Any more information on Cayenne 4.5 bore scoring issues?

[Johnny G Pipe]

Hello, I am in the market for a cheap Cayenne with air suspension for use on short trips as a family winter car and windsurf trips to the Scottish islands. (Must be non black, and non black leather if anyone is selling.. I'm not that bothered if it is a bit Miley Cyrus, or has a few Christmas lights, but I draw the line at a Cat Deeley.)

I really don't need it to be uberfast, and had decided on 3.2. I know there isnt much MPG difference, I know Turbos are well specced, bullet proof and awesome - but the 3.2 made most sense. They seem sprightly enough for a big truck and seem to sound nice, so for £6-£7k sounds good to me.

I also have read all about cardan shafts, coolant pipes, transmission valves, sensor and electrical gremlins, tailgate struts, etc. etc.,,

But, I am specifically interested if anyone has any opinion on how much I need to avoid the 4.5 because of the bore scoring . There are loads of 4.5's around with the spec I want, far more than 3.2s. I am handy enough and could cope with most failures, but obviously if it starts tapping away, its game over as far as I can tell.

As time goes on, are there any patterns emerging? Is it worse for any particular year? Is it less likely for a big miler? If it is clear on a boroscope is that a guarantee it won't suddenly happen? Is it going to happen to Panameras?

Or is it the usual overblown internet paranoia with thousands upon thousands of happy Cayenne S customers completely unaware of it?

[cd1957]

Hi i have seen about 6 since Cayenne was launched, they tend to start showing increase in oil consumption first,which then a small rattle when cold,the first one had misfire cold, for about 5 mins, due to low compression.

I just had on an 05 plate with 80k, very well looked after,car looks like new.There was a very loud rattle from cylinder 1, but when replacing sparkplugs, every cylinder had gone,where 2 of them had no coating left on the liner at all, which i had never seen before.

Some specialists will not take them in part ex because of this issue.

Chris

[rubystone]

I think it's rarer to see one that hasn't had the problem, I visited a 'specialist' in my area to discuss some work in a 944 recently and caught them mid lashing up a 4.5 for a customer to then offload....I'd steer well clear if I were you.

The turbo seems to have less issues though?...