dbonds

I just picked up a 2016 Cayenne S earlier this week. Happy to start my journey to Porsche ownership now - my dream car as a teen was a late '80s 928 S4 - still hope to get one someday, but the Cayenne makes a lot more sense for me now. :-)

A few questions that I haven't seen discussed on the forum:

1. A quick inspection revealed some oil leakage from the right side valve covers. It doesn't appear to be leaking quickly (~1500 miles since last change with no noticeable drop in oil level, but from what I can tell looking at the motor, it's possibly been going awhile (picture below). The vehicle has ~53k miles on it. Is leakage from valve covers a common issue on the Cayennes? I'l likely be prioritizing this as one of my "sooner rather than later" projects.


Oil leakage from valve cover

2. My passenger side wiper fluid nozzle appears to be clogged. The drivers side one DOES spray fluid, so I don't think it's the pump. Is this a common issue? If so, any suggestions for a fix (will try cleaning the nozzle as much as possible, just wondering of any other "known tricks")?

3. Did a double-take when I noticed the hands on the dashboard analog clock spinning wildly when opening the door recently. I'm guessing the clock doesn't "run" at all when the car is parked, but "catches up" as soon as someone opens a door?

Other than reading thru the forum, any other hints for a new Cayenne owner? Hoping with a bit of luck and good preventive maintenance to keep the "big ticket" repairs at bay as I'm out of warranty, and declined the selling dealers 3rd party extended warranty (for $4100 for +3yr/36k miles). I've already found a couple of local shops in the Houston area that seem to have a good reputation - "Motorwerks AG" on SW side and "Das European Autohaus" on the north side so I'll likely be using them and not the dealership at this point. 3 days into my ownership and I've already replaced the battery (was reading a bit low and throwing some odd codes) and ordered a 2nd key (only came with one, and I'm not running the risk of only having one) - those two items alone were roughly a thousand combined, so while realizing that a Porsche will have a higher cost of ownership/operation than my previous Fords, I hope that settles down soon. :-)

As an aside - interesting to read of all the Transfer Case issues with the Cayennes. I'm coming from a Ford Taurus SHO ("Super High Output" version of the now-discontinued Ford Taurus with a 3.5L twin-turbo V6 with AWD - sound familiar?) and one of the most common major failures in that platform is the "PTU" (Power Transfer Unit). Purpose of the device is similar (part of the AWD system), but fails for different reasons. In any case, was interesting to move from one platform to the other (with some basic similarities, but obviously vastly different overall) and see a similar failure pattern. :-)

- Dave

deilenberger

Dave, welcome to the forum...

#1 - that's why I like to use port and starboard when describing which side is being discussed. I'm assuming from your photo that it's the passenger side (in the US)? That's the side with the oil filler - and sloppy filling can result in some munge in the area you show. Personally I'd clean it up (electronic cleaner will work well, but is flammable and probably cancer causing, so use with all precautions) and just keep an eye on it for a bit. Also check the gasket on the oil filler cap. While valve cover gaskets have been mentioned to leak, it's typically way more miles and age than your new Cayenne, and it's not "common" but not unknown either.

#2 - Sounds like it's plugged up. No tricks I know of.

#3 - That's one of the endearing traits/oddities of the Cayenne. I've watched mine do this for years now and have yet to have figured out exactly what the pattern is - sometimes it goes past the current time and then reverses and comes back to it, sometimes it goes right to it, and sometimes it just randomly spins around eventually ending up on the right time. The clock runs until the computer shut down after ignition off and last door close - that's about 10 minutes. Then it just stops wherever it is.

HTH,

dbonds

Thanks Don. As a follow-up, I did an under hood detail yesterday, including using some "Simple Green" (great for general cleanup on stuff like this, and not toxic) to cleanup the area shown in pic. Yes, that is passenger side (US) shown, I use "right and left" from the "cars" point of view. :-) Nice and shiny now, hopefully it was just sloppy previous oil fills (now that I look, that IS very close to directly under the oil fill, so sloppiness from a previous change is a definite possibility). Time will tell.

Also - in case it helps someone else, with regards to the clogged wiper nozzle - I only had 2 of the 3 holes on the left (drivers) side, spraying and nothing spraying out of the right (passenger) side. Going on the assumption there was some type of clog, I used a bit of distilled white vinegar in a syringe, and sprayed just a ml or so into each nozzle hole and use a soft bristle toothbrush for a quick scrub. Let it sit for a few hours while doing some other stuff, and while running an errand last night, tested the wiper spray - happy to report it seems much better now - we'll see if it holds out. If anyone else runs into this, give the vinegar/toothbrush trick a try.

- Dave

twodollardoug

I used a sewing needle to unplug mine. I adjusted the spray pattern with the needle also.

Eskimo1

Definitely filing that little gem away!