So my wife was driving the 2011 Cayenne S into work today. She said at freeway speeds the PCM light came on, and it felt like the vehicle when into failsafe mode. (Would not accelerate). She cycled the key, and truck fired up with no issues, and the light was off. I pulled codes on it, and only code of merit was a P0308.


Now the car just had both variable cam gears replaced due to all the bolts sheering off of bank 2 gear. This was done under the new recall.


My question is, will these vehicles go into failsafe mode with a misfire code?


How common are coil failures on these vehicles, and how often do they typically replace spark plugs? This truck has 61,xxx miles on it, and I assume they are original.


I will say my first suspicion is that oil got down the spark plug wells when the valve covers were removed to do the recall repair.


Is there any other common issues I should be looking at?


Side note, it did have codes 000015 and 000016 for both fuel level senders in it, but I do not know how old those codes are. The "FUEL GAUGE FAULT" light did come on at one time, but has not again.

 

recommended interval for spark plugs on the S, is once every 4 years or 40k miles. i didnt do mine at the 4 year mark, because i dont think plugs is something that goes bad with time. but, I did recently do mine at 39-40k miles though. i did them myself and did not change the ignition coils. if you're at 61k miles and never did the plugs, you're technically 21k miles over the service interval. if you have a coil failure, the engine will stumble and run like crap. you'll know its a coil failure. you could try swaping the cylinder 8 to another coil and see if the misfire follows. or just buy a coil and swap #8, the coils around $40-50 each and the plugs are around $8-9 each.

 

I have seen the "FUEL GAUGE FAULT" and "chassis system failure" on my 2011 CTT, If you having trouble with the coil packs, Just replace them. don't want to have issues on the road. My engine was replaced at 121K at 160K now. Engine self destructed due to the cam shaft bolt issue, back in 2015.
recommend an OEM from dealer or ? don"t go aftermarket.

 

Both of my cam gears and all the bolts were just replaced under the recall, so hopefully the motor is good to go for a long time now. It sounds like the engines are pretty solid other than those cam bolts.

I pulled #8 coil and inspected it for obvious issues (cracks, carbon tracking) and found no visual issues. The plugs looked VERY worn out. I picked up a set of the factory replacement BOSCH 4 plugs from Rock Auto for only $4.50/us a plug. That is what I am going to try first. Ill label #8 coil and put it on another cylinder when I do the plugs, just in case it is a coil issue.

 

Keep us posted on what happens, I have seen coil pack last over 100K, I have 88K on my 996 there orginal coil packs 3rd set of plugs.

This YouTuber claims that the rock Auto coil packs were defective out of the box get the Beru.

 

I can totally believe defective aftermarket coils. I've been a tech for Ford for 20 years now, and see nothing but problems with aftermarket coils

 

NAPA coils for the 955 series were made by Beru.. so..

 

Question - I see several people who have had the bolt replacement done under the recall.

I had mine done as preventive maintenance about a year or more ago. I received the original notice of the recall from Porsche Cars North America. I then called to ask when forms would be available to ask for compensation for the expenses I had.

I was told "additional info" will be available on that when the "next mailing" goes out.

I haven't received anything from Porsche aside from the first letter.

Questions are:

• Has anyone else?
• Has anyone been compensated for prior repair costs?

 

Don, I have not heard from PCNA yet either. Nothing. I'd like to get reimbursed the $3k that I spent!

 

Ok, so an update on the failsafe mode and misfires.


I did replace all the plugs with the OE bosch plugs. The old ones were for sure originals and looked like crap at 61,000 miles. I have put another 300 miles on it, with no failsafe mode or check engine light.... HOWEVER


When driving in normal mode (not sport) if I go around a slow corner or in slow traffic where the truck stays in a higher gear (typically notice it in 3rd) it does seem like I get a slight misfire still. I can watch the tachometer twitch a bit as it does it. From around 1100rpm-1400rpm maybe then it is fine. When doing the plugs I did find two coils cracked that I have new ones on order to replace, so it is possible that it is those coils causing this. Its a very slight misfire however, and has not tripped enough misfire counts to properly isolate it to specific cylinders.

 

It's certainly possible bad coils are causing this. If 2 are cracked - the other ones are just waiting until you replace those 2 and then they'll fail also. If you're doing 2 - do all of them in one fell-swoop. It's a PITA job to get to them, save yourself the repeat visit.