Friend looking at a 2004 Cayenne
 

Can any body recommend a shop in Calgary for a PPI?
And anything other than coolant pipes to be aware of for this model year?
She is looking at this and at a 2006, both non turbo

I put 186,000 miles on an 04 Cayenne S and LOVED it! There are a couple other common issues beside coolant pipes, but most should have been solved by now by a previous owner. The original cardan shafts go between 60K and 80K miles. That's expensive. The original coils crack by 50K miles and need to be replaced. The new coils are better, but still need replacing every 60 or 70K miles. Cayennes EAT front tires. The 2nd generation were better, but on an 04 you need to rotate tires often to get more the 25K out of them.

110k on my S.

Craig is right about the cardan shafts, other than the shafts aren't problematic, it's the rubber doughnut that constrains the shaft, at the central U-joint, that gives up.

Also, tire wear has NOT been an issue for me. 50k on one set of Toyo's stunned me. I will note that on the PASM (Air) suspended models, the front alignment does slightly change depending on height setting. (have the shop align at the setting that you use the most.)

Make sure you can hear the turn signals "blinking" when on. If not you will need a new instrument cluster which is major bucks. I've not had the tire, or spring issue, possibly because I have the air suspension and I have a turbo.

Hi Gordner,
I got this name from another forum and although I have no personal experience with this indy shop, Alpine autowerks in Calgary was recommended as doing a good job on the ppi.
Guy:)

oh yeah, on the coil packs... I still have one original working in the car. (110k) The newer ones are only better because they are new and working (until they are not).

Seems every car has this issue nowadays.

Yep. Every Porsche at least.

MBz is not immune either. :-| Nor VW Audi...

I have an '04 Turbo with well over 100K miles. It does use a lot of tires (but sorta expected for a 6K lbs, high performance vehicle on performance-rated tires that is also used for towing up to a little over 7K lbs. Of course the turbo takes some big tires (275/40ZR20). I use Continental Extreme Contact DWS which wear as well as more expensive tires I tried. Last set cost me $248 each a little over 3 years ago...and I am close to needing new ones.

I had to fix the coolant pipe problem, but that was partially funded by the settlement against Porsche (even though I bought it used). Otherwise, just minor issues like a battery, light bulb, etc. Looks like it will need it's first set of brakes soon. It s rather unPorschelike as I really have used it like an appliance once I got passed the initial thrill of the twin turbos...and have done a crappy job maintaining it (like my Toyota and Lexus) without issue. I simply drop it by a very good local independent whenever I need tires or an idiot light comes on and they change the oil while it is in there (and sometime do some minor tweak to clear/fix the idiot light. It is great because it frees me up for more time to tinker on my old cars.

I really enjoyed it more when I spent most of my time out west because the traffic, low speed limits and high level of enforcement where I live now really don't much allow me to enjoy it much more than a lesser car that gets better mileage, is easier to park and uses regular gas (I use midgrade).

Yes talk to Marc at Alpine he is great. I would also recommend the later model if the KM's and service history is the same as the 03's were alpha models, 04's beta a lot of the early SUV's has issues, most worked out by now as mentioned above, but I would always go with a later model.