[trusted]

I don't see how there is any incentive for a dealer not to point out discovered defects under warranty. Even if they may get paid less, they do get paid. I saw the $2000 invoice to PCNA for my steering column - replaced under warranty. The techs work on commission, so for them it sure is better then getting paid zip and sitting around. What kind of business model would that be anyway, to potentially wait years for a problem you know about to be out of warranty? Aside from the logistical issues to keep track, the customer then may choose not to have it repaired at that dealership? Makes no sense.

 

[ttmacan]

I had this exact leak, but had 53k on the car when noticed so no warranty but it looked like it had been there for a while and not fixed. It was the drivers side valve cover that was the culprit. There was no oil drips on the floor, it was dripping on the plastic cover underneath the engine. Quoted $1200 to repair, did it myself for $177, also replaced the pressure hoses while I was in there. I could notice a bit of a oil burning smell is how I knew something was up. Can't say I was surprised though, Porsche's are notorious for oil leaks.

 

[DanNYC]

I think you are being much too hard on the dealer. It’s very likely such a leak would not be noticed until the bottom engine cover was removed when an oil change is being done.

Curious, did your indy suggest the dealer missed it? Or perhaps they were just trying to be helpful knowing the dealer would have never seen it without pulling off the engine bottom cover?

 

[oqjnLu@>@W]

I think you are being much too hard on the dealer. It’s very likely such a leak would not be noticed until the bottom engine cover was removed when an oil change is being done.

Curious, did your indy suggest the dealer missed it? Or perhaps they were just trying to be helpful knowing the dealer would have never seen it without pulling off the engine bottom cover?

Curious. That would be five (5) oil changes and no leak detected before it got an additional 3K miles on it.
A complete multi-point inspection is also to be performed every 10K miles. Looks as though the engine itself
isn't looked over as a aprt of that though (see form).

It doesn't seem too unreasonable that a valve cover gasket might leak at 50K miles though.

 

[ttmacan]

I also took the vehicle in at 51k stating that there was a strange smell coming from the car, smelled like exhaust fumes possibly and guess what? they charged me $250 and said I was crazy and there was nothing wrong with the car. After months of going back and forth with the service manager and trying to prove I wasn't crazy - I found the issues myself. The tailgate seam sealing was not done so exhaust was pouring in from the tailgate and also the engine oil was leaking from the valve cover onto the manifold and burning. I got the tailgate fixed under warranty because there was a service campaign for it and I called Porsche customer relations. They put some rtv silicon on a few of the seams and returned it to me, missing half the seams. Had to take it back, they put more rtv silicon on. From what I am aware - the service campaign calls for a seam seal repair and paint - meaning they add seam sealer and repaint the inside of the hatch. None of this was done for my vehicle although the dealer did bill the manufacturer for the warranty repair - they just slapped some rtv silicon on it. Dealers are dealers - they are not the manufacturer. They are looking to make a buck, if they can avoid issues and fix them after the warranty period im sure they would.

 

[DanNYC]

The techs work on commission.

Can you elaborate on that? I thought at almost all dealers techs (as well as techs at many indys) get paid by the job pursuant to a flat rate book or something similar.

For example, if the flat rate book says it takes 2.9 hours to replace a Macan radiator, a tech is going to get paid for 2.9 hours irrespective of the actual time it takes that individual tech to perform the job.

The dirty little secret is that just about any experienced tech can beat the flat rate book, and often by quite a bit. So for non warranty work you may be paying for 2.9 hours of labor, even if the tech only took 2.0 hours to do the job.

And that means there’s a huge incentive for the tech to rush and cut corners. Then again if the job is not done correctly and the car comes back to the dealer a second time and the repair needs to be corrected, the tech has to do it on his/her own time and won’t be compensated for correcting the mistake.

 

[trusted]

@DanNYC
The way I understood it during a cars and coffee tour of my dealership's shop is that the techs are getting paid a monthly salary. And on top a commission per finished job or something like that. I have no idea how said commission is calculated. Maybe it's pooled and more senior techs get a bigger cut then newbies? That's all I know about techs getting paid, which arguably is not much.

 

[Shark]

Trusted I have never heard of anything like that, but of course anything is possible. It might be that the dealer guarantees each tech a minimum number of weekly hours in order to keep them from jumping ship if the shop has a slow period.

But to your original point, if it’s a slow day in the shop, a tech may be incentivized to recommend repairs that are not quite needed. For example on more than one occasion I have had a car dealer tell me I needed new brake pads when I knew from my own personal inspection that the pads were only 50 or 60 percent worn.

My experience is that’s less likely with an indy, especially where you might be dealing directly with the owner. But unfortunately there are dishonest independents out there too.

 

[kim111]

The dealer had repaired the leak after ordering some parts from Germany. Took about 4 working business days due to ordering the parts.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[trusted]

But to your original point, if it’s a slow day in the shop, a tech may be incentivized to recommend repairs that are not quite needed. For example on more than one occasion I have had a car dealer tell me I needed new brake pads when I knew from my own personal inspection that the pads were only 50 or 60 percent worn.

My experience is that’s less likely with an indy, especially where you might be dealing directly with the owner. But unfortunately there are dishonest independents out there too.

My point was that I find it unlikely for a dealer not to point out necessary warranty work, just to possibly make more money later when the car is out of warranty.

I agree with you on unnecessary work being suggested and even pushed by some dealerships. Next time the Mercedes dealer wants to put on new wipers and charge for a tire rotation and an alignment when I just want to drop the car off for scheduled service I may lose it...

 

[iconoclast]

...on more than one occasion I have had a car dealer tell me I needed new brake pads when I knew from my own personal inspection that the pads were only 50 or 60 percent worn.

My experience is that’s less likely with an indy, especially where you might be dealing directly with the owner. But unfortunately there are dishonest independents out there too.

I agree, except I do not think, in general, that a dealer is more likely to be dishonest than an Indy. Usually dealerships service departments are busy, not always true of Indy shops. So, I wonder if an Indy shop trying to keep 2 mechanics that they are paying busy, get a sucker, I mean customer, they MAY be more likely to recommend extra work that is either not needed at all or is premature. Telling customer with 60K plugs per manual to change them @ 30K. Or other earlier work like radiator or brake flush & of course brake pad replacement when still have 30% life remaining. This does not mean that a busy dealership would not do this... just that there may be more pressure on an Indy, if they are not busy.

My preference is a busy, well known Indy shop. But, I always know what my service manual recommends for time/mileage intervals! If it is not routine maintenance & is one of the (many) areas about which I know little... I suppose I am at their mercy. If expensive, I likely would get a 2nd opinion, at least on price by phone.

 

[bbturbodad]

I took my Turbo to in for the 40k service on Monday and they found this exact issue, notified me, and are performing the work under warranty (the month before my warranty ends). I guess that expensive oil change was worth it this time.

 

[GTF]

Another example of forum benefit...
After reading this thread, I saw oil stains on lower engine cover. Dealer identified timing cover gasket leak and ordered parts. Apparently will be an all-day service. 45K miles...4 years old on Monday. Thanks fellow members! I'll follow up after fix.
Other than usual TSB's, this has been 1st problem.

 

[GTF]

Had the oil leak fixed...2 pages of "parts" and several days to complete. Apparently this is a BIG job...not easy access. Would have hated to have this done out of warranty.
Had a base black/black Macan for the week. The 4T had more power than I anticipated, but not the sound of the V6. Having the black car during a hot week reminded me why I ordered white/luxor. I wish Porsche had true cooled seats rather than ventilated seats. A/C seats are far more effective.
Glad I got my S back.

 

[jzwu]

Did you ever take your car in for service at dealer before? How did you find the oil stain? Crawl down or jack up the car?

I have been going to dealer for annual oil changes for the past 3 years and they didn’t say anything. Maybe I will check myself before warranty expires.

 

[Brishoca]

Timing cover leaks require removal of engine and transmission as a unit,so yes a big job. But look on the bright side, you get a coolant change as well as part of the warranty job.
How disappointing that Porsche has such poor design or materials that this leak would occur.
Cheap cars haven’t had timing case leaks for the past 20 years.

 

[lippy]

It’s poor design that you have to remove the engine for this. Is that really true? If so, more evidence that German engineering is a farse.

 

[iconoclast]

Had the oil leak fixed...2 pages of "parts" and several days to complete. ..

Did they also replace the oil stained, lower engine cover? If not, it will always look like there is a leak.

 

[GTF]

Did they also replace the oil stained, lower engine cover? If not, it will always look like there is a leak.

Just looked....there seems to be slight discoloration, so they must have cleaned it somehow because I didn't see it on the parts list.

 

[GTF]

Did you ever take your car in for service at dealer before? How did you find the oil stain? Crawl down or jack up the car?

I have been going to dealer for annual oil changes for the past 3 years and they didn’t say anything. Maybe I will check myself before warranty expires.

I read that there had been timing cover oil leaks on this forum, so just looked under car.