My PTT has been fine so far, daily driven. Purchased new last Sept and have put in close to 15k miles. The only time it went in to the dealer was for the 10k maintenance and to replace one of the horn.

 

Panamera's a great car. I love it.

Although the coolant on mine did leak out recently, as it has for the original posterior and a couple of other guys, causing a high engine temperature warning. The thermostat housing appears to be the weakness here. This happened after 45k miles.

 

Porsche of Spokane said our issue was a coolant seal, which caused the coolant hoses to pop off.

 

Just now completing my first year of ownership and my 4S has been a fantastic daily driver. You owe it to yourself to do a test drive. My 4S is my first Porsche. I was intrigued by the Panamera ever since it debuted. Last July, I telephoned a local Porsche dealer and inquired about doing some test drives...they welcomed me by having every level of Panamera at my disposal. Coming from a 750ix, I knew I wanted an AWD V8 car. So, it was going to either be the GTS or the 4S. I ended up getting a tremendous deal on a pre-owned `11 4S that had only 1025 on the odometer.

 

Do you know what % discount you received?

 

I was smelling some sort of burnt oil from the front pass wheel well side. Could not smell it in the engine compartment with the hood open. Smell is strongest thru the front right wheel well. The burnt oil smell is not like engine oil. It smells more caustic, very different. Had been noticing some oily spray on the steering rack and then near where the front right axle connects to the differential. I thought it was leaking grease from the axle. Took it apart, cleaned and repacked it. For the last 1000 miles I started hearing a faint grinding noise. When I did the work on the axle I also replaced the wheel bearing. So I thought maybe its a faulty wheel bearing. Finally took it to the dealer and they diagnosed it to be a coolant leak. The quote for this work was $4600. I do not have warranty (don't ask why). They also said the grinding noise is from the transmission and it cannot be fixed - only replacement. Cost of tranny alone is $8700 + labor.

So I did what i usually do. DIY. The starter motor seems to be the culprit for the grinding noise. They was so much muck in there. I guess the coolant leak makes it to the starter and the crankcase (see picture). Then along wth dust and the coolant it makes a big mess. The red and yellow arrows are the pipes you are talking about. The red pipe in my engine is actually shaking a little bit. I'm also going to replace the green arrow one just to be safe. Porsche has an upgraded part for these.

Guys, please do yourself a favor and check that pipe. It should be solid with no shake. If it does then be prudent and have it addressed.

The leak goes to the valley below the intake manifold, affects the starter and drains into the crankcase (green arrow). Why they designed it this way is beyond me. Why would they drain that into the crankcase is baffling. It is downright stupidity.

Hopefully replacing the 2 pipes, thermostat and housing (though not required), sensor and seals will put me behind all this. Planning to swap out the starter as well even though it is working. Starting sounds were getting kind of noisy and seemed to be getting worse. I'm kind of glad I caught it
in time instead of a coolant dump in the middle of a long trip. Once I'm done I'll do a short write up.

 

That is very ambitious to do such a job yourself but if it saves you money and you think you can do it - that is great. We will be waiting for a writeup. Good luck. I hope everything goes back to normal.
Is that a V6 engine?

 

Update:
Upon investigation on the underside, the culprit for the burnt oil smell has been identified. It is a front final drive transmission oil leak at the seal where the axle mates to the final drive. you can see an arc of oil spray right above it on the exhaust manifold heat shield. It is so obvious even a caveman can identify it. Surprised the Porsche tech did not see this and thought the coolant was burning off. They did point me to the potential coolant dump possibility so, have to credit them for that. Unfortunately there is no drive seal on the parts catalog. Only the full final drive at $3k. Cheked the oil in the final drive and it seems at the proper level. Going to drain it, refill it and see what happens.

As for the coolant fiasco, I was able to remove the left pipe to the radiator. One twist and it came off. No wonder some people had a coolant dump. That pipe would pop right out even at low pressure. Mine was ready to pop off. Going to put it back with epoxy and pin it as some folks have done to GT3s and Cayenne. Don't see the need to replace the whole housing etc. Will be changing all the seals and gaskets though. Also going to clean out the starter, re-grease it and see how it goes. If these don't improve things then removing the manifold and injectors would only take an hour max. Will post some pics when done. Total cost for this fix is estimated around $120 as opposed to over $4k.

 

It looks like it is a wide spread issue with Panameras as some here have reported sudden coolant dump. The culprit is/are these two pipes coming out of the coolant pump. They are epoxied. Even though the tech misdiagnosed, he unknowingly pointed me to a potential disaster waiting to happen. In my car (P4) the right pipe (right is always the pass side!) was shaking a bit when moved by hand. The left is solid. So I decided to do what the dealer had recommended to be replaced:

1. thermostat housing (holds the thermostat and the two coolant pipes
2. coolant pump
3. thermostat
4. starter (yes, starter too since he diagnosed it to be coolant leak)
5. other temp sensors while you were there

Once i removed the parts in the way I realized it wasn't leaking and didn't need all these replacements.

This is how I went about it. It is very simplified thought it is not difficult to do. You should surely use the Workshop manual for each of these steps. There are other preliminary work that need to be done before you perform some of these.If you are going to do this then PM me and I shall give you more details.

Drain coolant from radiator
Remove air box connection to throttle body.
Remove cover for ignition coils
Remove oil mist separator
Remove throttle body
Remove air intake distributor
Remove high pressure fuel line distributor (only if addressing the starter part)

If you are addressing only the coolant pipe then no need to remove the thermostat housing. Just make sure you have covered all of the openings including the ones for the intake and oil separators. I'd use cloth as paper towel sometimes leaves bits and pieces inside.

As you can see in the picture the epoxy on the right pipe was done. I used the Permatex epoxy that withstands up to 350F. I drilled a 1/8 hole thru the housing and the pipe, Used a 8/32 threader to thread it and then used stainless steel 3/8 bolt with Loctite red to secure. Go slow and carefully on this. There are DIY instruction on this in the Cayenne forum. Keep the vacuum running to capture any metal shavings etc. Let it cure overnight and put em all back together. Replace all rubber seals. All of them.

For the coolant refill, the WM asks you to follow the pressurizing process. Not necessary IMO. I kept the purge valve open and filled it. Started the car and let it warm up. After the bubble settled, I closed it and went for a short drive. The temp will hit 150 ish and you will see the alert on the console but within a mile it should settle back to 200/201.

 

So, the burnt oil smell still exists and I was able to find the source. Front final drive seal. You can see the arc like oil spray on the bottom of the exhaust manifold heat shield. Ignore the zip tie. It is just an added measure for peace of mind. Don't trust putting only the Porsche axle boot clamp.

There is a heat shield that should cover the place where the axle meets the final drive. The P4 don't have it. I guess they thought the non-Turbos don't put out that much heat. I think it probably was the reason. If you look at how the 2 part exhaust manifold heat shield is installed, the outer part will flow the hot air coming from top, heating up while passing over the manifold, escaping thru the bottom and hitting right on the final drive joint with the axle. Kind of like a super hot hair drier focused on that part. Have to figure this one out. Oil level seems fine so it is a minor leak. Drive might need replacement if I cant find the seal separately. Porsche don't sels parts no more. They only sell full units. Bas*****!

 

I did treat myself to one more peace of mind: Rather this on long trips than a tow and a tire replacement.

 

I have a 2012 Turbo that this just happened to last night. The coolant hose epoxy failed and it fell off the block. I called Porsche and I'm just out of warranty even though I only have 22k miles on it. They quoted $1700. For some reason your pictures wont load only the thumbnails. I want to give it a try like you did. Anyway you could send me the photos if you still have them?

 

Its very simple to do. Just have to be careful when drilling the hole as well as fitting back the pipe with epoxy on it. I cant open the pics either. I'll send them once I get home. PM me your email again? The message showed briefly and then disappeared for some reason.

 

And BTW, if you had coolant dump then the coolant definitely drained into the middle cavity where the starter is and then into the hole where the starter connects to the flywheel. Obviously that is where the crap hits the fan. It corrodes the flywheel ultimately. Not immediately but will happen in a few months. Mine was rusted and corroded and one of the springs in the flywheel was popped out. It made such a racket during idle. The dealer diagnosed it to be a transmission problem and quoted 12k for a replacement. I dropped the tranny myself and found the issue and bought a used flywheel from fleabay and all is well now. It was a lot of work to drop the transmission and replace the flywheel all by myself but its not rocket science either.

1st Picture is of the casing on the transmission. Nothing here to do except clean out the rust.
2nd picture is the flywheel rusted from the coolant dump in the flywheel housing.
3rd picture shows the spring tearing out of the flywheel outer casing. This was causing a racket during idle which sounded like it was coming from the transmission.

So, point is that you will need to be prepared for this soon. Do not try to force water in there as it will certainly accelerate the process.

 

Was able to right click on thumbnail and download the original images.