AdBlue & Engine Control Faults

Technical Forum for the Porsche Macan
TigerMac!
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:23 pm

Post by TigerMac! »

Ok! so a independent Porsche specialist that now has my Macan has located the fault as being the Adblue pump and sensor. They recommend changing all the sensors and pipes, while its all out, they are charging me £1,400.00 + VAT to do this repair includes labour. Also Iam now having all 4 discs, sensors and pads changed at a charge of £1,300.00 + VAT = Total spend £2,700 + VAT. Going to have to see if warranty will cover this , but have to pay upfront. Its 4-5 days in the garage. Lord only knows what Porsche would have charged, if they had managed to locate the fault correctly in the first instance.
If any other fault appears relating to this, it can only be the injectors according to the mechanic, I hope it doesn't get to that.

Expensive lesson learnt.... NOT to buy car with ADBlue system, its just another quango in the motor industry.

Mechanic says the previous owner only did short trips averaging 70 miles per week as the car is 2014 and only 29000 miles. For an engine of this size, shouldn't start it and drive for 10mins, must be driven for at least 30mins to circulate all the fluids around the system at a reasonable speed. No good for the engine if you are only doing a school run, better off with a 1 litre ford in that case.

BigPhil
Posts: 1337
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 6:35 pm

Post by BigPhil »

TigerMac! wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:38 pm Ok! so a independent Porsche specialist that now has my Macan has located the fault as being the Adblue pump and sensor. They recommend changing all the sensors and pipes, while its all out, they are charging me £1,400.00 + VAT to do this repair includes labour. Also Iam now having all 4 discs, sensors and pads changed at a charge of £1,300.00 + VAT = Total spend £2,700 + VAT. Going to have to see if warranty will cover this , but have to pay upfront. Its 4-5 days in the garage. Lord only knows what Porsche would have charged, if they had managed to locate the fault correctly in the first instance.
If any other fault appears relating to this, it can only be the injectors according to the mechanic, I hope it doesn't get to that.

Expensive lesson learnt.... NOT to buy car with ADBlue system, its just another quango in the motor industry.

Mechanic says the previous owner only did short trips averaging 70 miles per week as the car is 2014 and only 29000 miles. For an engine of this size, shouldn't start it and drive for 10mins, must be driven for at least 30mins to circulate all the fluids around the system at a reasonable speed. No good for the engine if you are only doing a school run, better off with a 1 litre ford in that case.
I'm not sure your Indie is such a bargain. I had pads, discs, sensors done by my local garage last March, all OEM Brembo parts, £938+vat, all in. Porsche Hatfield are quite happy it was done outside of Porsche UK. Brakes are just consumables, no point in paying over the odds.
http://www.porsche-code.com/PH96VJA6
On-Track
Posts: 2135
Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: Staffordshire

Post by On-Track »

TigerMac! wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:38 pm Ok! so a independent Porsche specialist that now has my Macan has located the fault as being the Adblue pump and sensor. They recommend changing all the sensors and pipes, while its all out, they are charging me £1,400.00 + VAT to do this repair includes labour. Also Iam now having all 4 discs, sensors and pads changed at a charge of £1,300.00 + VAT = Total spend £2,700 + VAT. Going to have to see if warranty will cover this , but have to pay upfront. Its 4-5 days in the garage. Lord only knows what Porsche would have charged, if they had managed to locate the fault correctly in the first instance.
If any other fault appears relating to this, it can only be the injectors according to the mechanic, I hope it doesn't get to that.

Expensive lesson learnt.... NOT to buy car with ADBlue system, its just another quango in the motor industry.

Mechanic says the previous owner only did short trips averaging 70 miles per week as the car is 2014 and only 29000 miles. For an engine of this size, shouldn't start it and drive for 10mins, must be driven for at least 30mins to circulate all the fluids around the system at a reasonable speed. No good for the engine if you are only doing a school run, better off with a 1 litre ford in that case.
I don't think you've saved money by using the independent because the parts in the AdBlue system are expensive. At least the problem has been correctly identified first time around. It would have been better to have checked out the warranty issue before commiting to the repair.

The advice about short journeys is correct but for the wrong reason. Until the engine (or more particularly the exhaust) gets up to temperature the Diesel Particulate Filter (PDF) is not able to enter regen mode. This mode is how the PDF clears itself of particulates. If things get too bad you'll get a warning and the car will go into "limp home" mode. Usually a one hour drive at fast road speeds will clear this but sometimes you need to take the car to a garage for a forced regen. The Audi 3L engine in a Macan SD seems particularly prone to PDF issues if only used for local trips. I had an SD for five years and never had a single PDF warning but then almost without exception the car was never used for journeys of less than 1 hour.
Peter

Current: 2020 Carmine Red GTS http://www.porsche-code.com/PMST9ZI9
Gone- 2015 Sapphire Blue Diesel
Gone -2013 Cayenne Diesel
TigerMac!
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:23 pm

Post by TigerMac! »

Thank you chaps! I did think this was expensive, was just desperate to get the work completed by a reputable indie. Initially struggled to find one with Porsche expertise.... would have rather Porsche did this, but they simply were talking too long to book it in, almost 3 months and the cost was also much higher, plus no courtesy car, which I found astonishing as they were going to keep the car in for upto 1 week. Found out later that my local Porsche dealer has a bad rep. for customer service, seems they are all Independently managed in UK and its pot luck if you get good management.

Thanks for the heads up on the PDF. I will keep this in mind and use it for reasonable journeys.

Just hope there's no other issues from this repair.

Seems the Macan is one of the best engineered cars on the road, but the caveat of having the AdBlue system may be its Achilles heel.
TigerMac!
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:23 pm

Post by TigerMac! »

Thank you chaps! I did think this was expensive, was just desperate to get the work completed by a reputable indie. Initially struggled to find one with Porsche expertise.... would have rather Porsche did this, but they simply were talking too long to book it in, almost 3 months and the cost was also much higher, plus no courtesy car, which I found astonishing as they were going to keep the car in for upto 1 week. Found out later that my local Porsche dealer has a bad rep. for customer service, seems they are all Independently managed in UK and its pot luck if you get good management.

Speaking to the Sytner warranty guys now, they reviewing if I can get anything back from this expense. I have 6 months remaining on it.

Thanks for the heads up on the PDF. I will keep this in mind and use it for reasonable journeys.

Just hope there's no other issues from this repair. Just want to drive the car, its an amazing thing to drive!

Seems the Macan is one of the best engineered cars on the road, but the caveat of having the AdBlue system may be its Achilles heel.
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SAC1
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Location: near BATH

Post by SAC1 »

Hi TigerMac! Welcome to the Forum.

I ran an SD for 3 years with no DPF issues at all and it only needed one AdBlue refill in 18,000 miles.

I always made sure I did trips long enough for the oil to reach full working temperature. In my case about 20 minutes on my local A / B- roads.

I always used BP Ultimate premium grade diesel.

Lifetime average was 36 mpg. Worst 30 mpg and with a best of 52 mpg on a 260 mile trip to York.

Great cars; great engines. :) :geek:
Steve

2020 GTS in Sapphire Blue
(sold) 2017 SD in Rhodium Silver
gasgas1
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Location: Devon

Post by gasgas1 »

got to agree with SAC1
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pmg
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Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:31 pm

Post by pmg »

SAC1 wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:10 pm Hi TigerMac! Welcome to the Forum.

I ran an SD for 3 years with no DPF issues at all and it only needed one AdBlue refill in 18,000 miles.

I always made sure I did trips long enough for the oil to reach full working temperature. In my case about 20 minutes on my local A / B- roads.

I always used BP Ultimate premium grade diesel.

Lifetime average was 36 mpg. Worst 30 mpg and with a best of 52 mpg on a 260 mile trip to York.

Great cars; great engines. :) :geek:
When I ran BMW diesels, I had exactly the same approach as SAC, but over the last few years on the South Coast I have seen a lot of Macan SD's purchased as a second vehicle and used mainly for school and supermarket trips
2019 Macan S Porsche code PKW8WKI8
TigerMac!
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:23 pm

Post by TigerMac! »

Hi Sac / PMG....
Thanks for your feedback, totally understand these machines need to be run and filled with correct fluids. Premium Diesel is a must. Was a shame the previous owner hadn't driven it enough. Guess my AdBlue issue was rare as the whole pump, sensors and pipework had to be changed, but now it drives as new, much more power and engine seems smoother with greater torque. Have to agree when running right, not much can beat the experience of a MSD. its got to be one of the best handling SUV's, so addictive. Plus they fitted brand new vented brembo discs all round with pads and thats made such a difference to the experience. Discs were in bad shape and never been changed.

The only shock for me was my local Porsche dealership has a very bad rep. for customer service and they simply didn't seem responsive to someone like me who was prepared to spend a lot of money with them to efficiently solve the problem, they were talking about 2-3 months to solve the issue over 2-3 trips into the garage, just didn't make sense. Also no guarantee of courtesy car.
I have now forged a relationship with an independent specialist who are very responsive, they even called me a week after to ensure I was happy with their work, if anything went wrong, they would take full responsibility to fix it without charge. Cant argue with that! They renovate and customise old 911's, some amazing cars in their workshop. Porsche Leicester needs to learn some customer relationship skills.
On-Track
Posts: 2135
Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: Staffordshire

Post by On-Track »

At the risk of restarting a debate on the value of Premium Diesel, I ran my SD for five years on Sainsbury's finest and never had any DPF issues.

Mind you my GTS has never sipped anything other than Esso Supreme or Shell V Power :D
Peter

Current: 2020 Carmine Red GTS http://www.porsche-code.com/PMST9ZI9
Gone- 2015 Sapphire Blue Diesel
Gone -2013 Cayenne Diesel
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