Weak Battery....need to vent...
 

My '12 Cayenne S will only be a week old tomorrow and I've already had to jump start is twice. :mad: Granted, I may have depleted the battery by playing with opening and closing the hatch, seat adjustments, lights in the interior, etc. But I've driven it for almost 500 miles, and one would think that the battery would be charged adequately.

I do have a techquipment battery maintainer and I left the car overnight and it had a green light this morning. After a few trips to the store and back, opening the hatch, etc...it didn't have enough juice to start the engine. Then, I got a dreaded "Oil monitor fault". The oil gauge was non-functioning. After I jumped the car and started it up for a few minutes, I turned it off and re-started it again. The fault went away.

I decided to look at the battery. After removing the driver seat and attempting to remove the battery cover (which was a royal PITA), I saw that the battery was an AGM battery. I gave up and put everything back together.

I emailed a Porsche dealer here in NH (I bought my Cayenne out of state ) and am awaiting their response. I'm guessing that they will tell me to bring the Cayenne in. I guess I'd have to do that (it's 2 hours away from me) and hopefully, they'll be able to tell me that it's a BAD battery.

Wish me luck.

Vinny

It sounds like you either have a faulty Battery or Alternator. Either way, it’s a pretty easy fix. But I imagine it’s extremely frustrating on your part!
Hope they can resolve the issue without too many problems.

Thanks. I'm quite positive that it's not the alternator. The car runs fine after it is jump started. All heated seats on high, lights, etc, and the volt meter reads between 12-14 volts constantly. Once I turn the car off and put it on the battery maintainer, even when the green light (which usually indicates full charge) is on, it doesn't turn to start. Which tells me that it doesn't have the amperage needed to kick start the engine, which leads me to believe it is a faulty battery.

I don't know if the battery is covered under warranty. If it is a battery problem, I will ask the dealer here in Nashua, NH if Porsche will cover the cost of the new battery. After all, it's only a week old. If not, then I'll write a formal letter of complaint to Porsche North America and see where it leads.

Vinny

What? of course the battery is under warranty. Come on, it's a brand new car. Call the dealership and ask them. They should give you a new one.

Update:

So a buddy of mine who works at the local NAPA store here in town and I were talking about my problem with my Cayenne S. He happened to look into his stock room and he had a battery for a 2010 Cayenne! I took a look at it and it was a non-AGM battery, but had 900A of cranking power. Looked the same as the stock factory one in mine. So he let me take it home to see if it'll solve my problem.

I managed to take the seat off and the battery. Replaced the new one and voila! The car started just like that!

My friend took a voltage measuring gizmo and even though the battery was registering 12 volts on the meter, he was able to see the total amperage inside it. It was only 200! Thus a defective battery.

My new problem that arose now, is that my airbag light on the dash is ON! I disconnected the seat to get it out of the way and that might have triggered it. I don't know.

So I am keeping my appointment with the Porsche dealer to have them look at the light and diagnose what's causing it.

Vinny

Update:

Got the Cayenne to Stratham Porsche. Took me 2.5 hours to drive there and less than 10 minutes to get the airbag warning light off! LOL! I can't wait until durametric comes out with an updated 2012 Cayenne software.

Everything is working well! The battery I had put in from NAPA is holding well! I'm a happy camper!

Vinny

Porsche should have paid for the new battery you know.

I sent an email inquiry about being reimbursed to my sales consultant in Dallas. Have yet to hear from him.

Vinny