If you ask me, I think it was a design issue. I am not a mechanic, so will have hard time speculating. If it weren't for the repeated full throttle accelerations, I wouldn't even known anything was wrong.

I had a screeching noise on cold start up and it would go away after 20-30 seconds. They told be there was a faulty oil pump / tensioner pump and could have effected engine's reliability. Not sure if your's is the same issue

 

Different noise. Did oil pump resolve the screech?

 

Yes it did, but I was still having problems with misfires. I got fed up, contacted my attorney, who took care of the lemon for me.

 

If you ask me I think the dealer has a lot to do with how you are treated by the manufacturer. Back in 04 I had a Ferrari 575 that had a paint issue (very small but it was noticeable) The Ferrari dealer (who I also had bought about a dozen cars from) had Ferrari send someone down to look at it. The little paint issue ended up being a 7K job (took three weeks) but the car was perfect after that. The dealer needs to step up for you and fight to get you the solution that makes you happy.

 

I agree. with my experience with BMW, the dealer was the one who pushed the factory rep to do the right thing for a "good" customer. But when the customer hasn't build enough of a reputation to qualify yet, and the car has issues that otherwise need special attention, it's up to Porsche to make the right calls. My opinion.

 

I 100% agree and I am surprised they have not!

 

Follow up to this. When I finally had enough, I called PCNA to let them know I would be leaving the brand, despite this, I'd like an opportunity to talk with the dealer GM in hopes of helping improve overall customer service/satisfaction for those who will still be customers of the dealer. Two weeks later - not a peep from PCNA, nor my local dealer. Granted - it was my first P car, and now my first BMW - so perhaps a long term relationship might have helped. Then again, standing behind the brand and making it right would have helped more as I'd have loved to become a Porsche customer for the rest of my life.

 

numerous emails to dealer GM have gone unanswered. Sales Manager told me to email him instead. I did. no replies! I'm not used to this... That's why I went to PCNA. They are at least making an effort it seems and tomorrow is my meeting with them, again, for final repair attempt. If nothing is resolved by this meeting, then I continue under this route but with an attorney representing me. I tried to do it the easy, nice way.

 

I had my meeting this morning with PCNA regional tech manager. He was very patient and thorough and quite knowledgable. I learned quite a bit a minimum but I do want to say that at this point so far, I feel more hopeful that PCNA is very much interested in doing right, whatever that may be. He flew down just for my car, is scheduled for 3 days here to work on only my car. He then files a report with PCNA who will review everything VIN related service, sales and otherwise and advise me of their findings. So I want to be the first to say that I'm glad I had this opportunity with them.

He did witness many of the suspension noises and said he would spend remainder of today solely on the suspension and specifically the driver front corner. He said if he's able to fix that it may eliminate some referred noises. Or not. I was disappointed that of all days, the PDK was not nearly as loud and clattering as it always is. Murphy's law..... However when I drove the loaner home, albeit a base 6cyl, I'll be darned at how quiet it should be. Even with what seemed normal to them, there is a substantial difference in that it's barely noticeable at all when it's good! The one issue I have that never ever goes away is the one is is most intrigued about. That is the wheezing/whistling sound from start in engine bay. He's never ever heard that before and will be fun tackling this one. It also does appear that the power steering pump "may" have something to do with one of the engine noises as he was able to reproduce with just a slight turn left or right of steering wheel, where I can produce it with a very faint tap of the gas. Something to do with syncing of RPM to steering pump or control. Like I said, I learned a lot and still no nothing! LOL. And it absolutely does seem the tires are jointly responsible here for some of the sounds. We were able to repeatedly generate a crunching from suspension on left turns into pkg spots which is also intriguing but from my standpoint, it's coming from passenger side. He said that may be part of the referring noises elewhere. I hope to get a daily update as to what he's found so far, and if I do I will advise (not that anyone else has these issues :-)

 

Well, glad to hear that you are getting a better response now from PCNA. The whole thing sucks. I'm still getting the horrible cluncking sound when I make a sharp left turn, but other than that the car sounds fine. I just had Michelin PSS tires put on yesterday, and my Panny even rides better now than before. I'll keep following your post to see if they can determine the cause and fix for the cluncking sound when making sharp turns, I have 2 1/2 more years left on my warranty so I would hope to get this resolved within this time.

 

Good to hear you have PCNA involved to solve your issue.

Going back to the noises coming form the suspension. For a luxury car, it is somewhat abnormal to hear clunking from the suspension. Mine is making similar noise, so I will have the bushings replaced. However, some noise from the suspension could be normal. For example, have you guys heard how a racing car suspension sounds going over bumps or a long travel suspension on a truck? I do not have too much experience with racing cars, but I know about high-end long travel suspensions on trucks and SUVs. Brand new, these suspension components have squeaks, chirps, and cluncks. Everyone knows that that is normal and that is how these components work. One reason I have not upgraded my 4runner to racing long travel is exactly this, the noise from the suspension.

That said, I can also vouch that, overall, Porsche is put together better than Merc or BMW, having owned many of them.

 

And that's the point. The Panny is neither a race car, nor an off road truck. It's sold as a ultra luxury vehicle with exceptional sports car performance - supposedly on par with Bently? I'm certain, not one single Bently owner is going to accept the kind of noises the Panny's make.

@wassy - glad to hear you've got things moving in the right direction with PCNA. Fingers crossed you can get resolution.

 

Thanks. Fingers crossed here too. How's the 5'er?

I'm not sure I'd compare to a Bentley in terms of Poshness, BUT, rather than compare up, lets compare down. Lexus, BMW, Audi, heck, even Honda (not dissing those cars, comparing price only). Barring the unusual, none of these vehicles make the noises I'm hearing. As I'm typing this, I'm remembering my drive yesterday with the tech manager. He heard the ticking rattling on or near the steering wheel and passenger door. Once he started driving, he started to focus on it as "annoying", and also heard one from driver door. LOL. I felt repented! I explained that the days these are not present, others are. I "think" he may have gotten the message I've been trying to relay to them. I know rattles can be fixed for the most part, but how many times do I have to keep taking it in? interior rattles are annoying, but they are not my main concern here. I also do not want a new car that needs to be rebuilt, so to speak.

 

Don't forget that Bentley, Mercedes and BMW have been making luxury sedans for the good part of the century. The only thing Porsche knew how to make were 911s until recently. So I wouldn't compare Panny to Bentley. I wouldn't even compare it to my last '12 CLS63, which was a luxury car with high horsepower, worlds apart in terms of handling characteristics compared to the Panny.

 

The field tech called me this afternoon with his update. In summary, he so far replaced the lower control arms which he believes accounted for numerous suspension noises, tackled many of the interior noises and is having shop align for 2nd time to be perfect. He says it's a different car already. My complaint about steering not feeling right he believes was corrected by proper caster adjustment and control arms as it feels completely different. He was yet unable to fix the whistling sound but zeroed in on it occurring just before the up shift to 3rd at about 1600 rpm. I told them this a month ago. Lol. He updated DME and PDK software and says tranny is much quieter and smoother BUT, he's not quite satisfied and will let car cool down overnight, drive in morning and make decision as to replacing entire PDK based in his findings. He was unable to hear the pinging but DME update addressed that and hopefully will be gone and the hatch thunk has yet to be heard as well. This is a great start though. He asked me to drive with him and to experience what the car "should" have been all along. I'm excited on the one hand but don't want to get my hopes up. I'll let you all know tomorrow.

He couldn't be any nicer and more focused on my car and for this, I'm glad I continued my pursuit. I'm hoping to post some really great news tomorrow. We shall see.