And as of right now, you can order PSCB on a Taycan, so it seems that they have not been discontinued.

 

Today someone on Porsche Cayenne FB forum in Poland have posted those pics. Several people commented the case is not isolated:

 

Any indication of age/mileage? Are they simply end of life/worn out?

 

The car has been bought in 2021 (so 2022 Cayenne in US speak).

Many people commented on the forum that the rotors turned out to be far less durable than claimed by Porsche. The part cost to replace them is astronomical. You can change to steel rotors, but you also need to change the calipers.

 

Sample of 1 but in my experience PSCB it has been very durable, lasting several times longer than iron rotors with the same driving. They were still like new at 130k km of rather aggressive driving in mountainous terrain.

The failure picture above is interesting. I have seen similar failures of PSCBs from track driving. Porsche does not recommend them for track driving now. In the middle photo, you can clearly see thin radial lines, which are typical for heat-checking. Heat-checking usually happens when driving on a race track from repeated rapid cooling of extremely hot brake rotors, and is very rare during normal driving, especially for performance vehicles with massive brakes. There is also a lot of pad transfer on the rotor, which also points to extreme heat. I've never seen that much pad transfer on PSCB on a cayenne. PSCBs use very hard pads, so getting them to melt like that would take some extraordinary temperatures. But the tires don't look like they have seen track driving. So this is puzzling. Could it be a stuck calliper or something similar that caused overheating? Or inappropriate pads melting onto the rotor and peeling off the tungsten carbide layer?

 

Hard to believe that nobody has made or found a compatible cast iron rotor and pad combo that fits the PSCBs.
I was just over the moon after finding the perfect spec CPO Cayenne e-Hybrid, only 46K miles or so, for a very reasonable price and had appointment set for Saturday morning to go see it an hour away.
I asked for the window sticker to confirm the many touted options- Prem pkg plus, Assistance pkg, Sport design facia, air suspension, PDCC, Sport chrono, rear steer, roof rails, tow package, etc, etc, Everything I was looking for. And then I see it: PSCB.
Womp womp. Conveniently not mentioned on the vehicle description at all.
I am now debating going to see it. They will almost certainly say the price was very aggressive due to the brakes (which they most likely won't replace).
I have asked for the CPO report to see what it says about the brakes.

 

Personally that would not prevent me from taking a look at the vehicle, inspect the brakes/ rotors carefully, at that milage the rotors should be mirror like, they take a long time depending on use to get them to that mirror finish. If they look good, I wouldn’t hesitate if the rest of the vehicle looks good. When the PSCB’ s are in good working order they are supposed to be quite excellent from everything I’ve read including on this forum. However, I will leave you and the rest here with this…….

I own a 2023 Cayenne Turbo I ordered and took delivery June of 23’, I dearly wanted the PCCB brakes as I have fallen in love with them on my 991.2 TTS 911, absolutely outstanding brakes IMO and would most likely last the life of the vehicle under normal spirited driving but unfortunately they discontinued the available spec before I ordered so I had no choice but the PSCB system.

After putting some miles on after delivery I came back complaining that the brakes just didn’t seem very powerful, I complained a few times. A few months back I had an incident driving on I70 in the mountains where I needed to slow down fairly quickly, not an emergency panic situation, hit the brakes, small amount of grab then nothing more, I pushed as hard as I could, now being an emergency panic slowdown, after about a second or less they finally grabbed very strongly and kept me from hitting the vehicle in front, scared the crap out of me, when I arrived back in Denver I went directly to the dealer and said I’ve had enough of these brakes, they’re dangerous, they don’t work like they should. They took me seriously on this matter, immediately took it for a drive but of course could not duplicate my experience. Brought in the next morning for a loaner so they could address it, still could not duplicate my experience as I expected but did notice a strange pattern on the rotors now with about 10-11k on the odometer, they said they’ve seen this before but usually associated it with noise, a common issue with PSCB’s. They called corporate and were told to replace everything except the calipers including a complete factory bleed.
I will say they seem much better a few thousand miles in and without the strange pattern on the rotors as before, I haven’t given them the big test yet but do grab significantly better on initial stab than before.

I still entertain the thought of finding a set of PCCB’s and replacing them but I’m not actively looking to spend that kind of $$ and if these work well I’m ok with that for now and do hope they wear longer than the +30% Porsche claims, I’m not hard on brakes in general so hoping so.

 

Thanks for your experience. I will keep my appointment because I am just too curious about the e-Hybrid and the car does seem to be a good value, brakes notwithstanding. I have driven PSCBs before on a pre-owned vehicle with slightly more mileage- somewhere in the mid 50Ks- and my experience was less than stellar. I was annoyed by the low speed modulation resulting in noisy, grabby stops. Most reports are that this is normal and you will get used to it. Well, I am not sure that changing your driving style to accommodate a bad design is the best scenario. I also heard a fair amount of squealing, which is something I believe Porsche has a fix for. I'd be surprised if this well-serviced vehicle has that issue but at least I know it can be fixed by the dealer.

 

We also own a 2020 e hybrid now with 60k on the clock, it has the standard iron brakes that work well but are certainly a dirty mess, it’s the best reason to own a power washer ! And I will say it’s nice not having any brake dust on turbo and if they work as well as the hybrid brakes I’m ok with that, so far they are not grabby at all, I’d like them to be more so, PCCB’s are very grabby and is something to get used to, I have no issues with back and forth on their respective differences other than I’d prefer the feel of the PCCB’s for all of them. I’m hopping the PSCB’s become more grabby with use, something I wouldn’t complain about, to me it’s a more positive feel and better to have strong initial braking than not.

If the PSCB’s would need replacement in the near future of your perspective purchase, like other here have said, easy and relatively inexpensive to replace with standard un- coated brakes although one might check on compatibility regarding the e hybrid aspect. I wasn’t and am not happy about the possibility of needing replacement PSCB components on my turbo at some given point but many reports suggest they can last a very ong time if your not overly hard on them constantly.

If you do end up purchasing the vehicle and feel the brakes work well enough for you, you will absolutely enjoy not having brake dust, certainly not my priority for brakes but a bigger bonus than some may give credit for.

BTW, I grew up in the Boston area, Winthrop til 4 and Lexington til 25 before I moved to Colorado where some of the finest drivers roads exist !

PS. The hybrid has 33k on the gas engine and 26k on the battery only, 34+ mpg overall. I replaced the front rotors and pads @ 50k
And btw, so far my turbo brake do not squeak or wail unlike the PCCB’s, not too bad, probably because I don’t really care !

 

Appreciate the insight. Can you elaborate the easy and relatively inexpensive replacement you mentioned? Are we talking simply replacing rotors pads and likely calipers? I am having a hard time getting a good answer on that. Hence, finding this thread.

 

You have to replace the calipers, because the PSCB caliper made by Akebono doesn't appear to have anyone that makes non-PSCB pads.
If someone does make a pad that fits those calipers, than you won't need new calipers. If anyone knows of anyone that makes pads, please let us know.
Then you just buy iron rotors and some other misc. parts.
Any mechanic can make the swap, it's a simple "brake job", that's why its easy. They remove the caliper anyway if they were replacing them or not, the extra step is just disconnecting the fluid line and they will need to replace the fluid, which they most likely don't do on a regular brake job unless you specify.

 

You may conrtact porterfield-brakes and ask for an one off. There are a smaller company with a great product (R4-S compound, low dust ceramic) that may be willing to make such a product.

I had nothing, but great experience with them. I have their pads on 3 cars.

https://porterfield-brakes.com

IMO there may be a (niche) market for such a product, given how many PSCB equipped Cayennes there are on the road worldwide. And the problem will only get bigger when the cars gather miles and depreciate. Worth a shot IMO.

 

Is suncoastparts.com the best place to get PSCB brake pads?

I've got a 2019 Cayenne Turbo that I'm looking to replace the front and rear pads on (rotors are still good).

 

You can also call Sunset Porsche.
Also try local dealer to see if they will match price, no shipping costs.

 

Have had good luck and pricing with getporscheparts.com. Helpful service when needed. Also, happen to be local to me (Maryland) but will ship anywhere.