KeninBlaine

In January I purchased an 06 C2S cab at a Denver dealer. They had CPO'd the car, which had 14k miles a factory warranty that expires on March 10 this year.

After taking delivery in late January (trucked to me from Denver) I noticed a couple of glitches with the PCM: absence of some of the Individual Settings menu items, and inability to discretely select AM stations properly. I decided to address these issues immediately as I didn't want to take a chance on the CPO covering these types of issues. Here is how it has gone so far:
1. Took car to local Porsche dealer on Feb 6 to see if re-loading the enabling codes would fix the glitches. They tried that, and it didn't work, so they determined a new PCM would be required. Due to cost ($2400) they said I'd need to return on a weekday so the Service Mgr could approve it for warranty replacement.
2. Returned the car to dealer on Feb 17 to have the PCM replaced. When I picked it up later that day, they found that it wasn't a defective PCM, but it was a coding issue due to the apparent replacement of the instrument cluster last spring. They sorted this out and figured it was fixed. Before I got home I noticed that while most of the initial problems were fixed, there were still a couple of Indiv settings items inactive (Daytime Running Lites and Climate). Also, I noticed that the car was riding like it was in sport mode despite no lights showing on either of the buttons for Sport or PASM. In the process of checking, I found that the Sport button wouldn't do anything and would never light up. The PASM button later started working properly and I was able to get a smooth ride back, but the Sport button was still dead.
3. Returned the car to dealer on Feb 22 to address above issues. They fixed the Indiv Settings items, but determined the Sport button was defective and had to order one.
4. Returned the car to dealer today to have the new sport button installed. After 2 hours, they found the new button didn't fix it, and it appeared to be another coding issue, this time apparently with the "rear control module".

So now I have another appointment on Mar 1 to have a more senior tech try to sort out the problem. Interestingly when I got in the car after today's appointment, the PASM button was again inactive, but the car was obviously riding in firm mode. Pressing the PASM button did nothing to either light it up or change the suspension mode. But after one errand stop (including lock and unlock of doors), the PASM button came back to life and the smooth ride was back.

I'm just sharing this to demonstrate, again, the complexity of the electronics on these cars. While I think the drive train is pretty robust, I believe the electronics are likely the most complex and vulnerable part of these cars that could incur high costs over time. The service techs obviously have a tough time troubleshooting some of these faults, similar to problems experienced computer techs can have with our computers at home. It points out the potential benefit of having warranty protection for these cars. One PCM replacement alone would justify most of the cost of an extended warranty, not to mention troubleshooting time which in my case is now over 4 hours I expect. I still don't know if my car's current problems would be covered by my CPO (which was just put on in November), so rather than take chances, I'm attempting to get things resolved before expiration of the factory warranty. But I'm also glad I got the CPO.

So when buying used cars, be careful, and be aware of these possible issues.

Edgy01

This comes as no surprise to me. Most technicians simply are ill-trained in dealing with the electronic systems on these cars. They might be fine at troubleshoot the conventional mechanical issues but today's electronics are tougher for them to be knowledgeable in. When my PCM was changed out a year or so ago I discovered certain functions were now denied to me. The PCM system is supposed to retain the coding information but it had not, necessitating my dealership to query PCNA and get all the codes that are supposed to be embedded within the PCM, e.g., Extended Navigation, Sports Chrono. If certain codes are not plugged in, the function will simply be denied. PCM codes should be known by their owners. Have them written down someplace. They are 16 digit alpha-numeric codes. As owners, we have to be that much more proactive and knowledgeable about these things or else we will be paying for functions that are denied.

russo

It sounds like today's techs need to be software and electrical engineers.

Gj325

IOne reason for $150.00 per hour labor charges

Da Hapa

1. Sorry Ken is having to go through all of this with his beautiful, new to him car.
2. I would buy the $150/hour labor charge if the avg. P car tech could/would properly diagnose these issues. As Ken's experience above, and my experience with defective instrument clusters have shown... they don't.
3. I think the motor, tranny, suspension and brakes are all very, very stout. But the electronics on these cars scare me. I originally bought my C2S thinking it was a car I would keep for a very long time and I'm actually not so sure about that now. I've still got 2 years on the bumper to bumper warranty and could buy an extended warranty but I just don't feel that confident in the overly complicated, and frankly poorly executed, PCM, etc.

DRJMK

+1 on software engineers needing to fix these cars. I, personally, would not buy a car without the warranty. With that being said, I will be trading my 09 C2s cab before the warranty expires in 3 years or so. I am certainly happy to see Ken's dealer really trying to diagnose the problem. Good luck!

KeninBlaine

They've never seen a car with so many coding problems. I feel a little guilty, because the selling dealer in Denver who CPO'd the car should really be the one fixing these things. Obviously it is so complex, they didn't even notice the glitches until I came along and opened up the can of worms. I suppose if I was like many uninvolved owners out there, I wouldn't have even noticed the missing functionality.

Lesson learned: if you plan to purchase a used 997, and there is no remaining warranty, take some time to go through all the PCM menus, and test the PASM and Sport switches, and test the center cluster computer display to make sure everything works properly. Note: this will require familiarity with the PCM manual and owner's manual, which can be mind numbing in understanding their explanations of the many features.

russo

The mind numbing information overload you get by reading the manual will discombobulate you to the point that you may not notice anything is immediately wrong.

Maxy

Well, that's disappointing. You must be really frustrated.

#1 How did this vehicle ever get "certified"? The "C" in CPO must not mean much.

#2 Why was the instrument cluster replaced?

KeninBlaine

1. Your guess is as good as mine, but I guess their checklist doesn't include an exhaustive review of all electronic features. Unless you were looking for the features I was, you may not notice. The previous owner apparently didn't notice, and neither did the dealer that CPO'd it.
2. I don't know the reason for cluster replacement, as it was done long before I purchased the car. But it is apparent that there is a lot of complexity in the cluster, and unless set up correctly for a given car, may not communicate properly with the PCM.

JasonKM

Da Hapa, why was your cluster replaced? I have trouble with my tach needle sticking at times, but PCNA refuses to replace it.

KeninBlaine

Well, the saga appears to be over, finally. I took the car in today for the 5th attempt to fix the electronic glitches, and this time they seem to have found the solution. Today's challenge was to get the Sport switch to work. They apparently found a coding problem in an electrical unit (I have no idea where). They also decided to go ahead and replace the Sport switch (which means the entire lower switch panel) since they could hear a little rattling in there). So after a month I finally have a car with everything working right. My fingers are crossed that it stays that way now! The SmarTop went on as soon as I got home tonight. I held off installing it until all the bugs were cleared, as I didn't want to provide any excuse for Porsche not fixing the faults first.

sbpsu354

+1 for a CPO'd car. My CPO warranty ends in June and I'm starting the search for a CPO 2006 C2S. I had a CPO 03 Audi A6 4.2 Sport that needed a new seat bracket which is essentially a square chunk of metal under the seat. The part was $1000, and several hundred dollars to install. With the CPO warranty, I was out 50 bucks. A few other minor issues more than covered the cost of the warranty.

Da Hapa

My cluster was replaced the first time because of issues that developed while trying to fix a rattle.

It was replaced a second time when the first replacement was defective.

Both times, and in fairness every time, I've had an issue my dealer has been extremely accomodating, easy to work with, and fair but it's a PITA nonetheless.

Da Hapa

GREAT NEWS KEN. Fingers crossed it's all sorted out and you can get to enjoying that beautiful car.

Safe tavels.