Since this will all be public information I thought I would update everyone here about my 2003 996tt that burned up Last Oct in Charlotte NC.

Complete story:

The car was purchased from Hendrick Porsche Located in Charlotte NC in April of 2007 with 30k some odd miles on it.

The car had the 2 major services in 2 months. The first time was a new transmission, the second time was for new clutch. (cant figure out why, as a clutch replacement should have been mandatory with a new tranny).

Here is my official statement, which is part of the lawsuit to be filed early next week. I have marked out personal names though. No need , yet , to disclose those.

On 9/28/2007 I attended the private track event at CMP that was organized by XXX. I had a fairly uneventful day until my run just before lunchtime.

On my last session, coming out of turn 12 at the apex, my power steering assist stopped working and sent me into a drift. I was able to recover, never leaving the track. At which point I came into the paddock area.

I spoke to XXX and he went and got XXX (your service technician) to look at the car. The power steering was not working, and was making an intermittent whining noise. I asked XXX who to call to have it towed in. He and XXX Both said to put a small amount of petosion in, which XXX and I did, then drive it around the paddock area at “Full Lock”. The problem did not get any better.

XXX then called in to your store to find out when the power steering pump could be replaced, and I was told to drive it right in. I asked again to both XXX and XXX to make sure it was ok to drive. XXX told me that yes; the worst that could happen on the pump completely fail but could still drive the car.

So I left for Hendrick to bring the car in. About 5 miles out on 521 the car started smoking, then a loud whining noise, then loud bang. I went to pull over immediately, but the clutch would not engage (hard as a rock). I saw flames and exited the car and ran up the road about 300 feet and called 911.
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Facts:

1.This car has only been serviced by Hendrick Porsche Since I have owned it.
2.This car has been in for service several times, with 2 times the engine was removed from this car. I am certain that any TSB’s should have been addressed at that time also if one was outstanding.
3. The dealer service team was at the track event and at no time disclose they were not there representing Hendrick Porsche or were not there in an unofficial capacity. I was under the impression this was a sanctioned event by Hendrick Porsche, as your Service Manager organized it and I was invited by him when I visited your dealership. If that is not enough, when XXX called into the dealer on my behalf and was told to drive the car in and your staff and they would be waiting for me when I got there. Furthermore, they assured me the car was safe to drive, when this is a known technical issue.
4.My insurance company had 2 findings. The fire was a result of the TSB bulletin that went out regarding the power steering high pressure line, or the service tech who last serviced the car. Since the TSB was taken car of, the fault of the fire is obviously the fault of the technician.

My offical request was to have my service dollars refunded, as insurance does not cover those expenses, and I spent over $20k in service and upgrades in the 5 months I owned the car. The request was declined by Hendrick.

Hendrick's Official position is that they have no liability, and have declined any claims. They are self insured.

We are filing the suit Next week. Im sure it will get messy, but I am sticking it out.

Beware of Hendrick Porsche guys... Thats all I have to say.

 

If all that you say is fact then I wish you the best of luck, kudos for you to stick to your guns. Sucks that there are people out there that just dont know the right way to do business. Good Luck

 

Sorry to see that happen to such a beautiful car. Hope everything works out for you. They all should be thrilled that you didn't get hurt or killed.

 

Thanks for the info. From now, noise coming from steering pump area has to be taken care of asap. Sorry about the lost of this beauty and all the best in your lawsuit.

 

best of luck, hope everything works out

 

Cross post it elsewhere.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ad.php?t=99912


Perhaps people will start 'pinging' the dealership and management with phone calls, wondering why Hendrick isn't stepping up to the plate 'and paying for that Porsche they burned up'



Good luck

A

 

Hard to believe this was a power steering pump issue. Sounds like a turbo let go or ??? Did you have the car torn down to see what the real issue was? Whenever you track a car, most dealers say no guarantees or warranties. Good luck with your claim.

 

Sounds like a no brainer in court. Good luck.
It sucks to see your baby burning!

 

Here's what I posted on rennlist, and you guys really need to read this, because this could easily happen to any of us:

First let me state that I do not know any of the parties involved and I'm only posting here as my car is on my lift right now, and I'm replacing the clutch hydraulic parts that are in question here...

Car was in for clutch work... Here's the missing info some of you guys might not be aware of...

Pentonsin fluid is used to operate the CLUTCH master cylinder/slave cylinder/accumulator. On the back of the slave cylinder is a hard line that runs from the slave cylinder up to the power steering pump in the engine compartment...

Pentosin is VERY flamable.

If a techician didn't install the slave cylinder properly, or any of the lines on the slave cylinder were damaged, and especially if the lines got debris in them that would cause a clog, you could potentially see a failure like this. The fire could have resulted in a power steering failure, or it could have resulted from any number of clutch hydraulic system related failures that eventually impacted the powersteering system.

Bottom line is that car should have been towed to the dealer, NOT driven, and it's an excellent reminder to all of us. Pentosin is NOTHING to mess with, and you should always pay attention to those "sounds"... If the steering isn't working properly, don't drive the car... Get it towed to the dealer and have them troubleshoot it.

I am "fairly" knowledgable about cars, and would not have driven the car. However, I'm not the average porsche owner. Many won't even change their own oil, forget the work I'm involved in right now.

I don't expect many on this board to have done any different than the original poster. He asked those he trusted to know more than he did about the problem.

The DEALER advised him to bring it in.
The DEALER advised him to drive the car to them.
The DEALER did the work on the tranny/clutch and related area I'd suspect could have potentially been the root cause of the fire.

You tell me where the blame is...

Actually, there isn't a dealership that I'm aware of that would say "no guranatees or warranty" if you track your Porsche. You might want to doublecheck that. Couldn't be further from the truth.

Mike

 

I could tell you stories about Hendrick that would just make you shake your head and say....."why..."

I sincerely wish you the best of luck. The biggest problem with them is the simply do not care. When I called them on a blatant lie on my 750, they looked me in the eye, admitted it like it was an every day event and no big thing, and were even offended that I spoke up and said the emperor had no clothes. Oh yeah, then they told me to go **** myself, they had no intention of making it right. Keep us posted!

 

GL with suit.....I'll be sure to stay away from those guys if I move back to NC.

 

Just an observation: The car in the first picture has different rims and tires than the fire destroyed car.

 

I think he put on the stockers for the track that day.