Dead Battery = $385

So, last Saturday I tried to start my car and the lights started flickering, the drivers side window went down, and there were clicking noises coming from everywhere. Called Porsche North America, they said most likely a dead battery . Tow truck comes and picks up my car and takes to Ray Catena. They call me the next day and say that after hours of testing, the battery is dead and cannot hold a charge. They also tell me that they will not warranty it either. So, I ask, a car that is only 1.5 years old, with 6,000 miles, is not covered for a dead battery ? They said that if I had 9,000 miles on the car they would have covered it, but 6,000 miles were too few miles. I’ve never had a car that had a dead battery in the first 2 years of ownership, even with miles as little as my Cayman . I called Porsche NA to see if they could do anything to help and the answer was no. Personally, I think this is BS.

Man that sucks, sorry to hear. I've always tried to keep the Cayman on a battery tender due to all the horror stories I've heard on here. But that probably wouldn't have helped with a dead cell in the battery .

"after hours of testing" A simple load test should have determined that it was a dead battery .

You need to find a new dealer. I took my car in for 20K service a few weeks ago and never mentioned the battery being a problem. In monkeying around on the car they decided it wasnt up to their expectations of how it should perform and replaced it under warranty without even asking me. Cant put a price on service.

It's not just the dealer. Porsche NA said the same thing.

PCNA isnt going to help you. Its a local battle and thats why they wont put gloves on for you. You need to find another dealer that wants your continued business and recommendations. Sounds like the one you are at now doesn't care too much about you, so why love someone or something that wont love you back. Dealers have the power to do just about anything they choose. They control their own bottom lines. If that means it costs a couple pennies here or there to make it up in future sales and service, they adjust their accounting to make it happen. Whether its batteries or paper clips.

Sounds like an excuse with the less than 9k miles and also BS about the hours of testing... I jump started my battery when it was 1.5 years old and apparently caused an error with it. My dealer replaced the battery free of charge. You should definitely find a better dealer...it sounds like your current one is trying to rip you off. Or maybe it just your service adviser? Anyone, else on the forums have good experience with a service adviser at Ray Catena?

There have been many postings here that point out the 6000 miles/year criterion which PCNA applies to batteries. It is not just your dealer, I think, but all dealers. Last week, when I had a dead battery , the first question the 1-800- PORSCHE operator asked was how many miles on the car. When he recognized that I had well over 6000 miles / year he said they would have a flatbed sent at once. My dealer made the same comment about eligibility. Apparently that is the PCNA criterion for honoring a claim, and the dealer may have no choice. The remedy - drive the Cayman more!

I'll tell you I'm so down on Porsche both at the dealer and factory level that I'm sorry I ever bought another new Porsche . This is my 3 Porsche , 2 of which were new. I've dealt with 3 different dealer and called PCNA for help in the past. When this lack of customer caring bites them in the *** maybe they will change their point of view but until we stop buying their cars, they aren't going to change. Sad state !

But they had to put it on the charger for a few hours first. On the 6000 miles per year. Car batteries (lead acid) like the be kept fully charged. If you let them sit for too long too many times it will kill the battery . Battery tender question. Do they turn on and off occasionally? Or do they have a constant low trickle charge?

So it is fair to assume that every Cayman that sat on a lot for a year and was purchased with 15 miles on the clock was lovingly attached to a battery tender ? Give me a break. I think it is far more likely that the damage was done on the lot. Everyone should shove this policy in Porsche 's face and demand a new, fresh battery upon delivery of any car that didn't just roll off the boat. If anyone asks, your battery was hooked to a Porsche branded battery tender every second you were not driving it. Hours of testing? They hooked it up to a charger, and when they came home from lunch the charger displayed some kind of internal condition error. Unfortunately, dealerships seem to run like a court room. The only fair outcome is the result of their determination to screw you, meeting your unreasonableness regarding things that are your own fault. LOL. I had a BMW M3 that had these underbody panels made of plastic that were referred to as "Pork Chops". They had a bad habit of popping off the car at high speed. Like at 140mph. Dealer: "How fast were you going?" Me: "I am not sure. At what speed are they designed to fly off the car?" VERDICT: COVERED BY WARRANTY

i don't like what i've been reading about porsche 's requirements about the distances that the car needs to be driven in order for them to honour the warranty. i've had my 07 boxster for just over two years and only have about 13000 kms on it because it sits all winter in the garage. it's patently ridiculous that a warranty wouldn't apply because you're not driving the car. if anything the lack of driving should extend the warranty. i had similar issues with my benz, though. i don't drive that far during the year ( and life is too busy to go for extended drives just for the fun of it ). i was well under the warranty mileage requirement but fell under the time limitations for a repair that had to be done with a window switch. that was several hundred dollars. fortunately, there have been few issues with that car so although i'm annoyed it hasn't amounted much in the whole scheme of things. the benz has a jell battery and i did have to replace it ...... for $300. no german toy is cheap. back to the battery issue: i've had my boxster on a battery tender that i bought from porsche . cost about $80cdn. figured it was worth the cost to keep the battery charged up rather than deal with the annoyance of trying to get at the battery if it were to die. the machinations in the car manual scared me! i also did try it with my benz ....but.... it actually drained(!) the battery . so use it only on the porsche .

Dave you make lucid points and I can't take much objection to them. My long-winded take on this whole subject: If you bought an aftermarket battery of any reputable brand from any reputable store (Die Hard, Optima, Interstate, etc, etc) and the battery eventually goes bad, they are either going to replace it in full under warranty or at least pro-rate the warranty on a new battery based on the life left on the warranty. I have walked into my share of Autozones and Sears Service Centers and Pep Boys over the years with underperforming batteries and never was once I put on trial and accused of malfeasance in the destruction of the battery . Yes, they may have asked if Ive driven the car reguarly, but nothing in the warranty says I have to drive my car every week or keep a trickle charger on it. Should I? Thats a lifestyle choice. Im may not be the kind of person that drives just to drive. Maybe I like to reduce my carbon footprint, whether Im driving a Porsche or a Prius. Its really none of the service center's business. So they test the battery and replace it in full or in part under warranty and we all live happily after. Most Porsche dealerships and their backbone at PCNA obviously take a different approach. You have to drive your car 6,000 miles a year, even if you have no place to go. Some people drive their cars EVERY DAY and don't rack up 6,000 miles. My grandmother drives her Corolla every day and puts 4,500 miles up every year. She goes to Sams Club and the bank. That's it. Whats the difference? The mileage is just an arbitrary number that doesn't necessarily rule in or rule out continual charging habits. Nevermind the fact that Porsche should know their cars are discretionary income cars in multiple car families and may be subject to lower mileage than the Lucernes being driven off the Buick lot. But none of this aggravates me from a warranty standpoint as much as it aggravates me from a horse sense/business sense approach. If you understand business and understand customer loyalty and customer retention and referrals and comprehend the outrageous long-term cost of losing customers over relatively petty incidentals and boilerplate lingo, you do what it takes on a case by case basis to make sure your customer leaves your dealership happy. When you dont, you get three dozen topics of 50 posts long on forums like this questioning your business model, commitment, and suspect parent company in Atlanta. Anyone who can count to 10 and running a business should be able to see this, but its apparent most dealers are unable or unwilling to. Let's even assume that your dealer checked your battery , determined it to be toast, and noticed you drove 4,000 miles a year instead of 6,000 and had every "legal" authoritative right to go tell you to get bent and spend $400 on a new one, but instead elected to be nice guys about it and warranty it anyway -- either through typical channels or by just writing it off and eating the cost. There are only 3-4 battery makers to begin with. Porsche is just slapping a sticker on someone else's battery like nearly every other manufacturer. So the base cost for one of these batteries might be $150. Lets say $200 for grins to price it beyond even the most expensive aftermarket ones. So the dealer eats $200 to make you happy and bridge that blurry gap between vague warranty language even they'd probably admit is somewhat subjective. Did they really eat $200 or did they actually save money by going the extra mile? My contention is they either broke even or came out ahead. And its a shame most dealers cannot see this. If the battery is 3yrs old and has 50 miles on it, thats one thing, but most issues relating to Porsche batteries are in the category of "you've got to be kidding me". So if the dealer that elects to replace the battery free of charge or prorate it -- say in the case of the original poster -- what did they gain? Well if you read these forums enough about getting dead batteries warrantied, they gained a lot -- or avoided a lot. First of all they avoided a giant poop storm in the showroom between the dealer and customer, probably several phone calls complaining about the policy, complaints directly to PCNA lobbied at that particular dealer an damaging their good name in the dealer network, poor reputations both in private conversations and on the internet, a reduced number of referrals by the customer to others for future service or purchasing, and the actual time in man hours it has cost the employees, service department, and manager of the dealership to babysit all of this and try to put the fire out. All of that has a cost and it's a pricey one. Time alone is money. If this costs the dealership 1-2 man hours performing damage control, they just expunged any profit from that $385 Porsche battery and made a wash out of it. If it ties up more time and resources than that, they are LOSING money and would have been better off just showing extreme good will and doing a warranty replace (or whatever term they wish to call it on the invoice). Even if all of that were the only fallout, it would be hard to justify it from a practical business sense. But the real damage is in taking a loyal customer and turning them against you. Nothing is more expensive in business (ANY business) than customer turnover. Revenue walks out the door when they leave, and it costs a small fortune to earn new ones. Businesses that succeed understand this and make sure current customers feel like they are the most important people in the world -- even if it means on occasion they have to pull a rabbit out of the hat. But they know that over the long haul those acts pay for themselves many times over because the customer remains loyal, provides more billable work, and most importantly REMAINS A FREE ROVING SALESPERSON for your dealership. That in and of itself is worth the price of gold because every Porsche dealership sells and wrenches on Porsches, but a select few service customers. Big difference. For the most part dealers arent competing on price. Its service that separates. And service broadens your client list. When that broadens, the entire business model becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and you dont have to worry about your clients leaving you -- even when you stumble. Because they know they are YOUR advocate for YOUR car. Who doesn't want their car surrounded by people like this? Most would even pay a premium for such an offer. Time is money. Customer retention is money. Reputation is money. Referrals are money in the bank. If you want to letter of the law everything and not spirit of the law everything, these are the kind of discussions that take place when people become frustrated with the total lack of flexibility. And thats the key to it all. Once you become another piece of cattle in the herd and your problem never gets addressed as its own unique personal challenge, the business might as well be run by robots. Ask any business person worth his or her salt and they will all tell you that customer satisfaction is better at those businesses that encounter a customer problem and solve it, than if they never had a problem to solve at all. There is a lesson there. Keep looking. I hope you find a solution to your problem.

Excellent points you make! I ordered, and already received, the Porsche battery charger from Suncoast . I now have it hooked up to the car and hope to prevent another dead battery . One thing that really bothers me about this whole deal is, I have no problem paying for something, no matter what the cost if i caused the problem. I hate being taken advantage of, and that's what happened here...I got bent over. So, PCA can kiss my a*s now when they ask me to renew my membership.

udpride makes some great points . this note should be sent to porsche headquarters for some of their suits to read. and act on. you've hit the nail on the head when you say that these cars are discretionary. many of us that have purchased porsches are not motorheads. they're toys that we purchased, albeit for a variety of reasons. we do not rely on them as daily movers and although i'm sure that we'd love to keep them in our stable at the end of the day if the hassle and bull is too much we're gonna walk. i did that with bmw and i'll do it with porsche .

PCA (Porsche owner's club) is not related to PCNA (Porsche Cars of North America). I don't think PCA has much say, if any, when it comes to warranty issues.

i just replaced my battery yesterday ( 06 cayman s 47000). i normally do not shop at walmart but they were the only place with one in stock. everstart maxx 94 R is the one. it has a place for the vent tube, costs $75 and has a free replacement warranty for 3 years and then a prorated warranty for the next six years (yes, a total of 9 years).

Ive got the Porsche battery maintainer from Suncoast that goes in the lighter socket. Should I plug this into the cigarette socket or the doggie door socket in the passenger footwell to maintain the battery ? By the way I cannot use this maintainer on my 930 because the 930 needs to have the key in the car in the accessory position and I think it actually drains the car because the power from the accessory being on drains more than the trickle that charges in.

My favorite inexpensive solution is the $24 Battery Tender Junior 12v from Amazon .com.

I can understand being PO that a 18 month old battery failed, even more so when it is not under warranty. I can also understand being annoyed at parts prices. But cars are meant to be driven and todays cars have far more electronics than in the past and they do tell you in the instruction book to put the car on a battery maintainer if it is not being driven. Driving a car incurs certain expenses and not driving it does too. If they are going to have a hard and fast rule about 6K per year to cover the battery it should be prominently stated in the instructions but the best solution is to make sure you have a good relationship with your dealer and drive the car.

My 06 CS has 6K on it. My 00 BS had 19K on it after 8 years. Used the same Porsche cigar lighter plug in trickle charger during the winter only plus I checked the battery 's water level once a year and never had a battery problem and never replaced one.

My car started dying a few days ago with kind of slow starting and then one night I was about to head out and it was dead and had just enough power to through a hissy fit with relays and lights. Anyway a quick check yesterday found the voltage low, which I then followed up with by a check of the SG's and found one cell is absolutely dead. Jumped the car and checked that the alternator is good, which it is. Took the battery out and all of the water levels low so decided - even though I knew it wouldn't really work - to top them all up and take it on a spin for 30 minutes with everything switched off. Just popped down and checked it again and it is again dead, so new battery it is. Not happy about the fluid levels being below the low mark considering the car was only serviced a few months back and so will see what the dealer has to say, because I can't imagine it boiled off in that time even if one cell was failing. Luckily there is still enough juice to pop the truck etc. I'll be buggered if I'm going to pay Porsche for a replacement one, especially as a I maybe able to get an Optima on the cheap.

Alright, I'm completely confused. I know NOTHING about batteries and fluid levels. I was told that our batteries are sealed and no maintenance was needed besides keeping it charged. How are you supposed to check the water level? I don't see anything visible on the top of the battery that will let me do this and nothing in the manual. Do I have to remove the battery to do this?

I am not sure on the structure of Porsche batteries but like you I had assumed they were maintenance free, but the fact they have a vent tube means they can't be. Also after checking the operation manual it confirms that the water should be topped up occasionally. On the clear section of the battery body at the front (facing to the nose of the car) you'll see min and max levels without removing the battery . To check the level you'll have to remove it and rock it slightly to determine where the level is. Porsche batteries are not too badly priced over here and are cheaper than Optima.

Anyone? Bueller?

The dealer has quoted me around US$202 for a new battery for the CS, which does not seem bad, especially as tehre are limited options here. Alternatively I can get an Optima Red Top for under US$250, but think I may as well stick with the OEM part.......what do you guys think, is the weight saving worth the extra 50 bucks?

The following will probably further confuse the whole issue, but basically it points out the inconsistency of PCNA's position. I bought my 2008 CS in August 2008 with 52 miles on it. According to the Certificate of Authenticity the car was produced on 7/9/2007, so obviously the car had sat on the dealers lot for some time. Shortly after getting the car I made a trip to south Florida. I parked the CS in the hotel garage overnight and the battery was dead the next morning. PCNA sent a flatbed and took the car into the local dealer. They charged the battery and called me to pick up the car. The next morning (still in south Florida) the battery was dead again. PCNA again sent out a flatbed, but this time the car went to a different dealer, the other dealer couldn't get to it that day. This time the battery was replaced, at 935 miles, at no cost to me. I'm not sure what this proves, unless PCNA was just acknowledging that the car had sat and it was not my fault.

FWIW, the Optima Red Top in my 930 was the worst battery I ever owned. After years of hearing others rave about them I finally relented and got one. What a mistake. Would never hold a charge and would never recharge up. I ended up taking it back to Pep Boys for a battery half the price that has performed 5x better.

GilFrank, sounds as if Moe, Curly and Larry were servicing your Cayman . My 15 year old daughter can swap a batt. in about 15 minutes. Jeez... What did that dog and pony show ultimately cost Porsche ?:cheers:

Hot Nikon: I have no idea, but it was one major PITA. Spent two days having my client jackass me back and forth to P dealers. And to make matters worse the car was in a hotel garage so they had to drag my car out by the tow hook and one of the flatbed drivers lost the warning lights on top of his cab when he exited the garage. It was like the movie, Moe, Curly, and Larry meet Abbott and Costello.:hilarious:

Yea a really horror movie.