Howdy all -

I'm having an issue with my dealer fix the driver seat which creaks at "all times" near the shoulder and wanted some advise on how to get this escalated (or simply get it resolved).

For your reference, the car is fairly new (picked it up in March of this year) and the noise (creaks and squeaks) started around April and its gotten so bad, I'm just uber annoyed just to drive this car. Anyways, I have recently visited the dealer's service department to show them exactly where the sound is coming from regardless of seat position or road surface/etc.

The creaking sound can be reproduced at anytime without driving the car and it gets even worst when you drive (as it adds a layer of rattling and drive me insane!!!).

That said, I've visited the dealer/service department 6 times for the same problem over the past 4 weeks since dropping off the car. (yup - the car's been away from home that long).

Each time the SA calls me stating that the car is now fixed and ready to be picked up... I've left dealership with dissapointment where the creaking is still there.

Anyways, the SA and the techs hear exactly where the sound is coming from, but can't seem to get it fixed and during my last visit on Friday evening, I've asked them to replace the entire seat, except Porsche would not allow such and even if it was possible - every individual pieces needs to be ordered separately... Does that even sound right?

I'm now pissed and lost if this is how I should be treated by Porsche or the dealership.

Any idea/suggestion from the forum on how to deal with the situation?

 

Can you go to another dealership in your area?

Ask your service advisor to schedule a meeting with the Porsche zone manager, and the 3 of you decide on a course of action.

 

Agree. Zone manager needed; he/she will help resolve the issue and/or escalate to PCNA for further assistance.

 

Let's hope that a Zone Manager isn't required to fix such a simple problem. I would definitely go to another dealership. You have a squeaky seat on a new $100K+ car, which of course is completely unacceptable. The fact that it does it all the time, should make it easy to identify and repair.

Let me give you an example of world class service. My wife purchased an Infiniti Q45 about twenty years ago. She played competitive tennis on a regular basis, and she always drove her Infiniti to her matches. Over the years the leather in her driver's seat became discolored from perspiration. Even though the car was no longer under warranty, I advised my wife to contact the SA to see if Infiniti would offer a suggestion. To my surprise Infiniti agreed to replace the leather which was a very expensive fix. They promised to have the new leather installed within five days, but they missed the promised date by three days. The reason? The new leather on the driver's seat did not perfectly match the passenger seat, so the SA decided to replace the leather on both seats.

Contrast that to a Porsche dealer who won't take the effort to fix a simple squeak.

 

subscribed. I have the same issue on the seat base. Creaking is very annoying. Dealer tried to fix it bu adding felt in between the plastic (for the seat movement electronics) and the seat, but it did not fix the issue.

 

Thank you LexVan

Supposedly, the dealers don't like to hear the term "zone manager". Anyways, I did just that and have started getting calls from the service director (asking me to come back a few additional times to show them the problem). A completely waste of my time and theirs (facepalm x 9999999999).

Anyways, as of this Friday - I just picked up the car with the problem resolved.

THANK YOU!

 

Dangelus -

Yeah and thank you! I didn't know about the existence of a zone manager, but even without getting them involved (the dealer was avoiding my request to get them involved) simply saying let us take a look at it once more with bunch of BS...

Anyways, just asking for a zone manager got them to take my problem more seriously.

 

Awesome story on the Q45 Fast1!!! I had a similar experience with the dealer changing the entire headliner on a Lexus LS 430 because of of a tech that had stained an area during/after some maintenance.

Going back to the Porsche... I've asked for the zone manager (which they avoided after multiple requests), but I finally brought my car back this Friday.

Based on my own experience (I'm sure this is dealer specific), but I just don't understand how I had to make 8 or 9 trips over 2 months (where they kept the car during that entire time) to simply fix an issue with the seat.

What's interesting is that the problem was reproducible at all times, but every call I received from the dealer was like... we fixed your issue and the car is ready to be picked up, but only to find out within 5 seconds of my visit to the service center the problem was still there!

When asked to see the paper work for what they've done to it... obviously the only reference was were things such as [1hr blah blah blah, tech test drove the car and problem not found], [car wash] or [dissembled the seat and reassemble the seat] followed by [car wash].

Anyways, it was total BS as I've provided them an audio recording, a video and a one pager print out of how to re-produce the problem.

Long story short, the root cause of the problem was the foam that's used within the seat. *** At least for the 2015 model, the foam (or shall I say lack of a foam) - the support for the seat is made out of a plastic on a honeycomb shaped pillow with air bubbles intermingled with bunch of plastic pieces sitting inside the frame.

Only if they would have just replaced whatever during let's say my 2nd or 3rd visit, I would have been okay with the experience... but I'm not sure if I want another P-car or get something from this dealership located in the NE.

 

TrappistMonk -

For your reference for my 2015 C2S, I have the leather 14-way with heated/ventilated seat and my problem was corrected by replacing pretty much everything that was inside the seat.

Also, increasing or decreasing the position or the pressure for the lumbar support didn't have an impact nor the seat position for re-create the noise. Basically, you sit on it and bam!

The service center and the tech(s) don't really know what did the trick, but my suspicion is that the seat support/seat cushion, which is made out of plastic on a honeycomb shaped object with bubbles (instead of a traditional foam) is most likely the root cause on top of all the damn plastic pieces that attach the honeycomb and the the seat frame.

Anyways, I'm on 5'8 and 150 pounds... there's no way in hell my weight can directly impact/contribute either via pressure or weight to create the creaking sound on the seat. I blame it on bad design/assembly and the all the cheap plastic pieces on a $100k+ car.

In fact, even the tech(s) were surprised when they found out what they thought would be a foam for the back support was a plastic honeycomb object.

If you're still having an issue with your seat, tell them about this stupid plastic honeycomb that's part of your back support.