EnigmaWmn

Clunk in my '05 CS was first brought up to the mother dealership's attention in April of this year. After about an hour I got a call with, *"Uh, nothing to worry about, completely normal, what you have is slight play in driveshaft. If it becomes uncomfortable, bring it back". Now, at that time clunk was only happening in reverse, but later appeared in both directions.

Car was brought into Pepe Porsche where their tech *"roadtested vehicle - checked for faults - tech could not verify customer concern". Husband insisted on a road test with a tech, who inquired if he was sure that what he thought was clunk wasn't in fact ABS kicking in when driving in the rain, and successfully replicated the clunk.

Following week the car was in & out quickly, because the regional rep happened to be there and said that this is a DME issue, so *"found DME not programmed properly for transmission. Followed tech bulletin #3730". And this is after initially saying that DME is up to date.

Clunk disappeared for one day only to come back with a vengeance.

While in MD last month stopped by Len Stoler on Saturday, where we got the car, and got introduced to their service manager who listened to our bitching and very enthusiastically said that if we leave the car for a week he'll make sure to return it to us fixed.

Got a call on Tuesday about the transfer case being replaced due to a "freshly posted" TSB (I think that's what it's called, right?), which I have in front of me and here's what it says:

Noise - From The Area Of The Transfer Case
Model Year: As of 2003 up to 2006
Concerns: Transfer case control unit
Situation: Noise - "release thump" - from around drive line.
The noise can be heard shortly before you stop the vehicle, if you first accelerate the vehicle sharply up to max. 31mph and then brake slowly.

When you accelerate sharply, the center-differential lock in the transfer case is blocked and only opens again shortly before you stop when the vehicle is driven as described above. The noise can be heard when the center-differential lock opens.

A control unit for the transfer case with revised software is used as of the specified date of introduction.

Action required: In the event of a complaint, the transfer case control unit must be replaced on vehicles manufactured before the specified date of introduction.


So far, so good. What part will be replaced next should the clunk-thump appear again? I don't know, but at least I know that there is a dealership out there that makes it look like they genuinely want to help, listen and make you happy. This does make dealing with problems a lot easier as opposed to coming to arrogant a-holes who skeptically look at you as if you're making crap up.

I can't believe that I'll actually have to relax and not think about car-related issues. Oh, wait ... there's the vibration that appeared between 60-80mph after new tires were installed :-D

And lastly, here are a few photos from the sob that was causing all the clunk-thumping:





The fam... err infamous Gemballa pedals :-D



Yes, yes, love it, hate it, love it, hate it. When I love it, I tend to photograph it:



Better view of the pipes. I got the new plates, att: LVDell but this photo was taken before I received them:





* Directly from the invoice

yetis

While I don't want to get into a flaming match with Pepe, I had a similar experience. 996 CLEARLY had issues. Car was stalling, sounded terrible and difficult to drive. Took it to Pepe and they said the tech couldn't reproduce, must be bad gas..... Then it came back and took if for a second shot. They said the couldn't reproduce.. I took the car and by the time I got home, the car was undrivable. Luckly, I got a spot at the local dealer and dropped the car off at Porsche of Roslyn. I think 20 minutes after I got a call, tech says you have a bad coil... have never had a problem since.

jangobox

Beautiful Car! That color looks fantastic in pictures. I hope everything works out. Hopefully mine will stay solid.

charlieXS

nice... what are your exhaust tips? Gemballa right?

LVDell

When are we gonna see the plates???

BTW, LOVE THOSE TIPS!!!

ltc

Huh, affected TCU's from MY2003 thru MY2006.

Who would have thought?

EnigmaWmn

Why not get into it, Chris? Who did you deal with at Pepe? Mark Kuperfschmidt and/or John Nelson? When my husband brought in the print out of a thread from this forum describing clunk & hesitation, Mark glanced at a printout and immediately said, "To me, this is junk". And guess what, later on his tech was browsing rennlist :-D

EnigmaWmn

Thank you very much. I'm enjoying the car tremendously, though at times it's hard to drive with crossed fingers :-).

EnigmaWmn

Exhaust & tips are from Gemballa. Love the sound and almost fell asleep in the loaner, so quite it was in comparison lol

EnigmaWmn

Dell, you should be able to make out the plates in the second photo.

Love those tips, want those black rims, but only if car "behaves" and doesn't clunk. Ever :-D

EnigmaWmn

LTC, thank you for answering each one of my annoying PMs :-).

ltc

None of them were annoying....and you're welcome, happy to help....glad they did the right thing.

ltc

..
anyone before October 24, 2005?
Let me check....nope, not me.

Budget M3

Not all of us are so lucky...my early MY06 falls below that VIN range, and recent replacement of the entire TCU has only mitigated some of my clunking... errrr thumping problem. I do tend to stomp on it to get the V6 "motivated", especially after traversing speed bumps and low speed turns. Now I find out this is part of what's causing the problem! ...and according to another post, "power braking" (aka two-footed driving) can also cause the trans to act up. How hard would it be to convert to a manual transmission, the way God intended cars to be driven?

LTC/Larry/Lewis/"hey you",
I used to think you were just an unreasonable curmudgeon...lurking in the forum looking for excuses to complain about just about anything to get attention. Now I realize it was not an act. I am beginning to see the light and it is accompanied by a sharp pain right between the eyes...and I am not even an alpha or beta tester!!!

ltc

That's because the next thing you're going to need is a complete transmission replacement. FWIW, they don't service these, they just send them to PAG (and then back to Aisin) and you get a new (actually remanufactured) transmission.
BTW, they do the same thing with engines....hardly anyone gets a 'new' crate engine, it's normally just a remanufactured engine.

Transmission change from Tip to Manual is virtually impossible in a finished car.

I'm not a curmudgeon, it's just that sarcastic humor doesn't translate well into typing. In person it comes across much better.
I don't seek out attention, trust me. Most of my time at work is spent locked away in a secure office, no windows, no other people. However, I can make people laugh so hard they will pee themselves. Yes, I'm a complex person

Yes, I remember the 'old' days when everyone was still under the spell of PCNA. Yes, the Cayenne CAN be a very good vehicle, and as it evolves, it likely may end up being a very good vehicle(the new 2010 Cayenne is headed in that direction so far).
However, I knew what was happening with the alpha/beta years and owners, how PCNA was handling the information, what their attitude and business plan was, and disagreed with it.
So, I took it upon myself to uncover all the warts and try to help people who weren't going to get immediate assistance from PCNA.
Sometimes people simply found it easier to argue with what I was saying, thinking the rants about the new rear window switch being the same as the old rear window switch were crap, knowing that CDROM NAV updates would never happen was just me being an ahole again, since the model was now to get you to buy a newer MY vehicle to get the options you wanted and then supply them with CPO candidates for resale, etc.
My own personal experience with the Cayenne, "!" and PCNA was simply a humorous distraction.

If I went over the top at times, so be it.
If I p!ssed some folks off while doing it, oh well, it's only a car, get over it and get a life.
If I ended up on a lot of people's 'Ignore' lists, oh well, they don't know what they're missing.
If I helped people out (and I answer a LOT of PM's), then that's great.
If I made a lot of people laugh (coming up with Purplesaurus Rex, MadFox's Cayenne T-shirt designs) and made the forum a unique place, then I guess I've accomplished about everything I can.

BTW, I don't believe that sharp PCNA induced pain you are feeling is between your eyes.....it's actually designed and targeted to be felt a little bit lower and from the rear.