I had gotten the car from Pfaff last year. If you read in the previous post, I had gotten the car just before winter, so there was not much time to enjoy the car before being put to storage over winter. The car was put on a trickle charger over the months to maintain the battery. I had checked it over the months to make sure the readings did not go below 100%.
Bring on March! Single digit temperatures and sometimes double digits make my fingers itch. And my feet tap. I'm just waiting to bring her out! So of course, that's what I do.
The first thing I noticed something was a bit odd was when the readings showed 25%. Hmm. How did it go from 100% to 25%. This is my first time storing and taking out a car from long winter months so it's not like I have much experience with it, but I figured 25% would charge later on to 100%. What did I do? I took the car out for a spin.
Knowing that it hadn't been started up in months or driven, I had to take it real easy. I warmed it up for a good 15mins or so. I then slowly drove it, grandma style. No redlining, no fierce acceleration. Just everything under light load. I took it for a wash, which took forever to do. So those 40 mins or so I just let the engine run.
After a day of parking and driving, I came home and parked the car in the garage as per usual. I knew something was wrong when I turned the key to the 'OFF' position, but the engine remained running. Hmm. That's weird. So I tried again to restart the car. But you know how the car jolts a bit when you first start up the car? Yeah, didn't get that this time around, because the engine was still on.
Turned it off again. But then I realized: the key is stuck in the ignition. It's off, but it's stuck. The engine is still running. Super weird. Never encountered anything like this before. I had to walk to the back to listen to the exhaust and it was still running. Super, super weird.
Now I have a parked car in the garage, with the engine still running, and the key is off but it's stuck inside. I can't take it out. I contacted Nextmod, and although they were closed, I was still able to get in touch with them and explain the situation. After going through some brainstorming, he brought up a good point: try calling Porsche Roadside Assistance. Oh my goodness. I had forgotten I have that!
After getting the number, I called them and explained my situation. The most dangerous situation is that I could not close the garage door with the car still running, otherwise I'd be dead by morning. A tow truck showed up within 15-20 mins to assess the situation. He too could not remove the key from the ignition. Tried to brainstorm ideas, and said ok, let's try and unplug the battery. So he did. And guess what? The car engine was still running.
He then decided to pull the fuel pump relay fuse. This time, the engine did shut off. The key remained stuck in the ignition, with the dash lights still on. The only thing at this point was to put the car back to trickle charge so the battery won't be dead by the morning. That was the end of the evening.
The next morning.
Monday. Initially I called up Porsche Centre North Toronto as it was the closest dealership to me. However, they were pretty swamped that week and were unable to fit me in until Thursday of that week. If I wanted a loaner car, I was out of luck as they had none that week. The earliest would be the week after. I figured I didn't want to wait another week of trying to fix the problem, so I called up Pfaff to see if they had a spot that same Monday. Thankfully they did, so the appointment was booked for that morning.
I go to the garage to start her up. Anddddd the car is dead. I couldn't open the doors with the keyless entry system, so I had to manually take out the hidden key and open it from the lock. This time, the dash lights would not turn on once the key was turned. I had a dead car with a dead battery in the garage.
I called up Porsche Roadside Assistance again. This time I asked for a tow to the dealership. Because I needed a flatbed, it would take up to 2 hours for one to show up. And of course, this was a day that I had work. I was frantic. I notified Pfaff of my situation that I wouldn't make the scheduled time, so they said no problem, we will book you in at 1pm instead.
However, 20 mins after I called them up, a flatbed showed up! I'm pretty thankful that they were very quick to respond. He boosted the battery and the car was alive again. He asked if I wanted to drive it to the dealership instead, but I had told him it's best if it gets towed. He loaded it up to the flatbed, and once again he tried turning off the car. The engine would not shut off, even with the key in the 'OFF' position.
Now begins our trek to Pfaff. We arrived to Pfaff an hour before the scheduled appointment (thank God for 407) and unloaded the car off. I drove it to service and explained to them what happened. I've never seen a group of techs surround a car trying to turn it off. They struggled as well. And now in my head I keep wondering, holy crap is this a lemon? I mean not only does it look like a lemon, but it smells like one too? All kinds of panic type ideas start hitting your head when you're nervous of what the outcome would be.
I spoke with the service advisor and he recorded everything that I experienced, as well as any other issues that I wanted to look into (i.e tail lights not sitting flush, spoiler not sitting flush). Very minor things but of course bottom line is, we need to find out why the car isn't shutting off when it's suppose to.
Considering they still had to diagnose it and perhaps order parts in, Pfaff offered me a loaner car. It was the Macan base, that was loaded up pretty well. This was my first time experiencing a loaner car, so I figured I will take them up on the offer. I wasn't able to get time off work that day, so I'm thankful again that they were able to offer a loaner for however long it took.
I drove the Macan that day and man, it didn't feel any different than the Cayman, except maybe it was a bit taller on the road. Otherwise I found that the steering was pretty similar in feeling, and it had a massive panoramic roof. The Macan was pretty optioned out with the sports chrono package, Navi, sports exhaust, as well as other features that I didn't have a chance to try. I hadn't looked into the Macan at all, but after this loan, it's definitely in my radar.
I call it the baby Cayenne, because it is smaller than the Cayenne. I found it to be comfortable (I do drive 2 sports cars, so anything with more than 2 doors is comfortable), and the heated seats were a nice feature. The only thing I noticed was that when the passenger side fan was on, there was this annoying swooshing sound coming from the dash vent. I turned the passenger fan off and the sound disappeared. I don't think the swooshing sound is suppose to happen, but then again, it is a loaner so who knows what previous drivers did.
I had the Macan for 3 days and drove it back and forth between work before Pfaff notified me that the Cayman was ready for pick up. To be honest, I was pretty sad to be dropping the Macan off, but I can finally be in my car again.
In terms of the issue, it was found that the ignition switch was defective. All cars exhibit various symptoms for us to figure out and they can be different when it comes to a defective ignition switch. In my case, the engine wouldn't shut off. The engine thought that because the key was still in the ignition, then therefore, the engine remained on. It also gave off another warning, which had said my headlights were failing, when they were in perfect working order.
The ignition switch is similar to what they use in the 911, and is a known issue apparently. Fortunately because the car is still under warranty (CPO), everything was covered: ignition switch replacement, Macan loaner, and the 2 mayday calls and tow, with the battery boost.
Of all the cars and dealerships that I've dealt with, this is by far one of the quickest responses. You know what they say, you get what you paid for. I definitely didn't experience this at Hyundai (and probably never will...I still remember they gouged me almost $1000 and didn't even fix the problem), but this blew my mind. I'm just really thankful that it turned out well in the end. The only thing I had to pay for was the gas in the Macan before I returned it, otherwise I'm pretty relieved.
If you're looking at Porsche products, whether it's new or used, I can tell you that you'll get looked after. Yes, you pay a premium for their products but the warranty is worth it.
