Spyerx

I'd raise hell with them before going insurance. this just isn't right.

LexVan

Who's to say the tower didn't fail first, resulting in the wheel getting bent and flat spotted?

Shandingo

IMO the strut tower should not fail simply because the wheel goes over a pot hole, even if the pot hole is nasty enough to bend a wheel. Cars with low profile tires suffer bent wheels all the time from driving over potholes, but I have never heard of a pot hole that resulted in a strut tower failure, particularly when the wheel needs to be examined by a specialist just to determine that it is bent.

The bottom line is that I don't think the dealer/Porsche have presented sufficient evidence that the failure was not caused by a defect (either in the design or manufacture of the strut tower). Their story is particularly dubious when one considers that strut towers on other GT4 cars have also failed. I would suggest that you not give up so easily. Have you considered hiring a lawyer?

Joe Weinstein

Dunno if a lawyer would be cost-effective.

stout

Your insurance company's lawyers might be.

If Porsche is correct and it should be on your insurance company, so be it. If not, well, that's quite a buck to pass to your insurance company—and to you in diminution of value and the Carfax report. I am just struggling to square these failures against nothing like them in Porsche's history, and enthusiasts' history of lowering and modifying these Porsches, even after they have rust and/or hundreds of thousands of miles.

4carl

Probably not and it would take forever .

I still think it's a design flaw .
Lowered suspension so no room for the standard bump stop. Instead of designing one they just eliminated it. So when the shock bottoms out it smashes against a brittle structure ( cast aluminum ).
What could possibly go wrong??? Carl

mooty

u didn't take your car to carlsen did you?

lowering the car should have no damage, and certainly not blown shock tower. these guys say this with straight face??? that's like saying you go raped b/c u wore skirt? wtf.

finally wheel out of round is external cause not manufacturing defect?
you hit a pot hold , bent wheel, damaged shock tower. so any times you bent a wheel, they are obsolved of any issues?

wow. i would push a bit harder if i were you.

okie981

My car was delivered with out-of-tolerance ride height, and was high front and rear. Built on 23 May this year. It seemed a bit odd to me when I took my car in to have the ride height addressed that the service manager tried pretty hard to talk me in to leaving the car as-is, but that could have all been about saving PNA some warranty $$. The car was 9mm out of tolerance high in front and 3mm out of tolerance high in rear. They set the ride height correctly, and even I could tell the difference in handling with the front being .440" higher than target and the rear .200" higher than target initially.

Car as delivered:
Front spec: 109 mm (+2/-0) Front actual: 120 mm
Rear spec: 130 mm (+2/-0) Rear actual: 135 mm

The episode is detailed in these threads:
https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/9461...l#post13507916
https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/9085...l#post13507883

okie981

It's a PITA to find time to do these things, but I would have to witness their inspection and results with my own eyeballs. I just walk right out in the shop floor and strike up a conversation with the techs. Haven't been thrown out yet.

Would be interesting to understand your resulting ride height settings after you lowered, if you had them measured at the WSM recommended locations F/R. But understand if you'd rather not publish that info here.

okie981

+1

EDIT: Guess I need to utilize the multi-quote feature for posts now that I see I made 3 successive posts that could have been in one multi-quote post.

mgerber

It does sound like you hit something. However, I am really struggling with Porsche's logic that the sole cause of the strut tower failure was the impact, and that lowering the car is a possible contributor. Extrapolating with that logic means that the car's front suspension was not designed to handle high loading at the upper travel limit. If this is the case it would be a really crappy design and in my mind a fundamental design flaw for any car, let alone a GT car. And it would lend credence to the thinking that this design is fragile.

For those of us that have lived with Pcar design flaws in the past, it seems like Porsche has yet to change its approach in how it handles these types of design flaws. Ugh...

Joe - sorry to see you have to go through this.

Alan C.

Based on PCNA's logic it sounds as if they need to notify every GT4 owner in the Mid and Northeast not to drive their cars on the street. Our potholes would obviously kill the strut towers.

Joe Weinstein

Can I get a confirmation that this is the only Cayman without a bumpstop? I am
beseeching my PNA rep to fight for me on this. The bodyshop guy says the
car has a 'high salvage value' so insurance might 'total' it, rather than pay for
the entire front of the car to be disassembled. Literally the dashboard and
windscreen have to come out to replace essentially a full quarter of the chassis,
and my 3500-mile, never tracked dream car could be gone forever. It's 4:15AM
on Sunday, and I can't sleep.

Joe Weinstein

Oh, but there's some good news to share too, though. With the time we had,
I did manage to win the Super Street class series for 2016.

LexVan

I doubt it. Unless the repairs exceed 75% of the car's market value, the insurance will not write it off. Your situation sucks. I feel bad for you. Sorry.