I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I ended up looking at (and very much liking the idea of) Cayenne's about 3 weeks ago.
To cut a long story short after only a few days of looking I've ended up buying a 955 turbo to add to the fleet. I poured over almost every 955/957/958 on the market, torturing my friends with endless adverts to look at before finally settling on this one. I'll be honest I wasn't a fan of the looks of the 1st gen Cayenne, but when you get up close to them in the metal they actually don't look half bad. The interior is still relatively contemporary, very well appointed and almost S-class quiet. The off-roading ability of the 955/7 is (dare I say it) as good as the Range Rover but the handling and dynamics is incredible for its size and in a league of its own.
I'm the 3rd owner, FSH, 90k miles, has had the plastic coolant pipes replaced with the aluminium ones, and is an unusual colour - Opalescent Green. It looks black to me but what do I know? Its an 06 car which is handy as it is the run out of the 955 and so seems to have every extra thrown at it.
I've not had chance to clean her up due to it raining in Manchester today and then having to drive it home where I did my first fix (more later).
I've struggled for a name for this car but in USA they call their Cayenne's 'Pigs', so..... here is Miss Piggy:
First impressions are superb. Its been reasonably well maintained up til now but the steering is very sharp, the engine is sweet and powerful as you would expect at 450bhp. What surprised me the most was that the seats are more comfortable than the Range Rover, something I didn't think could be possible!
One glaring omission from the history is the replacement of the prop-shaft (or 'carden shaft'). This is a well known failure on these cars. A new prop is about £6-700 plus fitting. They have a support bearing about half way down its length to keep it level and stop it sagging/swinging about when it rotates. This bearing is supported by a bracket attached by 2mm thick rubber ring. The ring disintegrates by about 60k miles and you get what sounds like a midget banging under the car with a hammer each time you accelerate! The following fix cost me about £5.
This one was fine when I picked it up, it lasted the 100 miles home, but one 0-60 flat out pull was all it took for the banging to start. It must have been on its last legs. Its essentially underivable when this happens, you can't help but notice it.
So, sooner than planned I set about doing my first fix. I take no credit for this, it was devised by someone on Rennlist and is called the 'Jimi' fix:
Put the car into terrain height - gives you loads of room underneath without needing jacks.
Remove the mounting plate holding the support bearing up:
Here you can see the rubber has disintegrated and the prop is no longer connected to the support:
Then, using a Dremel, sand off the remainder of the rubber, this is part way through, you need to get it back to flush:
Then get some rubber heater hose, cut 8 x 2cm lengths of it off and daisy chain the 8 bits together:
Put the new 'support' around what's left of the bearing, force the circular support over the top:
Then I zip tied a few of the rubber hoses to the outer circular bracket to stop them moving. Finally put the retaining plate back on and you've done.
This took about 1 hour. I've driven it hard since with no more banging, no noise and no issues. There are apparently lots of cars with tens of thousands of miles on this fix in USA.
I've got quite a few more little jobs to do but I want to actually clean it next.
I've also noticed a slight oil leak from the front nearside. It looks like its coming from around the bottom of the passenger intercooler hose. Anyone know what the common oil leaks are around that area?
More later :thumb:
To cut a long story short after only a few days of looking I've ended up buying a 955 turbo to add to the fleet. I poured over almost every 955/957/958 on the market, torturing my friends with endless adverts to look at before finally settling on this one. I'll be honest I wasn't a fan of the looks of the 1st gen Cayenne, but when you get up close to them in the metal they actually don't look half bad. The interior is still relatively contemporary, very well appointed and almost S-class quiet. The off-roading ability of the 955/7 is (dare I say it) as good as the Range Rover but the handling and dynamics is incredible for its size and in a league of its own.
I'm the 3rd owner, FSH, 90k miles, has had the plastic coolant pipes replaced with the aluminium ones, and is an unusual colour - Opalescent Green. It looks black to me but what do I know? Its an 06 car which is handy as it is the run out of the 955 and so seems to have every extra thrown at it.
I've not had chance to clean her up due to it raining in Manchester today and then having to drive it home where I did my first fix (more later).
I've struggled for a name for this car but in USA they call their Cayenne's 'Pigs', so..... here is Miss Piggy:
First impressions are superb. Its been reasonably well maintained up til now but the steering is very sharp, the engine is sweet and powerful as you would expect at 450bhp. What surprised me the most was that the seats are more comfortable than the Range Rover, something I didn't think could be possible!
One glaring omission from the history is the replacement of the prop-shaft (or 'carden shaft'). This is a well known failure on these cars. A new prop is about £6-700 plus fitting. They have a support bearing about half way down its length to keep it level and stop it sagging/swinging about when it rotates. This bearing is supported by a bracket attached by 2mm thick rubber ring. The ring disintegrates by about 60k miles and you get what sounds like a midget banging under the car with a hammer each time you accelerate! The following fix cost me about £5.
This one was fine when I picked it up, it lasted the 100 miles home, but one 0-60 flat out pull was all it took for the banging to start. It must have been on its last legs. Its essentially underivable when this happens, you can't help but notice it.
So, sooner than planned I set about doing my first fix. I take no credit for this, it was devised by someone on Rennlist and is called the 'Jimi' fix:
Put the car into terrain height - gives you loads of room underneath without needing jacks.
Remove the mounting plate holding the support bearing up:
Here you can see the rubber has disintegrated and the prop is no longer connected to the support:
Then, using a Dremel, sand off the remainder of the rubber, this is part way through, you need to get it back to flush:
Then get some rubber heater hose, cut 8 x 2cm lengths of it off and daisy chain the 8 bits together:
Put the new 'support' around what's left of the bearing, force the circular support over the top:
Then I zip tied a few of the rubber hoses to the outer circular bracket to stop them moving. Finally put the retaining plate back on and you've done.
This took about 1 hour. I've driven it hard since with no more banging, no noise and no issues. There are apparently lots of cars with tens of thousands of miles on this fix in USA.
I've got quite a few more little jobs to do but I want to actually clean it next.
I've also noticed a slight oil leak from the front nearside. It looks like its coming from around the bottom of the passenger intercooler hose. Anyone know what the common oil leaks are around that area?
More later :thumb: