I'll say, those 18's look awful. They are some of the same 18's that the VW Touareg uses and they too are budget. I'd sell them too, for whatever I could get for them. 18's also just don't look good on the truck.

I have 19's and they are borderline for how they look on the truck. I'd say that the 20's look good and 21's are also good.

Your wheels look fantastic so far and even if anything were to go on with the clearcoat or the paint, they are easy to fix and touch up.

I have a set of 20" Touareg, Pikes Peak wheels and you have me thinking about painting them myself although I would need to get a set of TPMS as they have the VW ones in there now.

In order to change the key sides, what has to happen? Do the new white(my 16 is also white) covers just snap over the key or does one take the old sides off and put the new sides on?

 

Agreed -- the 18s do not match up aesthetically with the rest of the car. 20s are where things start to look right. For a long time I was set on the 20" OEM RS Spyder wheels in all black, but in certain angles even those look too small. 22s are a little over the top for me, so I settled on 21s.

I wonder if the TPMS on the VWs operate at the same frequency as the Porsche units? Swapping over TPMS sensors when changing wheels is a pain, which was another reason I was excited to find a set of wheels with TPMS already installed. Hopefully they're still fully functional despite coming from a 957. I haven't read anything to lead me to believe they wouldn't.

As far as the key goes, mine just popped right off/on. Both the white and carbon fiber are still holding up great.

 

It is funny how, for my last, hmmmm, 4 vehicles- a pickup, a Corvette, a G8 GT, then a Touareg, how I wanted to, but never did, get a nice set of wheels for each of them, that I had ended up, save for the pickup truck, trading them all within 3 years, but I can see keeping this Cayenne for a while and would love to get a set of sweet wheels for it. Someday.


The Touareg/VW TPMS will not work as the software on Porsche is their own.

I hope the TPMS for the 957 will also work with your 958. I have seen guides that will say which TPMS will work for which year Cayenne's.

Good news on the key sides, just an easy pop on/pop off should I decide to go (Carrara) white as you had done (along with the carbon fiber.)

 

For the past few weeks, I've had to painfully walk by my newly refinished set of black 21 inch Sport Plus wheels. While they sat inside, my Cayenne sat outside with those pitiful 18s still attached. Although the wheels were given plenty of time to cure and could have been mounted at any time, I wanted to refinish the brakes before swapping the wheels. Because of the amount of attention to detail involved and getting the car off the ground was a requirement, it wasn't until this past Sunday that I was able to make time to visit the garage where I could sprawl out a bit.

After getting the OEM 18 inch wheels and tires off the car, which I'm now selling by the way (the thread can be found here), it was time to start the prep work on the humongous brake calipers. I started by blowing out the entire caliper area with compressed air. This was followed by spending some time with both a fine grit sanding sponge and a Scotch Brite over the entire surface area. Finally, everything was thoroughly doused with brake parts cleaner, wiped down with denatured alcohol, and blown dry again so I would have a completely clean area to paint on. The last step, and possibly the most important prior to painting, was the tedious task of masking everything off properly. I used blue masking tape, pieces of notebook paper, trash bags, and old blankets to completely cover everything. The last thing I needed was bright red overspray on my Pure White.



Following two light dusting coats of Dupli-color red brake caliper paint, two additional light coats, and a final medium-wet coat, this is what we were left with:



Once that had sufficient time to dry, out came the stickers supplied from Suncoast. Unfortunately, it wasn't until this point that I realized the decals I'd ordered, even though it was under the 958 section of their website, were not the staggered size stickers that the Cayenne models came from the factory with. The ones provided were all the same size, but installing the decal I had in hand was really my only option unless I wanted to wait another week to finish this project. Fortunately, once everything was said and done, it's hard to tell the text is slightly smaller than before.

Two more light dusting coats of VHT gloss clear brake caliper paint, and a final medium-wet coat, the refinishing was complete -- now it was just waiting game until everything cured.

While I'd been waiting on the wheels to cure and to find time to paint the brakes, I'd picked up some additional hardware to make the stance more aggressive. It was now time to mount up the ECS Tuning 15mm spacers in the front and 20mm spacers in the rear.



I double checked the pressures one last time before grabbing one of the front ET45 wheels and rolling it over to the truck. Using the wheel pin so I didn't scrape up the new painted items, I lifted the wheel on to the spacer and started inserted the ECS Tuning extended bolts using my non-marring 19mm socket. I finally got my first glimpse at what I'd been imagining for weeks.



The front wheels are ET45with a 15mm spacer, so essentially I'm running a ET30 offset with a 295/35/21 tire. The rear wheels are ET50 with 20mm spacers, so the same ET30 offset with the same 295/35/21 tire. The stance is aggressive, and sits right on the threshold of sitting too wide without the arched fender extensions, but I'm in love with the look currently. Here are some quick shots until I can get the car completely clean and pulled in front of a nice backdrop.



After torquing all the lugs to spec, I adjusted the tire pressure monitoring system to reflect the larger tires, and within a few minutes the system synced with the new sensors and was accurately reading the pressures I'd just double checked. I took it easy on the side roads to ensure no vibrations or noises and eventually took the car near triple digits with zero issues. The difference in ride quality was practically the same, and handling/turn-in seem to have improved due to the decreased sidewall.

 

Earlier today I was finally able to find some time to give the Cayenne a wash and snap some proper photos of the new setup. I've logged about 1,000 miles on this new wheel/tire setup and I have nothing but great things to say. The look is aggressive, the ride quality is indistinguishable from that of the 18 inch wheels and 60 series sidewall, and turn in and handling are both improved with the 295 tread and 25 series sidewall. The Continental tires are quiet, do well in spirited driving, and claim to have impressive treadwear.









The ECS spacers are just begging for some Pure White paint matched flared fender extensions.



UPDATE: Transfer case is still holding power perfectly with zero irregularities or slipping. In about 2,500 miles I'll be due for another oil change, so hopefully it will be smooth sailing until then.

 

Looks great, I've copied a lot of your mods. Tint,tips,wheels (Turbo),tires Conti,pedal covers.\
The pedal covers sliced my fingers up, my Indy could not get them on. Tried lube. Finally had a dealer tech install them. Seller was rude and no help. Should have gone with a better seller product and bought the dead pedal also.
Great thread. Thanks.

 

Good looking rotors, I've also been looking at wheel arch extensions!

 

Tint, exhaust tips, wheels, and pedal covers are about the extent of what I wanted to do with this car. I also had to spend considerable time getting my OEM Porsche pedals to fit on--I managed to not cut myself, but it still took longer than I had expected.

The ECS spacers do give the appearance of two piece rotors, which was a welcomed surprise. The paint matched arch extensions are pricey, but would really finish off my Base to perfection.

 

Fantastic work man and I see 'The Dude' even approves hahaha!

 

Looking good, all the way around.

Thanks to you, I bought a set of the round, quad, black GTS tips and using a 10mm socket, was able to simply loosen the clamp that allowed the OEM tip to come right off, and slip the new one on, tighten, align, tighten down and done.

I'm gunna have to get some new TPMS and have my 20" Touareg Pikes Peaks refinished in a darker gray and put them on.

 

Thanks bud--definitely Dude approved!

Glad they worked out for you! Compared to the rectangular tips, the quad tips make a huge difference. I also stumbled across your build thread on Rennlist and the new rear end looks absolutely phenomenal debadged (plus tips). You've really got me thinking about picking up a set of those Morimoto XB LED fogs. If I have some money burning a hole in my pocket soon I may look into adding them.

 

i forgot that it was you that had first de-badged, one of the only if not THE only, one who has taken off the PORSCHE and Cayenne on the rear hatch. I could not stand it any longer. Unfortunately, and not that I should really care a whit, but the truck is already polarizing enough as it is, no need to have it laid out in such big letters as well.

The back does look so much better clean. Same with the black quad tips, it is an incredible improvement.

Rennlist just gets so much more action than anywhere else.

The fogs are fantastic. I use them anytime the road is wet or it is raining. They help the most up here when it is snowing and I turn off the main beams and only run the fogs. I didn't put any plastic film over the lenses as I have realized over the years that the plastic, while protective, also gets pitted anyway but most importantly, reduces the light output. Naked is better in this case.

 

Nothing too important to update, but I wanted to add a few things to this thread for record-keepings sake. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the red air bag light had become illuminated on the dash.

Attachment 1

I navigated through the menus of my iCarsoft PORII handheld device until I reached the airbag menu to read the faults.

B10001B, Driver airbag stage 1, limit value exceeded
B10011B, Driver airbag stage 2, limit value exceeded

Attachment 1

Attachment 1

Just in case the error was a glitch, I chose to clear the codes, but as expected, it came back within the first trip after.

Attachment 1

Attachment 1

All of my Google and forum research has yielded little help. I've tried adjusting the seats in a bunch of various ways incase something was pinched, and nothing appears to be unplugged. I've started another thread in hopes of finding a fix.

In addition to attempting to get the airbag error corrected, I also wanted to install the Porsche black license plate cover I recently picked up. I've been running just a bare license plate since getting my NC tag a few months back.



This plate came with hardware: screws, spacers, and screw caps. The screws didn't fit the pre-installed threads in the rear hatch lid and the screw covers wouldn't fit the existing bolts I already had. 0 for 2 so far.



I ended up just using the bolts I was using before and left them exposed as opposed to using black plastic caps. This small addition really rounds out the rear end and matches the black/white/polished theme I've got going.



Since it was nice out, I also addressed all the rock chips the front bumper had racked up over the past five years before heading inside. This Pure White paint I picked up off Amazon matched very well and went on easy with the included brush.

 

I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I also just bought a '12 Cayenne Base. It has a few more miles for a few grand less than yours, and looks to be similarly speced (plus pano-roof, minus adjustable suspension). Being entirely new to Porsche, this thread is EXACTLY what I needed for motivation to make minor mods, ideas on WHICH mods, and for confidence in the car and DIY maintenance.

(Plus I'm in Central NC and head to Asheville and the mountains fairly often as I have a daughter at UNCA if I ever need mod help and you want to make a few extra bucks. :P)



Again, thanks!
Adam

 

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed reading your post. Keep us posted on your mods and good luck on the airbag issue.