.
FWIW, I had my VTS Controller update completed about a month ago. Have since agreed to sell the car and while driving it to get a new O2 sensor installed, I received a notification from the Porsche Connect Secure Operating Center that my car may have been stolen and to respond to avoid having the car disabled + authorities notified to retrieve it. The odd thing is that I was with the car the entire time. Perhaps a false alarm, but was told that they have seen a lot of these false theft signals lately.
Just another data point…perhaps a coincidence, but suspect it is part of a bigger issue with Porsche’s security service than the hardware in the car itself. I disabled all the VTS capabilities via the Porsche Connect app until I cancel all the Porsche Connect Services before handing over the car to the new owner.
FWIW, I had my VTS Controller update completed about a month ago. Have since agreed to sell the car and while driving it to get a new O2 sensor installed, I received a notification from the Porsche Connect Secure Operating Center that my car may have been stolen and to respond to avoid having the car disabled + authorities notified to retrieve it. The odd thing is that I was with the car the entire time. Perhaps a false alarm, but was told that they have seen a lot of these false theft signals lately.
Just another data point…perhaps a coincidence, but suspect it is part of a bigger issue with Porsche’s security service than the hardware in the car itself. I disabled all the VTS capabilities via the Porsche Connect app until I cancel all the Porsche Connect Services before handing over the car to the new owner.
Interesting, as I think you're the first connect subscriber to chime in here. I wonder if any of these people with "vts failures" would have gotten a similar alert had they been subscribed.
I came across this thread as I was searching for more details. My 2018 991.2 c4s had this happen on May 13th, 2022. I didn't drive it for a few days, then took a trip to Home Depot, and the car would start and shut off right away.
I had it towed to the closest dealer and have yet to get the car back. It seems like a known and common problem, all occurring around the same time. I can't see how or why Porsche would not cover the whole repair.
It took 2 weeks just to get a diagnosis!!.. They seemed to have the part right away, but now it's been another 2 weeks "waiting for a technician" to become available. They finally told me yesterday that a technician started working on it... which is progress, but at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes the technician 2-4 weeks to finish the job. The inability for them to tell me anything that I can manage to and plan around, is one of the worst aspects of this. Not having a car indefinitely can really through a wrench into daily life.
A 911, was always my dream car since I was a kid... 30 years later I managed to get one new, but thinking now maybe the "dream car" notion was just that, a dream and not reality. Yes, love the car and perfect for my "daily driver" use, but I've owned/leased 20+ cars in the past 20 years and never had such problems with such a new car. The car's been towed twice in the 4 years I've had it, and I've put a total of about 17k miles on it. Recently for this VTS issue, and the first time was something faulty with the coolant system which was covered under warranty.
I've started looking for alternatives, but it is kind of tough. After going through so many cars, my hard head has learned, that for me a car is basically an appliance with the exception of some really special ones like a Porsche 911. In any case, it's really disappointing and what makes it worse is the dealer service experience... you would think that after spending $130k+ on a car, you would get treated with just a bit of consideration and empathy. I don't yell, get nasty, be rude or be unreasonable so don't understand how a service business does not know how to manage a very reasonable customer's expectations.
I came across this thread as I was searching for more details. My 2018 991.2 c4s had this happen on May 13th, 2022. I didn't drive it for a few days, then took a trip to Home Depot, and the car would start and shut off right away.
I had it towed to the closest dealer and have yet to get the car back. It seems like a known and common problem, all occurring around the same time. I can't see how or why Porsche would not cover the whole repair.
It took 2 weeks just to get a diagnosis!!.. They seemed to have the part right away, but now it's been another 2 weeks "waiting for a technician" to become available. They finally told me yesterday that a technician started working on it... which is progress, but at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes the technician 2-4 weeks to finish the job. The inability for them to tell me anything that I can manage to and plan around, is one of the worst aspects of this. Not having a car indefinitely can really through a wrench into daily life.
A 911, was always my dream car since I was a kid... 30 years later I managed to get one new, but thinking now maybe the "dream car" notion was just that, a dream and not reality. Yes, love the car and perfect for my "daily driver" use, but I've owned/leased 20+ cars in the past 20 years and never had such problems with such a new car. The car's been towed twice in the 4 years I've had it, and I've put a total of about 17k miles on it. Recently for this VTS issue, and the first time was something faulty with the coolant system which was covered under warranty.
I've started looking for alternatives, but it is kind of tough. After going through so many cars, my hard head has learned, that for me a car is basically an appliance with the exception of some really special ones like a Porsche 911. In any case, it's really disappointing and what makes it worse is the dealer service experience... you would think that after spending $130k+ on a car, you would get treated with just a bit of consideration and empathy. I don't yell, get nasty, be rude or be unreasonable so don't understand how a service business does not know how to manage a very reasonable customer's expectations.
We're being told in certain quarters that this isn't really a big deal and similar to a failed water pump and should be expected because ......... well I can't think of anything reasonable offered other than "things break". The word is, just suck it up and if it hasn't happened yet to you, it's really not an issue to be concerned about. It appears there's a faulty design in the module and it's also known by Porsche yet they do not address the issue publicly. It would be interesting to track these failures on a map across models and build dates. So far as I can tell, it's just been effecting builds from '17 on. I do not think I've seen vehicles built prior to that date report experiencing this failure ..... yet. Clearly Porsche did not design and manufacture these control modules. It would be interesting to discover whether other car manufacturers use this same module and if they too are experiencing this "trend". It can't be that Porsche was the only customer for them. I wish everyone who has had this happen, report it to NHTSA. Then maybe we would get some real answers.
Last edited by Live Steam; Jun 10, 2022 at 01:31 PM.
a pattern i'm noticing is the car starts, runs fine to point B (distance not a factor) and is stopped. then attempting to restart fails.
so maybe the car thinks the non-subscriber has "stolen" their own car and since it has not received/can't receive the "all clear this is a false positive" from the network it bricks itself on purpose.
all wild speculation on my part but an example of why a "connected car" with a kill switch is a bad idea.
a pattern i'm noticing is the car starts, runs fine to point B (distance not a factor) and is stopped. then attempting to restart fails.
so maybe the car thinks the non-subscriber has "stolen" their own car and since it has not received/can't receive the "all clear this is a false positive" from the network it bricks itself on purpose.
all wild speculation on my part but an example of why a "connected car" with a kill switch is a bad idea.
Not wild speculation at all. It was my first thought when people started experiencing the issue. I had only been a subscriber to the Porsche Connect Security feature for 5 weeks, but despite already having my VTS update done around that same time, I was surprised to get the possible theft notification yesterday myself. Thankfully, I was able to quickly intercept their outreach attempts to avoid any drive-ability issues, especially now that I just sold my car.
What I want to understand is why, if the key is present and the car started, does this "thing" disable the vehicle? That is not how it is supposed to work. As I also understand it, if one has the Car Connect service with the bells and whistles, there is also another fob that must be present in order for the car to operate without issue. It's some kind of small fob or token that can be in a wallet or purse. If that isn't present then the system will phone home and then have the car disabled as it suspects a theft.
Last edited by Live Steam; Jun 11, 2022 at 01:15 AM.
What I want to understand is why, if the key is present and the car started, does this "thing" disable the vehicle? That is not how it is supposed to work. As I also understand it, if one has the Car Connect service with the bells and whistles, there is also another fob that must be present in order for the car to operate without issue. It's some kind of small fob or token that can be in a wallet or purse. If that isn't present then the system will phone home and then have the car disabled as it suspects a theft.
I turned on Connect in my 22 Macan. There is no other small fob needed to turn on or operate car or tell the mother ship that the car is not stolen.
Interesting ... was this pos component available in all years of 991.1?
Wonder what the "take" percentage was year by year ... and, is the module actually in the vehicle, or just not selected in some manner.
Seems like a great way to differentiate, though ... I can see the notation on a sales ad ... "NOTE - THIS PORSCHE DOES NOT HAVE A VTS MODULE SO IT WILL NOT INSTANTANEOUSLY STOP RUNNING!" or, "YOU CAN DRIVE THIS PORSCHE ANYWHERE - UNLIKE OTHER PORSCHES WHICH COULD STOP RUNNING AT ANY TIME DUE TO MAGICAL, UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON."
Last edited by RennListUser01; Jun 11, 2022 at 11:14 AM.
