Battery dead & Porsche warranty - what are my options?

[SkinnyP]

Had to call Porsche assist to jump start my Cayman S, then I drove a few hours none stop. Come this morning the car wont start (2009 on original battery).

Porsche want £200 for a battery which I can collect, but in order to keep my warranty do I have to pay them to fit it? I did ask Porsche assist if they could do this for me but they said they are not allowed to fit batteries at the road side and the car would have to be taken to the dealer on a flatbed...over a flat battery!

Edited by SkinnyP on Friday 25th July 10:16

[SkinnyP]

esuuv said:

No - you just need the Porsche part - you can fit it yourself (how would they tell who fitted it anyway)........

Thanks, to be honest I thought as much (same for tyres, wiper blades etc) but you never know...

Going to have to stump up £200 for a marshmallow of a battery but having had the car less than 24H I want to make sure the warranty remains intact! As for telling how I fitted it, they'll have my reg and address on their system from when I buy the battery.

[SkinnyP]

No private. To be fair I thought the battery was going to be suspect as the guy barely drove it.

Having done some research there is a lot of hate for these Porsche batteries...who the hell are moll and only 380ca Jesus.

The things we put up with to keep the warranty.

[SkinnyP]

N24 said:

Doesn't the warranty cover the battery...?

No, consumable. There is a 2 year warranty on the new battery though.

[SkinnyP]

Im well aware of that however warranty policy is policy. I'd rather not run the risk of a claim being denied over the sake of £110 or whatever.

Anyway fitted the new battery prefilled by Porsche and it fired up first time. Now to enjoy my second day of ownership.

Cheers

No need for a key code for the pcm I see.

Edited by SkinnyP on Friday 25th July 17:22

[SkinnyP]

How long does it take for the battery to charge in these cars? It was partially charged by Porsche and I've driven 14 miles but my interior lights are intermittent, I've kept the pcm and aircon off too.

[SkinnyP]

SLR400 said:

Buy a Ctek battery charger / conditioner, or alternative and you won't look back, great bits of kit and can be used on other cars as well, and sorts everything out for you once connected.
I bought mine from Amazon who had a sale on at the time.

Thanks but beat you to it! Got the 3.8 coming today from Amazon, will let it charge to 100% before I start using the car.

Lots of googling has revealed similar experiences, these cars appear to have crappy batteries and crappy alternators but once its at 100% and in daily use it should be OK.

[SkinnyP]

After 5 hours my Ctek reached the 80% mark, 3 hours later it said the battery was fully charged. I start the car up and put dipped beam on, guess what, no interior lights.

I then twigg that there is an interior light sensor that adjusts the brightness, for fk sake! Adjusting the dimmer fully on or off makes no difference, can’t I just have them on all the time?

What a stupid piece of design, every time the car has gone under a bridge or shadow the lights have gone off and here is me thinking the battery or alternator may be goosed.

DiscoColin said:

If it is knackered : forever. I had to replace one the other year. Jump started the car, drove over 200 miles, stopped for fuel and it was still dead - wouldn't turn the car over at all. If it is okay, not far at all.

When I got a jump start I drove 80 odd miles with headlights, aircon and PCM on only for the next day the battery to be dead. I thought 80 miles would have done it to be honest, so I just bought a new battery for peace of mind rather than messing around.