by John Glynn | Mar 17, 2014 | Porsche Cayenne, Project Cars
I’ve bowed to defeat in the Porsche Cayenne transmission failure saga and am sending the car for a gearbox rebuild. What should have been a simple Cayenne valve body rebuild and refit is now a transmission-out overhaul costing thousands of pounds.
The last straw came on Saturday, when I spent all day checking through the metres of copper linking my Cayenne ECUs with the gearbox internals. All I found was a soaking wet floor, courtesy of the leaky rear washer jet pipe that pours screenwash into the car when it works its way loose. The leaking water then floods wiring looms and everything else it can find, including the Cayenne’s main ECU. Some of the damage it does:
Pulling all the transmission wiring back into the Cayenne, I could find no broken cables and no obvious problems. I’ve already double checked everything the boys have done on installing a genuine Porsche valve body/valve block costing over £1,000. The automatic transmission shop will run a diagnostic on the transmission when it gets to them tomorrow, but there is some form for these Porsche Cayenne Aisin gearboxes to jam their clutch packs, so I’m not mega optimistic.
As an experiment in running a Porche Cayenne daily driver, the last six months have taught me not to recommend these cars. I enjoy driving my Cayenne V8 and it is just about affordable on LPG, so I will stick with it as a means to recoup some of the money I’ve poured into it, but I would not advise others to follow my lead. I’m not saying don’t buy a Cayenne, just don’t ask me to tell you it makes sense.
I almost bought a Volvo XC90, but ended up in the Cayenne. Even as a Porsche enthusiast, it’s a difficult decision to defend when you look at the full cost of ownership over my six months to date compared to something more reliable. The recent bills are a bit raw at the minute: some fresh V8 burble will ease that pain.
by John Glynn | Mar 9, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Had a good email from friend of Ferdinand, Patrick, down in Christchurch, New Zealand. Patrick won a Jagermeister 934 print in one of our Porsche print giveaways a year or so ago and has kept in touch. Here’s his print hanging on the office wall:
He also sent some pics of a nice early car, recently unearthed close to home. It’s one of the last ’73 models, fitted with CIS: an efficient and economical set up that is easy to drive and maintain. WEVO Hayden has a similar car in San Francisco, cherished mainly for its fuel efficiency. I’ll let Patrick take up the story:
“Thought you might be interested in my latest acquisition which joins the 944 Turbo race car in my garage. This 1973 911T was sold new in California, USA and was brought into NZ in the mid 90’s. Done 120,000 miles but runs very strongly as it it is a 73.5 with CIS fuel injection.
“This car had been hiding undercover in a quiet street only a few blocks from my home. Having been without a 911 since I sold my 964 C4 two years ago, when my mate Charles phoned me to say the owner was thinking of selling, I didn’t hang around too long.
“The car is very sound & is a keeper. I intend making a few subtle mods, but will keep the narrow body look. It is LHD, but I prefer it that way (even though we drive on the same side of the road as you UKers) as there is no offset on the pedals. Photos are from Wanaka, about 350km from home, on a recent trip down to Central Otago to watch motor racing at the new Highlands Motorsport Park.”
Kudos Patrick: wishing you many happy miles in the new arrival. Great to see our photo hanging on the wall! Keep in touch with Ferdinand by email at mail@ferdinandmagazine.com.
by John Glynn | Mar 2, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Been meaning to uncover my Carrera 3.0 for a while and stick the battery on charge. Did it this evening and found a big surprise hiding under the cover. The roof, rear arches and scuttle are peppered with microblisters. What a pain in the arse!
It’s not a huge deal, as the guys at Racing Restorations have some Porsche rust & bodywork repair work to do for me: repairing the dents I made over the driver’s door in Monaco, and sorting a bodged repair from before my time on an offside rear quarter replacement. So we’ll have to paint lots of the the car anyway, as matching this custom Continental Orange mix won’t be easy.
While we’re chopping about, I might get them to make a nicer job on the oil cooler nose box (done before me), and change an inner rear wing where it’s been hammered out in the past, so they might cut the rear quarter panel off for that. I’ll find Rob’s boys some other stuff to do: maybe chop the sills open to look for any rot. Tuthills have some nice carbon 935-style mirrors coming through on a new build, so maybe I’ll switch to those too. And fit a Safari roof vent! (might be just kidding)
I suppose this only really bugs me as there was nothing wrong with the paint when it went under cover, and the cover is not some cheap blanket affair: it’s a supposedly breathable genuine Porsche Tequipment accessory.
But I’m not blaming the cover and I don’t blame the car. I’ve neglected the Orange for long enough, so will just get it fixed. First thing to do is drag it out and run it to for an MOT when the battery’s charged. That’ll clean the mildew off the throttle.
by John Glynn | Feb 23, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
The market for used Porsche cars of all ages continues to exceed most expectations. I say ‘most’, as I assume someone out there expected this, but I certainly didn’t. Air-cooled classics are still flying along, and collectable water-cooled models are also doing well. Internet asking prices tell one story but less well known are the cars that sell behind the scenes, without ever being advertised.
Scarcely a week goes by without an email offering to buy my Orange 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Coupe, or asking for help finding a well priced project, be it 911 or 944 Cabriolet (just had one of those mails). When I’m offered a project, or asked for advice on where to sell project cars, I point people towards eBay, as I believe in the market and that is where the market decides, or where you get the offer that leads to an early sale.
Away from the exposure of eBay is a different market, fuelled by collectors leveraging networks to find the real gems. I’m not talking silly-money Carrera RS, but slightly closer to normal. The 993 RS and 996 GT3 seen here are good examples of sought-after Porsches, recently sold without being advertised. If I was building a collection for the future, both of these would have been on my list, as would the 964 Turbo which also sold to the 993RS buyer.
If you’re watching the classifieds looking for a bargain collectable, you might be wasting your time. Try emailing those with good connections to a wide range of trade and private contacts. Yes, you’ll give some margin away to a dealer to buy off-radar, beyond reach of the market, but if you pay 5% over the odds and the market jumps 20% between here and the end of 2015*, then so what?
These “private trade” sales are where independent dealerships score big-time over official Porsche centres. Don’t be afraid to discuss your intentions with respected independent specialists. Ask for personal recommendations and find the really good ones: don’t accept everything you read on forums. Do your own research and use common sense.
*note: this is not a market prediction!
by John Glynn | Feb 22, 2014 | Project Cars, Porsche Cayenne
The original Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne may not share an engine, but earlier models do share a transmission: the Aisin AW TR-60SN/09D.
This six-speed transmission is generally reliable, but develops problems with the valve body: the hydraulic fluid control assembly that regulates gear and clutch engagements. The classic valve body symptom is a hard shift from fourth to fifth. “It feels like you’re going through the windscreen,” is how one Porsche tech friend described his first experience of the problem.
I’ve been having gearbox problems with my Cayenne for a while now, with the valve body the prime suspect. My 2004 Cayenne S never had a huge problem changing gear: it was much more a clutch control issue, where the car would drop out of gear while waiting to pull out of a T-junction or onto a roundabout and leave you stranded at first, but suddenly find second, tearing off with a highly undignified bang. Cue eyeliner streaks on back-seat teenage cheeks.
The experience was most unbecoming, so I decided to fix it. The Internet provided two firms in the UK known to repair Cayenne valve bodies (mine shown above) by reaming the worn valve passages out and inserting bigger valves, and refurbishing solenoids where required. The cost was less than half that of a remanufactured Porsche part, said to solve the problems discovered in the earlier Cayennes.
I emailed the first firm. The owner answered a couple of my messages but stopped when I asked for a few more details on the process for a magazine article. The other firm’s contact was more amenable and sounded like he knew his stuff. We stripped the valve body out of the car and sent it away. It came back refurbished, we refitted it and the car hasn’t worked since.
We’ve tried two different valve bodies, both supposedly testing fine on the bench but not working in the car. I can get gears 1, 2 and 3 ok, but when it hits the shift to fourth, the display says it has shifted but the car drops out of gear, as if you’ve stepped on the clutch. It will rev away doing nothing, then it throws a gearbox fault and limp mode follows.
I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered the Porsche replacement valve body at £1030 plus 20% VAT. Plus another round of trans fluid changes and work time lost, and whatever bill I get for these unsuccessful valve bodies (one my original, the other going back). You can be sure of small claims repercussions there.
Learn from my mistakes. If you’ve got a reliable Subaru, stick with it. Do not buy a used Porsche Cayenne! Add this to the classic Cayenne problems of coil failures, coolant pipe failures, control arm fails, screenwash leaks and ECU destruction and so on and it gets very expensive to run a used Cayenne. Not to mention what happens when your engine fails – as many V8s and Turbos do.
Anyone well versed in auto gearboxes with some thoughts on the 4-5-6 issue, kindly drop me a line. We have triple-checked wiring connections, fluid levels, filters, pressures, gearbox operating temps and it works fine in first through third, if not as smooth as original. Very disappointing not to have the car outside the door, but we will sort it out eventually.
Update to this post – I sorted the problem by rebuilding the transmission. The 4/5/6 clutch pack was gone. The specialist I was using at the time did not diagnose the issue correctly, but a transmission expert sorted it in a couple of days. Cost was £1500, including removal and refitting of the transmission (that price included a discount of their normal valve body refurb cost as mine was done). Moral of the story: not all Porsche specialists are equal – I didn’t need to buy the Porsche valve body as the original refurb was done by the guys the transmission specialists usually used!
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