Hello everyone! I'm a long time member, automotive enthusiast, and have been maintaining and modifying cars since I was 16 years old (I'm 29 now). Lately I've enjoyed documenting all this in a single thread for reference, so that's what I've decided to do with my latest pickup.

Up until very recently I had two BMW's in the driveway -- a 2008 BMW 135i and a 2008 BMW 535i. The 135i is pampered, overly maintained, and has tons of upgrades. The 535i was a daily driver that I put 197,000 miles on over 7 years. As the magical 200k mileage mark approached, my fiance and I began exploring replacement options and it wasn't long before the car was sold and the search started becoming more serious.

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She wanted an SUV. I wanted something that was AWD, European, and that I could tinker with. Without breaking the bank, that ruled out practically everything except the 958 Base Cayenne in the 2011-2012 range. Some quick research unearthed that I needed to look out for transfer case issues (that could possibly be solved with a fluid flush) and that was about it. The proven VR6 engine seemed to perform well, last as long as you were willing to maintain it, and could be reliable for years to come even though the warranty was expired. The V8 in the S was intriguing, but I wouldn't be towing anything, valued gas mileage and longevity over performance in the case of an SUV, and already have a vehicle for use when I want to go fast or tear up some backroads, so with that said I'd rather save the extra coin.

It wasn't long before I'd found a 1-owner, clean-looking car a few hours away in the color combo I wanted: Pure White exterior with Luxor Beige interior. 45,000 miles, nearly-new tires, not a scratch on it, and packed with the options I was looking for like heated/ventilated seats, heated steering wheel, rear heated seats, park assist, lane change assist, PCM with Bluetooth/backup camera, and rear power sunshades. I left a deposit on the car sight unseen at an agreed upon price of $33,000 out the door with NC taxes included and began to arrange pickup later that week.

When I arrived to see the car, it was as clean as advertised. It drove well, but after about 10 minutes of driving, the hesitation, vibration, and slipping clutches in the transfer case began acting up. I had been prepared and thanks to some very helpful information on helpful forums by very helpful members, I knew exactly what to look for and where to look for it. When I pulled back in the dealership, I asked the salesman to hop in. As we pulled out onto the main road, I went about half throttle and as soon as we the transmission shifted to 3rd gear, the heavy vibration began, continued through 4th gear and settled down in gears 5-8. There were no other "walnut cracking" sounds while doing figure 8's. Just the hesitation of the clutches in the transfer case slipping. At this point, the car was rather unpleasant to drive in city traffic. Using the Bluetooth system in the car, we called the local Porsche dealership with the salesmen still in the car, and I explained the problem knowing exactly what was causing it. The service technician confirmed my suspicions, and quoted somewhere around $3,000 for a replacement. At that point, I gave the salesman what I'd been setting him up for all along. I offered $30,000 out the door. Chances were they knew the problem was there and were just trying to cover it up, but that's besides the point. I had looked the car up and down, the history checked out, and the owner's manual contained full service history from the Porsche dealership in Georgia where the car was owned for the majority of its life; so I was comfortable purchasing the car -- if they were willing to negotiate. Eventually they caved and I signed papers at $30,000 out the door, so when taxes were taken into account, I gave well under $30,000 for just the car. While the drive home was great on the highway, the slipping transfer case was cause for concern and worried my fiance to no end. Here are some glamour shots of her first night in the driveway.

I couldn't even wait to replace the OEM amber corner lights until I got home. I had already ordered a set of clear corners with chrome coated amber bulbs and had brought them with me. While filling up with gas, I quickly swapped them out using a small screwdriver and a microfiber towel for scratch protection.

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Having done all this research a few weeks prior, I had parts ready to go upon the truck's arrival back home. Service records indicated scheduled oil changes at a Porsche dealership, and most recently an oil change and spark plug change at 36,000 miles. While I was happy to see that the plugs had recently been addressed, the 45,000 current odometer reading meant that the current oil had seen 9,000 miles of use. This is a longer interval than I prefer to run, even with modern day synthetic oils.

The very next morning I had her in my garage with the hood up so I could address a list of things I wanted to get to.

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While I use traditional jack stands under my E82 coupe, I invested in a set of RhinoRamps for the 958. This was much easier and provided plenty of clearance for the tasks I was about to take on. Disregard my dumbbell method of keeping the ramps in place while pulling up on them.

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Here are some of the goodies I had waiting to address some needed maintenance: a full OEM oil change kit complete with new OEM filter, o-ring, drain plug, 7 quarts of Mobil 1 5W-30 ESP Formula, Ravenol transfer fluid, and Redline 75W90 gear oil.

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The first order of business was the transfer case. All evidence online suggested that nearly every failing transfer case was almost fully remedied by a fluid flush, so that's exactly I started with. Using the appropriate sized hex key, I removed the upper fill bolt first, then the lower drain bolt. Talk about easy access -- this fluid change could be done without even raising the car and the bolts are staring you right in the face.

At this point a large stream of dark black fluid flooded out into the drain pan. Within a few seconds all the old fluid was in the pan and out of the case. The fluid was dark, showed signs of a small amount of clutch particle, but did not smell significantly toasted. This left me skeptical that this fluid change was actually going to be the solution to my problem and worry set in.

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With the old fluid out, I replaced the drain bolt. These have a built in gasket type material on the threads that seal everything as you tighten. These do not need to be overly torqued! Now it was time to insert the new Ravenol fluid. I've done maintenance on a lot of cars, but this little spout on the Ravenol container coupled with the ease of access to the bolts made this one of the most simple things you can do to a vehicle -- a 10 minutes job and not much to screw up. Squeeze in as much as you can until it starts to come out of the fill bolt. The fluid capacity of the transfer case will leave a small amount still in the Ravenol bottle when it starts overflowing. After tightening down the fill bolt, task one was complete.

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Next up was replacing the OEM Mahle filter with a K&N drop-in. Although it was clean, I'm not sure when it had last been replaced, so I wanted to have a fresh interval to go forward with.

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Next up was the oil change. All of my prior research on the topic had indicated this would not be fun. Not necessarily difficult as most oil changes aren't, but messy and poor placement of the oil filter in relation to other components. A small socket made quick work of the plastic under-shielding and before long I had full access to the oil drain bolt and oil filter housing. Starting with the drain bolt first, this part was relatively mess-free. I didn't grab a picture of the tool I used this time, but here's what I use for removing all drain bolts these days. I can change the oil on my E82 without getting a drop of oil on my hands,

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Next up was getting out the old oil filter removed and letting the oil trapped in the housing drain out. This is where things got extremely messy, even with the appropriate tools.

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Once the oil filter housing drain bolt was removed, the oil bath began. I knew what to expect so I was not directly underneath, but the functionality of this design was immediately frustrating. After soaking up all the spills, It was then time to go for the filter cap itself. Once this was fully removed, the real problem became evident. With the old oil filter still installed in the cap, there is no way to bring both pieces down through the opening. The only way I found to get both on my workbench was to remove the filter from the cap while still trapped inside the cage of axle and oil pan. Once the filter is removed, the cap can be turned vertically and brought out. The filter can be pulled down without adjustment at this point.

My hands were so oily at this point, I was not willing to grab my camera. Re-installation was the exact same as removal. After the new o-ring was installed on the cap, the two pieces were lifted into the opening near the oil filter housing separately and coupled together once closer to the mounting point. After clicking the filter into place, screwing the assembly into place was easy.

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I then replaced the drain bolt with a new one included in the ECS Tuning oil change kit, sprayed everything down with engine degreaser and left everything as clean as it looked prior to me starting the job. At this point it was time to go back up top and pour in the new 5W30.

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Oil cap back on and job complete. I then started the car, verified there were no leaks and replaced the plastic shielding. I'm amazed at how clean this car is from front to rear. The underside looks brand new.

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Following that messy oil change, I was done with fluid flushes for the day. I would leave the brake fluid flush with Pentosin Super DOT 4 and the front/rear differential gear changes with Redline 75W90 for another day, perhaps my 60,000 maintenance interval.

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I was anxious to see if the Ravenol had saved me a bunch of money, but I had a set of OEM brushed pedals I wanted to throw on before I left. The gas pedal went on easily, but the brake pedal took a little coaxing.

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I double checked all my work, verified all the drain/fill bolts weren't leaking any fluids, and backed the 958 off the RhinoRamps. Leaving the garage, there is a quarter of a mile straight stretch with a moderate incline the entire way. The last time I drove the car, about 3 hours earlier, the slipping was significant. On the way hill this time I was immediately disappointed to feel 3rd and 4th gear causing the same hesitation sensation as earlier. As I continued driving for a few miles through numerous stoplights, the hesitation had not gotten worse as it usually would. I chalked this up to placebo effect and wishful thinking.

By the time I'd reached my house about 15 minutes later it seemed the condition had improved even further. I asked my fiance to drive the car and even in the passenger seat, I could stlll feel the slippage as could she. At this point I was coming to terms with the fact I made need to find somewhere to perform a transfer case replacement so we could enjoy our new-to-us car. Despite the fact that I'd negotiated a replacement into the original agreed upon price, I had hopes of solving the problems as others had.

The next morning when I ventured out for coffee and breakfast, I decided to drive the Cayenne despite the transfer case knowing I couldn't really cause any additional damage. To my surprise, I didn't feel any type of slippage for the entire 10 minute drive through various conditions. Coming home, nothing. 3rd and 4th gear were silky smooth. This had happened before on my initial test drive, but it had always showed up eventually.

Over the course of the day I drove the Cayenne for hours in a tons of different situations. NOT ONE SIGN OF TRANSFER CASE SLIP. I was amazed. Letting the new Ravenol fluid flow through the transfer case, get into the clutches, and sit overnight had seemingly solved my issues.

For the next two weeks we drove the Cayenne when we could and could not replicate any of the failures we originally purchased the car with. We were elated and cannot thank the other forum members here who have suggested this particular fluid to remedy the problem. Just to be safe, 500 miles later I drained the fluid again and replaced it once again another fresh bottle of Ravenol. This time it wasn't nearly as dark, but there were still bits of clutch particle. I will most certainly be making this a fluid I change every 15,000 miles. Since I'll be sticking to 7,500 mile oil change intervals, this means once every other oil change.

That is the power of knowledge. Had I not known about this fluid fix, I could have possibly purchased the car for the full agreed upon price, wouldn't have known about the compromised fluid, and would have had the entire transfer case replaced. Instead I purchased the car for $3,000 cheaper than agreed upon, invested $50 in two bottles of fluid, and the issues are fully resolved.

That's all for now, but I have a few more things planned coming up including resetting the oil change interval warning with the POR II iCarSoft handheld device.

 

Great job man. Awesome photos. This post is 5 star! Thanks again for sharing!

 

This is a great story and really good pictures - with impressive aperture usage!

You didn't take those pics on phone, did you? Those look professional... A few of them are good enough to sold to a stock photo site. The Mobil 1 pic could be a magazine ad.

 

Thanks for reading such a long post! I felt obligated to share after my transfer case findings.

As far as my camera goes, I've been into photography for as long as I remember. I use it daily in a professional sense, but also take my Nikon D810 and Nikkor 14-24mm lens with me as much as possible; even the garage.

 

Glad to hear of the transfer case success. So far 100% success rate! Wonder when Porsche is going to change the service recommendation? The TC is giving them an easily curable black eye.

 

All thanks to you friend.

I'm also confused on what they're thinking. Even though they're replacing the transfer cases with updated models, I wonder if those will fail as well once the mileage starts racking up?

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After changing the oil earlier this week, I also took the chance to use my POR II iCarsoft for the first time to reset the interval warning. This handheld device was very easy to use and worked perfectly.





No more annoying oil change warning on start up.



The key case was a bit scratched up when we received them, so I grabbed a few cheap Amazon replacements. My fiancé was ecstatic about the color matched key.



Now that all the necessary maintenance had been taken care of for the time being, it was time to go enjoy the car a bit. We loaded up the dogs in the rear hatch, packed all our food/supplies for a picnic, and ventured up the Blue Ridge Mountains until we found some secluded river access. The Cayenne performed flawlessly up steep terrains and tight switchbacks; not once missing a beat. The handling was impressive for an SUV and I'm really enjoying the brakes.

Take note of the 35% ceramic tint I had added to the front windows so they'd match the rest of the car. A subtle change, but made a big difference in my eyes.





My OTC suction gun was waiting at home when we returned, so now I have all the supplies to flush the front and rear differential fluid when I get a chance.

 

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the club! We got a very similarly spec'ed car. Is that the olive wood trim? I've found that this car is a joy to drive esp for roadtrips and long-distances. Like you mentioned, even on base/stock suspension it handles quite well considering how heavy it is. Does yours also come with the panoramic sunroof? The only option I wish my Cayenne had is the full-leather interior... and also maybe the sport design steering wheel and towing package.

 

Thanks Qu4ttro! You are correct on the olive wood trim. I wasn't looking for it in particular by any means when I started searching for a 958, but it's really grown on me. It goes incredibly well with the Luxor Beige interior and brushed aluminum accents. I also don't have the panoramic sunroof or towing package, but those weren't game changers for me. I usually keep the sunroof closed in my vehicles always. I wish there had been a sunroof delete option in both of the Cayenne and my 135i. Although I have to admit, the panoramic sunroofs in these Cayennes do look great from an aesthetics point of view.

 

Yea, the olive trim looks great. Is it more of a satin finish instead of the glossy finish of the mahogany? I had to have the panoramic sunroof on mine because of aesthetics reasons, and how it makes the interior feel bright and open. I'm sure it does bring the center of gravity up a lot though, and if something goes wrong, it will be expensive to repair. One of my fav option so far is the ventilated seats esp at this time of the year. Unlike some other manufacturers, these ventilated seats really do work well wicking the moisture away.

Question regarding the POR II iCarsoft... what else can you configure the Porsche with it other than reading/deleting codes, resetting maintenance reminders? Coming from the Audi world, their VAGCOM system could do quite a few things.

 

Correct, I'm really enjoying the combination. None of the 958s I looked at in person had the panoramic room. I'm sure that's an ignorance is bliss thing. If I were to test drove a pano-eqipped car, I probably would have had to have it. I completely agree on the ventilated seats. This is the very first vehicle I've had with that feature and its come in handy already at combating these humid, South Carolina summers.

The POR II from iCarsoft seems to only have minimal abilities. From my understanding you can read/clear codes, reset the oil, brake and ETCS warnings, and reset the steering angle sensor. But for only $160 and working flawlessly, I'm not complaining too much with the capabilities.

Coming from the BMW world, we get full ECU control for far cheaper, but I suppose I should get used to the Porsche premium.

 

As is typical when I purchase a new-to-me car, it doesn't take long before I start tinkering. Getting rid of the OEM US amber lighting and subtle window tint are usually among the first things. In addition to those small details that I'd addressed, the OEM rectangular exhaust tips had begin to bug me. After a bit of research it turned out I wasn't the only one.

While the OEM tips for both the V6 and V8 versions were very easy to replace, the price for new, upgraded OEM tips were laughable. The consensus replacement came in the form of Chinese made replicas at a fraction of the price. I was well aware that I wouldn't be getting OEM equipment, but for the price, and all the seemingly positive reviews, it was worth a shot.

Plenty of people had good experience with a few Amazon vendors, but I had my eyes set on the mirror polished versions of the large, quad tips. This eventually led me to eBay. After comparing pictures and the tips on my own car, I ended up going with the set below at a total cost of $234.90.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222462644620

About a week later they showed up and I was prepared with a socket wrench fitted with a 10mm socket. They were very well packaged.

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The actual bolt holding the exhaust clamp on is an inverted torx, but my set was at my larger garage. The 10mm worked fine for easy removal.

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Two minutes later and I had both original exhaust tips off the car.

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As others have said, these Chinese made quad tips are much heavier than the OEM pieces, but that's something I actually preferred. The rectangular pieces felt fragile while the quad tips felt far more difficult to damage. The spot welds inside the rear piping didn't look great, but should hold fine. If not, I can easily repair them with more spot welds myself.

After inserting the appropriate side pipe into the clamp, I had my fiance hold the tip in the correct position while I slowly tightened from underneath. Rinse and repeat for the passenger side. 10 minutes after beginning, the swap was complete. Now time to sit back and enjoy the updated rear end.

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Thanks for answering!
I was about to ask if you were gonna get the aftermarket quad-tips.... but looks like you are two steps ahead of me. I also got the polished tips from ebay. Your car is getting more similar to mine!

 

No big updates, but a few more small items arrived for the Cayenne over the past few days. My fiance's color-matched key had me jealous, so I picked up one in carbon fiber



After our expedition last weekend, it became evident that we'd need a more-robust floor mat solution. To handle this, I ordered some OEM Porsche rubber versions for the front and rear seats. I swayed back and forth, but ended up going with the black color to break up the Luxor Beige interior a bit. I really enjoy the fact these clip into place using the OEM floor mounts, as well as the embossed Cayenne silhouette above the Porsche logo. I didn't enjoy the fact that these must be carved away from the packaging with a razor or scissors.









I also picked this WeatherTech rear mat in black rubber up last week. It fits just as well as the OEM Porsche front rubber mats and has already been useful for saving our rear cargo carpet from muddy paw prints this past weekend.

 

Any reason you went with the Weathertech cargo mat vs the OEM to match the rest of the interior? I love Weathertech but have the black OEM in the front and middle and need to buy the cargo mat.

 

As I read reviews of both, the OEM rear cargo mat caused many complaints. The most common was being too slippery. This would have been an issue seeing as how this is where my dog will be. The Weathertech fits great and provides a lot of grip. The OEM definitely looks better though.