choco

Dear Experts in Rennlist,
My 2015 Panamera V3.6 starts showing oil leak around timing chain cover bolts.
Driver side leak clearly shows a couple of oil drops formed after a driving, even though it's not dropping on the garage floor.
Passenger side is less, but clear symptom of oil leak around the bolt.
I am suspecting that they are infamous Macan's, Cayenne's, and Panamera's TC bolt leak as an example of https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...09762-0001.pdf
When I checked bolts by my fingers they are not broken. However, I just wonder if anyone tried to replace those two bolts and fixed or reduced the oil leak.
I saw many Macan users did this as the bolts were broken (https://www.macanforum.com/threads/2...83916/#replies), but it's difficult to find any Cayenne and Panamera owners who really did this.
Sharing any experience will be appreciated as usual.
Sincerely!

powerwheels

I've done this and have a 3.6 as well but if it's not significant, I wouldn't touch it. I've had some bolts snap before and it was not fun extracting them. Two years later there are some leaks again but nothing major and it's not constantly dripping every time I drive. These engines now have some age and while generally it has been good to me, aren't quirk-free.

I would wipe the oil off whenever you can but if you start noticing that it's getting worse, then tackle the project but have a bolt extraction kit (basically a drill & extraction bit) ready just in case.

choco

Thank you so much for your advice, @powerwheels !
I had the same concern of extracting the bolt and your advice is very helpful.
I guess that your bolt was already broken when you worked for this. When you replaced the bolt, did it fix your issue or still some drips?
Thank you again!

digs

I think the bolts are aluminum, which is why they fail ?

Something about robots and torque values ?

On the up side they should drill easily ?

I would replace with grade 10 steel plated and never seize regardless of what they say to do .

powerwheels

The oil drips didn't appear for a couple of months and then returned but nothing major. It wasn't major before I replaced them either though.

choco

Thank you again, @powerwheels !

Hi @digs , I think that the original bolt is aluminum and there is an access from backside, but the space may be very narrow to rotate it from the backside.
The recommendation is a steel bolt with an aluminum washer and part #s and torque are available from the work instructions.