New 04 Cayenne owner considering a pre-emptive strike!

[elc32955]

Howdy everyone!

Just some quick background as an intro, I purchased a 04 Cayenne TT last weekend with 57K miles down in Ft. Lauderdale for use by my wife as a local daily driver. So, right now I'm in the process of de-bugging the vehicle to make it as reliable as possible. According to the local indy shop I'm using that services Porsche I've got one crushed transmission mount, the motor mounts are tired (but not bad), and they had the feeling something was loose in the suspension but they weren't sure - air struts all raise & lower the vehicle OK. From the initial inspecton it seems to run & drive OK however, no leaks or squeaks. I'm doing tires all around next week on a labor day sale (the last owner mixed two different brands of criminally cheap imported tires, I found major sidewall cracks in one tire after a 5-minute inspection!) and I've been doing some EBAY for nickle-dime replacement pieces.

My local Porsche dealer did NOT win my initial vote of confidence yesterday, I went down & made a small parts order and asked if they could pull a service history on the vehicle for me to see if I had the coolant pipes upgraded, they used the line on me that "our computer system is not hooked to other Porsche dealers and you'll have to visit each individual dealer that serviced the car for a complete history". Yeah, right. And I'm coming back to your service department really, really soon..... hear the cold wind blowing? :)

Anyway, to the point of the post. During my initial inspection, I heard and two other competent folks heard some rattling at the front of the engine. It wasn't the constant "tap tap tap" you'd get with the tired piston syndrome on the 4.5's like I've heard on the YouTube videos, but just a mid-frequency rattle of low to intermittent occurrence. Once I thought I had a whiff of coolant but I'm not sure. So, to err on the side of caution I'm probably going to do a water pump and at the same time do the coolant pipe changeout along with whatever T's I can replace with metal subs while the engine's open.

Water pump brands. I know there's multiple manufacturers out there, OEM Porsche, Laso, Hytec Debartolo, Gates, Bosch, ASC Industries, GMB, and the list continues. Anyone know who has the best QA on the pumps to hopefully stave off another failure? Granted the first pump (assuming for discussion it is the original pump) lasted 10 years, but does anyone else stand out as superior?

Also... on the coolant pipe replacement, I was considering strongly using the revised ECS Tuning kit. They seem to supply everything that's needed along with some extra, also ECS has a good reputation from folks I've talked to. So, has anyone used their kit as opposed to the one from the Porsche dealer? The ECS kit is $599 plus shipping. Here's a linky:

http://www.ecstuning.com/Porsche-2004-Cayenne-955-Turbo-Sport_Utility-V8_4.5L/News/Porsche_Cayenne_S_Turbo_Coolant_Pipe_Upgrade_Kits_2003_2004_2005_2006/ES2594479/

Thanks for input before I start shelling out major $$$!

Eric

[elc32955]

Well, shouldn't have spoke so soon about no leaks. I had to change a bad front left marker light bulb earlier today and while I was inside the fender liner I looked down and noticed the vehicle very slowly dripping something pink from the area forward of the left wheel, also the inside of the left front wheel appeared wet. It was a very slow leak, only a few drops over a few minutes but it was definitely leaking pink. Looks like it's time for teardown next week.... sigh....

[Gary9425]

Are you sure it's not windshield washer fluid?

[deilenberger]

My local Porsche dealer did NOT win my initial vote of confidence yesterday, I went down & made a small parts order and asked if they could pull a service history on the vehicle for me to see if I had the coolant pipes upgraded, they used the line on me that "our computer system is not hooked to other Porsche dealers and you'll have to visit each individual dealer that serviced the car for a complete history". Yeah, right. And I'm coming back to your service department really, really soon..... hear the cold wind blowing? :)

And you know otherwise how? The computers are not linked for non-warranty service repairs. Only repairs/service that is done as part of warranty service is in the central Porsche computer system. This is standard for all the euro car brands I know of. Each dealer keeps record of service done at their dealership - but has no access to anything except warranty repair records if there is work done at other dealerships.

[elc32955]

Hi Don.

Well, before I made the request I read these forums fairly carefully for a number of hours and found references to at least one other member that apparently obtained his complete service history by making nice with the local dealer. Some of the records I do have were from Porsche/Audi of West Houston, the records are in exactly the same format as GM dealers use (both using ADP's invoice system). This is a linked system at least in the GM world, but I know I can't assume it translates to Porsche.

Just from a pure customer service perspective, the right thing to do in my mind would have been at least for the service writer or service manager to try to run the VIN to see what came up (noting your point on the warranty coverage the Carfax says there was a lot of early service visits and work done on the vehicle), but they didn't take the time to at least make the attempt. Sounds like from what you're saying the best I could have left with would have been a history for the first few years, but that would have been better then what I have now. I do know what dealer serviced the vehicle under the last owner, so maybe they will be accommodating if asked nicely.

For the dollar valuation of these vehicles it seems rather odd that dealer servicing information is not easily obtainable when apparently Porsche is capturing warranty data elements already in a centralized database. Business decision perhaps?

[elc32955]

Are you sure it's not windshield washer fluid?

Not sure at all. I know the washer fill is on the passengers side but I don't know how the washer reservoir sits in the vehicle since I don't have a shop manual yet. I use the Rain-X orange de-icer fluid, so the color would be close perhaps and I did add close to .75 gal worth to the reservoir. I'll hopefully find out for sure early next week when I replace tires and have the vehicle lifted.

[clarksongli]

never go to a porsche dealer haha....over priced and not helpful. Sunset parts in oregon will sell at invoice +15% or something like that....and it's a porsche dealership, so they can get you whatever you need, and lookup the part # if you don't know it.

I bought my coolant pipe stuff through a family friend who happens to have a porsche dealership, and got all the pipe stuff + a few other things for 500 bucks, so 599 for ECS isn't a terrible price.

ECS is a good company, i think they overprice some stuff, but overall helpful and reasonable to deal with.

For brand coolant pump, you will be good with any of the standard brands, chances are they are the same, and multiple suppliers are probably OE suppliers to Porsche.

As for the turbo coolant T's, there aren't any OEM metal replacements for the T's unfortunately. However i know many people that have 100k+ on the OEM T's without issue. The benefit for these T's are they don't sit in the valley of the motor, so they aren't exposed to the heat that the main pipes are.

Another thing you might want to think about while in there would be the starter as well.....especially if coolant soaked the starter.

Enjoy the CTT, i have the same year, and use it for everything from towing and pulling stumps and offroad driving, to just daily driving. I've never got it stuck, even in 40" of snow......Diff locks work well.