Wet Carpets

[nick996cab]

My first Porsche, graduated from GTis, Mercs and BMWs to the real thing. Bought a C2 Cab (2002), had it serviced at a official Porsche dealer 10 days later.

They found several items needing to be done but were very professional. Less than six weeks later, and less than 1000 miles later, the passenger side carpets were absolutely flooded after one heavy storm.

Immediately took the car to another official Porsche centre, without even looking at the car they said this would be caused by blocked drainage channels. Sure enough they found the channels all full of black muck.

Five hours labour to remove and dry carpets, took five days to dry out. They say that all the electric control units (central locking?) under the driver's seat are fine. everything seems to work at the moment but I'm nervous as water and electrics are not good friends, and some time soon something will blow. But worse, my my Pioneer satnav unit is under the drivers seat, and that has stopped working.

Porsche GB say all cars should be checked at service time to see if drainage channels are blocked, both the original Porsche centre, and the second one, confirm checking the hoses for blockages is essential (and quick) but apparently the work is not on the specified schedule of tasks. Of course the first centre says they did check. The second say there was a lot of muck in the channels.

There's nothing in the owener's handbook telling me I should do this. Anyone know why it's not a specified service check?

[Kim]

They found several items needing to be done but were very professional. Less than six weeks later, and less than 1000 miles later, the passenger side carpets were absolutely flooded after one heavy storm.

Immediately took the car to another official Porsche centre, without even looking at the car they said this would be caused by blocked drainage channels. Sure enough they found the channels all full of black muck.

Five hours labour to remove and dry carpets, took five days to dry out.

Nick,

Can't answer your basic question .... "why didn't they check" .... but I can tell you that it can be done by a mildly proficient owner/shade tree mechanic.

I posted several questions, followed by an informal DIY on this issue early in the year .... as I found my rear pax carpets soaked after a rain. Even as someone brand new to 996's, it took me considerably less than 5 hours to disassemble, clean out, and repair the right side .... followed by a check of the left side.

I say "repair" because, in addition to a clogged primary drain hose (the one emptying in the void behind the rear wheel well liner), one of the hidden hoses that transfers drain water from one tray to another (its a cheap, Rube Goldberg setup) was loose, and, thus, emptying into space, e.g. my carpets.

There is a page in the technical manual that displays the Cab drain plan. That helps a LOT in troubleshooting. If you have any questions I might help with, feel free to respond or PM me.

Kim

2000 Cab

[umn]

...

There's nothing in the owener's handbook telling me I should do this. Anyone know why it's not a specified service check?

Not all service work necessary is specified in the check-list. This is why you go to an authorised Porsche dealer who sends his mechanics on various Porsche courses and charges you about 100 quid per hour.

If Porsche UK state that cleaning the draining channels is part of the service (I'd ask PUK for written confirmation), then I'd probably argue that the dealer was in breach of an implied term under s13 Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, which says that the dealer must carry out the service with reasonable care and skill.

Cheers,

Uwe

[johnp77777]

Glad my situation didn't get this bad. My buddy at the car wash noticed a trail of water behind the brake pedal one day. A small tube attached to a wetvac and 45 minutes later, the front tubes were clean as a whistle. All the leaves and junk were gone too. BTW, Kim's notes earlier this year helped me get right to the problem.

Now I think I'll try to track down those rear drain lines before they give me problems. I guess an annual PM should be noted as a pre-winter prep item for this.