Greetings all...my first Porsche

I came across an 04 Cayenne S with 25k miles for $24.2k. I did some basic research and then bought it the same day.

I'm coming to these forums as an active enthusiast in the Audi world. The car has no CEL or warning lights and its clean inside and out. Is there anything you guys would advise/warn me about?

Thanks

 

sell it to me for 24.3k, so i can use it for beater. :-)

yes, i advise you to leave the board now, or else you will end up spending more money on mods than the car itself.

 

LOL. So true.

 

I purchased mine a few months back and shortly had to replace the drive shaft at around 35k miles. Mine is a 2003 -CS with 28k miles on it. It's a common problem, but not for sure if yours will do the same. It's a quick fix. You can do it yourself if you have the right tools etc... But I just went to RUF Automotive here in Addison and Hans hooked me up with a new one. It starts with a solid bumping sound coming from the middle console. You can still drive it around for a bit, but should fix asap. (had to replace is on my wife's cayanne too!) I think it was about $700 or so. Other than that, no problems as of yet!!! (besides the wife backing out of the garage)

 

There probably should be a sticky.. (HINT!)


What to watch for and expect on an '03-06 Cayenne:

• Cooling system pipes on the engine. Almost all apparently fail sooner (or some a lot later). They are made of plastic (feels like and works like ABS). Porsche makes aluminum replacements. Cost to have it done at a dealer will be somewhere around $2,000. Cost at an independent if you buy the parts from one of several discount dealers - probably $1,300-1,600. DIY - cost around $600. It's a big involved PITA 10 hour or so job.
• Torque converter seal. If you let the pipes leak long enough, the coolant gets down to the torque converter seal on the transmission and kills it. Preventive replacement of the pipes avoids this. Cost of replacement (transmission must come out) is around $2,000 (from prices I've seen quoted.)
• Driveshaft - as mentioned. Cost of the shaft is around $700. There are rebuilt shafts available for around $400. There are replacements of what fails (the center bearing and carrier rubber) on Ebay and other sources for as little as $69. It's not an awful job to replace the entire shaft. It's a bigger job to rebuild the shaft - but there are some DIY's around for it. R&R of the shaft is either a 30 minute job (according to some people) or a 3 hour job if Porsche is doing it. Total cost between $69-$2,000 (DIY to Porsche price.)
• Ignition Coils - early ones tend to crack and fail. Porsche has replacements that no longer seem to do this. If you pay Porsche prices - figure around $80/coil, plus time to R&R them. Might as well do plugs at the same time. Porsche is extending a warranty for anyone who had the original coils replaced already. Coils ending in PN "003" and up seem to be OK. There are aftermarket coils available - cheapest I've seen is from NAPA auto parts - $30.

Aside from that expect the usual bizarre German electronics bugs (the complexity of the systems leads to some inevitable failures.. count the number of fused circuits in the car - over 120 on my '06 S..) and replacing tires and brakes on a fairly regular basis (it's a big HEAVY truck..)