B.Kish

Anyone have any idea how to install a stainless skid plate on the 2015 Cayenne? Supposedly it's easier than on the 2011-2014 without having to remove the bumper. Not looking that way. At least not obviously.

Thanks.

B.Kish

As an update, I did this a few weekends ago. Don't ever do this upgrade no matter how much you think it'll improve the looks. Ever.......

Eskimo1

Do tell.

B.Kish

I'll get the aesthetics out of the way first. I have a black CD. The car looks a little amorphous in the front in that it's just black; black paint, black grilles, black lights. It's hard to see much in the way of detail. I wanted to add some visual impact. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the difference with the SS skid plate. Unless you come from an angle that you're looking up at the bumper you really can't see it. You can see the metal lip that curves up around the front of the bumper but meh.

As for the install.... There aren't any guides I could find. There were references that said maybe from 2015 on they were an easier install without bumper removal. Nope. Bumper has to come off. Not a hard job but tedious. Next you will find the part of the bumper the SS skid plate replaces doesn't; in that you cannot remove the original plastic piece/skid plate. The stainless one simply covers the plastic one. The plastic skid plate is secured to the upper bumper by nasty a** plastic clips. And the edges of that plastic skid plate piece are heat welded to the lateral parts of the bumper bottom. The idea is to separate the nasty plastic clips to allow tabs from the SS skid plate to squeeze between the main bumper and the plastic skid plate. There are plastic mating tabs on the plastic skid plate that the SS skid plate goes onto and then are bent to secure. But wait, the edges are heat welded, how do you separate the plastic skid plate from the main bumper to slide the SS skid plate in if the edges are welded together. Good friggin' question. You release the nasty plastic clips and fold/bend/open the bumper to get the SS skid plate tabs in and pray to the Porsche parts counter gods that nothing breaks while trying to do this. But wait, that secures the front, sort of, how about the sides? Grab the Dremel because you have to cut out notches through the seam where the plastic skid plate meets the lateral parts of the lower bumper. Where do those notches go you ask? I have no earthly idea because I can't line up the sides without getting the front edge in and can't get the front edge in without lining up the sides. Just make an educated guess. Or two. Then cut. And pray again. Once you've done all that, bend all the SS tabs to secure and snap those nasty clips back. Stand back to admire your work and realize that despite your best effort the SS skid plate sticks out about 1/4 inch (by design) from the bumper and the front lip of the SS skid plate don't quite match up to the bumper. Also realize at this point the Cayenne is your only mode of transportation, you've been at this for six hours and need to be somewhere in a half hour.

The design is so Rube Goldberg in the finished product and so needlessly difficult in process I can't imagine why anyone at Porsche thought this was a good idea. It's beyond ridiculous. Unfortunately, at some point my OCD will kick in and I'll remove the bumper again to try to get the edges to align better. In all, a complete waste of $500 and 6 hours of my life. Never again. You've been warned.

Eskimo1

Wow.... thanks for the warning.. I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at your creating writing style..

ellipsis

So i went through this a couple of months ago and never got around to writing it up. Ebay is very hit or miss with crap like this.
I had a body shop do the work. They called about 10 mins in and advised against the install. I pushed them a little and they did it in 2 hours.

It's not perfect, but on a fully black Cayenne it looks awesome. I'll post some pics soon. Sorry it was hell for you. Definately a "buyer beware" situation.

-Peter

CarGuyNVA

RS-America

As we spend most of our time on unpaved surfaces we looked at getting the optional skid plates. For our purposes they looked more cosmetic than functional and passed. After taking delivery we had custom skid plates, roll bar, rock sliders, bush bar, integrated front & rear winch mounts, and a modified rear spare tire rack made and installed. 80,000 endurance rally and off-road miles later, glad we went this route.
________________________
https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...meet-otis.html

harry_p

So did you get it installed after all? Could we see a photo? Thanks!

harry_p

Could we get a photo of the end result?

I'm mainly interested in seeing how much the front SS skid plate sticks out.

Also does the number plate bracket fit now? Because it covers a small part of the plastic skid plate originally.

And did you also install the back skid plate?

harry_p

Any chance we could get a photo of the end result?

Did you install only front skid plate or back as well?

Thanks!

hotrod2448

Hey guys, how about that picture? It's been 5 whole minutes. What's taking so long? Don't make me post again.

harry_p

I get the humor or course, but I was replying to 3 different people. It would be helpful to see the results people got.

Sorry if seemed a bit spammy

BrewDude

Was thinking of doing this to my 2016 CD.

Imma pass after reading this.

hotrod2448

It's all good. Usually when you see that behavior out of a new member it's them trying to quickly meet a minimum post count so they can sell something on the forum classifieds.