kraeburn

Thanks for the tips. I've got a bunch of stuff in my cart on Pelican and looked at their technical article. I'll look into the foam covers as that was one thing I was not aware of.

When you say replace all 4 you are referring to the (2) hatch struts and the (2) glass struts correct? That is what I was planning on doing even though I have yet to even open the glass by itself yet.

nodoors

No offense taken. You have different priorities than most Porsche owners. The GX470 is like a quiet, reliable Samsung dishwasher. The Cayenne Turbo is a belligerent b!tch on wheels who does the dishes in a hurry while stimulating you. Sure, she is going to break some expensive china and crystal pieces, but you can be sure it will be an exciting evening! Different strokes. I will drive a Lexus when I am too old to handle the upkeep and/or exhilaration of such a woman, I mean Porsche.

cobalt

You might consider getting the part numbers and buying from suncoast or sunset Porsche. They are usually considerably less expensive for OE factory parts for OEM Pelican can be less costly.

Wisconsin Joe

Yep. A lot of people never open the glass by itself.

But the 2 struts that support the glass do a fair amount of work supporting the hatch when it opens (you will see this when you do the struts - it's actually pretty ingenious).

Suncoast & Sonnen are two Porsche dealers that sell online at pretty decent prices (for Genuine Porsche).

Personally I went with the aftermarket strut kit from ECS tuning. They offer the foam covers as part of that kit.

Dilberto

Never a Lexus for me.... simply too uninspiring and mainly driven by the retired set. I like Adrenaline, way too much...

kraeburn

OK-first DIY day completed over the weekend and it went off (mostly) without a hitch. I ran out of time to complete a couple items but they were not high priority things.

This is what I was able to get done on Saturday, while taking my time and running out for a couple items along the way:
-Oil/Filter Change
-ITranzit Blu HF install
-Cabin Filter
-Glass Shock Replacement
-Hatch strut replacement
-Brake light bulb replacement
-Muffler bypass hack (the one where you remove the exhaust tips and shove a flex pipe in the muffler)
-Few other tiny things along the way

I think that is it. This week I still plan to replace the low-beam xenon bulbs as well as the foglights with stronger items. I have been spoiled with the LED's on my BMW so getting the lighting up to snuff is important to me, especially with winter here now.

Some thoughts on the above:
-I wouldn't attempt the hatch struts again without buying the foam inserts with it. I think I have it sealed but will likely go back up in there again to replace with new ones. The last time it was replaced they used silicone sealant to reseal and while they came out mostly intact I still mangled them a bit because I had to cut them out. It appears that these are integral to keeping water out so it is important to have a solid fit.
-The bluetooth module was rather straightforward to get in, it just took a while due to the difficulty in running wires through the tight dashboard of the Cayenne. There was definitely room to hide the wires and control box, it just took time to get it all in there and have the PCM slide back in without crushing anything. I chose to do this first and I am glad I did as I could just take my time with it.
-Oil/filter was pretty easy. The panels are a pain to remove but certainly easier than what I have wrestled with in the past.
-For the hatch struts I used a ratchet strap and it made things 1000x easier as I was doing it myself in my garage. I just hooked it around the latch then up to a beam above the vehicle. What this allowed me to do was make small adjustments to the angle of the hatch which was necessary to reattach the new struts. A person would have been preferable but this way you don't have someone holding a very heavy hatch for some time. Again, most of the difficulty was removing panels without breaking clips and removing those stupid foam inserts.
-The muffler bypass didn't make much of a difference to my ears. Some welcome "burbliness" at idle but driving along it seemed rather quiet, even with a window cracked. I haven't driven it much since so I'll update if my opinion changes. For $15 though you can't go wrong, even if its just a marginal difference. The only thing I would add is to make sure you have a long hacksaw blade that is of the right type and more importantly, make sure you have a spare exhaust clamp ready. These pigs are old now and one of mine disintegrated-the other looked newer so it must have been replaced at some point.

v10rick

Equivalent to a $5k invoice from a P dealer.
The biggie on the list would have been "Few other tiny things along the way" At least another $1K added to the invoice.

kraeburn

LOL

cobalt

The clamp on the left is relatively new. I believe it is noted on my list of repairs. I always wanted to do some exhaust work on it. These were always too quiet IMO. I never did it but an ECU flash on a dyno can yield some serious power with minimal expense.

kraeburn

Yeah, definitely newer, it came right off with no effort. I agree on the exhaust, I like a little volume and it is rather subdued stock. I don't feel like spending a bunch of money on a full exhaust so this bypass mod intrigued me, plus it can easily be reverted to stock. I think I might explore getting the secondary cat delete pipes to raise it up another notch.

I have done an ECU flash on every car I have owned but I am trying to avoid doing it with this one--I don't want to do anything that will affect reliability. That being said, I will likely be able to hold out for a year and I'll get a flash for it, I just can't help myself.

porschefan931

In the voice of Emperor Palpatine, Do It! Do It! These things release a ton of power with decent tweaking, and the sound of the Cat back delete is intoxicating. I'm pretty sure the factory power was 450hp but the Turbo S left with 520hp with mostly just a a boost pressure increase, but there is more room above that. It should run reliably with 520, mine has around 580hp with 300,000km (186,000 miles) on it and it's still in one piece (touch wood)

kraeburn

You guys are a bad influence! I'll check it out, its tempting for sure, and like I said, I am not shy about doing it.

On another note, to keep up with my maintenance progress, I replaced the headlight bulbs last night. I did both the high and low beams--the high beams were just upgraded bulbs as the old ones were fine, the low beams had definitely dimmed quite a bit over time and were due for a change. I got the highs from the local pep boys (Philips xtremevision's I think) along with a foglight bulb upgrade that I will do later (Philips xtremevision also). The lows were purchased on amazon ( ). It was really neat to see how Porsche engineered the headlight release one turn with the Porsche headlight tool and they just pop out. It literally took more time to open the hatch and get the tool than it did to pop them out, its that simple. Also, replacing the bulbs was simple and the bulbs were readily accessible. If you have an older Cayenne with xenons, I would highly recommend replacing the low beam bulbs, for $30 and 30 mins the light output is back to brand new--an immense upgrade over what it was. These bulbs dim slowly over time so you may not realize it happening. Getting the headlights back in was a little finicky but not particularly difficult.

The Philips bulbs for the high beams do seem to give the 130% increase in output over stock that they advertised. I went with the ones with the most light output versus the other options which give a "whiter" more xenon-like appearance but sacrifice output. For lighting I want the most light I can get on the road, I drive a lot in the winter, including once-weekly jaunts to Vermont so this was a welcome, easy, upgrade with real benefits.

Additionally, the Pelican parts technical articles as well and this forum's back catalog of information has been of immense benefit. I really have not run across anything yet I have found an answer to. The only two things I have not been able to solve yet are all 4 heated seats are not functioning (fuses are ok) and the brake booster fault. I may have to bite the bullet and bring it to the shop for those items.

I would like to mention that the truck was pretty much good to go when I purchased it and it was 100% exactly as described prior to purchase. A lot of what I am doing were things that I was already aware of but mostly things that I wanted to do (not needed) to have a fresh start and breathe some life back into it. Plus, I like these projects and I haven't had a car I could tinker with in a while. I don't want to give the impression that Cobalt sold me a car that was ragged out-quite the opposite in fact, everyone I have shown the vehicle to are amazed at the condition and think it is years newer.

porschefan931

Wow that is cheap for those bulbs. I assume as they are non branded they may be Chinese copies. I've had a couple in the past and they were OK but didn't last that long, ended up paying more in the $100 US range for branded ones, your mileage may vary.

Brake booster is more than likely a cracked hose, the most common place is the tube attaching to the one way check valve. If you remove the engine cover on the passenger side you'll see the vacuum hose and the check valve. I had the issue a while ago and put tape around the crack, it lasted for a short while so i bit the bullet and bought the complete hose. However i couldn't get one part of the hose to detach with out breaking another part of the system, so in the end i cut the cracked section out and slipped fuel hose over the section. Been working fine for 6 months and i returned the hose.

There is a thread on here about a heated seat not working, or working and then cutting out, i believe there are relays under the seat that may need checking.

Where do you ski in Vermont? Had my honeymoon in the Greenmountain Inn in Stowe, haven't been back in years because i discovered west coast dry snow

fortysixandtwo

I think there's some confusion with mention of separate high and low beam bulbs. Cayennes with Xenon lamps use the DS1 bulbs for both high and low beam. H7 bulbs are only on when you pull on the directional stalk (I assume it's not healthy to cycle power to a HID bulb that quickly). H3 bulbs are for the cornering lamps that work automatically when you turn the steering wheel.

moresyporsche

I have a 2004 CTT in Minnesota. Just a note to you Kraeburn when changing oil and filter, there is another place to empty oil out of. The Turbo apparatus has a clamp down by the drivers wheel. I cannot remember what it’s called, it catches blow by oil in the turbo hose. It has a clamp that pops up like a u-shaped that locks the hose down. There is a you tube video about how to go about it. On my 2004 it had over a 1/4 cup of oil that poured out. I put the hose back in place and slid the clamp back down , it just didn’t seem right but I tried pulling the hose back out but it stayed put. A few days go by and I’ve been running errands, I had come to a stop light and it was red and as I was slowing down when it turned green and I stomped on expecting my head to snap back when all of a sudden the power went no where and damned near put my head through the windshield. Whew what the hell happened? I kept driving but had no power kind of like going in 2nd gear the whole way. I thought I blew the turbo, I wasn’t to bad as I had an extended warranty that would have picked up the tab. Well I got home thinking what the hell happened when it dawned on me that the hose I put back with the u shaped clamp may have let loose. I got back under the truck and sure enough the intake turbo hose had let go. I went through the process and this time the clamp click the kind of feel and sound that tells you , yep that’s it, and sure enough that’s what it was. I took it out for a test drive and really stomped on it with the PSM off and using manual shifting man did that thing threw some serious G’. So the moral is you should check that hose for oil about every 2-3 oil changes. Depends on how much turbo you make the beast use.
i also bought a set of interior and exterior led lights man I can use sunglasses at night with the map lights on. I think I paid $15 for 19 bulbs. Easy job about an hour of labor. I have 136,000 miles on this and I can honestly say that this is my favoright vehicle of all time. I have had a new car every 2-3 years for 40 years and this is the best. The only other vehicle that has come close to this is a 2010 Ford Flex{comfort} as far as power nothing can touch this except maybe my 911. I know 2 different classes of cars but this 955 CTT is the bomb. I think I will drive this thing till my tires pass me on the road.
For all you DIYers out there, does anybody know what could have gone wrong with my key fobs and the entry and drive mode. It says cannot recognize the key. So I have to lock by putting key in door as there is no using any of the buttons to lock or unlock. I pull on the door handle twice and nothing, I push the little buttons in the door handle and hear a noise but nothing. Any ideas except for both of my key fobs lost there features?
Any ways your Turbo looks great, I know what it feels like when people can’t believe it’s a 14 year old car. Makes you feel good when the windshield replacement tech says he had to look twice when it showed it was a 2004 he thought it was a 2010 by its condition. Man I love this car!