58k '04 turbo $1800

 

The coolant pipe DIY is the first sticky in this forum.

See "Coolant Pipes A to Z".

 

2006 CS, 69kmiles, still on original pipes.

 

Not sure whether that can be considered as DIY or not, have you seen brake pad & rotor replacement DIY? Now that's called DIY info.

 

Interesting numbers are developing:

Non-turbo, 2/3rds have failed
Turbo, 1/3rd have failed

Overall - 1/2 have failed.

 

Again, these are from those who post on this message board. A very small sample in real terms, cant even be sure its statistically sufficient.

My dealer, who is pretty good with us, tells me most go eventually.

 

The stat that would be interesting is:
Model, year and odometer, ..when pipes broke !
..and then plot to see the mileage gaussian curve.

 

Agreed entirely - it also has the bias that people with failures are more likely to answer the poll. Not enough data (samples) to really come to any conclusion, but I was curious if the extra heat of the turbo engine caused more failures. Apparently - probably (hedge word..) not.

And I have all the parts in hand to do a preemptive replacement before taking the Cayenne on an 8,000 mile drive this summer.

 

I tried that poll already (was it here or elsewhere - don't remember.) Problem is the poll design of forum polls is very poor. It requires an answer to every question. That made it impossible to do a clean poll with simple questions - which then caused questionable data responses. My idea here was to KISS it..

 

So the ultimate question is,,, why no such a DIY instructions on how to tackle this job?
I've seen few pictures here and there with few steps, but that's about it.

 

Dunno if that's the ultimate question (I lean more toward "what's the meaning of life?" myself) - but why no DIY? I'll guess:

1 - Market: The Cayenne's are just coming off ownership by original owners. Original owners generally have more $$$ then the rest of us and usually aren't interested in getting their hands dirty. They buy cars with a warranty for a reason - so they don't have to. Just about now, us grubby second owners, who are more finance driven have taken possession of the 1st generation Cayennes.

2 - Effort: It's actually a lot of work to do a good DIY. Combined with the scope of the job itself, stopping to take detailed photos of each step adds a LOT to the time required to do the task at hand (ie - replace the pipes.) The subsequent editing and mark-up of the photos is also time consuming, as is writing and editing the text that goes along with it. It's actually quite a bit of work to do a good DIY.

3 - Compensation: Typically there is no compensation for the effort. A good DIY (and I've written/illustrated quite a few in the BMW bike/car world) will get a few people saying thanks, a number of people criticizing the DIY, and a lot of PM's and Emails to answer for the author. As far as a free beer someplace down the road as thanks, I've never gotten one despite lots of virtual promises. This is the reason companies charge for service manuals - they want some compensation for their effort.

4 - Liability: Given the litigious nature of the US society, chances of someone who shouldn't be allowed NEAR a toolbox taking the DIY and trying to do the job, and in the process killing themselves or someone else, and then suing the author of the DIY is a reasonable possibility. I'm really good at writing disclaimers - but that won't stop a lawsuit. It might make it hard for them to WIN the lawsuit, but the author still has to defend themselves.

So - since I'm gonna be on hand while my trusty friendly independent tackles the job next week, and I have a good camera, and know how to edit/write a DIY - what would be the value if I asked for a PayPal donation to download it? I fully expect that it would still be copied and stolen and distributed without attribution or compensation (people seem to feel the Interwebz overrides copyright law and morality,*) but what would one person consider the value?

I'm just curious.. Depending on the answer, I may, or may not make the effort.

* = as an example of Interwebz intellectual property theft, I have had DIY's I've done in the BMW motorcycle community put into a collection of similarly done DIY's, dumped on a CD and sold on FleaBay. Compensation for the authors? None. Recognition of the authors? None again - they went to great pains to remove the identity of all the authors. That's enough to **** someone off, and FleaBay will do absolutely nothing about it.

 

The real answer is that your not looking hard enough, they are out there

 

True - but you really need several of them to have a complete view of the job, plus none of them that I've found really is a "Step-1", "Step-2" sort of DIY.

Free hint for those considering DIY: To prevent the fuel bath that everyone seems worried about if the drivers door is opened (triggering the fuel pumps) - REMOVE the fuel pump fuses. #13 and #14 (from memory) in the underhood fuse box. No fuse = no power = no gas bath.

 

67192 miles when my '06 CTT burst its pipes. I was going DIY my pipes before the tragedy, but I figured in order to be reimbursed by Porsche if and when the class action lawsuit happens, I would have to get it done by a Porsche shop/tech.

 

My coolant pipes were replaced just before I purchased the car at 96K miles, cost here in UK was £960.00 ($1560) approximately....

Labour costs in my Dealer are £120 + Vat (20%) per hour which equates to, approximately $235.....

Glad I wasn't paying....