Long Islander

Anyone who has seen one has no doubt noticed that there is no spare, just a can of tire searler goop and an air compressor. What happens to the tire when you use this goop? Can it be cleaned out so you can get the flat fixed? How many miles and how fast can you drive on a tire that's been "sealed?"

John Murray

The goop is only a temp solution. It is intended to get you to dealer or to tire store to fix or replace. There will be a spare tire option soon, as well as an externally mounted spare.

John from WA

Will they supply the spare to already delivered cars? Or are the first customers out of luck?

John Murray

The rear mounted spare is available from the Techquiptment catalog and is WAY expensive. As far as the cars that dont have it now, who knows??

Good thing it has roadside assistance....

Difference Engine

The fix-a-flat goop is good for highway speeds.

Porsche officially do not recommend repairing damaged tires. Technically Porsche requires that a damaged tire must be replaced instead of being repaired.

I haven't had much experience with it but, I think the goo can be cleaned out.

dawktah

I had intended to purchase a set of 18" with the Dunlop Winter Sport tires and use one as a backup spare when I travel long distances on the highway. Oddly, the tire is no longer mentioned on the Dunlop site??? A different tire is featured called the Graspic DS-1 which doesn't come in 255/55 R18!

Cay-ute

The S I Purchased has Tire Pressure Monitoring and an air compressor for the suspension. Under the front passenger seat is an air hose hook up and a hose that I can use to inflate the tires. Mine came without a spare and but it did have that lovely can of tire goop. The goop is probably OK for small punctures, but like Difference Engine stated, I would probably replace the tire. I have asked my dealer to get a spare tire carrier for me, including a standard wheel and Pirelli Scorpion A/T tire (18). The parts guy told me that the whole setup would be about $2500, not including what it would cost to paint the carrier the same color as the car (Lapis Blue). I have been annoyed at Porsche since I first heard of the spare issue, and made that fact known to my dealer on multiple ocassions. After learning the price of all of this, I have convinced my dealer to sell me this at cost (still to be determined). I think that those of you that are contemplating buying the Cayenne have some leverage on this issue and could do something similar.

The ability to air a tire from the car somewhat addresses my concern but it does nothing for a catastrophic failure. I will append the carrier to the Cayenne and drive on.

George from MD

$2,500 FOR A SPARE TIRE AND THE ABILITY TO CARRY IT?????

P.T. Barnum lives......

Jim Sorensen

I don't know about the Porsche goop, but I have used a commercially available can in the past and when it came time to fix the tire, the dealer refused because of the solvents in the goop were deemed to be explosive. He showed me a letter he had received from somewhere (I don't remember details) which cautioned against its use and avoid this stuff. I went to another tire outfit and they did it without question.

Carrera GT

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica"><strong>the dealer refused because of the solvents in the goop were deemed to be explosive</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I presume this was a tyre dealer? Anyway, yeah, even compressed dog poop is "explosive" but for sure compressed air and mostly latex (in fix-a-flat) is nasty, messy, toxic crap. ALWAYS advice the tyre repair shop the wheel is full of this sh*t so they can be prepared for the clean up. I've used fix-a-flat on rental cars (the can has a sticker to put next to the valve so the tyre person will be warned it's there) and an SUV (stuck in burning hot, deep sand with a seashell stuck in the tread) and in both cases, then drove the car at highways speed for days before swapping out the tyre. But I was cautious to monitor the tyre pressure and the white "goop" congealed around the hole.
I think Porsche has made an absurd compromise for an SUV and should literally have the rear swing-arm as a no-cost or near zero cost option.
It's $1,800 in the option price list (and on porsche.com as "Rear-mounted spare wheel US$ 1,800") so $2500 from spare parts is the usual absurd mark-up. Plus the wheel, plus either the canvas zip-up bag or the wheel "plate" (the shiny disk with "Cayenne S" or "Cayenne Turbo" stamped across it) ... and I think it really changes the "rump" of the Cayenne to get away from the generic mini-van appearance seen directly from behind.
Sooner or later Porsche will have to realise the effect of forums such as Rennlist to enable customers to be fully informed of prices and alternatives -- people buying a Cayenne might not be spending any more than people buying the Tahoe-Suburban-body-kit-call-it-Hummer-2 but I'd like to think the two demographics don't share IQ or gullibility.

samimi

This is according to my dealer here in Southern California:
The Cayennes that are coming to the US with all the standard equippment (e.g. Bose Sound system and other features) are putting a very heavy drain on the battery. Porsche was forced to put TWO batteries in all US models. Due to lack of space, this has causes the unforseen & unfortunate loss of space of the spare tire under the cargo area (I would rather call it dumb planning).

Not having a full spare tire on a off-road vehicle is to me almost the same as having a sports car with front wheel drive. When going off-roading the chance of puncturing a tire is so much greater than driving on a paved road or highway.

I am sure eventually, Porsche will figure out how to offer a spare wheel but until then... good luck....

Carrera GT

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by samimi:
<strong>This is according to my dealer here in Southern California:
The Cayennes that are coming to the US with all the standard equippment (e.g. Bose Sound system and other features) are putting a very heavy drain on the battery. Porsche was forced to put TWO batteries in all US models. Due to lack of space, this has causes the unforseen & unfortunate loss of space of the spare tire under the cargo area (I would rather call it dumb planning).

Not having a full spare tire on a off-road vehicle is to me almost the same as having a sports car with front wheel drive. When going off-roading the chance of puncturing a tire is so much greater than driving on a paved road or highway.

I am sure eventually, Porsche will figure out how to offer a spare wheel but until then... good luck....</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Huh? This imformation contradicts what Porsche and VW say on their Web sites (and in the European reviews of both cars) so I think someone is making some guesses. The two battery system is pure genius - electronics like a stable, clean power supply, while the engine needs amps to crank over a high compression V8.
The Cayenne and Touareg have the same (albeit questionable) design of no spare and a can of goop or pay for a collapsible spare (available in both cars) or buy a (very expensive) swing arm on the rear (presently only announced or seen, as far as I can tell, on the Cayenne) so this is not a US-only thing.
I'd like to know statistics behind the decision. I've had very good luck with punctures on all my cars and invariably sell my new cars with the spare and associated kit untouched aside from a layer of armour-all or silicon spray. I have had flats on the SUV in difficult conditions off-road, but always gotten away with an injection of fix-a-flat (which works fine to get even a 305/50 SUV tyre back up to adequate pressure (if not 38psi, enough to escape without a lot of work to jack the truck and swap a 50lb wheel.)
Also, US cars are not "with all the standard equipment" -- the Euro cars are the same spec. You might be seeing early pre-configured factory production (which tend to be loaded up with peculiar configurations) until the build-to-order cars become more common.
My cars all carry fix-a-flat and on occasion, I've given a can to someone to save them the hassle of changing to the spare.
Interestingly enough, Porsche doesn't want cars with the rear mounted spare wheel carrier to have the tow-hitch. This might be simplify the rear of the car (in terms of mounting points being used) or it might be to stay within some design specification (related to rear weight carrying limits) anyway, let's just chalk it up under the heading of "early days" oddities.

Cheers,

Carrera GT

I would add that one local service manager commented that the PDI for the Cayenne is a gruelling process taking hours and the work to set up all the systems -- including getting the two batteries prepared and charged -- is all new and all a bit complicated compared to other "wet" Porsches.

Ghost Rider

Sounds like poor design to me. The FX45 has more electronic gizmos and still uses only 1 battery and there are no battery drain problems. The FX also comes with a full size spare (18") that contains a sub-woofer in the middle of it!

Now let's see what will I buy with that additional $2500 I saved on top of what I already saved... hmmmm that will make 1 lease payment on a GT2, I could drive one for a month! Wooo Hooo!