Cayenne - Pulling left and "bump steer" (UK)

[beachball]

Hi,

Bought my Cayenne from a local Porsche dealer in December, and took it straight back because the cabin was full of creaks, it was pulling left all the time (with only a visibily tilted-to-the-right road keeping it straight) and the steering wheel steers to the left or right on roads with minor bumps or repaired patches, sometimes a little, needing minor correction, sometimes more forcefully.

The first time I took it back, the technician said it drove the same as any other Cayenne he'd driven.

The second and third time I went back was purely for the cabin creaks, which still aren't all resolved. This is a Mk1 model, registered Jan 2007.

This morning, my wife found a business card for a body repair shop that was stuffed down a crack near the glove compartment! Hope I don't have to read anything into that! (It was sold with all the relevent checks...)

I'm at the end of my tether now over the handling. I wish I could drive another Cayenne myself. If I'm on the fast lane of the motorway and let get go of the steering wheel, I'm into the middle lane in about 3 seconds and the slow lane a couple of seconds after that. No matter what the road, it pulls left, but all the alignment figures are normal, according to them.

There are a couple of roads where driving at 5mph really shifts the steering wheel left. They're straight roads with perhaps a slight dip on the left side. If I drive over bits of road that have been previously dug up, the wheel shifts left to right constantly and feels really light. Keeping in a straight line at those times is quite hard and a bit of a worry when traffic is either side of you, at say, 30mph.

The creaking in the roof of the cabin is annoying enough (got a pano roof, guess that doesn't help), but the handling just feels dangerous at times.

Does my description of the handling here fit with all Cayennes?

beachball

Edited March 8, 2010 by beachball

[mudman2]

Creaks from the dash are "normal"mainly air condition servo's. The roof also has lots of reports of noise, but that can be adjusted I think.

The car can also run off center if the tires are not balanced properly and the alignment is off

[wvicary]

It should not be pulling at all... something is very wrong. If your not getting anywhere with your dealer find another or a good indie.

[beachball]

If your not getting anywhere with your dealer find another or a good indie.

I've only had the car 2.5 months, it has a 12 month warranty. The dealers are doing a good job of ignoring my e-mails at present. Salesman not replied since 12th Feb and service tech not replied since last Friday. I'm loathe to call up, it's getting embarrassing, but I will if they don't reply today.

I could never explain what the issue was until I read about "bump steer" last night. It fits what I'm seeing perfectly.

[beachball]

Well, it's been back to the dealers and they've said there's nothing wrong with it. They don't have any cayennes of that model (mk1, 2007) that I can compare it with.

I know that it's a big, heavy car and so the camber in the road could affect it more than a small car would be affected, but surely not to this extent.

They suggested I go out with a technician and demonstrate it. grrrrrrr

[reese5997]

Hello,

 

I understand this post is 8 years old, but i'm curious to know if that Cayenne had been excessively(2in or more) lowered?  This sounds like a "bump steer" issue which you have noted.  I started experiencing the same after I lowered my 09, and i'd be willing to bet that all the people who lowered theirs are experiencing the same issue and are just 'dealing with it', but there's no way they are happy.  I am current fabricating a bump steer kit for my car because no one sells one.  Id be happy to post my set-up if you're interested.

Edited January 25, 2018 by reese5997

[beachball]

Thanks for re-kindling bad memories :)  haha

 

No, it wasn't lowered or otherwise modified in any way.  I had enough of it in the end, traded it in, bought a Touareg and never looked back.  

Edited January 25, 2018 by beachball

[reese5997]

Lol, sorry...

[reese5997]

For anyone else who may come across this thread, here is some literature that explains bump steer in detail:  http://www.ogracing.com/images/tech/Bump_Steer.pdf