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OPC warranty and tensioner replacement

914Phil

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Joined
1 Mar 2016
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I am having a little tussle over some work on my '09 gen 2 997 at my local OPC in Reading and would appreciate some advice. I have up till now been very pleased with the experience of buying through an OPC last March and specifically wanted the "comfort" of the official warranty having run a 996 under one some years ago. This week I had booked my car in to have an inoperative drivers door lock repaired. My last service was in March this year so I was surprised when I got the call from the service department at Reading to say that in the vehicle inspection they had identified several things which needed doing in addition to the door lock. The biggest being a replacement steering rack which would be covered by warranty. There are a few others which would be chargeable items the one which is the most irritating is that apparently the belt drive tensioner has failed in that it is not returning the tensioning pulley to the correct tension. This failure apparently being due to "corrosion" therefore a "wear and tear" item and not covered by the warranty. £500 please. So I've been digging and cannot see how this part can corrode and fail, most problems seem to normally relate to the piston not returning due to mechanical failure (which if that was the cause would be covered under warranty). I'm a bit ticked off about this more as a matter of principle than anything and wondered if anyone else has thoughts or experience of this part failing and if so the likelihood of it being wear and tear? Many thanks for your help.
 
Im afraid the tensioner does corrode at the point shown in the image , the shock below that can sometimes leak but its normally the main pivot for the bracket that siezes .

Porsche wont pay for any thing corrosion based but this was not one of their better design choices shall we say .

It can happen to all gen 2 box / cay and 997 but is much more comon on the 997 due to more chance of water getting at it .

Its a sleeve (a tube ) which pivots in the main bracket and is then bolted onto the engine, all you can see from the image is the bolt going through the sleeve ... it siezes at this pivot and can in rare cases cause some pretty significant damage if it fails .
 

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Thanks Demort, appreciate the advice. Reading have sent me the attached with the offending part ringed red. I think the relevant thing for other 997 owners is that in the OPC service standards when belts are changed this part is checked but not changed unless shown to be inoperative. My belts were changed in 2015 so in a relatively short period you can encounter this problem, and have to do the job again. Worth asking for it to be changed when you have the belts done in my opinion. I shall continue with my dialogue with the warranty department as I see this as a design failure rather than wear and tear! I doubt I'll have much luck, but I feel rather aggrieved by it!
 

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"Porsche wont pay for any thing corrosion based but this was not one of their better design choices shall we say"

Must admit given that most of their fasteners appear to be made out of cheese I find it somewhat annoying that such shoddy materials are used on a so called premium car......
 
I've recently managed to 'persuade' Porsche Notts to replace my drive belt tensioner FOC even though not under warranty, so might be worth playing hardball...
 
Its not a hard job to do and an easy enough diy .. need a cut down torx to do it in situe .. picture shows the engine out and no brace support panel in the way which is the only thing that makes access a little hard .

Remove air box , remove belt then undo the x2 torx .. something like a T40 .

i would replace the roller and bolts whilst there and depending on what the shock looks like then maybe that as well .

Time .. hmm i would think a garage would charge about 1 hr as a stand alone job .. but i just fix these things :D
 
I was about to question the £500 quotation. Bonkers.

I did my drive belt myself, and noticed the tensioner wasn't returning under it's spring mechanism.

Removed it all, Replaced the bolts/sleeve. Jobs a good 'un.

That brace does get in the way though, Ground down torx bit, a spanner and some leverage did the trick.
 
Porsche Reading, there is the problem right there.
 
Turned out to be a bit less than £500, about £400 including new belt. But still outrageous in my view. I wasn't keen on DIY as there was always the risk that in the highly unlikely event of engine problems it would be used as a means to wriggle out of warranty claims. I'm following it up with a formal complaint as I still feel strongly this should be covered under warranty and am also unhappy at the amount of "problems" identified such a short time after a service, it suggests to me that the service was very cursory despite the huge bill! I've been happy with Reading in my past dealings but this smacks of poor practice. My repair work will go back to specialists and I'll use the OPC only for those things I have to do to maintain the warranty. Incidentally Reading are telling me that any "service related" items such as replacement spark plugs require the OPC stamp to maintain the warranty...... I am not clear where you stand if you do it yourself using original parts!
 
Phil, have a read through your extended warranty documents. If you are going to write to Porsche Cars GB Head Office, back your contention. I woke have thought the part was under warranty as well.

I can't see an OPC making a warranty mistake and I presume the vehicle is to the manufacturer specifications and service up to date. OPC will get paid either by the warranty company or yourself that's why I don't think they'd put the charge on you when they can charge the warranty company. Mistakes have been made in the past and that's why you need to take [quotes] from the warranty documents to support your case.

I'll have a look tonight about service details in my copy of the extended warranty. Does it specify precisely who has to complete the service intervals and change what parts.

I'm fortunate that I can inform OPC to collect the vehicle and just crack on with what ever is necessary. But I suppose if like many competent enthusiasts changing spark plugs is part of the enjoyment of being hands on themselves to know a job done is a job done well.

Good luck and keep us posted on developments for future reference. :thumb:
 
It's a really poor excuse that just because something corrodes it is classed as wear and tear! Everything corrodes to some degree, very convenient excuse if you ask me and they're using it as an excuse to rob you blind!
 
Gottans said:
Porsche Reading, there is the problem right there.

nail on head for me! i live approx 10 miles from Porsche reading and point blank refuse to use them after several very poor experiences with them and they damaged my car in to the bargain and then tried to cover it up!

they then had the cheek to send me a customer satisfaction questionnaire where i gave them both barrels on! this resulted in Porsche GB contacting me, this is the dept right next to porsche reading who just fobbed me off...

for my last service i traveled to Portsmouth circa 100 mile round trip, they were better, but still managed to overfill my oil on my service and tried to charge me for AC condensers which were ultimately covered under warranty after a bit of persuasion... im not sure if its just me here but my experience with two independent OPC now has not been great... seriously tempting to go indy in the future
 
Demort said:
Indys are brilliant !!

But i am very biased lol .. :D

:floor: thought you might say that! :thumbs:
 

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