vinnysca

My '12 Cayenne S will only be a week old tomorrow and I've already had to jump start is twice. Granted, I may have depleted the battery by playing with opening and closing the hatch, seat adjustments, lights in the interior, etc. But I've driven it for almost 500 miles, and one would think that the battery would be charged adequately.

I do have a techquipment battery maintainer and I left the car overnight and it had a green light this morning. After a few trips to the store and back, opening the hatch, etc...it didn't have enough juice to start the engine. Then, I got a dreaded "Oil monitor fault". The oil gauge was non-functioning. After I jumped the car and started it up for a few minutes, I turned it off and re-started it again. The fault went away.

I decided to look at the battery. After removing the driver seat and attempting to remove the battery cover (which was a royal PITA), I saw that the battery was an AGM battery. I gave up and put everything back together.

I emailed a Porsche dealer here in NH (I bought my Cayenne out of state ) and am awaiting their response. I'm guessing that they will tell me to bring the Cayenne in. I guess I'd have to do that (it's 2 hours away from me) and hopefully, they'll be able to tell me that it's a BAD battery.

Wish me luck.

Vinny

kalyan

Can you not take the car to your local dealer? Any Porsche dealer should be able to address this issue. It sucks that you have to have this issue within a week of ownership.

No wonder consumer reports puts Porsche way down in the reliability list.

kalyan

Is it possible that the charging system is not keeping the battery charged?

Mike in CA

That would be my question too, but you'd probably notice the battery/alternator warning light coming on. Still if you're getting a green light with your battery maintainer and the battery is going dead after a short drive, the charging system could be suspect. Or it's a defective battery.

Divot

Do you have anything plugged into a cigarette lighter? Cell phone charger, GPS, etc? Those outlets will drain a battery.

vinnysca

I actually was able to use a volt meter while the car was running. It was registering 14.3 volts, which is reassuring, since alternators charge at this current. Thus, the alternator is charging the battery.

Vinny

vinnysca

Nope. No plug in devices whatsoever. I left the car plugged in to my battery maintainer yesterday. Got the GREEN light (means that it's topped off), and disconnected it. I will check to see what the volt meter reads as to the load of the battery. It was at 12.4 volts when I left it alone in the garage in the early evening. It is 23 degrees outside (probably 31 in the garage where it is), so one would think the batter load would be less in the cold weather.

I plan to not drive or do anything with it for a week. And just monitor the volt readings to see if there is a steady decrease in voltage.

I have a feeling the dealer I contacted will want me to take it in anyway.

Vinny

kalyan

Sounds like a bad battery to me. The exact symptoms happened to my jeep earlier this year. I would jump start and it would run fine until it was parked for few hours. It would need a jump start again.

vinnysca

That's exactly what happened to me. I believe it to be a defective battery. I am still awaiting for my dealer's email response.

Vinny

Rudy Alex

I wish you luck, and hope your problem gets solved, it's sad to see such problems with a brand new '12 Cayenne S

vinnysca

Update:

So a buddy of mine who works at the local NAPA store here in town and I were talking about my problem with my Cayenne S. He happened to look into his stock room and he had a battery for a 2010 Cayenne! I took a look at it and it was a non-AGM battery, but had 900A of cranking power. Looked the same as the stock factory one in mine. So he let me take it home to see if it'll solve my problem.

I managed to take the seat off and the battery. Replaced the new one and voila! The car started just like that!

My friend took a voltage measuring gizmo and even though the battery was registering 12 volts on the meter, he was able to see the total amperage inside it. It was only 200! Thus a defective battery.

My new problem that arose now, is that my airbag light on the dash is ON! I disconnected the seat to get it out of the way and that might have triggered it. I don't know.

So I am keeping my appointment with the Porsche dealer to have them look at the light and diagnose what's causing it.

Vinny

Mike in CA

Glad you got the one problem resolved. As to the airbag light, was your key in the ignition (regardless of whether ignition was turned on or not) when you were doing the swap and seat removal? If so, the car's computer was active and would have seen the disconnection of any airbag connections as a fault. It should be a simple matter to reset the light, hopefully.

vinnysca

I had the key out of the car at the moment of the swap. Hooked it up to a battery maintainer to keep some current going. Then I disconnected the seat harnesses then. This might have been the cause. I'm not sure. Just making a guess.

Hopefully, it isn't a defective buckle or something.

I just wished that Durametric made the software for the Cayenne 2012. I will definitely get one once they come up with a version for my Cayenne. It'll make it easier for me to diagnose fault codes for sure.

Vinny

kalyan

Woot! I like it when problems are simple!

Now, get a new battery from Porsche!

vinnysca

Update:

Got the Cayenne to Stratham Porsche. Took me 2.5 hours to drive there and less than 10 minutes to get the airbag warning light off! LOL! I can't wait until durametric comes out with an updated 2012 Cayenne software.

Everything is working well! The battery I had put in from NAPA is holding well! I'm a happy camper!

Vinny