Mrg02D

Hi everyone,

My Cayenne decided to ruin Memorial Day weekend for me. Yesterday, my wife was driving out to see a friend and had the car overheat and tell her to stop driving. She did this a few times while limping to her friends house to park it.

I came out to pick her up and to get AAA out there to tow it. Well, AAA called to tell me that none of their flatbed drivers wanted to work due to the holiday, so we left it.

Did some research last night and found that the radiator flaps can become stuck closed and cause this. Headed out this morning and, sure enough, they were closed. Starting up car, I could hear the louvre motor running but not opening the flaps. I gently “helped” it open them.

Decided to drive it a few miles with AC off to see how it responded. Wound up getting to a gas station and the temperature held steady at 200F. Filled up the tank (strangely the car had also given a low fuel warning yesterday also) and decided to head home (21 miles).

Along the way, temperature stayed steady at 200F. I then activated sport mode and saw temperature slightly drop below 200F on the actual gauge (rather than the display). Going back into normal mode, temperature went back to 200F.

About a mile from home, I rolled up windows, turned off sport mode, and cranked on the AC. Got cold air and temperature remained at 200F.

Does this sound like my problem was the stuck flaps? Car is out of warranty, btw.

-Matt

Chaos

Yes but why the stuck closed? Lubricant? Jammed? Glad your not dealing with a blown engine. Last time I called AAA after getting t-boned they never came. Same excuse.

Mrg02D

My guess is that the louver motor had been failing for some time and finally failed in the closed position. I had been seeing my temps climb during really harsh (creeping along for an hour) traffic. Got over 100k miles on it now.

Drove 40 miles to work this morning with my AC blasting and never saw it get past 200F, so I’m thinking that I’m in the clear. I was worried that any number of other things could have been wrong (thermostat or coolant pipes for example). I’m guessing that a 40 mile trip would have shown if something else was wrong.

My concern, now, is if I’ve caused any damage that will manifest later?

jtrogdon

Had the same thing happen with mine. 2015 S but I was at 7,000+ft driving from NC to CA and I was in the middle of New Mexico in 108* heat. My louvers would get stuck closed and it’d start to overheat.

Here’s my solution. Sport mode definitely kicks cooling into high gear but you need the louvers opened by hand to make it worth it. Most of the time it’s happened under load going up big hills/mountains and I’ve just stopped, reached in and opened em then I was fine after that. Now I took a black dress sock and rolled it up and pulled the end over it to hold it in that ball shape and I wedged it between the open louvers. Now they can’t shut and it never overheats anymore. It was a free solution and unless your face is right down there and you’re looking for it you never see it and it’s still there through torrential rainstorms, car washes, and driving 120+ at times back from CA to NC then to TX. Zero issues now that they’re wedged open.

could somebody make a more elegant solution, sure. But it was free, it worked, and you can’t see it soooo. Hope that helps. Just go out there and wedge it in there and don’t tell the mrs. when she asked how you fixed it just tell her you work miracles.

Mrg02D

Woke up this morning with the dern flaps back down. I thought I broke that motor…Guess not. Helped them open again, and I was fine driving to work.

I rarely ever wear black dress socks, so this sounds like a much better use for them!

My Indy isn’t comfortable deactivating the motor, but offered a way better price ($900 plus tax) than dealers have been reporting to fully repair. If it were something else, I’d just repair it, but figure I’ll save the $1k for something that actually risks driving and can’t be fixed with a sock!

Thanks!

Matt

Whitegalaxie

Just change the motor or the flap assembly out. Fix it right and be done with it.

AnAlbumCover

I mean...with that logic why not just trade in the car for a new one and then it'll have no issues! This appears to be a pretty common failure across all Porsches, a DIY is pretty labor intensive too.

Back on topic, I think if you can manually open them and pull the fuse (maybe?), it'll remain open forever. The flaps do little for performance, car maybe warms up a little faster - your thermostat will compensate for the extra cooling from always open flaps.

Mrg02D

I think that the fuse is tied to a few other things…

Anyways, I stuck a black dress sock ball on either side of the motor, in between the flaps. Can’t see them at all…Let’s see my motor react to this!

All in all, I’ll probably have the actual repair done next time I have something more substantial done. I just have little time to bother with this for now…

wyowolf

I assume these are on the outside of the radiator? I have a 12 and I dont see anything like that.

Mrg02D

They are directly in front of it. Look right into the middle of your bumper and you’ll see them.

Whitegalaxie

If fixing your car with socks is "logical" then go for it.

AnAlbumCover

Seems logical to me. Fix is invisible, permanent, throws no codes and costs next to nothing and will result in a better reliability in the long run because there is zero risk of over-heating due to broken louvers/motors. The only reason to fix it is because you know its broken. This is like when you paint a wall and you accidentally put a little paint on the door trim at the top - only you know its there and no one else will notice but it bothers you. If that's the case, spend $1000 and fix it but don't fix this because its "logical", its really not, especially for an out-of-warranty car.

This is a part that's prone to break (google it, these stupid active shutters break on all makes and models). Fixing it seems illogical to me when it will inevitably break again and leave you stranded.

Mrg02D

Sock fix has been working. I can hear the dang motor trying to close my flaps still, but the socks are holding it off. AC blows colder now and I haven’t noticed any decrease in fuel mileage.

If I were planning to trade it in, I’d probably get it fixed knowing that I’d get dinged more than $1k for this. I’m planning on depreciating it out so, not worried about it.

vntperformance

Has anyone disconnected the electrical connection on the flapper motor to keep it in a open position?

jptw

Man, this thread really exemplifies the phrase, "put a sock in it"