[K12123]

I’ve had my 2019 Base 718 Cayman for about a week now and am absolutely loving every minute of it. When I was buying the car, they tried to sell me the tire and wheel protection pretty hard but I thought it was a bit steep at $2999. They were using scare tactics like how tire costs $600 and that these tires cannot be patched and such. The roads that I drive are fairly decent and I try to be as careful as possible. This morning during my commute to work, I noticed that the rest of my tires are at 32 psi but my front left tire is at 29 psi. It’s been like that for a few days and would go anywhere from 29-32 psi on the front left, but never really paid any attention to it until I remembered that I didn’t get the wheel and tire haha. So my question is:

1) Do these tires really cost $600/each? I have the 19” Boxster wheels.
2) Can these tires really not be patched up?
3) Any aftermarket tire insurance I can get? I’m not worried so much for the wheel as I am for the tires because of the constant wear and tear.
4) Should I have my tire pressures corrected being the front left tire having anywhere from 2-3 psi difference for a few days now?

Thanks!

 

[DriveInHouston]

1) No! But they are not cheap... For your size (F/R) the Michelin PS4S can be found in Tire Rack for $279/$328, the Pirelli PZero $268/$370, the Continental Extreme Contact $226/$266 and the Goodyear Eagle F1 $284/$349. These are the Porsche recommendations for your rims. Note that the N0 designation (Porsche Spec) is missing from the Michelins and the Contis while the Pirellis are up to N1. FWIW. I changed all 4 in the Porsche North Houston dealership, including an alignment came around $2100 (i.e. around $1800 for a set of 4 Michelin PS4S N0). I think your dealer is quite expensive, if he dreams selling you 1 tire for $600...

2) No Porsche dealer will do this, but some of the OEM manufacturers accept Patch and Plug repairs for small holes. I would not track a repaired tire, but for freeway speeds I think it's ok. My very small sample of 1, I had it done in a rear tire and it lasted the life of the tire (keep in mind the tire life in our 718s is short, people on the average get 20k/10k mi (F/R). I thought I had a light touch, but my rear ones (Michelin PS4S) got worn out in 10k mi.

3) I am not sure, Discount Tire offered insurance on the previous set of Michelin PS4S. I could have claimed the patch repair, but I charged it to good will. Porsche NH could not offer insurance. I think I read somewhere that you can get it through the manufacturer, this is something you need to negotiate, before you put your order in. Tire Rack does offer insurance.

4) You mean you haven't done it yet?

 

[K12123]

Thanks you so much for the detailed response! And on your last point...really?? Haha now considering stopping by the dealership later today to have it corrected.

4) You mean you haven't done it yet?

 

[jimmuller]

@K12123, you should at least check the tire visually. You may have picked up a nail. Also, as @DriveInHouston says, you should put some air in the tire which reads low.

I dont know about after-the-purchase tire protection policies. It doesn't come directly from Porsche anyway so perhaps you can still find one. It may be extravagant but I purchased it with my car, don't think it was that expensive though. My salesman afterward told me it was a good move because it covers wheels as well as tires, that he had another customer who had made several wheel claims from scraping a wheel on a curb.

When I had owned my car (with 20" wheels) for less than a month I did exactly that in front of my house on a curb section which tree roots had pushed out to be a bulge into the street. Many months later a woman driving an SUV slowed for a stoplight in the left lane, thought better of it, and started to pull into my lane with a green light as I was passing by. I veered quick;ly to the right so we wouldn't scrape doors but scraped both right side wheels on the curb. A few months ago I heard a thump and found a ding in a wheel where it had been hit by a rock bounced down a hill by some kids playing. Some other time I picked up a nail in one of my PS4S, a big rear tire. All events were covered by the wheel package so I have aleady recovered much of the cost. Mostly though it provides some peace of mind should we pick up a nail or two in those expensive tires.

 

[Barryng]

In my strong opinion tire and wheel protection insurance is a very expensive waste of a lot of money. It will indeed give some people peace of mind but it is certainly not a smart purchase for anyone, like myself, whose driving is limited to city/rural/interstate paved normally traveled roads. I certainly have had my fair share of nails over the years since my first car in 1969 and even destroyed a very expensive wheel on a new E30 BMW M3 by simply letting myself get distracted. However, and this is a big however, if I consider the cost of all the tire/wheel issues over the years and compare that to the enormous, by comparison, cost of insuring every tire on every new car and every replacement tire, the out of pocket repair/replacement costs are truly negligible. In addition, insurance is supposed to be for catastrophic events. Repairing or even buying new tires might be painful but it is not a catastrophic cost, especially for those able to drive a Porsche, BMW, etc. Extended warranty/reapir policies from everything from TVs to tires are very high profit items marketed on fear alone, not smart spending. Of course things will break but stuff is so reliable one will never ever come out ahead by buying these policies. Think about it, they would not be so high profit if there were a consequential number of claims and they would not be pushed so hard. I have read big box stores are willing to sell many TVs/appliances at cost because they can reasonably depend on making good profit from the sale by selling an extended warranty. The same is true for tires.

I purchased my Boxster last year from Melbourne Porsche. My X3 will be four years old in a couple of months, I never was thrilled with its performance, I am bored with it, and just want a Macan so sometime in the foreseeable future I will probable replace the X3. The sales experience and sales person at Melbourne Porsche were truly excellent but the money guy just before delivery was off scale high offensive the way he pushed extended tire and service warranties and other worthless crap (like a $3K or so built in radar detector). I do not fault him for presenting these options but I fault him greatly for not taking "NO" for an answer. It made for an unfortunately unpleasant memorable experience. I can guarantee I will not purchase the Macan from Melbourne Porsche if this guy will have any contact with me. I am more angry with myself for not stopping him but I will do without the car rather than subject myself to that same level of disrespect again. In any case, I turned down everything he tried to push down my throat and have zero regrets as not a single item would have been a smart purchase if looking at the eventual overall cost.

 

[reiver]

I patched a rear 20 inch Goodyear a month ago and myself...center of the tire thru the thickest part of the tread lug. Thin nail. I've had it to 130 mph....it will not 'blow' even if it did fail...which it will not...it would leak.
These are summer 'sticky' tires anyway and the plug is also sticky...it is not going to be an issue unless you have some very wide diameter puncture. It is a tire.

 

[K12123]

Thank you guys so much! Really reassured me. I will stop by the dealership on my way home to have the pressures corrected then observe.

 

[CaymanMatt]

Thank you guys so much! Really reassured me. I will stop by the dealership on my way home to have the pressures corrected then observe.

I suggest that you purchase a decent tire gauge and small plugin home compressor and learn to do it yourself. This is one of those things that should be checked on a regular basis on each of your cars. BTW, you can even use a bicycle tire pump. It only takes about 25-30 pumps on a normal floor pump to add 3-4 lbs of pressure to a tire.
MOO

 

[Third]

In my strong opinion tire and wheel protection insurance is a very expensive waste of a lot of money...

I tend to agree with everything Barryng said, but I also understand warranties like this work for some people. It's a matter of how risk averse one is, and in general whether one can afford to self insure. In this case I think the value, if it exists, is in the coverage for wheel damage more than tires. I believe a new OEM wheel runs about $1500 on average and a hard strike can definitely destroy one. Still, the likelihood of that happening is small so for me, I have always passed on this insurance. (Note when one finally does replace tires, they typically come with a road hazard warranty priced in - see Tire Rack for example.

As for tire pressure, I agree with everyone above that it should be checked regularly - simply done each time you pull away - and maintained. My gut feeling - and it's just that, a gut feeling - is that if tires are within five or 10 percent of their recommended pressure, their is no urgency to adjust them. For even wear, I think keeping them about the same L and R is probably as if not more important.

 

[Barryng]

As for tire pressure, ... is that if tires are within five or 10 percent of their recommended pressure, their is no urgency to adjust them. For even wear, I think keeping them about the same L and R is probably as if not more important.

I agree! I want to emphasize your point about L/R tire pressure consistency. Its been my experience handling on better handling cars becomes somewhat weird, and somewhat unsafe, if the L/R pressures are not reasonably consistent.

Also, an accident with multiple drowning fatalities near where I lived a few years back got my attention because it was attributed to a tire blowout due to overheating caused by low pressure although the news did not report how low. The tire blew on an interstate, the driver lost control, and the car ran into an excavation pond.

 

[sevencyclist]

I passed on wheels and tires insurance for my base 18" wheels and tires. Figure gives me chance to upgrade if something ever happened. Like someone said above, the plans are insurance for catastrophic things, but chance of happening obviously is less than frequent.

Definitely take a look to see if any nail that caused the pressure to be different for only that one tire. The pressure monitoring in 718 jumps from 29 to 30, and then to 32. I believe it is in gradient of 1.5, so you get the skip on 31.

 

[GregW]

My recommendation--Do get a reliable pressure gauge and use it to maintain the pressures yourself. You will be far more accurate (IMO) than any dealer. One gauge for 4 tyres is also likely more accurate than a separate gauge for each tyre. Porsche does recommend AGAINST using the TPMS as a fill gauge.

Small differences between tyres are not usually an issue. One side of the car in the sun can raise pressures 2-3 lbs. on that side; but a continued imbalance should be investigated and corrected. Oxygen in the air leaks slowly through the rubber so with new tyres/air fills some periodic top-ups will be needed until the air in the tyres is mainly nitrogen. (That's the only advantage of a nitrogen fill--all else in fiction.)

Most extended warranties have very good profit margins, so unless you are hard on tyres and wheels then the profit goes to the seller and not you.

 

[jimmuller]

So it isn't necessary that I rotate the air in my tires every season?

I always figured I would never scrape a curb with my spiffy new incredibly wonderful zoom mobile Porsche 718 Cayman, that I'd be far too careful to do that. But I did. More importantly, it means not worrying about getting flats or other damage beyond having to fix them to keep driving. The first time I ever bought tires that came with road hazard coverage it felt like a giant safety net. The first time I had to collect it felt like someone had given me free money. But that's what insurance is anyway, you pay up front or you gamble that you will never need to.

As for checking air pressure, the big question for @K12123 is whether the tires used to read the same and then one day one tire was lower. A single event? Maybe. An ongoing phenomenon means it is losing air. If so there is a reason.

 

[GregW]

So it isn't necessary that I rotate the air in my tires every season?

Nope. The tyres going round does that for you. ?

 

[splinter]

Yeah these cars consume pricey consumables like a proper sporty car is built to do.

I tend to buy the 'best' and highest adhesion tires available then try to wear them out as quickly as possible haha.

And budget accordingly.

 

[Third]

...
I always figured I would never scrape a curb with my spiffy new incredibly wonderful zoom mobile Porsche 718 Cayman, that I'd be far too careful to do that. But I did. More importantly, it means not worrying about getting flats or other damage beyond having to fix them to keep driving. The first time I ever bought tires that came with road hazard coverage it felt like a giant safety net. The first time I had to collect it felt like someone had given me free money. But that's what insurance is anyway, you pay up front or you gamble that you will never need to.

...

Lest I was misunderstood, I totally understand the peace of mind that comes from these and other extended warranties. It's a personal decision, and in fact their prices are often negotiable!

Also, I too would recommend against relying on the accuracy of the TPMS. It's probably good for getting a general idea of tire pressure from one day to the next, but as GregW mentions you'll get a more accurate idea of the relative and absolute pressure in all four tires using a single calibrated pressure gauge. That is, it's certainly possible to get a 29psi reading from TPMS in one tire and 32 in another when both tires are inflated to exactly the same pressure. The difference being in the calibration of the two sensors.

 

[DriveInHouston]

Lest I was misunderstood, I totally understand the peace of mind that comes from these and other extended warranties. It's a personal decision, and in fact their prices are often negotiable!

Also, I too would recommend against relying on the accuracy of the TPMS. It's probably good for getting a general idea of tire pressure from one day to the next, but as GregW mentions you'll get a more accurate idea of the relative and absolute pressure in all four tires using a single calibrated pressure gauge. That is, it's certainly possible to get a 29psi reading from TPMS in one tire and 32 in another when both tires are inflated to exactly the same pressure. The difference being in the calibration of the two sensors.

While it is definitely possible (each sensor being a separate instrument) it is not likely probable. I haven't heard many people complaining that they filled all their tires to the same pressure (as attested by their own tire pressure gauge) and then have 3 psi difference between tires the moment TPMS comes on.

I have observed 1-2 psi difference in TPMS reading between tires in the same axle, while the tires are warming up, but this usually evens out as the tires reach operating temperature.

I have observed differences 1-2 possibly 3 psi between front and rear axle, as the tires warm up, because the rears warm up a lot faster than the fronts.

I can believe consistent differences between manual pressure gauge reading and initial TPMS reading (when ideally they ought to match). This may have to do with the gauge calibration, but also because the TPMS reads in tenths of a bar, giving you sometimes 1 psi round-off error.

Anyway, the point of this diatribe is that we should investigate the readings of our TPMS and should not wholesale mistrust it, just because some crusty septuagenarian says so (I am not there yet...).

 

[jimmuller]

...just because some crusty septuagenarian says so (I am not there yet...).

Hey, I resemble that! Oh wait, I do resemble that; I are one. Never mind.

I sure don't mistrust the TPMS. I agree with most of the above. Use it as a tool, track your tire pressures, fill as required. I look at my TPMS (or TMSP or TMPS or whatever) every drive, shortly after I start out and then every so often as I'm driving. It's fun to flip that lever and see what the car is doing.

Now, I have to go work on the crusty part.

 

[DriveInHouston]

Hey, I resemble that! Oh wait, I do resemble that; I are one. Never mind.

I sure don't mistrust the TPMS. I agree with most of the above. Use it as a tool, track your tire pressures, fill as required. I look at my TPMS (or TMSP or TMPS or whatever) every drive, shortly after I start out and then every so often as I'm driving. It's fun to flip that lever and see what the car is doing.

Now, I have to go work on the crusty part.

+1

It is much more fun (NOT) to drive from Houston to NYC with a slowly leaking tire and checking every few minutes. I checked it numerous times and could not find a nail... In the end, it was a tiny screw!... I topped the tire every day 2-3 psi lost mostly during the night (?).

Let me add one last thing. TPMS (central units and sensors) are known to suddenly fail creating false alarms. Once in my Mustang while I was driving in a segregated (walled) HOV lane, that made me sweat bricks until I got out of I10 and check the tires with my tire pressure gauge (they were ok) and twice in my wife's Beemer. Both cars had the one alarm fits any tire , not like Porsche telling you which tire is sensed low. I am fine with false alarms. I've yet to hear someone reporting a flat tire showng 35 psi...

During my escapade with the blowout on I10, I immediately got a warning and the readout with the right rear shown 0 psi.

 

[Swdea]

FYI The tire and wheel package price is negotiable just like the price of the car.