So here's my story...I ordered a 2017 base Cayman back in February of 2017, picked it up in July of 17. Around October, about 3 months/4200 miles in (daily driver), I noticed a loud squeaking noise coming from the driver's seat on the left (door) side. I took it into a local dealership here, Porsche of Downtown Los Angeles, drove it with a tech, he heard the noise, and they kept the car to see what it was. I picked it up about 4 days later on what would turn out to be the worst day of my life, Game 7 of the World Series (Dodgers fan) and the squeaking was gone. I was in a rush to get the car, but the service record says they had re-secured the seat, and lubricated the motor that moves the backrest part of the seat up and down. I had the car for about a month and a half, before the squeaking came back. Waited a few weeks and then took it in to the Beverly Hills dealership in mid-January, they didn't drive it for a few days, and then of course, weren't able to duplicate the noise. They gave me back the car, and within a few days, the noise had returned.
This noise happens at all times, during normal driving, different weather, indiscriminately. The worst time is coming to a stop and then starting up again, i.e., at stoplights. It's usually less severe on the freeway, but it can happen there too, over bumps, on good roads and regular street commuter driving...constantly. I've moved the seat into different positions, and it's made the noise in all of them, eventually. The only thing I could think of is that it's at the lowest possible setting, but I want it to be there as I'm tall and I like as much room for my legs under the steering wheel as possible. I ordered the GT Sport steering wheel and manual seats for this purpose. For video of the noise, check the youtube link below. This is one of maybe 20 videos I have of the sound, and I could take dozens more every day.
Anyway, I took it BACK into Porsche of Downtown LA a few weeks later in early February. My girlfriend was with me, and one of their techs drove the car around without me, came back and said he heard the noise and thought it was an upholstery issue, that there was too much leather on the seat or that the stitching was bad and they'd have an upholstery guy come and take a look at it. 3-4 days later they said the car's ready. I asked if the upholsterer had been out, and they said the techs had been working out. Turns out they tried to re-secure it again, without really doing anything differently etc. etc. So within 15 minutes of having the car back, the noise returned. I then escalated it to Porsche of North America, who basically said their only function is as customer service, and all repairs have to be authorized through a dealership. They did reach out to Downtown LA, who agreed to come pick the car up from me this time. After a day or two, the service manager called me and said they couldn't duplicate the noise, then said it might be my fault because of the seat back rubbing against the carpet (i don't have the seat all the way back anyway), then said they only heard the noise with me in the car, which wasn't true and is in writing on the dealership service records. Finally I sent her 7 videos of the noise and she said they would order new seat rails to click the seat back into.
This worked for about a wee before the noise came back, as bad or worse than before. I got back in touch with PCNA who said I have no choice but to request more help from the dealer or go to a different dealership.
I emailed the service manager and asked for an entirely new seat, and contacted a lemon law lawyer here in California. Since it's been in 4, soon to be 5 times, to the dealership, it can potentially qualify for the lemon law procedures. The service manager at Downtown LA said her technical rep with Porsche wants me to duplicate the noise with the foreman of the service department. SO I have an appointment to go BACK in on this Saturday. I don't really want to leave the car with them again when nothing has worked, and it seems like it's a lot cheaper for them to just authorize a new seat than potentially having to pay for me to give a car back to them that they can no longer sell. But who knows what they'll tell me, I'm sure they'll want to just re-secure the seat again, which won't work.
When I spoke to PCNA customer service, I told them how incredibly frustrating this has been, after dealing with this for months and having it still not be fixed. I ordered the car, waited 5 months, and of the 7.5 months I've had the car, 5 of them have been spent dealing with this problem. Not to mention that I paid extra for seats that don't work, the 2-way Sport Plus seats are $440 when ordered with the Leather and Sport-Tex package which is an extra $2500.
It's incredibly frustrating to drive, every single time I get in the car. I honestly don't know if I even want a new seat at this point, or an entirely new car. Who knows.
This noise happens at all times, during normal driving, different weather, indiscriminately. The worst time is coming to a stop and then starting up again, i.e., at stoplights. It's usually less severe on the freeway, but it can happen there too, over bumps, on good roads and regular street commuter driving...constantly. I've moved the seat into different positions, and it's made the noise in all of them, eventually. The only thing I could think of is that it's at the lowest possible setting, but I want it to be there as I'm tall and I like as much room for my legs under the steering wheel as possible. I ordered the GT Sport steering wheel and manual seats for this purpose. For video of the noise, check the youtube link below. This is one of maybe 20 videos I have of the sound, and I could take dozens more every day.
Anyway, I took it BACK into Porsche of Downtown LA a few weeks later in early February. My girlfriend was with me, and one of their techs drove the car around without me, came back and said he heard the noise and thought it was an upholstery issue, that there was too much leather on the seat or that the stitching was bad and they'd have an upholstery guy come and take a look at it. 3-4 days later they said the car's ready. I asked if the upholsterer had been out, and they said the techs had been working out. Turns out they tried to re-secure it again, without really doing anything differently etc. etc. So within 15 minutes of having the car back, the noise returned. I then escalated it to Porsche of North America, who basically said their only function is as customer service, and all repairs have to be authorized through a dealership. They did reach out to Downtown LA, who agreed to come pick the car up from me this time. After a day or two, the service manager called me and said they couldn't duplicate the noise, then said it might be my fault because of the seat back rubbing against the carpet (i don't have the seat all the way back anyway), then said they only heard the noise with me in the car, which wasn't true and is in writing on the dealership service records. Finally I sent her 7 videos of the noise and she said they would order new seat rails to click the seat back into.
This worked for about a wee before the noise came back, as bad or worse than before. I got back in touch with PCNA who said I have no choice but to request more help from the dealer or go to a different dealership.
I emailed the service manager and asked for an entirely new seat, and contacted a lemon law lawyer here in California. Since it's been in 4, soon to be 5 times, to the dealership, it can potentially qualify for the lemon law procedures. The service manager at Downtown LA said her technical rep with Porsche wants me to duplicate the noise with the foreman of the service department. SO I have an appointment to go BACK in on this Saturday. I don't really want to leave the car with them again when nothing has worked, and it seems like it's a lot cheaper for them to just authorize a new seat than potentially having to pay for me to give a car back to them that they can no longer sell. But who knows what they'll tell me, I'm sure they'll want to just re-secure the seat again, which won't work.
When I spoke to PCNA customer service, I told them how incredibly frustrating this has been, after dealing with this for months and having it still not be fixed. I ordered the car, waited 5 months, and of the 7.5 months I've had the car, 5 of them have been spent dealing with this problem. Not to mention that I paid extra for seats that don't work, the 2-way Sport Plus seats are $440 when ordered with the Leather and Sport-Tex package which is an extra $2500.
It's incredibly frustrating to drive, every single time I get in the car. I honestly don't know if I even want a new seat at this point, or an entirely new car. Who knows.