saabin

So today I got my car back after a lengthy stay at the dealer. I dropped it off on Sept 1st, back to me on Oct 21st. A little background on the car: 2007 997.1TT, 43K miles, I’ve had for 2 years and it had 31K miles when I bought it. Never tracked. A few minor mods (Speedtech exhaust)

A few weeks ago, driving along in traffic, the CEL comes on.. First time in my ownership that I’ve seen the CEL light.. I get home and read it out with my Torque app.. Uh oh, P0011. (Aside: whoever said that Durametric does NOT reverse some codes on readout was WRONG. I hooked my Durametric up and read out the code and it reported a P1100. This was with Durametric version 6.3.2.5 )

From reading the forums I had an idea what this was.. so I make an appointment at the local Porsche dealer in town.

First they replaced the variocam actuator (the one that sits on top of the cam housing, not the solenoid between the cylinders.) Not sure why they don’t just swap it to the other side to troubleshoot, but whatever.. so they give the car back to me (end of 1st week). I drive all of 3 miles toward home and CEL comes back on.. back to the dealer I go..

This time they pull the engine and, according to them, inspect the camshaft and see that it is still lined up.. the camshaft holes are aligned. So, according to their book, they replace the camshaft actuator on the end of the camshaft, along with the hex bolt that secures it to the camshaft itself.

It all goes back together, they do a test drive this time and the CEL appears again..

So once again the engine comes out and the cam is inspected and this time they can see that it has spun in the sleeve. So a new cam is ordered and put in.. Since this is a dealer they don’t support “pinning” it. The shop foreman was apologetic about the time it was taking to troubleshoot and said that he spoke to the regional rep and also to another dealer nearby.. supposedly the other dealer had a car with the same issue and it had had its engine out 3 times trying to fix..

A few other notes:

- During the 1st engine-out procedure they managed to break the alternator mounting bracket, so I got a new alternator out of the deal as it’s an entire assembly, apparently.

- Since the engine was out, I decided to have them crack the clutch housing apart and inspect the clutch. Good thing I did, as it was pretty worn, probably about 40% was left. I elected to buy the upgraded Sachs “2.5” clutch that comprised of the 764 Pressure plate and 098 disc. (pics below) Thanks Sam (by Design) for the quick delivery!

- I previously had complained on a previous visit to the dealer that the clutch didn’t feel completely right. It worked correctly, and didn’t have any visible leaks, but sometimes I could feel an almost a pulsing thru the clutch pedal when I went to push it in after cruising in gear for a long time. I mentioned this again with the shop foreman and he said he would check it again.. Well, they ended up putting in a new accumulator & clutch slave as well.. that’s the 2nd one done on this car (the first was done prior to my ownership - I have records indicating it being done at 11K miles.)

- I had them replace the fuel filter..it was sitting on my shelf from an parts order from last year and I never did put it in yet.

- I had a Volvo S60 loaner for 6 weeks, not too bad for a family hauler..

So you might ask, what was the damage? Well thank goodness as the car is CPO, and it expires in about 3 weeks.. needless to say, I will be obtaining a Fidelity platinum warranty before the CPO is gone, I have already shopped around and got some pricing.. If I didn’t have the CPO this repair would have been between 6-8K.

All I paid was the labor to R&R the clutch that I provided, which ended up being 2 hours at dealer rates.
-
Anyone know a procedure to break in the new clutch?

Car feels good as new, clutch feels nice and smooth, just a tad touchier than the stock one.

A couple of pics below:














Old clutch disk & PP



New clutch & PP




Glad to have it back!!

TT Surgeon

Cool story, glad it worked out for you. I have an aftermarket warranty also, and it's already paid for itself.
Did you pin or weld your coolant pipes while it was out?
C

saabin

No, they all looked to be in decent shape with no signs of leaks.. I'll deal with that later if/when it ever happens..should be covered under warranty later as opposed to being on my dime if I were to do it now.

speed21

Sorry to hear your story although this problem is quite common where the Mezger is concerned. Glad to hear you had warranty!!

I recall recently coming under fire on another thread for suggesting that the later 9A1 engines were proving far more reliable and cost effective to run outside of warranty and, that if any engine needed CPO'ing it was unquestionably the Mezger, surprisingly to the squeals of displeasure from many here. Perhaps they will read your story as yet another example and ensure they have their warranties in order. But I guess the bulk of responses will be your's was merely (another) isolated case of bad luck..

Greg Lab

Good story, and good photos, a happy ending

xxdachosen1xx

Hey Saabin,

I had very similar situation happen to me a couple months back with only weeks remaining on my CPO as well. I'm curious to know what fidelity quoted you for a platinum warranty for your car if you don't mind sharing?

saabin

Best I've found is 3400 for a 2 year/24k miles with a 250 deductible.
I think the fact of having over 40k miles is causing the price to increase.

What did you end up with?

Ibanezgod

did you just get the drivetrain warranty through fidelity? I'll be getting this next summer....

gotgolf52

xxdachosen1xx
My car check engine light just came on yesterday, I have an appointment with local dealer tomorrow to find out what happen. Car driving fine, no hesitation, no signs of any issue while driving but I am wary about the cam shaft spun. Can you tell me what happen or anything wrong with your car when the CEL came on? Did it drive normal or you feel any power loss? TIA.

Freddie Two Bs

Not to hijack the thread, but is there a way to buy a fidelity-type warranty without going through a dealership?

saabin

Powertrain warranty was considerably cheaper, the number I quoted was for the platinum warranty.

I considered just getting a powertrain warranty, but in the end decided that it was worth it to get a full exclusionary policy.. with the other lesser warranty levels, it must be specifically listed in order to be covered. So if I read it correctly none of the electrical sensors/parts/etc on the engine would be covered under the powertrain warranty.

With the exclusionary policy, everything is covered except for a list of items specifically called out. Much harder to deny coverage that way..


In my case, I didn't notice any driveability issues when the CEL was on.. granted, I didn't drive it hard during the short time before I took it to the dealer, but there was no rough idle or other symptoms.

gotgolf52

No you can't buy from them directly, you must go through dealer only from what I was told when I was in the market. Call Elliot Dawson at Circle Porsche CA, he gave me the best deal in the nation. Good luck

gotgolf52

Saabin - thank you, my car just in for service about 3 weeks ago, dealer said car is in immaculate condition with about 10k miles on it. I always keep up with all dealer reccomended maintenances. I didn't experience any issues while driving but I am glad I have Fidelity warranty now. I will post what happen and warranty claim process for you guys in a different thread.

xxdachosen1xx

Saabin I have 65k on my car and fidelity quoted me an absolutely absurd amount;

4 years platinum 48,000 miles $18,648
3 years platinum 36,000 miles $13,736
2 years platinum 24,000 miles $9,810
1 year platinum 12,000 miles $6,758

So after hearing these crazy prices I choose an aftermarket warranty through Hendrick Autoguard which was $2,900 for power-train 3 years 36,000 miles which will cover my camshaft and most major components that could break the bank if failure occurs in the future.

gotgolf52,

When the check engine can on my car the camshaft was indeed spun. Luckily this happened 1 month before my CPO expired which was two months ago.

xxdachosen1xx

Which dealer quoted you that price on the fidelity warranty?