Durametric / Print function / Dealer

[madburg]

Hello to all,

I received my durametric yesterday and once everyone went to sleep I finally ran down to the garage to try her out. I have a 06 CTTS I recently picked up.

I don’t have much mileage left until the warranty ends. So I am trying to get the car all worked over.

I had it at the dealer twice already and many things were fixed and/or replaced. The car is almost done, its going back to get a few other parts replaced once they arrive at the P-dealer.

So I was very excited too pick up a durametric to check up on things. Now I am not saying I am not happy with the dealer and personally (so far) feel they are doing great but not finished. What troubles me is that I saw 4 faults (various) and none of them were mentioned to me nor fixed... I was not able to print them out via the software, but it was very late and will get them over the weekend (as well as figure out why it would not print them out).

One of the faults that trouble’s me is the something I pointed out to the dealer: the 2 warning symbols that were showing up in the PCM (Trip + Main). Few things were working weird with it as well. But I noticed that in was not at the latest S/W version (Its a 2.1 PCM Hardware). So I paid them the $300 bucks to get it to 3.1 which I was told is the latest for the cayenne, even thought under Cayenne TSB's on this site it shows 4.1 is the latest, they stated not for the cayenne. No problem now that it is the “latest” S/W version everything should be good right? The two warning symbols were still showing up (CD Changer and Sirius Radio, both work as far as I can tell) and one of the faults the durametric shows is a P code with “PCM2”... So not sure how to take this??? I did my part, did they not?

The car had the coils and plugs changed as it had a very bad shake at idle and the dealer found 3 Faults "miss fires". This was all cleared after all the work the car has been threw in 2 visits. So How should I take it that clearly after the ECU was cleared of all faults it still (they come back) shows 4 faults, but was not mentioned to me by the dealer?

Is it Ok to mention to the dealer when I go back (scheduled) that I found these faults? Or do dealers frown on us plugging into the car?

And can I state I don’t want the car back until it repaired?, faultless :)

[geoff]

The past 2 days, my local dealer had special PCA tech afternoons where people could bring in their cars and go over everything with the mechanics. I've gotten to know one of the mechanics pretty well over the past few years, so my half hour session at the end of each day turned into nearly two hours each (I brought in 2 P-cars, a different one each day).

My '01 Boxster didn't show any faults on the PIWIS. I had the 60K service done about 1,500 miles earlier, and going through the mechanic's notes when I picked up the car from the major service, I saw there was an oxygen sensor fault he noted and cleared. I asked him about this, and he said the cars will have faults appear, and most of the time they clear themselves.

My '05 Carrera showed a fault in the rear control unit when hooked up to the PIWIS, so we talked about this for a while. With all the computers, controllers, buses, etc. in the cars, sometimes the controllers can't get time on the bus to communicate, and will store a fault. Not bad enough to cause a check engine light, but something that's stored in the car's memory. Most of the time, the mechanics just note the fault, clear it, and it never comes back. If customers complain about a persistent problem, they use the mechanic's notes over time to track down the cause and determine how long it's been happening. I was told you could make yourself crazy worrying about every fault the computers in the car record.

If your service writer will let you talk to the mechanic the next time you are in, you might want to chat with him about the faults to see if they are something to be concerned about, or just normal for the cars. If normal, at least then you're on record about pointing out the issue before your warranty expires, so it's easier for the to goodwill any fix afterwards (dealers will goodwill more for good customers than the other kind).

[madburg]

Many thanks geoff!!! appreciate you sharing your experiences and knowledge.