I bought a 2006 S Titanium Edition with 83K miles from a dealer via BaT. It had been traded in to a Tesla dealership and came with a maintenance book bearing only 4 entries, all oil/filter changes. Since the coolant pipes were still plastic, the seller agreed to replace them with metal ones before the sale. He stated that his mechanic had inspected the car and said all it needed was an oil change and a new oil plug.

According to Carfax, the first owner was in FL and sold the car to the PO in 2011 with 48K miles. The Carfax just notes some "vehicle serviced" entries between 2006 and 2011. The PO, located in MA, then put on about 35K miles over 12 years but the Carfax from that period shows only inspections and a tire change.

I found the PO's name and address on the title so I wrote him a letter asking for more info about the history. He kindly replied to me saying that during his ownership he had only done those oil changes and nothing else had been needed/suggested by the dealership. This is most unwelcome news, of course. In at least the past 12 years/35K, no spark plugs have been changed, no brake pads, no other fluids but oil changed....

And yet, the car runs absolutely beautifully. The engine sounds like a dream. Everything works perfectly and the interior looks like brand new. No warning lights are showing. It has the feel of a car that has been scrupulously maintained.

How is this possible? Is this thing a ticking time bomb? What should I be looking to do to it ASAP?

 

Great to see a thread celebrating how solid these cars can be!

At the very least, you should change the brake fluid ASAP, if you suspect it’s original and unchanged. Begin changing every 2yrs, as that’s the typical life cycle

I’d also be prepared to throw in some new air filters and spark plugs at your next oil change.

Otherwise, if it ain’t broke…

 

@PourBoi-Jay Thank you for the vote of confidence! The oil was just changed and the inspection done last week, but I think I will at least see if I can replace the filters and spark plugs myself before the next oil change is due. As for the brake fluid change, even though the brakes feel fine, I will definitely be doing this soon.

 

I’d change the plugs, transmission fluid, differential fluid and the brake fluid as noted already.

We bought a base about 8 months ago and it’s been rock solid as well although ours did have a bunch of maintenance done throughout its life. They’re great vehicles and with proper care/maintenance they seem to hold up well.

 

Thanks for this advice! Do you think these are all things a newish DIYer can do? I recently got baptized on my 84 944 taking out the radiator fan assembly to reseat the radiator that had gotten knocked out of place after I had a little run in with a ditch. I’ve done things like tension accessory belts, pressure test the coolant system chasing down a leak, etc. But so far haven’t changed any fluids other than coolant.

 

I do a bunch of work on my 964 and 987 but I’ve never done much on the Cayenne and have left it to the mechanic. In general Porsche’s aren’t difficult to work on and you can usually find videos or DIY posts explaining how to perform most of this work. Hopefully someone with more experience on the S will chime in with difficulty levels for the work that needs to be done.

 

Known as historical revisionism ...it is the trumpian era

 

These cars are pretty solid, although you're approaching the age & mileage where things start to wear out and need replacement, like any car. I bought my 2004 S in 2014 with 93K miles. It had already had the coolant tubes, coil packs and cardan shaft replaced, along with documented regular services (oil changes, brakes, etc), but no indication that any of the fluids or spark plugs had been changed. I did a full fluid change service (oil, brake fluid, both diffs, transmission, coolant, power steering, and transfer case) along with air & cabin filters and spark plugs. I now have 140K on the car and plan to do the full fluid change and spark plugs again at 150K. I change the oil yearly or at 5,000 miles, whichever comes first, air filters and cabin filter every 30K and brake fluid every two years.

Keep an eye (and ear) on the water pump. Mine was making noise and was ready to be replaced when I bought the car. The coolant expansion tank has a (well-deserved) reputation for cracking with age, so a preventative replacement would be a good idea.

So my suggestion is to "baseline" the car now with a full fluid service, spark plugs, air filters, cabin filter, etc.

Great looking car, BTW. I love the titanium editions.

Edit: Check the torque arm on the passenger side of the engine too. Mine needed replacement when I bought the car.

 

@Malibu955 Solid advice and sorry for being so slow to respond. Thanks for complimenting the titanium... I've read some people's comments about this type of special edition being a way for Porsche to unload parts before a facelift. Which may be true, but it's still a quite special option package, especially with the two tone interior.
I replaced the cabin air filter (date code was 2010 and it wasn't even that gross!) and will be doing the air filters next week. Oil and filter were recently changed and I'm debating about whether to replace the other fluids. Brakes work perfect, brake fluid level is perfect, and I don't have the equipment to flush the brake fluid so I really need to figure out if it's worth investing in that stuff now to replace the brake fluid or to wait a while until the brakes start feeling less responsive.

From what I gather, diff and transmission fluid are not easy to check and I have no idea what to look out for...
I could replace the spark plugs without too much expense, but doing the full plugs and coils gets rather expensive. It it worth it to take out all the plugs and inspect them? Can the coils be inspected visually?

BTW: I'm a noob if you couldn't already tell. The sort of advanced noob that has replaced a radiator on her 944 but still doesn't know what to do about spark plugs in her Cayenne.

 

I own a 2006 S Cayenne with 170,000 kilometers on it and I have had no issues with it for 7yrs now. These Cayenne's are built old school not like the generations that followed . Keep the water drains clean to avoid water issues and change the oil regularly and add (IMPOTANT - Liqui Moly Mos2 or Ceratec to the oil for added cylinder protection and do your regular maintenance and you are good to go. They don't call these pigs just because they like fuel 955 Cayenne's are rock solid trucks.

 

At 83K miles, if you don't know if the plugs have been done, I would replace them for peace of mind. As for the coils, Porsche has made many revisions to them over the years, as the originals were somewhat failure-prone. The latest version is rev 22, I believe. There's some info in this thread:

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...n-numbers.html

If you're going to replace the plugs, I'd do the coils too. Zero additional labor. FCP Euro has a kit, and a lifetime warranty:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/por...bosch-zse012kt


Pelican has a good writeup about changing the spark plugs and coils:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

 

If you have a scanner, you can check for cylinder misfires and determine if any of your coil packs are failing. As for inspecting spark plugs, if you're already in that deep to pull them out, just replace and be done, especially if you don't know how old they are. I've done this on my '09 and the only hiccup was I needed to purchase an e-torx set. So check the how-to guides before you dig in to make sure you have the correct tools.