Hi there,

could a gentle owner(s) of a Panamera V6 gasoline (not hybrid, not diesel) engine tell if the "dental mirror trick" which consists in using a dental mirror, a lamp/torch and opening the oil trap to see which kind of bolts are used to fix the camshaft adjuster(s) work or not on the Panamera V6 gasoline engine?

Basically several Panamera V6 (and V8) were affected by a recall in asia and in the US (but not in Europe) because they had defective bolts.

Panamera from WP0AA2A7XBL010092 End : WP0AA2A75BL022036 (production date apr 15 2010 to jun 21 2011)

Panamera 4 from WP0AA2A7XBL010044 End : WP0AA2A74BL022075 (production date apr 15 2010 to jun 17 2011)

On the V8 you can see if you have the defective bolts or not by using a dental mirror. I'd like to know if that trick works on the V6 too or not.

I'm in Europe and there was no recall and people seem to have no clue about at all about this issue, except that "some engine did indeed break" (which is really not helpful).

I'm looking at buying a used V6 gasoline in Europe so I really want to make sure the car I'm buying is either not affected or has been fixed, especially after reading quite some of the horror stories here.

Thanks for any help,

 

I own a 2012 P4 and it has the steel bolts in the camshaft wheels. I would suggest just buy a car that was made after the switch was made, mine was built in March 2012.

Yes you can see the camshaft thru the oil filler hole with a mirror and flashlight, but you would need to insert a slender magnet to see if the bolts are in fact steel and not aluminum. I did not even use a mirror to see the bolts, they are easily visible thru the open hole.

 

Ah that's very interesting, thanks a lot for the answer. But apparently the problematic bolts have a specific shape no!? And just by looking at close-up / hi-def picture you can see if it's the problematic bolts or not (well, that's what I understood from reading the threads here but they're very long threads and hence maybe I got lost ; )

Where do I get to see the production date?

 

the production date is on the drivers side door post

 

From what I understand, Bad bolt in picture below has the security post in the middle.

image linked from other post.

My production date is 5/2012 and not part of recall.




The updated bolt head on the adjuster here below:

 

Not on european models... That little black plate on the driver's side door post doesn't exist on european models : (