swb3

610 miles and a "seal" (Possibly) blew in PDK allowing oil contamination between diff and transmission. Not a small issue but the process was clear, well orchestrated and Porsche flew help in to assist the dealer, back home now hoping for a little longer life on the new transmission.

918man

oh boy. How long has the car been in service.

neanicu

Thank you for the pics! Very interesting the see the car apart like that!

GreenLantern

+1

Very interesting, indeed!

Also curious on the amount of repair time that was needed.

Thanks for sharing!

swb3

The car went in on March 17th a Tuesday. On Friday the 20th they had diagnosed the failure. By Wednesday March 25 the car had been fully disassembled and the new transmission had arrived. Behind the scenes Porsche was monitoring and express shipping various needed parts which all arrived in time. The car was nearly fully reassembled on March 31 but there was a one day delay for a special transmission calibration tool that synced it to the engine. That tool arrived on April 1st but unfortunately the special 918 oil over nighted from Germany was not enough so more was over nighted from Germany arriving on April 2nd, which was still not enough and then more was over nighted and the final work was performed on April 3rd. All that remained was aligning the car which was a problem that took three different racks to find one that could utilize the special tools. It could have been aligned with the wheels on but they preferred the the first method. So today is April 8th and I have the car back. All told I don't think that is to bad for a turnaround. The Tech that worked on the car really did a fantastic job from front to back and well as the support from Porsche.

Chalkboss

For a machine of this complexity I think this sounds like excellent service. Glad you got it fixed and good job by Porsche.

Nizer

Quite the project. Bet that cost Porsche a pretty penny.

Which color white is spec'd on your 918? Looks nice.

Alan C.

Glad everything was taken care of. Considering it was most likely the first 918 they had serviced the timing wasn't bad. A lot of pressure on the tech.

nuvolari612

Thanks for sharing - it' always cool to see a car torn down and put back together.

I can't imagine the depth of the knowledge one must have to perform to this level of craftsmanship.

Also want to commend you on the honesty - when I was thinking about buying a Mclaren their forum only allowed owners which is similar to the guys here who moved to FB to share their ownership experience. Eventually enough guys like yourself wanted to share the good and the bad vs the mystery. As time went on it was far more helpful for everyone including the factory and dealers.

Porsche performed incredibly well - and this thread is proof.

Anyway - I am sure there are other issues and wanted to Thank You for showing us all the good and the bad.

swb3

The transmission arrived at the dealer with a retail cost of $65K so no matter the "real cost" of the replacement it was pretty spendy for sure.

The color is Oryx White. A PTS color that has a metallic flake in it and makes the white really pop. I have the Martini stickers in my garage but everyone I spoke to told me not to put them on...

swb3

Yes he was a real professional, Porsche had allocated him less than half the time he took. He and the dealer both commented there was no way they would finish it in the time allowed and Kevin the tech said it was going to take however long it took but it would be done right, and it was.

swb3

Thanks, I do appreciate the help the forums provide and while this felt pretty ugly for me in the end it was not that big of a deal. It was the first possibly second they had replaced at that time.

I kept reminding myself through the process that this was not Porsches first rodeo and as I looked at CGT's on this forum in for service I reminded myself the same methodical approach must have been devised, and of course it was but still a bit scary at the time.

I now have 2,700 miles on the car with only one other issue. There is a 50 AMP fan wire on the drivers side that needed to be tied back with a fancy zip tie or else it could wear through and short out the electrical system or worse start on fire. David Donahue called me about the issue and they fixed it about 3 weeks later when the parts arrived, as it turned out mine was not wearing through the insulation on the wire. Another owner in my area had 7,000 miles on his car and only minor chaffing of the wire when it was replaced.

Thanks

boyko23

Great to hear that everything goes well.
How do you find the car after all these months and miles?
Greetings

swb3

Great question, this is very hard to sum up and do it in a great way but I will try.

In general Porsche delivered on the stated objective, the car is very usable as a daily driver. The ability to "sneek" around in electric mode is very cool for a car of this caliber, I believe it really confuses people that pull up along side wanting to hear the engine scream and besides the quiet electric motor they only hear rocks being kicked off the tires. Then with a twist of the **** to sport mode, or stomping on the accelerator the V8 wakes and screams and the car tears away. In electric mode acceleration is very impressive and equally the distance the car will travel on a full charge and how fast it can be replenished when Sport mode is activated is equally impressive.

I find the engine has two very interesting sounds. The first in drive mode is this almost a diesel like burble when the engine is in the low revs and being slowly pushed for more, My wife hates it, I like it. Then there is the scream of motorsports in the high revs with that tin like sounds coming from the pipes it is very cool, my wife likes that one. (This from the woman that is usually slugging my arm on "unnecessary" acceleration)

Riding around with the tops off and the engine howling behind the seats prevents enjoying the radio but hey the engine sounds much better anyway, with the tops on the engine noise is diminished some and of course electric mode makes listening to the radio a piece of cake.

Getting in and out of the car is interesting, easy as pie with the tops off, being a contortionist would help when the tops are on. The seats take a little getting used to but I find them very comfortable and the upright position just takes a little getting used to. The controls and operation are very simple but for the infotainment system, the sub menus are quite deep and far beyond my desire to learn but I am getting there. Teathering the system to my phone was very cool for the first 5 minutes and then it seemed rather pointless. I do not need to play with Facebook on that screen and frankly it was to jerky for me. Besides that each time you enter the car it must have the connections reestablished and its just pointless in my opinion.

The tiny wind deflector that helps eliminate interior buffeting with the tops off works pretty well. Interestingly it also is great for catching bugs and sending them straight into the little back window and interior or just depositing their dead bodies on the center console so cleaning the windshield also requires cleaning the interior back window.

People love going for a ride and experiencing the explosive acceleration of the car, its an "E Ticket" for sure (A reference to the most thrilling rides at Disney back far to long ago). It is amazing how the power can go to the ground, tire technology continues to be amazing when one thinks about how all that mechanical power is transferred to the ground with virtually no slipping.

The car handles like a dream, it is razor precise, the ride is very comfortable and not harsh at all. So far I really really really enjoy the car.

Nizer

That was my guess. Fantastic color and quite rare. Would love to see more pics.