Follow Along / Provide Advice: Bought an Auto Auction 13 Cayenne 92A Diesel Part 1

[Bradley Boldt]

 

Took the plunge last week after a few months of searching and bought a Cayenne Diesel off an auto auction site. My first Porsche and first Auto Auction purchase. I went this route looking to possibly save some money and looking for a challenge (also could not fine any other similar Diesels for sale with the colors I wanted) I thought it might help others (and me) if I detailed out some of the experiences in buying an auctioned Cayenne. 

Purchase Price: $6700 for the car + $2,334 Auction Fees and Shipping Costs (I think even some of the fees had fees but it is what it is, im not a broker so I had to use autobidbuy to access the auctions).  (Link to auction for photos: https://www.copart.com/lot/85654824/clean-title-2013-porsche-cayenne-in-fort-wayne)

Estimated Work Needed based on auction images (this is a site unseen/undriven purchase, but they do say it runs/drives and provide a video of the car running) 
I could see from the images this car would need: 
1. New Brakes
2. Possible/Likely Oil Change
3. The glow plug light is on in the dash - what would that be?
4. Adblue 
5. Likely want to upgrade the radio to a carplay compliant model 
6. Leather seat refresh 
7. All weather Floormats 
8. Deep clean/Detail inside and out 
Estimated total budget: Fingers are crossed to keep the all in price under $12k. 

 

I placed an offer, seller countered and I accepted, Next step was to wire some strangers on the internet payment and hope a car shows up.  Lucky for me it did. While they didnt provide great updates and the car just kind of showed up a few days later at 10pm with a few hour notice it did arrive. 
Some independent shipper dropped it off, they had to jump it to get it off the trailer. I get in to drive to my garage for the night. I'm not sure I have ever seen that many warning lights in one car before. It was daunting and intimidating. Had very real what have I gotten myself into moment that first night. 

Problems on Arrival:
1. Nearly empty Fuel tank
2. 600 miles until adblue empty 
3. Low coolant 
4. Brake pads worn 
5. Front Left Dipped Headlight Control 
6. Rear Number Plate Lights 
7. Headlight Control Fault 
8. Static Cornering Light Right warning
9. Its in Limp Mode/ Check Engine Light/Glow plug light 
10. Windshield wipers need replacement. 
11. Oil Change needed 
12. Radio Resetting Randomly. 

13. Scratch on Hood/ Scuffs on Wheels and Cracked rear bumper

 

Likely a few more but im writing this from memory. 
Step 1: Get some gas, I make it to the closest gas station, fill up a few gallons and head home. This is at least a first step. 
Step 2.: On day 2 I get some Adblue to fill the adblue tank and some coolant to fill that up. 3 problems done already. 
On Day 2 my icarsoft POR scanner arrives (Amazon - about $140) so I can dig in and see what else I'm facing with this project. 

About 14 faults in just the Engine area show up, many more other small light and electrical faults as well: 
Hot film mass air flow sensor 
Exaust Gas recirculation - throughput too high 
Exaust Gas recirculation - throughput too high 
Exause Temperature sensor upstream of cat. converter signal implausible 
Exaust temperature sensor behind particulate filter bank 1 - signal implausible 
boost pressure below limit
Particulate Filter, bank 1 - efficiency implausible 
Exaust gas recirculation sensor, implausible signal 
Exaust gas recirculation valve - malfunction 
Particle sensor, residual soot, measuing electroid implausible 
SCR catalytic converter, bank 1, efficiency too low 
Particulate Filter, bank 1 - soot load too high
Differential pressure sensor for diesel particulate filter irregular signal
Exaust Gas Temperature after cold start too low 
I cleared them and reran to see what would stick/where to begin: 
Cold Start Engine Exaust Temperature too Low 
Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensor Circuit Range / Performance Bank 1 Sensor 4 
Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensor Circuit Range / Performance Bank 1 Sensor 2 
Particulate Filter Restriction - Soot Accumulation Bank 1 
Seems like we are isolated to the EGR and DPF area to start. 
After some searching youtubing/ forumming etc I landed on a test to run: Rislone DPF Cleaner ($25 - Autozone) 

Since I could see on the icarscanner that the measured soot value in the DPF was 23.31g and the calculated was 100g I could run this test to see how that changes and determine where to go from there. 

So I got some, added it and went for a drive. Did about 50 miles on the highway (in limp mode...) and stopped to see how things were going. 

The lights were still on but I could see that the DPF calculated value was moving, it was down to 75g, the measured soot was still at 23.31, seemed odd to me that it wouldn’t change at all but oh well. 

I drove back another 50 highway miles with the icarsoft connected, the calculated soot continued to drop while the measured did not. Regeneration had not yet run. Ended up right around 60g 

I got home, did some more googling and digging and saw that calculated soot needed to be much much lower to enable regeneration so I went out for some more highway driving again, I thought if I could get the calculated below the 23.31 I could know if the measured would start to decrease. 

I got the calculated below 23.31 but the measured was unchanged. (What kind of sensor fails at 23.31 I thought, shouldn’t it be open or if its failed or return some other number like 0?) 
I had a scheduled oil change (using Mobil One ESP) so I went and had that done. Immediately after the oil change the limp modes had cleared ( success I thought!) 
Within 10 minutes of leaving the oil change with cleared lights the limp mode and glow plug returned. 

I got home to find the DPF was now happy, with measured and calculated soot both changing. (the sensor works!) Forced regeneration is still disabled, but will have to figure that out later. 

 

Next problem: The EGR valve is returning CEL and DTC Faults.

 

This post is really long so I will split into parts. To Be Continued. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13 by Bradley Boldt

[Bradley Boldt]

Part 2 (Monday/ Day 5) 

 

So far we have knocked out quite a few issues: Fuel, Ad Blue, Oil, Coolant, DPF Issues. Still many more to go. 

 

After reading more about the Diesel System (and learning why many delete the DPF system) I began to wonder if maybe my EGR valve was just very dirty or siezed open. As I was researching the costs to have this replaced/cleaned or looked at I found a ton of videos of EGR cleaning that involved spraying a cleaner into the system while the car is running with the intake disconnected. Maybe I thought, but it would be nice if there were a fuel adder solution like the one that cleaned the DPF. 

 

Oh, wait that Rislone DPF cleaner product says it also works on the EGR. Well for $25 I will try that first. 

 

Sucesss! (sort of) Running another bottle of the Rislone DPF cleaner enabled me to see that the EGR was in fact working just sluggish. The iCarsoft enables a view into set point and actual point, I could see from this it was working. With a long drive again on day 5, $50 in Rislone adder,  the dashboard check engine lights were finally cleared. 

 

That night was time for the brakes appointment, Driving all this way with worn brakes was not fun. Neither is the fact that the radio constantly resets in this car making entertainment a near impossibility. 

 

Used an independent shop for the Brakes (major brand place quoted me $1700 for all 4 pads/rotors/sensors)  Of course I ordered the wrong size for the front ( they are 360mm not the 350mm the parts sites said they might be) So I had to leave the Brake appt with the old brakes as we wait for the new ones to come in. My plan to have the major brand shop create my bill of materials and order them hit a snag but oh well, once the new parts were in I'd be all set. The 360mm rotors were more expensive and I paid the shop for thier time even though I had the wrong parts. Parts will arrive this weekend and I will get it finished up Monday. 

 

Total for Brakes (4 pads/rotors/sensors and installation): $914.38

 

Next up: Order a radio. 

 

 

 

[scanner-1]

Nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche!

Kidding aside, if you get it sorted out, they are great vehicles.

I have a 2013 that's been my wife's daily driver for over 8 years and 160K miles. It now has 195K and I've just run into my first difficult problem--driveshaft center bearing has failed and I can't find the exact same part to replace it and I don't know if other CD/Toureg/Audi driveshafts will work.

If all that emissions stuff continues to plague you and you live in a non-inspection state, I can highly recommend the Tunezilla tune and Darkside Developments DPF/SCR/EGR delete kit--it will run like a Porsche again and you can say goodbye to DEF.

[JE 17]

Congratulations  on the purchase. 

I got my Turbo from an auction and it needed a lot, like a new hydraulic pump (for the anti-roll bar system,) the hose going to the rear unit (which is what killed the pump by running dry,) a battery, some air suspension units on three corners and other less significant items.

You didn't mention if you obtained a new battery, but you'll find they are quite sensitive to voltage. So if the battery is on its' way out, just get one. This is a fun job to build strength, as it is under the driver's seat and is pretty large.

This is our favorite choice in the fleet for road trips, and we have used it for that purpose a lot. 

Good luck!