996tt problem

[baboon]

Last week was stopped at the lights when a loud humming started from somewhere in the car. Pulled over with something making a huge mechanical noise and saw a big puddle of clear fluid gather under the car. Gathered it was something to do with the clutch and power steering system as that made the noise louder.
As trhe car is covered by warranty the car was recovered and i was issued with a lovely Saab courtesy car.
I have now had the OPC tell me that the brake/clutch/power steering cylinder has cracked and needs to be replaced but that it is not covered by warranty!!!!
How is it not covered by warranty?? It's not the clutch or a consumable! does this sound right to you guys?

He did add that they would try to get it covereed by Porsche and would let me know

My car is a 2002 996tt with 15,000 miles that i've only had for 3 months!

[cyrus1971]

Give them the opportunity to consider and if they refuse warrantee cover fight them tooth and nail on it. Wear and tear on a consumable element of a clutch assembly (I plate and springs) is plausible but for the housing to crack is clearly an original manufacturing defect and not wear and tear.

[baboon]

I've had a land rover and a chrysler before this, two makers famed by their reliability problems but have never heard something quite so idiotic

[gfreeman]

As Cyrus1971 said this is not wear and tear.

Fight them! (Not literally - making a lot of noise in their showroom dury a busy sales period doen't half help)

>> Edited by gfreeman on Monday 9th January 15:40

[nel]

This sounds ridiculous to me! A non-consumable component has failed so all hydraulic fluid has been lost. The hydraulic pump may well be knackered aswell, as it does not take kindly to running with no fluid in it. I do not see in any way how this can be considered to be outside the warranty. They're taking the piss or the warranty isn't worth the paper that it's written on!


If they really want you to pay for consumables, then offer to pay for the new charge of hydraulic fluid once they've replaced the damaged component, but that's the lot!

[baboon]

Now they are telling me that it is actually the slave cylinder that is cracked and that it si covered by the warranty but that the "sphere" which is attached to the slave cylinder is broken and isn't covered.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks very much

[nel]

The sphere in question is a hydraulic accumulator that maintains some clutch assistance once you turn the engine off. It is a component that wears out and has to be replaced eventually, so I guess that they've classed it as a consumable. The sphere itself won't cost much, so if you end up only paying for that then it's not that bad - they will foot the bill for the clutch slave cylinder that probably costs a few hundred quid and is a pain in the arse to fit!

[baboon]

Thanks nel, Any idea on the price of the sphere so i don't get screwed?

[willr]

Unfortunately the warranty isn't really worth the paper its written on for most minor jobs. But it helps to have it in case the engine fails...

I've had 3 alternators replaced under "goodwill", because they supposedly weren't covered by the warranty...

[superlightr]

baboon said:

Thanks nel, Any idea on the price of the sphere so i don't get screwed?

What a dissapointing experience. I sympathise. I have a tt almost exactly the same age/miles but nothing has gone wrong. I Would be very upset if I had the customer service you had.

Im pleased it sounds like they have reconsidered but it must leave a bad feeling even so. The 996tt isnt 'cheap' to buy and the car is still low miles/young.

keep us posted. good luck

[saulk]

I had my alternator go last week and OPC replaced it with no questions asked.

>> Edited by saulk on Tuesday 10th January 22:24

[nel]

baboon said:

Thanks nel, Any idea on the price of the sphere so i don't get screwed?

On my 993TT the accumulator cost me about 100 euros before VAT, so should be of order of £80.

[aceparts_com]

I've just bought an accumulator (993 and 996 are the same part) for my car; £81+vat

>> Edited by aceparts_com on Tuesday 10th January 22:37

[baboon]

So far Porsche have had my car for almost 3 weeks with still nothing resolved.
The total cost of fitting the accumulator and a replacing a perishe coolant hose comes to around 1300, they've offered to pay around 550 leaving me with about 750 to pay.
I still find this disgraceful in a car that has covered only 15000 miles.
Does anybody know my legal stand point if i were to make a claim against them or would you recommend settling it and just paying?
Thanks for the help

[cyrus1971]

OPC warrantee (or indeed any warrantee) is basically a poor form of insurance charged well above cost + risk + profit. In the case of an OPC this is already a naturally high cost for their high overheads.

I sympathise with you and if you want my pseudo-legal opinion (I do have LLM in Contract Law) please e-mail me. Suffice to say people rolling over and taking this kind of shit from companies is what gives them the courage to shaft and shaft again.

If you want to take it then just take it, unless you fight you get ed. Simple.

Personally, having given the OPC the opportunity to cover it I would now immediately make it a legal issue, straight to the top by name, by pass the dealer (cc them only) and make sure it costs Porsche GB more in legal fees / hassle factor / internal costs from the outset and they will probably back down on a sanity point of view.

Honestly when I read this kind of shit it really gauls me. Speech over - fight them, you will feel better for it.

Cyrus

[porsche4life]

Its possible they are attaching most of the labour charges to the accumulator which you can manage without, tell them to leave the accumulator and just replace what is broken since you can have the non-warranty work done whereevr you like.

Each job has an associated set of hours which Porsche state is the target time.

You need to know the target hours for the warranty item and the target time for the accumulator done separately.

You should then see whats fair,

Worst case you get the slave cylinder fixed but have to take it elsewhere for the accumultaior, if you still want it doing.

cheers

C

[aceparts_com]

The accumulator is an hour long job at best.