My latest trip to the dealership...

Ok, here we go... So, I bring the car in for a "NYS safety inspection" ($37.00)... The car is running beautifully, no warning lights etc., the tires are old, but still have plenty of tread and no cracking, I figure, "what can go wrong"?... I go make myself a cup of coffee (no barista - wtf?) sit down with some sort of Porsche publication and settle in for a good read. About 40 minutes later the girl at the service desk comes over and tells me my car is "all set", passed with flying colors except "the tires will need to be changed soon" ( sales-speak for lets see if we can get this sucker to buy tires from us"... I told her I planned on changing them over the winter). I walked back up to the desk to pay my bill and pick up a few merchandise items I plan on giving as Christmas gifts. It took about 20 minutes or so to locate one of the non-stock items at another dealership, so I had a little time to chit chat with the service manager. He turns out to be a very nice and personable guy so I pay my bill, and go on my way...My car is parked right in front of the service area, so I jump in start her up and proceed to pull out of the parking space. Upon turning m wheels however, I get a loud groaning noise...try it again, and the groaning is clearly not right! I calmly shut the car down and walk back into the service desk - on my way in, I notice a couple small puddles of what looks like (and feels like) power steering fluid in front of the car (and a little bit on the lower bumper/front lip area). John, the service manager is still there and asks me what's up? I tell him, so he comes back out to the car, starts it up and turns the wheel...loud groaning. He asks me if it has done this before and I say no, and that his mechanic just pulled it out of the back and parked it here - I would like to believe it wasn't doing this when he parked it. He pulls the car back to the service entrance and I go back into the waiting area and pick up the magazine I had just put down 30 minutes earlier (thank god I took the whole day off ). He comes in about 10 minutes later and tells me the left seal of the steering rack blew out, and the fluid is coming out as fast as he puts it in... He then says he'll get me some prices for a new steering rack... ... ... ... He comes back about 5 minutes later and tells me the new part from Porsche is $3000.00 and we share a quick laugh... It turns out there is a re-builder fairly close by that can make it "good as new" for $550, plus about $350 in labor (internal rate - I guess he felt bad) plus Tax... "about $1000.00"... Oh well, I guess I'm lucky that a) it happened in their lot. (b) I can afford to pay for it without much pain - more an annoyance than anything else - certainly not a hardship. (c) I can now drive my car without worrying that the steering rack may fail at any moment

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Ouch that sucks. You generally sound OK/happy with the outcome though. So how does that differ from this? Mmmm that was such a fun thread P.S. there is a healthy mix of seriousness and **** stirring in this post. Attribute both as needed for best results

I didn't read all that, but glad to hear you got it all sorted out. Nothing like confidence in your 996.

Curious what your mileage is.

My best friend just had his CO state inspection and the agency put his C4s on a RWD dyno for the inspection and it didn't end well... Think the state's insurance had to pay out about $12k in repairs in my friends car was in the shop for 5 weeks....

^Hahaha^ So you got the reference! I wouldn't say I'm "happy" with the results, but life could be so much worse. They treated me fairly, and I just decided early on not to let it get me riled up... Happy Holidays

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146,696 mi.

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Ha. Yeah though I couldn't remember if it was you or someone else back then and had to go find it You as well

I'd sue your neighbors

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I would sue myself. I know I am good for the money and wouldn't put up much of a fight.

Many years ago I used to work for a vendor that did business with a MBZ dealership in Los Angeles (won't name names but they are one of the big ones). They got busted for taking good parts off customers cars and replacing them with broken/worn out parts. Didn't end well for the GM.....

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I get too focused on principles and would bankrupt myself just to prove the point

Based on my 2nd hand info that steering rack leak might have been some time in the making. A high pressure bypass valve can fail and direct excessively high pressure fluid to the rack. The fluid seeps out past the rack seals but is caught by the rack dust boots. The only thing the driver might notice is a bit of noise that is from the power steering pump because it is (eventually) low on fluid. If the fluid is topped up or the pump doesn't make any noise, or doesn't make enough noise as the fluid level drops, or if a rack dust boot is weak, eventually a dust boot leaks and there is sign of power steering fluid leak at the rack. If the power steering pump gets too low on fluid this can ruin the pump and the pump, rack and lines all have to be replaced. If (big if) this was what was going on with your car, not sure what you can do. If just the rack gets replaced even if the pump is ok (and it probably is) the bypass valve is still bad so the high pressure fluid will be pumped out the seals of the new rack. All will be fine until the fluid level gets low again and this time because the rack dust boots are fresh they are likely to hold a lot more fluid so the power steering pump fluid level drops to the point the pump gets noisy and this can ruin the pump. If this happens then you are faced with having to replace the power steering pump, the *new* rack and the old lines and especially the one with the failing high pressure bypass valve. Ask the tech maybe what he advises (or even if the scenario I described above is possible with your car). If the scenario is possible with your car then just to be safe maybe you can ask a pressure test/check be done *after* the new rack is installed to ensure the fluid pressure is within acceptable limits?

Another failure mode(for all mechanical PS pumps) is holding the steering hard over against the lock trying to move it into or out of a tight space(like in a service bay) which puts a lot of pressure on the rack, even when the spool valve is adjusted correctly. On some cars, don't know about the 996 specific, but if you hold the wheel hard over you can hear the pump strain as it puts all the pressure through the spool valve and into the rack. Meh - I'm sure it wasn't the stealership's fault. Sure. Positive. Absolutely. Without question.

There was never any noise or low fluid before this failure. So, you can imagine my surprise when I got the initial groaning. I have no idea what the odds are of such a failure, but this particular dealership is 2 for 2 so far with my car... I'm a little ambivalent and can't help thinking that this failure is somehow related to the visit to the dealership. The problem is that I have no way to prove it, and it'll just make me crazy if I don't let it go... hopefully the pressure relief valve isn't failing - but if it is, I should find out soon enough...😉

My 9 year old daughter thinks the auto-up and auto-down power window feature is absolutely amazing. If I let her do it, on a 5 minute drive to school she would raise and lower her window 20 times. PM me the name of your dealership - sounds like she'd make a great tech for them someday.

"My 9 year old daughter thinks the auto-up and auto-down power window feature is absolutely amazing. If I let her do it, on a 5 minute drive to school she would raise and lower her window 20 times. PM me the name of your dealership - sounds like she'd make a great tech for them someday." She just might be their top producer!

I would try to find a local Indy that you can use. I stopped going to the dealership because every time I had the car in for an oil change they would do their "inspection" and give me a list of things which they recommended fixing to the tune of $10K. It just got old. The pricing and service at the Indy are better and I don't get the "you must have money to burn" treatment I get at the dealer just because I own a Porsche.

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I hear ya! Unfortunately where I live there are so many people that do have money to burn, many of the indies are the same way. I do everything I can, by myself - what I can't do (like inspections, alignments and the like) I'll have to just bite the bullet.

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Nothing has changed at the this stealership (and many, many others)...they are only getting smarter and not getting caught. This you can take to the bank. Eddie

Well your car waited until it was at the doctor's office before having its heart attack! I had a similar situation earlier this year. Went to the dealer to buy wipers for the Cayenne and went back to my car to find it would not start. It turned over but would not fire up the engine. Turns out the cam sensor decided to give out right there in the parking lot. Grateful it happened there and not somewhere sketchy that would have required a 3 hour wait for a tow truck.