aksuited

Hello All!

I am a new owner of a 04 Cayenne. My first Porsche, which I am excited about and also worried about costly repairs. I am handy for most repairs that I can follow a service manual for, but I know Porsches can be costly for repairs in parts and labor so I want to see what you all thought about my purchase as well as suggestions on preventative maintenance / proactive repairs.

So it is a 04 Cayenne S with the V8 obviously which just past 100k miles. It is very clean interior and out, and everything works on the car. It has had 2 owners and appears well maintained. I paid $6000 from a private party which seemed like a fair price to me considering. What do you guys think?

Again it has no obvious issues, and everything seems to work fine, except I did notice a bit of a rough shift between 4th and 5th gear. Definitely does not happen every time, and not all gears. I may have noticed it once or twice through a lower gear, but not as often as 4th to 5th. It's not that bad, not the worse I ever felt by any means, and definitely still shifts into gear okay, It just was noticeable so I was concerned again worried about possibly costly repairs. I went over the awesome thread you guys have here: https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...his-first.html , and it sounds like it is probibly the common issue with the valve body on these is starting. I wanted to ask if It is likely okay to drive this awhile before the repair has to be done, or is it likely to get a lot worse quickly and fail on me? It would be nice if I could drive it as is for awhile before needing to work on it as it is not very bad now and if accelerating slowly it isn't noticeable.

I also wanted to ask what else should I look for as far as preventative maintenance and proactive repairs. When my wife gets home with it I am going to check the service log and see if it is due for oil change and transmission fluid change. As well as I will try to call a Porsche dealer and see if it needs any software updates, if you guys think that is a good idea.

I also noticed the very common issue with the coolant pipes on the V8 reading on your forums, and I plan to check my Cayenne as soon as I have a chance to see if they may have been allready updated from the ABS to aluminum (can i see this just looking into the engine bay?), but assuming they did not that seems like a proactive repair I should make before it breaks as it seems like they all do from what I am reading on the forums. Is that correct? Would you guys think I should look to replace the ABS if they are still in there right away before they go bad or anything happeneds?

Any other proactive repairs I should look to do to help keep this running well for awhile?

All suggestions and thoughts are truly appreciated!!

Thank you!
Al

Morganmobile

Shawn Stanford

Sounds like a perfectly acceptable price for a well-maintained 955.

Wisconsin Joe

Welcome & congragudolences. Sounds like you did ok with this one. Hopefully it holds up for you. They are pretty good cars when properly cared for, but not super cheap to own & care for.

I wouldn't worry a whole lot about bore scoring. You are pretty much past the 'prime mileage' for it.

I would worry about the pipes. If they haven't been done, do them. You can pull the plastic 'beauty covers' off the engine compartment, then shove a camera of some sort down in back to see what you have. "Endoscopic" type cams work, but a phone will work too. Just stick it down in there and take pics at different angles until you get what you need. The 'coolant pipe' sticky thread at the top covers this.
Swapping out the pipes is a pretty big job, but it's not all that complicated or difficult. Just kinda long.

As far as the trans goes, I'd try changing out the fluid first. It' supposed to be 'lifetime' fluid, but IMHO, 15 years and 100k+ miles is a pretty long life. Same goes for the transfer case & diffs.

Much of this, and more, is covered in the "Thinking about a" sticky thread at the top. If you haven't already, read through that. Common issues & problem areas are covered.

Post some pics. Yes, we know what an 04 S looks like. We don't care. We want to see yourfirst Porsche. We'll want to see the 2nd one too. It's a progressive illness.

oldskewel

I've got a 2004 S too, with about 104k miles on it. All the advice so far is good.

Cylinder scoring is the only real thing you might worry about (I do), but there is not really much you can do about it ... other than limiting investment, which it sounds like you're doing by taking things carefully. A $6k car facing a $20+k repair bill is an easier decision and smaller loss than a $25k car ...

My car had the scoring (when owned by my brother in law, in 2009), so this engine now has about 50k on it. It seems the higher mileage you get to, the safer things get regarding scoring.

aksuited

Thanks! I appreciate all the replies! I will get a pic posted in the next few days too.

I wanted to ask is this all of the parts I should buy for the transmission fluid change:
1 - 955 307 403 01 - Vaico Auto Trans Filter
1 - 955 397 016 00 - Vaico Auto Trans Oil Pan Gasket
1 - 955 325 443 00 - OE Auto Trans Filter O-Ring Between Filter and Transmission
1 - 955 321 379 00 - Genuine Seal for Transmission Fill Plug
10 - 958 300 901 00 - Aisin Automatic Transmission Fluid Dry fill capacity

I am going to check on coolant pipes today.

Thanks again all!


P.S. Is their any transmission fluid additives or 3rd party fluid that may help the trans or be better for it? I know it is a sketchy grey area, and a complete no-no in many peoples opinions, but I have also seen how some ATF types occasionally can work better then OEM recommendations and since this vehicle is new to me I wanted to ask your guys opinions.

aksuited

Good news! I think.... Looks like aluminum pipes are already installed based on this video I took today. Do you agree?

95_993

I cannot load the video...maybe you can do a screenshot and post the pic.

As for the valvebody, I bough mine with the same 4th to 5th issue and did the valvebody replacement when I did the fluid change. Easy, about $600 for the valvebody and was so happy with shift afterwards....love it.

oldskewel

On your parts list you've got 10 quarts/liters of ATF. On just about every AT I've ever worked on (not needed to touch this one yet), you only get about 1/3 - 2/3 of the fluid out when you drain it, even when removing the pan. So if the capacity is 10 qts, you'll only need a fraction of that if just draining and filling once.

I believe the Porsche branded ATF is the same as Mobil 3309, which is the same as Toyota Type T-IV, and probably also sold with a VW label. When I ever need to do a drain and fill, I'll probably double check that these fluids are really identical and then buy based on price. Aisin made the AT in this car as well as in my Lexus, so it is not a surprise that the Porsche and Toyota/Lexus ATFs are the same. Specified by Aisin, made by Mobil, and branded by the various car manufacturers that build them.

Looking at my records for when the PO had my 2004 S ATF changed at 90k miles by a good local independent mechanic, I can confirm those 3 items + part numbers you list:
1 - 955 307 403 01 - Vaico Auto Trans Filter
1 - 955 397 016 00 - Vaico Auto Trans Oil Pan Gasket
1 - 955 325 443 00 - OE Auto Trans Filter O-Ring Between Filter and Transmission

I don't see a listing for the fill plug seal, so maybe they skipped that.

They charged for 7 liters of 000-043-205-28

aksuited

Sorry about the video, must be the h.264 compression codec. I took some screenshots as you suggested.



I watched a video for the transmission fluid change and it seemed quite straightforward and nothing I am at all concerned with doing myself. If the valve body pretty straight forward as well to the point were it is not much more work when I am doing the tranny drain and fill?

Thanks,
Al

95_993

Looks like aluminum pipe flange to me. Others chime in.

Changing the valve body was only about 30min more than doing the fluid and filter.

I used the Toyota Type IV fluid as it's the same as the Porsche but 1/10th the cost.

mtnrat

Yup aluminium for sure.

J'sWorld

If you disconnect the transmission cooler lines on the side of the trans you can use compressed air to purge that circuit.

I appreciate that you did your homework and came in with educated questions. Thank you.

natty

Same year and model owner here with pretty close to the same miles (95k).

Good that the coolant pipes are done.
I'm sure the cardan shaft is already done too at that mileage
I haven't had the problem with the drains clogging yet as it's been mostly garaged but that sounds like something you def want to check.
Your rear hatch struts will go after a few years so expect to do that.
My fuel pump is failing so I'm waiting for new ones to come in the mail. You will notice this when the engine starts to stumble (mine did it at freeway speeds, others do it at startup). I've been driving it on the aux pump for a month or so now and it drives just fine.
A lot of little stuff will need keeping up with...and many of them are expensive. Digital dash display will fade and need replacing, a lot of the ***** will have the soft-touch finish turn to sticky goo (scrub it off in your sink), compartments and switches will need to be addressed (dome light switch, sunglass compartment button, ash tray soft-close)
My radio head unit is failing (will replace with android)
Your headlights are another massive failure point. See my thread here
https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...now-fixed.html
for wiring insulation crumbling, shorting, etc and add to it the rubber that goes around the headlights and stabilizes them will disintegrate too.

Someone gave me a great way to look at it in another thread -- they are expensive to maintain and you WILL spend money on an ongoing basis...but hey, for around $1000/yr, you get to drive a badass Porsche!

Hey J'sWorld, would you be OK with sending me that FSM too? I'm in this for the long haul and will start doing most/all work myself on this beast.

aksuited

Well... I am sad to say despite having the aluminum pipes after 1 week of daily driving I noticed a small puddle of coolant under my Cayenne.

I verified it was coolent and checked the level was very slightly low, just a hait below low level. I topped it off and checked after another drive and their is a slow leak resulting in about a 6 inch puddle near the very front of the passenger wheel. Does this information help at all as to what I should look for when checking for the leak location? I am going to do more searches, but I have already saw it could be at the resevoir or another line from radiator, and being everything is so difficult to access around this engine I was curious if their was any suggestions on what to check first?

I am thinking maybe the original owner put some stop leak in this or something before selling it to me as I didn't see any leak in the first week and it has been quite cold here and the cayenne hasn't been driven hard in that week so I doubt it just randomly started, but oh well what can I do.,