An Obvious Question

How long is it going to take before Porsche gets the clutch, loose bolts, pressure plate issue resolved? Red Rocket started a thread April 10th after several Cayman owners identified a potential problem. Stratmosphere suggested a service bulletin. Kim's European Delivery experience has surely highlighted the issue if no one has paid attention until now. Is it an assembly issue? A manufacturing defect? A simple misinterpretation of English/Japanese/German or maybe even a typo? Who knows? But I'd like to know somebody's listening and doing something about it! As an aside, now is probably the 'perfect' time for European delivery. Edited by - Papa in Austin on 06/29/2006 11:54:06 AM

IF Porsche is even aware that it's a recurring problem, it probably won't be rectified until the 07's start getting assembled. But who knows if it's even a recurring issue. There are thousands of Cayman owners out there and this board only represents a tiny cross-section of them. How many here have reported problems shifting? Maybe 10?

what does it take to become a trend, one person reported having his car into the dealer 3 times for this issue

By reference to (from memory) RedRocket's thread on clutch/gearbox problems you will see that I experienced this problem in Australia. Mine was the second such reported problem down here. Porsche Australia was terrific. Rather than just tighten the flywheel bolts (which had been loctited incidentally) they insisted that my service managerremove the entire clutch assembly which was replaced by a new clutch flown in overnight. PA was anxious to examine my original clutch assembly to try and understand the cause of this problem, My s/m also advised me that PA was drafting a related bulletin to all Oz dealers later that day. As you can see I have no complaints about Porsche service here although it amazes me that this problem was not identified during pre-delivery. My car still hasn't covered 1000kms and the 1-2 and 3-4 changes have always been less than smooth. Liquidator /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/drive.gif

If there are only a bit more than 200 cars represented on this site then ten problems of the same type are significant. But more striking to me than the problem itself is the lack of any communication between owners and the Company! You guys on here that buy these things like potato chips ARE Porsche's U.S. customer base. And nobody talks to anybody. We shouldn't have to wonder what they're doing, there should be a dialog going on the subject. And they should have instigated it long ago. I suspect we and they are tooawedby their success.

I dunno. I've been around Porsches for a long time and in my experience, PCNA and the dealers are pretty good, but Porsche AG hasn't had that kind of direct involvement with its customers since the 1960's. Porsche AG is a huge company these days with multiple layers of bureaucracy. Complaints and comments from customers seem to never get past the front door. You're like a fly on the back of an elephant.

Could it become a recall item? Does anyone know if there is a list of recalls on the CS? I seem to remember a thread that listed several? Russ

Russ, following my clutch problem I checked the net re any Cayman S recalls and noted that there hadn't been any. Liquidator /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/drive.gif

I have to agree that this forum and it's registered members only represent a small portion of the population. 10 bad clutches out of thousands isn't going to make a lot of noise. Although this issue does raise concerns, unless a service bulletin is announced, nobody will pay attention to it. If it is a design flaw, new clutches are just temporary fixes IMO.

But 10 bad clutches out of a few hundred (the members here) is a significant percentage, no? We are a mixed sampling of ALL owners, not necessarily a skewed sample that can be expected to have higher than average problems (except maybe early adopters?). ==RedEye

One thing we know is that Porsche AG closely monitors the rate of warranty repairs and the causes, so if it truly is a recurring issue they will address it promptly. They're very good at that. Another aspect to this is that there may be a large number of owners that aren't aware that their cars are shifting poorly. Many of them have never had a manual transmission before and so there may be a lot of cars with the problem that haven't been brought in for service yet.

Well said - my suspicions exactly. I am puzzled however about what is causing this problem with loose bolts on the flywheel. Mine had apparently been loctited at the factory therefore why did they become loose? I am also wondering how this shifting problem was not identified during pre-delivery checks.

Liquidator HELP!!! Mine has same problem...2 weeks old (and apologies for not posting pics yet but have taken them and will do in next few days) crappy shifts and feels like gravel in the gearbox with too much effort to put into first and poor quality 1-2 and 3-4 shifts. Took into sydney dealer today and they tested it and told me feels ok!. and wait for it to loosen up (1200km to date). I simply sat in a showroom 911 and a demo cayman with 90km on it and said this is what I want mine to feel like. They advised havent heard of any issues and would not do anything with pressure plates etc unless porsche directive. Suffice to say I insisted car get booked in and looked atso they are doing that next friday. Liquidator if you have a contact name I could give them to save them tripping over themselves trying to justify ok then that would be appreciated. Cheers...Philip

liquidator - PS my mobile is 0420 315903 if thats easier for you Thanks

Quick update for those in AUSTRALIA. Liquidators advice was invaluable and as of COB yesterday Craig Adam (PCAust Head of technical Support) issued service bulletin to all dealers on this issue so no-one should be fobbed off if they approach any dealer in Aust re this issue. Ben adam from Porsche Ctr Adelaide was fantastic. PCA tolddealer to get my car in immediately and strip it and fix it. My baby is in for repairs and I look forward to the silky smooth gearchanges (sans clutch smells) that I read so much about Philip

Excellent news Phillip. Let's have a beer togther on Friday in Sydney? John