deilenberger

A rather common failure on both the Cayenne 958, and the Panamera (911, Boxster, Cayman, Macan too?) is loss of the second hand on both the normal clock, and the sport chrono. It seems a tiny thing - but for those of us who are OCD - we KNOW ABSOLUTELY that's the first thing friends will notice when they get into our cars. It can't be tolerated.

One can simply take it to the dealer and ask that it be fixed. My WAG is you're looking at a $1,000 fix when they're done with it. The clock itself is over $550 new - and I imagine the labor is another $450 (despite the swap of clocks just taking a few minutes.) Call me jaded - but that seems a tad excessive to me. I wish I made $2,000/hour.

In thread: https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...-fell-out.html - I described R&R of the clock, and putting the runaway second hand back on. The problem is - it's very likely you'll be doing this again, since there is something making the second hand fall off.

What I observed - was the end of the second hand had curled a bit - away from the dial - which put it close to the sweep of the hour hand around the clock.

My theory is - the two at some time manage to conflict with each other - and the hour hand simply scrapes the second hand off the shaft it's pressed onto. I had originally suggested gluing the second hand on - but that may present a case where the hour hand is captured by the second hand, and starts loosing steps - not knowing where it is supposed to be. This has been reported a number of times. Eventually it sounds as if it breaks free - and the clock then resyncs it's position to the correct one.

The fix is a new second hand. The maker, Paragon-AG in Germany appears to have very slightly modified the second hand - making the hand a bit thicker with a bulge on outside part of the hand. I believe this was done to make it less prone to curling in the heat.

How to get one? I tried emailing Paragon at their address info@paragon.ag - I received no response. Another member sent an email to the same address and they were kind enough to send him a number of hands - which he shared with me (Thanks Derek!)

I installed the new second hand today - and documented a bit of the task, so I thought I'd share the photos with you.

Note that this is precision fiddly work, and you may completely pork up your clock. If so - I'm not to blame, I'm just sharing what I did, not suggesting you do it. If you pork the clock - there are used ones on Ebay quite frequently, usually for around $250-275. Thing is - the used ones are ones a mechanic took out under warranty after it's second hand fell off and someone grabbed it and stuck the old second hand back on. You'll still eventually be dealing with a problem second hand if my theory is correct.

I'll also let you know if the new hand I put on makes it past 6 months without falling off.

I'm going to copy (and slightly edit) the info from the thread mentioned above.

1. Buy trim removal tools - blue plastic things. They are available from various vendors for $20-40, and from Harbor Freight (identical!) for about $9.00. https://www.harborfreight.com/5-piec...set-67021.html Once you own them you'll wonder how you lived without them.

2. If you have a leather dash - put blue painters tape around the edge of the center dash panel - on the leather (to protect it.) Not as critical with a vinyl dash, but you might want to anyway. Once you DO remove the center dash panel - it's worth smearing a tiny bit of grease on the nubs that go into the clips in the actual dashboard that hold the grille in. Not only will this prevent any squeaks from the clips, it will make it much easier to remove in the eventuality that it needs redoing sometime.

3. Sit in the passengers seat in the vehicle (so the steering wheel isn't in your way.) Stick your fingers into the gill-vents on one side of the center dash cover, and gently pull straight up. As soon as an edge starts to pull up, use one of the smaller dash removal tools to get under it. Leave that one there and go to work on the other side.

4. The center dash pulls straight up. You should be able to get your fingernails under the now exposed edge of the panel so you can pull straight up. Do not pull horizontally at all - all movement is vertical.

5. Pull it up until it pops out. The front is held with plastic tabs that go into metal clips on the dash. The rear has some of the tabs, and some cross-shaped plastic pillars that go into holes in the dash. It's best if you don't break any of these.

6. Once it's out - remove the wire going to the clock. It unplugs. It has a lock tab on it that's a bit fiddly to depress. If it doesn't pull straight back and out easily - look for the lock tab and depress as you're pulling..

6a. At this point take a good photo of the front of the clock. This is so if the hands are moved while replacing the second hand, you can get them back to the same position before hooking the clock back up.

7. Take the panel somewhere that you can get comfortable. Remove the two screws that hold the clock into the panel.

8. Over a clean and clear surface, hold the clock face down - and unscrew the bezel (the mat-chrome ring around the front of the clock.) The plastic "glass" and a light distribution ring will come out with the bezel, and chances are - the second hand.

The second hand would be VERY easy to lose. Be super careful with it. It appears to be made of plastic. I used some very good and fine (Dumont - Swiss) tweezers to handle it (I used to rebuild watches as a hobby - so I'm good with small things.) Use a magnifying glass or eye-loupe (if you rebuilt watches as a hobby you have one of these..)


A photo of the position of the hands before trying to install the new second hand.

You have some Duco or vinyl cement right? You need a way to apply a TINY drop of glue on the end of the second-hand shaft. I used a very fine jeweler's screwdriver. A really REALLY sharp toothpick might also work. Or a sewing needle or single strand from some wire. The glue probably isn't needed if my theory is correct and you're installing a new second hand - but it might be if you're reinstalling the one that fell off.

9. You use the tip of the screwdriver or toothpick or whatever to transfer a tiny drop of glue from the glue nipple to the end of the second-hand shaft.


End of the second hand shaft - with glue. It must be clean.. and you don't want to get the glue into the plastic bearing the shaft goes through.

10. Then you put the second hand on the shaft (eye-loupe is very handy here unless you have super close vision - ie - nearsighted) and gently press it down.


New second hand installed



New second hand - note the gap behind the hand, and that the hand doesn't curl upward.

The glue will keep it from coming off again. Hopefully the new design second hand won't curl.

BTW - remember that picture of the time the clock indicated when you removed it. Make sure the hands are back at that time when you reinstall it. The minute and hour hand actually move freely - but it's possible to get to get the stepper motors that drive them out of sync with the PCM clock source. BTDT, had to take it apart again to adjust them correctly.


Assembled and ready to go back in the P!G.

Once it's plugged back in - turn the ignition on - and make sure the time on the clock is correct after it does the clock-dance.

11. Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

FINAL NOTE: This thread is applicable for a wide range of Porsche models that use this clock, or the sport-chrono clock. There may be differences in R&R of the clock assembly, but once it's out - the problem is the same. The damn second hand came off.

Any comments, suggestions, flames - please direct them to me via PM.. thanks!

deilenberger

Thought I'd report - the new second hand has made it 8 months so far - that's about 7.5 months longer than reinstalling the old hand made it..