Coolant loss on a Cayenne V8
The coolant pipes in the engine vee are a well known weak point on the earlier cars. There is a permanent fix, and it is far cheaper than the overheat it prevents.
Porsche Service
Porsche Repair in Royal Oak, MI
Porsche maintenance is not mysterious, it is just specific, and it does not tolerate being deferred. Most of what we do is scheduled work done properly rather than emergency repair.
- Diagnosis before parts, always
- Dealer level tooling, independent rate
- Honest pre purchase inspections
- Limited lifetime warranty on most repairs
Honest About Running Costs
We will tell you what it costs before you commit
Porsches are rewarding to own and expensive to get wrong, and the useful thing a shop can do is be straight about which is which. The water cooled flat six era has its known chapters, from IMS bearings on the earlier cars to bore scoring on some of the later ones, and none of that should be a surprise discovered halfway through a repair. A pre purchase inspection before you buy one is the single best money you can spend.
On the cars already in the family, the honest advice is that deferring maintenance on one of these is more expensive than doing it. We will tell you what is due, what it costs, and what happens if it waits. Where the answer is that a job is not worth doing on that particular car, we will say that too.
Known Patterns
What a Porsche needs watching for
Model dependent, so identifying exactly which car you have is the first step rather than a formality.
Oil smoke on startup or high oil use
The air oil separator is a common culprit on the flat six engines and it is frequently misdiagnosed as something far more serious.
A rear main seal weep on an older flat six
Known on the earlier water cooled cars. What matters is establishing whether it is the seal alone or something behind it, which changes the job entirely.
Suspension that has lost its composure
Bushings, mounts and on some models air suspension or PASM dampers. These cars telegraph worn suspension more than most, so owners usually feel it early.
Questions
Porsche questions
Do I have to use a Porsche dealer?
No. We hold the diagnostic capability for these cars, so the work happens here at an independent labor rate. A repair genuinely covered by a factory warranty still goes back to the dealer and we will say so.
What is the IMS bearing and does my car have one?
It applies to certain earlier water cooled flat six engines, not the whole range. Identifying your exact engine and year matters, because this is a repair that occasionally gets sold to owners whose car never had the issue.
Are the Cayenne coolant pipes worth doing preventatively?
On the affected earlier V8 cars, generally yes. The permanent fix costs a fraction of what an overheat does, and the failure tends to happen without warning.
Do you do pre purchase inspections?
Yes, and on a Porsche it is money extremely well spent. We will put it on a lift and tell you what is queued up behind the asking price.
Worth knowing
On the older cars the bearing is the first question
The intermediate shaft bearing on the water cooled flat sixes of roughly 1997 to 2008 is the single most discussed item on those cars, and a failure generally takes the engine with it. It is also the reason a pre-purchase inspection on a Boxster, Cayman or 996 or 997 generation 911 is worth more than on almost any other used car: whether it has been addressed already is a question with a real answer.
Models
Porsche models we work on
The range we see most from Royal Oak drivers.
- Cayenne
- Macan
- Boxster
- Cayman
- 911
- Panamera
- Taycan
- and older models too
What We Do
Everything your Porsche needs, in one shop
Also European
Other European makes under the same warranty
Or see every make we service, grouped by where it was built.
Book It
Get it inspected before you buy
29444 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak. On a Porsche a proper pre purchase inspection is the cheapest money you will ever spend.