smohr33

My 2018 Macan GTS went in for the timing chain cover repair at Porsche Huntington earlier this year with 12k miles on it. When I received the car back there was a noticeable vibration. The service manager went for a long ride with me and acknowledged he felt something. Shop foreman said it was normal, and pulled a preowned 40k mile GTS off the lot as a comparison (to my 12k mile car). Foreman and service manager both agree after putting a vibration meter on both cars its "in my head" and to drive the car.

Fast forward 2 months and not even 1000 miles and I get a warning the car is a quart low on oil. Interesting as the car never lost an ounce of oil in the first 12k miles on the gauge, even with the leaky timing chain cover. I peek underneath and see this:



Turns out the gasket for the timing chain cover wasn't reinstalled properly. "Faulty gasket" is what the service manager says, sure. So the car goes back in for the second timing chain cover replacement and afterward all seems fine. Vibration is now gone, and the car seems to drive well.

Fast forward to this week, less than a month and 1000 miles since the last service. I hear a strange noise from the front of the car. I didn't have time to check it out but could easily reproduce it at low speeds. It kept getting worse throughout the day. Finally when I got home I had a chance to look. Below is what I found, the upper engine support bolt completely loose and about to fall out!

Rocking the car while in park:



Loose bolt about to fall out:



The dealer offered to come fix it but I do not want them near my car again, and I now have concerns about what other damage may have been done to my drivetrain over the last 1000 miles due to this loose mount. I also have to question the integrity of the rest of their work (the engine, transmission, and front suspension have all been out of the car twice now). If one bolt on top of the engine bay that I can see is loose, how many others were possibly not torqued correctly? I do not feel safe in the car as it sits, and the long term effects of this issue are now unknown.

Porsche Huntington's work has been unsatisfactory, damaging, and unsafe, and I do not recommend anybody use their service department.

I have opened a case with PCNA and I will take this as far as possible until I feel the resolution is sufficient. As this point I'm not sure if I want to accept the vehicle back as I feel its value and integrity has been diminished as a result of these issues. I will update this thread as my case moves through PCNA.

Fiat88

YIKES... what a disaster. I truly hope things work out for you. I'ts good that you have video to prove your concern.

Schmed

Sadly, I have similar stories with my local Porsche dealer. For the privilege of $200/hour shop rates, I thought it was reasonable to expect a high-level of competence. I was wrong.

Petza914

I would have them take it back and inspect everything they've touched or have PCNA send you to a different dealer. You don't want to give them an option where you corrected things yourself and they can use that as grounds for why something that fails down the road failed. Once out of warranty, I wouldn't worry about it, but in this case I'd consider that.

smohr33

I have not and will not touch the car myself. It is parked in my garage and will not move until PCNA decides who is coming to get it.

My case manager from Porsche customer service told me to have roadside assistance tow the car to another dealer if I didn’t want to use Porsche Huntington. However, I would be liable for the expense of the repair! She then offered me $500 toward the repair! What a slap in the face!

Immediately after that conversation I sent a letter to the VP of customer experience for PCNA. I got a prompt response from him that his team would look into my case early next week and make things right. We’ll see what their idea of make it right is...

tk-porsche

Good luck -- these sorts of horror stories are very discomforting and result in incredible stress levels. You're wise to document everything along with photos.It's scary what all transpires that emerges like this and it makes you wonder about all the crap that happens that goes undetected. For some folks, the next dealership is a long ways off and not a viable option. Is there not a local indie shop you could go to, instead, like TKX Performance Inc.?

smohr33

Thanks.

There are many local Indy shops, but for warranty work (which this was), it has to be done by a a dealer. I’m told by friends in the business that other dealers service departments on the island have a much better reputation. So even though Huntington is local to me, I will travel wherever else I need to in the future to avoid using them and recommend anyone else on Long Island do the same.

white6speed

I had a major incident with them in 1996 which Porsche stepped in and resolved. Sounds like the second generation ( if still owned by the same family) have not changed. It always starts at the top.

BIG smoke

My macan was in for a valve cover leak. they took out the engine for this job. Plus they had to replace the leaking condensor in the dashboard. It was in the shop for two weeks.
I got the car back, 44kms & 40 hours later it barfed all the coolant on my garage floor. An elbow on the top of the manifold against the firewall had a crack and let go.
I surmise the when the engine was reinstalled it was bumped when the body was lowered back on. Now three weeks in the shop and another week for the part and install.
I understand, things happen, but really. At $200+/hour are you not hiring trained professionals?

Premium brand - Premium expectations

If I wanted incompetence, I'd do it myself.

Every vehicle drop off, I take full pictures of my car, upon pick up, full pictures of my car. Every door is opened, trunk opened, hood opened. In the last ten years, I have found three tools.
If my car has a dipstick? I check that the car has oil. If you are ultimately responsible for the premium charge? Should you have to check their work? I would say you shouldn't. But you do.

When my car crapped all the coolant at my feet. I called my service advisor. He said call Porsche roadside and get the car flat bedded to the dealership. At 44kms from service pickup, I don't feel this is a coincidence.
In my opinion the dealership should have sent a flatbed to pick up my car? That would have been service. But alas, I spent 90 minutes calling Porsche roadside and waiting for the tow truck.

3 weeks in the shop and another week for parts. But whatever, I have no where to go.

Schmed

smohr33

Follow up for those interested:

PCNA agreed to my request for the car to be brought to a different dealer for inspection and repair. Car was towed to another dealer who did the inspection and wound up doing the timing chain cover service (and more) for the third time!

A sampling of the things they found were the loose torque support pictured in my original post, "many" brackets broken and some missing from engine wiring and fuel lines, purge valve tank vent broken, loose bolts on timing chain cover (again!), and a broken bolt on the valve cover.

After 14 days in the shop I have the car back, and no communication from PCNA whatsoever since the car was sent in for the service. Total of 22 days out of service and complete disassembly of the front of the car 3x due to this fiasco.

I'm going to drive the car for a while and see how it holds up. I have no complaints for the second dealer who took their time and seemingly did a good job, but time will tell I guess...

wwahl

During this corona virus there are plenty of out of work religious folks that are available. Maybe one of them could come in and perform an exorcism procedure to rid the devil from your machine

#1SomeGuy

That is negligence and laziness on the part of the mechanic to have that many issues. I have done my own repair work on vehicles for years, you damn well know when things like that get broken/damaged taking apart or putting back together. You do break things from time to time but a good mechanic will replace any part that is broken as they reassemble. You also follow torque specs, actually use a torque wrench, and double check every fastener (get each bolt/nut to spec once and then go back around once more in case anything has settled in further). You have to intentionally say "eff it" to leave things like that.

white6speed

For those of you that live in LI you have many choices other than Porsche of Huntington. I lived in Lloyd Harbor for almost 10 years and never bought a car from Huntington but tried to have a re-call done but they did $4k of damage to the engine. I also went to PCNA and they were great and paid to fix the damage. In all these years sounds like nothing has changed.

smohr33

Further proof of the type of operation Huntington is running, here is the service manager (John M) leaving a review for his own dealership on Google! LOL! Reported to Google as conflict of interest and will let PCNA know as well, what a joke.