Birdie18

The dealership just diagnosed my 2020 Cayenne with a water pump and vacuum system issue. Apparently coolant has leaked into the vacuum system. The estimate to replace the water pump and vacuum system came back at $9136 for parts and labor. What should it actually cost to have this sort of repair work done?

chassis

Did they give you a breakdown of parts vs labor? My guess is 2/3 labor and 1/3 parts. I might be underestimating labor, which could be as high as 75% - 80% of the $9k estimate.

So say $6k in labor at $300 per hour = something around 20 hours of labor. 3 shop days. Sounds about right. One day for strip down, day 2 and half of day 3 for installation, half of day 3 for debug, test drive and clear codes. And wash up.

If you buy the parts yourself, you might save 10% on the parts.

If you DIY the labor, this element becomes $0. If you use an indy shop, you might save 30%-40% on the labor.

YHC

Wouldn't this be covered by warranty?

chassis

If the car was built in Q3 or Q4 2019 for MY2020, it might be past the 4 year original manufacturer's warranty.

@Birdie18 When was your car built? The decal is on the front driver side door jamb, or door shut face.

Birdie18

Unfortunately, although the Cayenne is less than four years old, it is just over 50,000 miles so the repairs are out of warranty. The parts were quoted at $2,447.52 and labor at $7,440.77 if that helps. The major parts that apparently need to be replaced are the vacuum lines, vacuum pump, coolant pump and related parts.

chassis

Quick search shows $450 each for the water pump and vacuum pump. Odds and ends probably cost as much in total. So it’s easy to see $1500 retail in parts.

Indy labor would probably have a high $3 or low $4 handle. Lots of disassembly and reassembly for these jobs.

So optimistic scenario at an Indy is something that starts with a $5.

YHC

I think I had the same service done under warranty.
Here are the parts that were replaced,but some are missing prices, but they are over $2700 in parts.

Ironman88

This is certainly an unfortunate set of circumstances and I am sorry to learn of it and the inconvenience and cost the OP has to face with the repair.

I find it hard to accept how a seemingly simple component failure (water pump) has to result in a $9k plus repair cost to owner of this vehicle that is now just past the 50k mile warranty limit.

If the breakdown was the result of abuse or negligence, I could see Porsche taking a hard stand on it.

In this case, the design of the engine permitted the failure of a $450 part to cause significant collateral damage (unavoidable to the owner / driver I imagine) that results in such an unfair and expensive repair.

I call BS on Porsche on this one. Not just the cause of the problem, but also the manner and expense of its resolution.

jayshi827

this is helpful info. thanks for sharing.

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PorscheACC

Seems like Porsche is all over in maximum profit squeeze mode to meet its declining profit margins..

And.. guess what.!! Porsche customers (us) are the ca$h cows that will be squeezed hard until it hurts hard.!!

Learning my lesson on profit greed from these day's Porsche company..

Besides Porsche’s history, mechanically, today's Porsche’s vehicles are the same as all other high end ones.

Porsche history is worth the money, but definitely not the abusive ca$h cow maintainace/repair profit squeeze..

My vehicle even have an Audi 2.9 twin turbo engine and parts, and Audi does not profit rape their owners like Porsche does..

Ironman88

I definitely understand and actually appreciate Porsche's efforts to not diminish the stature of the brand.

It's been said that Porsche is not a value brand. I guess that would depend on how one defines the word value. I've always regarded value as high intrinsic worth. With Porsche, value comes at a very high price.

If Porsche won't bend on pricing pressure (and again I agree that they should not), then where they fail is in their avoidance (or at best, stubborn reluctance) to address a product deficiency.

There are examples of course where they have bent on this - the transfer case failures and timing chain cover leaks of late.

But the support needs to go deeper. Otherwise, they risk sustained damage to the brand.

chassis

Porsche is selecting new clients with ever higher prices. If anyone balks at Porsche prices and leaves the brand, more new customers will come in behind. It’s just business. Out with the old (clients) and in with the new, higher price paying, clients.

SilverSteel

That is obscene. I would spend some time with the dealer and see if they can make something special happen, and if that fails, head to Porsche North America.

They have known for some time now that the water pumps are flawed on this vehicle. So many have failed and been replaced. You have nothing to lose. These cars depreciate pretty hard, so it's not like it's an asset, that's for sure.

If they will not budge etc, head to an independent for estimates and go that route. Just make sure your independent has a master Porsche mechanic on staff. I have seen what how they save money and it's not funny.

That's just messed up.

PorscheACC

Sounds like those water pumps may have plastic subparts like those other Porsche models water pumps parts that are failing all around.

Porsche knows that plastic parts on pumps or any other critical high stressed parts will fail eventually and quickly, and will produce high profits. If they didn't know, then Porsche has become incompetent..


Otherwise, what nut company will put plastic subparts on a high performace vehicle that is supposed to used high engine power.

Reminds me of some Mercedes SUV modelswhere Mercedes put plastic parts in the transmission plates, and some of them began failing even before 50,000 miles.. what a nightmare..

At the end, Mercedes had to get rid of the terrible/awful ML SUV model line of SUVs, rename it, and fix many of the subpar designed parts..

Great repair profit for Mercedes until people started to stay away from their SUVs in the 2000's..

MaxLTV

Sounds obscene. I had a major failure on my 958, oil in vacuum system etc. with full engine out, one or more pumps and oil separator and every vacuum hose replaced - it's indeed a lot of work if there is extensive oil contamination. But my cost was much less than that - something like 6K.

Those dealerships are charging shameless amount of money for labour. And you can't really blame Porsche for the cost (except for not making it reliable in the first place, of course) - the cost of parts is not terrible.