Wow! People are really willing to pay $700+ for just a battery installed at the dealer? Ouch! Porsche has got to be laughing all the way to the bank for that service!

Maybe I have been lucky with my batteries but I have found topping (charging) them up 2-3 times a year has greatly enhanced the longevity of them. The battery in my 944 turbo is 10 years old (2006 date stamp) and still works just fine.

 

Advanced Auto Parts and Carquest Auto Parts both sell the AutoCraft battery brand (which gets pretty good reviews)... the Platinum series are AGM and cost a little more but hold a bit more energy than conventional batteries. AutoCraft batteries come in several "series" and only the Platinum series is AGM (absorbed glass mat). With the battery being located under the driver's seat, out of the heat and temperature extremes under the hood, the battery will definitely last longer than vehicles that locate the battery in the engine compartment. In a Cayenne that had never "lived" outside of central California (hot in summer, very mild in winter) the original battery lasted 8 years. In areas with very cold winters you would likely get less life than that (guessing 6-7 years). Not sure about the 2011 model year, but the 08-10 Cayenne V-8s always show H8 is the replacement size in battery replacement charts, but that is ALWAYS wrong. The battery in those cars is actually an H9. The only difference between the 2 is the length and the H9 has a little more energy capacity (950 CCA, Porsche recommends 740 CCA minumum for the 08-10 model years). The H8 is shorter and does not fit properly under the "corner clamp" that holds down the front left corner of the battery. The H8 battery will measure 13-13.5 inches long while the H9 measures 15-15.5 inches long - probably a good idea to measure your battery before you buy a replacement to make sure you will get a good fit with the replacement. The H9 fits properly under the corner clamp in the front left corner. Do look at one of the videos (YouTube) that show you how to remove the battery... there are 2 battery clamps... if you don't remove both of them and you pull hard enough on the battery, you can rip a hole in the bottom of the battery box if the center/side clamp isn't removed (like some monkey did to our Cayenne before we got it). As mentioned before, you do need a TORX bit for a ratchet to remove the front seat bolts (the seat has hinges on the back so you only remove the 2 front bolts and the seat will pivot backwards till it hits the back seat, but you have to manipulate the power seat controls... seat has to be back in order to clear the steering wheel when you tip it backwards, but after clearing the steering wheel, you want to move the seat forward with the controls so it flips back farther to give you more room to lift the battery out of the battery box. Then when you put the seat back in position, you can lower it part-way then move the seat back on the tracks again so the bottom cushion clears the steering wheel again. In the 957 series (08-10), when you disconnect the battery you do lose some computer settings... my passenger mirror used to automatically rotate down so you could see the stripes of parking spaces and curbs while parking... that stopped happening after changing the battery (kind of stupid since non-volatile memory has been around since the 1990s), and some of the displays on the dash changed a little (TYRE instead of TIRE in the TPMS screen for example) among a few other minor customizing settings. "Re-programming" makes this sound like some complex process, but it takes mere minutes for someone who has the tool to program the Cayenne. Not sure whether they finally got past loss of settings when you disconnect the battery on the 2011s or not. BTW, the size of the TORX bit for the bolts holding down the front of the seat is T50... you don't need a whole set of TORX bits if you don't plan to do other service work on your Cayenne, but there are many other TORX bolts elsewhere on the car in smaller sizes, so most DIYers will want a whole set, but if you only plan to do this job, you only need a T50... also be careful if you get a set of TORX bits, some sets I've seen don't have a T50... it's a pretty large size for TORX bits.

 

Replaced mine yesterday, struggling to start and throwing all kinds of issues in the display, (4 wheel drive failure, Air suspension failure) don't wait for it to fail, it was -12C when i had to replace mine outside. My garage door spring had broken when it was -25C, hence the outside fitting

It certainly looked like my battery was original from '06 and it spent it's life in the great white north, it was surprised and happy to see that, it was a Varta.

I just bought a replacement AGM from Canadian Tire for $250 CAD with 5 year warranty, fitted it myself in -12C in about 1 hour.

I kept a trickle charger attached to the posts under the hood and didn't have any programming issues, all the display issues went away with the new battery, it may work for the '09 too?

 

Was **** lube also a line item in that bill or did you have to bring your own? That is just wrong.

 

I don't disagree...

3+ hour round trip to the dealer to drop it off and 3+ hour round trip again 3 days later to pick it up, winter coming, etc so I was in "fix it now no matter what" mode.


Honestly I was happy it was the battery and not a dreaded electrical gremlin (original trip to the dealership service was because the auto start/stop button wasn't working). I'm fairly confident this fixed the problem, car is running much better and little things have disappeared. Example of a little thing would be when the auto start/stop button was off, the yellow A with a circle would still show up on the dash when I was at a stop light (just like it does with auto start/stop on and the car isn't warmed up enough) but it would also stumble for a half a second but keep running. Now when the button is off, no yellow A with a circle and doesn't skip a beat. I've only had this CPO for 3 months and 4500 miles so I didn't know that the previous condition of the yellow A showing shouldn't have been there (that's my guess since it's not there now anyway, not sure what manual says should happen under that condition).

 

Sorry to hear they took advantage of you like that. I know the feeling. We got taken for $2,300 for a $20 part on my wife's Volvo a few winters ago. It was around the holidays and I just didn't have time to mess with it.

Other than lithium battery swaps in aircraft that is the most expensive I have heard of to date for a single starter battery install in a vehicle. There is nothing special about the Porsche battery. Hopefully there is another stealership you can find in a different direction. Can you post who that is so we know who is charging almost a grand for a battery in a Cayenne?

 

There is what appears to be the ability to program the computer for a battery change - but it doesn't work, even with a PIWIS. I tried 4 different tools to do it on mine - including the dealership PIWIS - and although you can enter new battery values - they're never stored. The only ones stored are the ones when the vehicle was assembled.

The likely reason why is - Porsche doesn't change the charge rate (voltage basically) based on the age of the battery (BMW does, Mercedes might..) Porsche sets the charge rate for minimum load on the engine when not in "sport mode" (maxes out at around 13.6V) then bumps it up 1V if you punch the sport button (max of around 14.6-14.7V.)

Why?

I think they were looking for maximum mileage to cut down on the gas-guzzler tax. The load of driving the alternator at full output voltage will decrease mileage. And the alternator is capable of producing so much current that it isn't necessary to run at max charge voltage to recharge the battery (and likely better for the battery if you don't.)

If you want to prove this to yourself - the multi-instrument display on the dash can be programmed to display lots of vehicle functions and values - including battery voltage. Turn it on for a while and keep an eye on it. You'll see the 1V jump when you press the Sport button - it's very obvious.

So as Tom M said - the battery is certainly a DIY-able task - and there is no need to see the dealer. I ended up calling 3 dealerships and asking about programming the computer for a battery change - all 3 said "why?" - they don't do it.

 

Since his is a 2011 - he should know - the bolts are no longer TORX - they are triple-square bolts. Torx drivers will not work. The seat rails are no longer hinged - you take out all four bolts and just tip the entire assembly back.

 

5 or 6 years is normal, I would change it now, autozone have them

 

I ended up giving it to the dealer to do. Working 3rd shift this week, so not really in the mood, but I did get my PCA discount on the battery bringing it to $474 and labor discounted to $169- total $644, so worth it not to have to tackle it right now. And it struggled turning over this am in the 15F air...

 

Scott - if only you lived closer..

 

Annapolis Porsche in Maryland. Great service but you are paying for it as well.

Shorter days/dark longer, cold outside, 3 year old son, etc means I'm not messing around with being stranded on the side of the road so not getting it done wasn't an option for me.

$485 for 70k service
$290 for diagnostic time for charging system test and labor to replace battery
$540 battery
$25 shop fee
-----------------
$1380 with tax

 

If anyone needs a battery replaced, I can do it for half the Porsche rate. I sure could use the extra money for a second vacation home.

 

Whats a 70k service? Oil change?

 

Oil change was extra!

I've never owned a Porsche before, scared of the WP-22 camshaft adjuster bolt failure (confirmed mine has the good bolts in it but now reading I need to worry about cylinder scoring over the long run?), reading how important service history is and so on so think I got caught up in my own little mind game of the dealer has to do every thing keep my CPO good. I don't want to save a few grand in service and get denied a $40k engine replacement kind of thing.

The whole reason the car was in the shop was because it left me stranded in the Chick Fil A drive through at noon on 11/19/Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was 70 degrees in Maryland, one of the last nice days so EVERYONE was out and about and it seems all of them had a hankering for chicken as well which made being parked right in front of the door to enter and in the drive through lane in a Porsche the punching bag for everyone of the 5000 people there to eat.

Being a CPO and having an electrical issue, to the dealer it went. When they said it was the battery, in that I don't trust drivers in the day time yet alone the night time and we are heading for shorter days, getting cold outside, 3 year old son, etc....battery it needs, battery it was.