Epic Fail
 

For the first time in 47 years of car ownership, I was unable to fix my own car. I had to take it to a dealership to get it fixed.

Cost:

• 3 hours driving
• 2 hours waiting
• Porsche "rated" battery $651
• Labor $280

Not to mention the hours spent trying to fix it myself.

The O'Reilly "Super Start" battery 94RPLT that "fits" my '18 Macan caused error messages- can't initialize steering angle sensor.

:datawiz:

Step #1:

Admitting you have a problem.

:seasix:

97k miles, taking our third trip to Colorado on Monday....

The dealership Asheville NC, VW-Audi-Porsche, has three cars in the showroom. Those were the only new cars for sale; all electric. The lot may have had 10 or so CPO cars. At least a dozen recently serviced and waiting to be picked up, including a sweet '96 911.

Pretty sure that's what brought down those Boeing 737-Max jets. You were lucky you weren't killed.


Edit: I bought a pair of Walmart crap batteries for my truck, less than a year later I started having weird electrical problems, take the batteries back to Walmart.....hey, they're just fine they say. Finally get frustrated with the electrical issues, take the truck to the Dodge house....$ 700 later they say, your batteries were bad. They put in two fresh Mopar batteries, and that was the fix. I was.....mad.

Same in my kids car. Battery kept running down from 12.8v to 12 volts then not turning over. After jumping it with the charger it showed 14v and held.
One year old battery from Autozone tested "good". They refused to swap it and tried to claim the 13mo alternator was bad according to their handheld doagnostic device....yeh riiiight.
$60 later (after paying the mechanic) to check it out and state both the alternator and starter were good. The battery most likely had an internal short. Autozone then exchanged the old for a new battery. :banghead:

Thanks for the warning:dance::D

IR would be my first guess at why cheap batteries sometimes don't function in newer cars.

:rofl: For a Engineer you are not very smart...you are your own problem :slap:

Doesnt the car need to be reprogrammed when installing a new battery, as most new vehicles do?

You bought an "exotic" - a known money pit and you're complaining.....sorta like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop.

Wow at least a week goes by and that's the best you can do? What's next: "You're ugly"? :Jeff '79:

I can not imagine driving from NC to CO in that little thing. :ack:

Btw-Isn't the Macan the smaller girlie version SUV from Porsche? I thought you had the Cayenne. :island14:

Yes, you have to use a scan tool capable of talking to the manufacturer's software. In my case I use an iCarSoft CR Pro+, which does 24 European, 15 Asian, 3 American, and 2 Australian makes.

Going through the tool's menu, it asks for the type of battery (AGM) and serial number. The O's battery had one more digit then the software asked for, but other than that, gave no indication that it didn't accept the value given.

I took the car to an independent mechanic nearby who specializes in Euro cars and he was stumped as well. Now I get to tell what the issue was. :seasix:

If you're man enough, you can drive from NC to CO on a motorcycle. :yesnod:

Then why are you doing it in a girlie SUV?

A few years back had a BMW X5M. Started looking at some of the known problems and costs associated to have only the dealer fix it. Changing a battery, $650 to program after the $400 battery. The SUV was running rich but not throwing a code so I suspected the injectors were going bad, a known issue with the direct injection. They wouldn't do it warranty but would charge me $5,000 to change them.
Last BMW I wanted, off it went and in came the Chevy SS, or should I say the Australian SS. I know why GM killed it off, putting the rest of GM to shame with the better build quality.

Not really exotic. Far simpler than my wife's '11 BMW. The chassis is Audi. Since I have the base model the engine is Audi. The body, interior, suspension (and subframes), and remainder of the driveline are Porsche.

One of the things that impresses me about this car is how easy it is to work on. The hood is huge; open it up to access not just the engine but the top of the suspension components as well. Underneath, drop the aero pans and you have complete access.

Porsche owners have a high percentage of DIYers and the manufacturer understands that. A pdf version of the factor repair manual is free. Parts are readily available online through dealerships and specialty retailers. Most of the parts are available at Rock Auto. My local O's and A's carries some of the more common parts like spark plugs....