sunspot2013

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with the CPO warranty process. Appreciate any thoughts or recommendations from the group.

On June 8th I purchased a CPO 2013 Carrera 4S. On the drive home from the dealer (450 mile drive), I got the dreaded "Transm. fault Poss. no R gear Drive on poss." plus a couple other related fault message (no start/stop, engine control fault). PDK would not move out of gear and I immediately pulled off the road. I was able to shut the car off+restart it and the PDK began functioning again enough for me to nurse it the remaining 60 miles home. I took it to my local servicing Porsche dealer and they diagnosed a failed COV for the PDK cooler. This is a common issue for the early 991.1 cars (which I already knew thanks to Rennlist), so I still felt confident in the car upon receiving it back that this relatively common issue is now sorted. Fast forward to a week and a half ago, and I took the car on my annual road trip to visit my family (2,000 mi round trip). On the way back, in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia, the same PDK fault message showed up while going down the interstate. Only this time, I could not get the PDK to function properly after shutting it off and restarting it numerous times. First it was stuck in 5th, then stuck in 1st, etc.. I finally got it to work well enough to limp the car three miles to the nearest exist. At this point it was 8pm on a Saturday night, so I decided it was not safe for my wife and I to try and get the car the remaining 250 miles home. I called Porsche roadside assistance and the only option was to have the car flat bedded to the nearest Porsche dealer (Porsche Pittsburgh). It took 5 hours for the flat bed to show up (2am), and my wife and I rode in the cab of the truck to Pittsburgh and caught a flight back to my home in the DC area, ultimately arriving home 12 hours later than planned and not having slept for over 27 hours. **** happens, so no big deal, because I figured now the car will get sorted and probably it is a PDK failure.

Porsche Pittsburgh has reported that the same underlying fault codes that showed up a few weeks ago were what showed up again. But apparently Porsche will NOT approve a PDK replacement because the fault codes are not currently showing (despite them showing in the vehicle history). Porsche Pittsburgh has recalibrated the PDK and done several test drives in numerous conditions and the faults have not appeared, and apparently, Porsche will not approve a PDK replacement because they can't get the fault codes to reappear. There is seemingly no resolution. The dealer is going to try to get approval one more time tomorrow but they do not think the answer will change. I called PCNA to open a case but the impression I got from the person on the other line is that PCNA will not overturn the warranty approval decision just based on customer dissatisfaction.

I have no idea what to do now. The car has been at the dealer for 1.5 weeks and I am going to go back to get it and hope it doesn't fail again? I am just utterly shocked that there is no resolution to this. It is hard for me to have confidence in the car. This is my 6th Porsche since 2017 (all either new or CPO bought from a Porsche dealer) and my 4th 991. I love the 991 platform and think it is robust and had a lot of confidence in the CPO framework but that is seriously being eroded now. It is precisely these sort of fundamental drivability/extremely costly items that I would think the CPO should be covering. The idea that I am to keep driving the car and wait for it to fail again, and leave my wife and I stranded again, seems beyond ridiculous.

WP0

No idea what the cause would be, but I would let the dealership work through their protocol. It may be a bad sensor, loose wiring, or something else. If they cannot get it properly fixed, then you can pursue recourse, as outlined in the CPO paperwork.

bkrantz

Sounds like standard dealer service rebuttal, "We can't duplicate the problem so there is no problem". I get that they do not want to repair and replace things every time a customer claims there was a problem, but your vehicle has the record, and you sound like a long-term customer they should assist.

sunspot2013

That is what I don't get, either. The dealer is saying they think PDK replacement is the solution and they are seeking approval from Porsche to have it covered under the CPO. And they can pull from the scan tool and have reported the fault codes to Porsche as they occurred in my hands. But the fault codes went away after the car sat for a while and no longer were showing when the car was delivered to the dealer on the flat bed. This is a circumstance where I don't understand why Porsche (i.e., PCNA CPO warranty approval people) is insisting that the errors have to be showing while the car is in the shop for PDK replacement to be approved under the CPO. That seems to imply that I am going to have to keep driving the car and (a) hope if fails more while in the 2-year CPO period; and (b) hope the fault code stays on long enough to drag the car to a dealer and it still be showing while at the dealer.

Thud

The symptoms sounds like a failing position sensor within the PDK? When this happens it's usually a replacement PDK unit. There are some independent specialists who can rebuilt the unit.

sunspot2013

Based on my own research, that seems to be the most likely explanation. If the car wasn't under CPO warranty, I agree my only option would be to seek out the independent shops that have the skills to replace the sensor. What is frustrating is it seems Porsche has raised the bar and moved the goal posts on what sort of symptoms will be enough to approve a PDK replacement under CPO warranty. Evidently they think it is fine to have these fault codes appear and strand the driver on the side of the road, as long as they go away after the car sits for a few hours. It seems the will only approve PDK replacement if the fault message is on while the car is at the dealer.

Porsche_nuts

Only goes to show Porsche does not care about their customers. But I hear that other high-end car manufacturers are no different - they build a car so expensive to fix that even they do not want to fix it.

Bud Taylor

And then if no luck sell the car. The market is still pretty strong. Buy a manual.

ducktails

You could do what the last owner of this car did, sell/trade it to a Porsche dealer who will CPO it and sell it to the next buyer

justabout

One option would be to pick up the car and have someone follow with a rental (use secondary highways, not the turnpike). If it malfunctions on the way home, have it transported to the nearest facility and then lean on Porsche corporate to do the right thing and also request reimbursement for your out of pocket expenses. Hard for them to argue against real world data. That is what I would do.

Denny Swift

That is really frustrating to say the least. Isn’t CPO a Porsche warranty? If so, I’d think that any Porsche dealer would have to honor it. There must be Porsche dealers near your home in DC. Maybe the solution is to only drive it locally near your home for a while, and if it reoccurs at least you’d only need to have it towed a few miles.