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Loosing Programming at the Dealership ? Broke Car or Dealership
Hey All,
Been searching and could not find this particular problem. I own a 2007 997.1 Targa 4S. She has 44,750 miles and is a joy to drive. Whenever I bring her into the Porsche Dealership for servicing I ALWAYS get the car back with something not functioning. Once it was the Sport Mode. Another time the Chrono was disabled and last week when I brought her in to have the Crono fixed along with break line flush, oil change and cabin filter change I found the cruise control was disabled when I got on the highway. I brought her back immediately to get the issue fixed and it was. I asked why do I always get the car back with something disabled. The service rep said "the programming is messed up and tosses things out" I asked if the module was broken since he used the term messed up and he said it wasn't just that it tosses some settings at times.
I'm skeptical. I asked why the tech can't do a snapshot of the settings or configuration then do his work and then be sure the car's programming is the same before disconnecting. The rep said they don't do that.
I live about 85 miles (1.5 hrs) from the dealership and the next closest Porsche Dealership is 95 miles (just under 2 hrs) away.
Is 997.1 programming just finicky?
Is my 997.1 "broken"?
Is the dealership I'm using not up to snuff?
Your thoughts are welcomed and appreciated.
Pete
Last edited by rocketman612; 02-15-2021 at 07:05 PM.
2011 997.2 GTS and I've never had anything like that happen. I have 40,000 miles and my car is always serviced at my local Porsche dealer. Love it when they say “we don't do that”. Well, maybe they should! Good luck figuring this out.
2011 997.2 GTS and I've never had anything like that happen. I have 40,000 miles and my car is always serviced at my local Porsche dealer. Love it when they say “we don't do that”. Well, maybe they should! Good luck figuring this out.
The Service Associate called today to see if I was "Happy" with my experience. I had a similar discussion with her. I've owned the car for 3 years and everything works great as it should until I bring her in. Then over the next few weeks I will notice something not working like the Chrono or Sport Mode as I don't use them much. I told her it's not my job to sit there for a half hour going through all the systems and options to be sure nothing was deleted before driving home. These are highly engineered cars and as such should have a highly trained tech working on it. But that's just me.
I would contact Porsche Cars North America customer service and have a conversation with them...
800-767-7243
Just got off the phone with Porsche customer service. I reviewed my experience with my 997.1 and he was pretty much shocked. He believes the car to be ok because if the module holding the programming was bad it would show a fault and not accept new programming. Also the fact that it's a different issue afterwards lends to something being done at the Dealership.
His recommendation is that despite the longer drive I check reviews for the next nearest Dealership in Destin Fla. and take her in there for servicing. He also suggested that if I went that route to have the car get a full diagnostic to be sure it's all good as well as check to see if there are any updates for the car.
Thanks for reinforcing my thoughts about having to change Dealerships for servicing.
Do you know if the ECU has ever been flashed to an aftermarket program or been replaced completely?
I have never heard of options turning off like cruise control, you would have to dig pretty deep to do that I think, and ask yourself why would a tech shut that down?
These types of experiences, including personal ones, are why none of my cars never, ever, ever go to the dealership unless it's something that can only be done via PIWIS, like updating the PCM software to prevent it from constantly rebooting after a Sirius satellite OTA update.
Anything mechanical I'll do myself and have a large enough fleet where one can sit on the lift while I price together enough time to complete it. My 997 was on the lift last year from March until August while I removed everything on top of the engine including the supercharger to replace the AOS and find an intake leak that was causing the car to run rich and an oil leak that turned out to be coming from an oil line fitting on the supercharger.
Voiceprint,
I bought the car in 2018 from a Porsche Dealership in Ohio and they gave it a clean bill of health. I have no info regarding the ECU. My dealership said that there are no updates for it and that the ECU was functioning properly.
Petza914,
My hats off to you for working on your 997. While I have a lift, I don't have the instruments or skill to tackle these cars. I do get neck deep into my 78 280z and 80 Triumph TR8.
I am planning on having the ECU and car gone over by the new dealership when it gets warmer.
I'm skeptical. I asked why the tech can't do a snapshot of the settings or configuration then do his work and then be sure the car's programming is the same before disconnecting. The rep said they don't do that.
they are being lazy and causing you problems. after a few times of screwing up your car, this is exactly what they should do.
the piwis *Can do* a vehicle handover based on the vin and the original car settings they have on file.. but this doesn't account for additional changes / upgrades adjustments made after the car rolls off the lot.
someone is being careless, the functions you mention as enabled/disabled by different modules. ie. cruise control in the steering module. while sport chronos is another (cant recall which).
so different modules are having their coding settings reWritten. if you stick with this dealership you will should get a foxWell530 to fix back anything they screw up. You may have to do the snap shot of the settings yourself (not a bad idea in any case), to protect yourself moving forward.
Is there a reason why you keep going to that same dealership for service? Here are PCA recommended independent shops in Alabama that might be worth a call.
they are being lazy and causing you problems. after a few times of screwing up your car, this is exactly what they should do.
the piwis *Can do* a vehicle handover based on the vin and the original car settings they have on file.. but this doesn't account for additional changes / upgrades adjustments made after the car rolls off the lot.
someone is being careless, the functions you mention as enabled/disabled by different modules. ie. cruise control in the steering module. while sport chronos is another (cant recall which).
so different modules are having their coding settings reWritten. if you stick with this dealership you will should get a foxWell530 to fix back anything they screw up. You may have to do the snap shot of the settings yourself (not a bad idea in any case), to protect yourself moving forward.
OP, this is a great idea based on what you've experienced and your distance from that dealer. Get a Durametric Pro or the Foxwell that has coding capability and once you have the car working properly again, I'd store a backup of the Coding Programming for every module accesable through the tool coding menu. Then the next time they screw something up, you can go back to the stored backup and rewrite the correct coded options to restore the functionality. Always store a new backup before overwriting them just in case.
Is there a reason why you keep going to that same dealership for service? Here are PCA recommended independent shops in Alabama that might be worth a call.
Thanks,
I live in the SE corner of the state in Enterprise. Some of the shops on the list are farther but, will look into the closer ones. It's my first Porsche and at this price point I was/am reluctant to let just anyone work on her without the skill and equipment to do the job right.
02-15-2021, 06:51 PM
Loosing Programming at the Dealership ? Broke Car or Dealership
