Hello all, just joined this forum. Purchased my 2004 Cayenne S three weeks ago and am not very happy. I have searched previous posts and am not really sure whether "lag problems" or "hesitation" is what I am experiencing. I noticed that while applying the breaks in an effort to slowly come to a full stop, my Cayenne seems not to want to stop. It seems to fight the gradual slowing down by keeping the transmission in a higher gear than it should, then it "downshifts" creating a very uneven stop. My wife gets car sick and I have to be conscious of this problem every time I want to stop, its ridiculous. I took the car to my closest service center last week he acknowledged that he did notice the problem during the test ride and apparently "reset/rebooted" the transmission, the problem is still there. Any suggestions? What can be done if anything and how to best deal with my service center.
COnsidering the breaking problem, I am looking to strengthen my bumpers I have not been able to find after-market bumper guards/push-bars for the Cayenne. I contacted Hammon(not sure on the spelling) and they only have guards for the front, any suggestions?
Thanks to all, this is really a great forum.
elkat

 

You are suffereing from a kickdown issue which I had a while ago. In order to confirm this try blipping the gas peddle when you start to slow slow down (blip then brake), it should go from 6 to 4 then 3 if you continue braking.

I think they will need to re program the DME (latest version is 3.1) and reset the eGas. The Kickdown was fixed using the PST2 tool but I do not know exactly what they did.

Suggest the tech to talk to his area PCNA support person for direction.

I have not seen any brush guards, and think the car would look like crap with them on, someone did a photoshop once ..terrible.

 

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus, what is a "DME", "eGas" and "PST2 tool" ?
Would it be possible to get a copy of your work order, obviously with the personal info redacted?
Thank you,
elkat

 

PST2: Porsche System Tester 2...basically a handheld computer that Porsche uses to communicate wtih the in car electronics, download software, etc. About $10K for the hardware and $3000/year for software updates. Not something for most individuals.

eGas: Your Cayenne has no mechanical connection between your right foot and the engine. When you push the gas pedal, an electronic signal is sent to the engine management computer (see below) which determines how much gas to apply to the engine.

DME: I've heard this called digital engine management; basically it is the computer that is responsible for engine control (spark timing, gas, mixture, etc)

 

I think Mudman2 let you know that you're not alone on this front and gave you the best course of action when he recommended that the dealer tech talk to PCNA.

Have you told your dealer what you're experiencing and brought the truck in for service? Give the dealer a chance to do their job and troubleshoot the problem. It'll make dealing with them much easier if you have to press (as many of us have had to) this issue. If the dealer can't fix it, or can't duplicate the issue, ask them what the next step is. If they say they've done all they can, tell them that's unsatisfactory and you're going to take it up with PCNA. Call PCNA yourself to log the issue.

When you're talking to PCNA ask them if the next step is for your dealer to call you back. If it is get the dealer contact name while you're on the phone with PCNA. Call the dealer as soon as you get off the phone with PCNA and tell them that PCNA told you to call them about your dissatisfaction.

If the dealer still says they can't help, call PCNA again and tell them that the dealer has said twice that they can't do anything and this is unsatisfactory. Things should get a little better from here but don't count on something happening overnight.

I know sounds like a lot of work (and agree that none of us should have to go through it) but getting things moving on the PCNA front should only take:
- a dealer visit
- call to PCNA
- call to dealer
- call to PCNA
You can make the calls back to back right after you get the truck from the dealer have things rolling in under an hour.

I don't think you want to walk in there with a sheet of paper saying:
- I'm not going to tell you what _my_ symptoms are
- I checked on the Internet
- this is the problem I've having
- here is the fix

This approach doesn't seem to go over well with the dealers or PCNA.