I'm being skinned alive!!!!!!!!

Holy mack!! Here's the tale. Worked out a great deal a while back, whereby I lease the car new from the dealership, they buy it at the end of the lease. Last lease payment done, buyout due, price is excellent. Was I interested in extended warrantee, additional two years from the expiration plus up to 100,000 miles? Sure, how much? They have to dealer certify the car, then Porsche will extend the warrantee, total cost of warrantee plus certification about $1800.00. Sounds OK, let's go with it. Here's the tally, so far: Brakes pads at 30% life, needs to be 50% for certification. Rotors heat damaged, needs replaced for certification. Cost estimate $2200.00 30,000 mile service. Cost estimate = $990.00 Certification plus warrantee = $1800.00 Found RMS leak (Arrrrgh!!!): Cost estimate = $0 Hey, why not replace clutch while engine down for RMS: Cost estimate $2000.00 TOTAL: $6,990.00!!!! Thats an ESTIMATE!!! MAN!!! I pride myself in keeping all my cars at 100%, but this is nuts! I'm just gonna junk the whole deal and get the RMS fixed and the 30K service, and still buy the car sans certification and extended warrantee. Brakes, clutch wil have to wait for the second RMS, and if Porsche follows precedent, 2nd RMS and potential new engine cost is "goodwill".

Wow, I feel for you Palting. I just got the call from my indy mechanic and it was just about $1200 for pads and rotors all around. Guess I should be happy?

Palting, Are you getting some upgraded clutch? The clutch and throw-out bearing should only cost you something like $600 in parts (ask me how I know). Labor should be nothing because they have to take it apart to get to the RMS/Intermediate Shaft leak. Maybe the cost they are quoting you includes a new pressure plate also (which shouldn't need to be replaced yet)? Or maybe that is the cost of a clutch job without doing the RMS job. Get a second opinion on some of those cost...they seem way to high. As for the brakes. How have they determined the rotors are heat damaged (cracks from the holes maybe?)? Changing the pads is any relatively easy DIY.

oh man first the genocide in rwanda, then the tsunami..now this.......like sand through the hour glass...so to are the days of our lives

palting... if you wnat to do it. take the pads and rotor out and put OEM on yourself, it's easy. keep the old stuff they are still good for many miles. if your RMS is covered under warranty and your are hooked up with your dealer, the clutch job is free. i got it free twice on two different 996, at least the labor is fee, though i got free parts as well.

palting, forgot... let me rub it in.... it's time for the elise you have been eyeing!

comes with the territory i'm afraid. unfortunately alot of stuff happened at the same time, these things DO add up good luck, i hope it comes down to a reasonable figure.

i find it ironic how individuals always criticize me for getting upset at $47,000 in repairs on my 996 in 1000 miles and venting.. such as palting... and then as soon as he encounters 1/7 the cost in repairs, he goes off about it... it's different when it happens to you isn't it... not to criticize, but i remember palting clearly saying some insulting things when i vented about my porsche telling me nobody wanted to hear about my problems...

Exactly on the ease of service-. I have done my own brakes and it is amazingly simple. Further I did the 30k service myself and it was even easier. I actually did the 60k service which is more intensive- replacing the fuel filter and plugs, etc. Loren has tutorials for all of the aforementioned, as well as a checklist for the 30k.

Palting's maintenance is standard and in normal circumstances just plain annoying. What you did was retarded.

having two engines blow up on you, one at 49k miles and one at 9k miles, a tranny go bad due to a faulty dealer installation of the third engine, a coolant box going bad, air bag light/seat belts needing replacement going bad, starter going bad, radiator going bad, flywheel going bad, two engines fire, etc... all in 1,000 miles... how is that retarded to complain about when i'm being charged up the *** by porsche for them? would you not be upset in a similar situation? he is complaining about being raped cost wise and so was i... is replacing an engine every 300 miles normal maintenance? if anything, like you said, with palting.. it's normal maintenance, and he shouldn't complain.. yet you consider it perfectly acceptable to vent... so one should complain to this forum about normal maintenance and it's OK, but if one complains or vents about a $47,000 repair bill that isn't normal maintenance, then it's retarted? nice logic...

Last contact I had with the service, told them forget about the certification and extended warrantee, brakes, or clutch. The service rep, the guy behind the desk, said the clutch was just a figure from the top of his head, from when they had a Boxster with a burnt clutch last week. Told him to have the service tech check out the clutch and give me a firm figure. Hopefully less, a lot less. Supposedly there are a few cracks around the rotors. Same reason I opted to change the rotors at 18,000 miles. That was just last summer!! Will see if I can still get the certification and warrantee since the brakes aren't part of the warrantee anyway. Yup, mooty, I'm getting the Elise. Brakes and tires should last longer. Hopefully I don't completely break the Lotus by treating it like a Porsche. I'm building a two car garage for the Elise. Maybe I'll make the second bay a service bay. Hah-hah-hah. I'm making copies of all the DIY instructions on Loren's site. The full 996 service manual doesn't seem so expensive now. FRACK!!!! ( I'm watching Battlestar Galactica, just in case you don't know what the word means). DOUBLE FRACK!!!

The service rep, the guy behind the desk, said the clutch was just a figure from the top of his head, from when they had a Boxster with a burnt clutch last week. Told him to have the service tech check out the clutch and give me a firm figure. Hopefully less, a lot less. go to another dealer. i had my gearbox replaced and my dealer wouldn't sell me a new clutch, they insisted it was good. i tracked the snot out of my car and sold it w/ the orginal clutch and 95k miles--and still grabs fine. cut the fat out of your estimate and buy the certification. on a 30k mile car, amort over the next 70k miles? a no brainer, imo.

another thought. diy brake job and then take for certification to another dealer w/o clutch replacent. you'll save $3k right there.

Hey Bob, I thought you promised you were done talking about this...

hahah I watched that on my dvr from last friday, you're alone. Funny stuff. Fridays on sci fi are great. Good thing I have a dvr though as it is still a friday.

Palting, The brake stuff sounds related to track use. Why do anything about it until the pads are worn. At that point, who dictates that the rotors be replaced as well? The Elise will use pads as well, but it's a simple diy (as are the rotors). Good luck. AS

Thanks, guys. Unfortunately, it's the proverbial chain. To get the extended Porsche warrantee, I need the Porsche certification. To get the Porsche certification, I need the brakes replaced. The certification and extended warrantee have to be obtained while the dealership still "owns" the car. Otherwise, I have to get a non-Porsche extended warrantee, or just stay on the non-extended one.. FRACK!! At least it's not all a "must-do" kinda thing. It's like the expensive options we get with Porsche. You don't HAVE to have it, it's just nice if you do. Anyway, where money is concerned, there's always haggling and horsetrading. I got kinda blindsided, and didn't quite react. Time to see tomorrow if I still have the skills at it. Wish me luck!!

Properly worded all maintenance information is useful IMHO.

Wait1? cracks in rotors? That sounds like it should be warranty to me. I know mfr'rs get all shirty about brakes under warranty but 'cracks' give me that feeling somebody should have designed the stress away from there. Are they propagating from the drilled hole edge? are the holes generously radiussed? (mine's hibernating)

My rotors are fine, 27k and I track the crap out of mine.

you must not track very hard at all. im at 3000 miles on my GT3 and 2nd set of rotors. the latest are cup car rotors and they have cracks.

At 74,000 miles, I just had all my rotors replaced. Second time for the fronts.

daaayum!!!

500 miles, hairline crack all over. i think by 1000 miles or 1200 at most, i would need new rotors.

Slotted rotors will probably have less crack propagation issues.

Palting, why not give the car back to ther dealership. They will end up giving it the certification and put it up on their lot. Then buy it back at a price less than they offered you. If you can't get it back then it wasn't meant to be and just get another that doesn't need $7K of repairs

Those cars usually go to auction. Porsche quietly started a customer enhancement program a couple of years ago to retain customers and prevent pcars going to auction(PAG can't stand). They (Porsche Financial) will offer the cars back to the dealer at market value as opposed to residual value, the intent is for the dealer to pass this on to the customer, thus retaining the customer and preventing a loss at auction. 70% of Porsche dealers are said to participate.

Heh-heh. The buyout is BELOW wholesale. Significantly. Even if I went ahead and had all the estimated jobs done. Thats why this dance I'm going through. Update. Clutch is fine, crazy to replace it. Brakes can wait until it's time to get them done. RMS and 30K service will be completed today. Extended garrantee will be in. All's fine with the world. Thanks for the support everyone.

So you take back all those "Fracks?"

Yes, I take them back. Will be driving the car home today, and it's 23 degrees and snowing. FRACK!! Heh-heh