Bad clutch at 1900 miles on 2008 Cayman

Okay guys, just have 1905 miles on my 2008 cayman - most of those miles are highway - and the car had to be towed to the dealer today. I was told it was a bad clutch due to abuse. Are you kidding me??? I have owned many manual transmission cars over the last 20 years. The Toyota Celica that I learned on when I was 17 made it 58,000 miles before replacing the clutch. And, that was the only clutch I ever had to replace. I sold the Celica at 130,000 miles. I also had a toyota tacoma and a jetta. Never a clutch issue. I don't drive the cayman hard, ride the clutch, or downshift at high rpms. I spoke to a few friends with mechanical knowledge and they all said no way. Plus, the dealer said the flywheel was perfect which tells me it was definitely a defective part like the pressure plate. Dealer wants $1800+tax - please help!

Speak to the manager and speak to the technical service manager. There is no way your going to burn it out in 2K miles if you have driven like you stated. Ask to see the defective part and proof it was caused by abuse. All else I'd contact Porsche Head office and contact them about the issue. I think you have some legal rights as well. Also, most warranties cover wear and tear items up to a certain mileage even if it's very little. Also check with other dealers in your area about it. Unfortunately many dealers pray on the inexperiance of customers knowledge with cars to ask for needless repair bills or fixes or blame the customer. Knowing your stuff about the car will usually put them off about lying to you. For example the Acura dealership near me was trying to charge a co-worker of mine with repair bills for a car and stating it needed thousands of dollars in repairs. I told him to go to my dealer which has always been very honest and TRUTHFUL about the mechanical condition of my car and they told him everything was fine and good to go. All else fails get a lawyer who should be able to settle the matter quickly.

Thank you for responding - I hope it doesn't come to a needing an attorney. Are the Porsche clutches so sensitive - or at risk due to the high torque nature of the car?

Has to be defective. I'm sure you will work it out to your satisfaction. Good advice from Knightzerox. Let us know what happens. Imagine if you had a Nissan GT-R. You'd be looking at a $20,000 repair. :crazy:

Escalate your complaint to Porsche's regional manager for your area if you need to. Sounds like the dealership is just trying to make up revenue from slow sales. Poorly installed clutches on some cars have been a known problem with Caymans for years. You'll find lots of threads on them if you do a search.

The dealer will get paid for the repair whther under warranty (PCNA pays) or not. There is not much (any?) motivation for them to blame the customer. Cheers,

Is there any chance this could be the origingal loose bolt issue so many members had to deal with??

Thank you all for your supportive comments. I should mention that the service dealership is Barrier Porsche in Bellevue, WA. I didn't buy the car from them and that is always the first question they ask when you bring it in for service.

No. That problem was corrected long before 2008. This could be the W802 slave cylinder issue though. Can you describe in detail what happened, why did the car have to be towed?

Well, that explains it. Barrier is my local dealer as well, and man are they brutal to deal with if you don't buy from them and pay full MSRP. I ended up buying my car from a dealership an hour north of Seattle because of Barrier's arrogance and lousy attitude. Going forward, I'll avoid them like the plague if I can help it. Have you considered taking your car to one of the other nearby dealerships (e.g., Robert Larson)? Or whoever you bought your car from?

I purchased the car from Jim Ellis Porsche in Atlanta -they were wonderful to deal with and I would recommend them. Yes, Barrier is so bad that I will need to find a new service dealer like Robert Larson but I will wait till Larson moves to Fife, WA. I think they are taking over the Mercedes location. I contacted PCNA and have been assigned a case #. I should have an answer in 48 hours. Once again, the flywheel is perfect - no scoring or blue/black marks. From what I have learned over the last few days this is a "slam dunk" against their claim of abuse. We'll see. As far as describing the breakdown. It was 23 degrees that morning and the car seemed to have no acceleration. I would put it in gear and accelerate but the RPM's would increase rapidly while the car was slow to accelerate. Over the course of about a half hour it got worse until the car would no longer accelerate (still the RPM's would continue to climb). I came to a stop on the side of a road. Car wouldn't move forward or back. I turned it off and called roadside assistance.

Good point......I wonder if they can charge more from an owner that they can from Porsche warranty?

I'm beginning to wonder if they try to charge the customer and then go ahead and bill Porsche as well. In this day and age nothing would surprise me.

I'm not familiar with the slave cylinder issue GatorBite was talking about. I have seen a busted pressure plate spring act like that on run of the mill cars. The old rubber centered clutch disk that Porsche used maybe 20 years ago could do something like this but I thought those were no longer used. I think this was more age related then use but could be wrong.

Dealer is still waiving the abuse flag. Waiting to hear back from PCNA with a disposition. Will keep everyone posted.

Good luck mate, hope you can get your car fixed without having to pay, also isn't there some way to complain to Porsche about bad dealers?

Thanks for the information. This is good to know. Cheers,

Well, PCNA just called me to tell me that they are not covering the defective clutch. Apparently the dispute/appeal process is not really fair since the dealership technicians have a significant amount of influence in the decision. Obviously they have bias as the dealership signs their paycheck. I have requested the clutch pad and parts to be taken to a unbiased mechanic. My plan is to go to small claims court against Barrier Porsche and PCNA.

Good luck. Porsche NA and the dealers do not stand by their customers or products as well as some other brands imo.

Man that sucks. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Eeeeek! Sounds like an awful experience that I hope doesn't happen to me in 2 months. I will keep my car at below 4000 rpm like a good little worm and not ride the clutch in 2nd gear in heavy traffic. I sincerely hope your situation is an exception and not the rule, and that it gets taken care of.

I'd follow Gator Bite's advice. I have an '07 S and had the clutch replaced at ca 5k miles, after having the master slave replaced. It started with a rattling sound when the trans was in neutral. Then at one point, the clutch would not disengage, but then worked ok for a while. I called the dealer a few days later, took it over and left it. They dismantled the trans, communicated with Porsche directly, not PCNA, and the the clutch, throw out bearing, etc., was replaced and the pressure plate resurfaced at no cost under warranty. I had autoxed the car several times and run in one DE. There is simply no way even an idiot (not implying anything) could burn up the clutch in so few miles. Do not give up on this. The dealer is taking you for a "ride."

Read Gator Bite's above post and do exactly what he says. Of course we are assuming that you don't have a gazillion over-revs recorded during what was supposed to be the break-in period, etc.

+1 (or is that 2? GB's advice. And while this may come off sounding like a conspiracy theory it's not intended to. As I was leaving the dealership with the CS my salesman started to remind me about riding or slipping the clutch and then said I guess I don't need to tell you this. The guy has riden with me multiple times and taken several cars in trade so knows my driving. This could be nothing more than advice he usually gives. Even in this neck of the woods most people buying these cars is more for status or looks. Accessorizing so to speak. The number that know that 'heal and toe' is not how you walk is small. Or maybe it's something Porsche wants them to remind people of along with how to work the stupid key because the clutch is a little weak? I don't know.

I agree with gator..'no way even an idiot could burn a clutch in 1900 miles!' You may want to check your local BBB for complaints. File a complaint wth the BBB and your State attorney. These two orginazations will create tons of paper work for the dealer and even require they show up for a hearing!

I agree with Gator Bite's recommendation as well. The good news is that your rev ranges are stored on your car's computer. So in small claims court, it should be pretty easy to pull a report showing that you haven't demonstrated a pattern of abusing the engine. Good luck in your dispute with Barrier Porsche. Their sales department absolutely sucks, and it looks like their service department does as well. If it's any consolation, your experience has made decide to boycott them on servicing my car. They're the closest dealership to me, and I was considering giving their service department a chance even though I didn't buy my car there...but after hearing what you just went through with a non-Barrier purchased vehicle, there's no way I'll deal with them. :cheers:

Does workshop campaign W-802 cover the UK as well ? I have a Dec 07 CS and the clutch has started slipping. It has done 26k miles, but mostly up and down the motorway to work and back. I've not even had to have a brake pad changed, so it doesn't get driven hard and I'm wondering if this is "normal" ? Cheers

Sorry that you clutch is shot, but it would seem that stopping sooner would have resulted in an adjustment and not a replacement. If you knew there was something wrong with the car, why did you continue for 30+ minutes? The "it'll fix itself" approach only works with British cars.

Glad you like Jim Ellis......I dealt with them many years ago and was not impressed. Sounds like they have changed.