I have an 05 S that I bought 15 years ago. It now has 280,000 miles of which I have put on 230,000. It is still in very good shape inside and out. No dents or dings, full leather interior, air suspension and an aftermarket stereo system that is amazing. Running 265/65 BFG's for the last 80,000 miles, this thing goes off road quite a bit with no problems. I have had most every established Cayenne problem with this one repaired. Right now it needs both upper and lower control arms replaced, the bushings are shot.

Given the miles my mechanic thought I should think twice about doing this, cost is around $3,200 with alignment. I have the the oil changed every 10k miles, I have not had to add one quart of oil since I bought it, engine runs great. Transmission shifts hard from 2nd to 3rd and from 3rd to 2nd sometimes, but it has done this since I replaced the valve body about 120,000 miles ago, doesn't bother me. Still shifts through the gears smoothly when accelerating though. Just looking for advice from any other high mileage owners out there on whether or not I should do the repair or buy a newer one. I hate to give this one up, it has never let me down.

Any others out there with this many miles on whether or not I should keep fixing this one? How long can a good thing last?

Thank you in advance!

 

I think he is overpriced on his estimate. Is he thinking of replacing all 4 corners? Regardless my way of thinking would be $3200 is less than a new car. I am surprised you have not needed this done before. I have about 220000 miles and I feel like I need to do mine again. I have had six gen1 Cayennes. The highest mileage one I had was 240000 miles. It still ran great but I had two more sitting in my driveway.

 

$3200 is the lowest estimate i have...I live in California so there is that. Wish it was lower! Just the front uppers and lowers need replacing, I had the lowers done at 125,000. Agreed it is less than a new Cayenne, I am just trying to see how far this Cayenne can go and if any others have experience with higher mileage repairs and whether or not it is worth it. Why did you stop driving the 240,000 one?

 

That shop charges $450 an hour I presume.

 

OP - If you get another year, only one more year, you’ve only spent $500 a month for the Pepper. Probably worth it.

 

Good point...since everything works on this one and it runs great I hope I can get another year! Maybe 350,000 miles

 

I stopped driving it because I had three in the driveway. My son was driving the 2005S while in college. When he graduated I bought him an E550 4matic, My wife was driving a 2006 S with 240K miles. She wanted a BMW. Hers was white and all of the others including the spares were gray. I sold the white one with 240K and another 2006 S with springs. It only had 190K but I thought it was cooler to have the air suspension. So I am left with the 2005 S daily driver and a 2006 S for spare parts.

 

I'd say it's worth it to replace the control arms on it. Where are you going to get anything close to your car for $3,200? FYI, get the Turbo S lower control arms. Direct swap and I believe around the same price.

 

Thanks for the feedback. If I get two more years I will be good.

What advantage will the turbo S arms have over the regular S ones?

 

Find another mechanic. You can get good quality front upper (TRW) and lower (Lemfoerder) control arms for under $500 for all four. No way the labor is that much. Hell, you could ship the car out of state, have it repaired, and ship it back for that much. Control arm swaps are easy. I bet you could even have a mobile mechanic do it at your house.

 

Longevity, primarily. The bushings are solid rather than fluid-filled:

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...trol-arms.html

Seems like Porsche may have discontinued the fluid-filled bushings, but not sure about the entire arm assembly.

 

I don't know, I just watched a video somewhere on here rennlist and it doesn't seem that easy to me. Plus all the air bag parts....i visited three mechanics and are all within a few hundred $$$'s for this job. Labor prices in California are not cheap, all are $175-$195 an hour for a decent indie, Porsche labor rates here are north of $200...

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

If you've watched the DIYDan and/or FCPEuro videos, you'll notice that there aren't any special tools required for this job. Yes, knowing to put the pig in lift mode before starting and being careful around the ride height sensor and other air components is important. However, this job really isn't much different than on a Honda. It's essentially remove some stuff and reinstall new parts. I looked at the labor flag hours in alldata, and it says 1.7 (both front lower) and 1.4 (both front upper), so 3.1 hours combined. I don't think that's even taking into account that you have to remove some stuff to do either job that makes the other easier. So, it really should be like 2.5 hours combined. Find a general mechanic (not a Euro-specific indy) that will warranty their work and that will charge you the actual flag hours for this job. Even with California labor rates (they aren't cheap here in Austin either btw), this shouldn't cost you more than $1200 with parts, labor, and alignment.

 

I did the entire suspension rehab on a 2009 steel sprung model and it's really not that difficult. I'm not a big guy and was able to break loose all the bolts by hand despite the car living in the rust belt for the first 10 years. I also did the tie rods and struts, the ball joints were all lose. I did this at 138k and now have 148k. Rear only needed struts.

Mark