sandwedge

Dropped off my car at the body shop Tuesday morning to have the rear bumper buffed after a small repair and paint a month ago. Couldn't pick up the car before they closed so told them to lock it up and put the key in the front boot. I'll use my spare key whenever I get there. Good plan except........my spare key didn't work. None of the buttons did anything so I stuck the key in the lock and got the door open......only to set the alarm off. WTF....!! Stuck the key in the ignition - nothing. Pulled the front boot release to get the key I know works - nothing. The car was DISABLED......front to end, top to bottom.

Then it struck me. Had the car at the dealer last week and they did a "just out" update on the DME. Something went wrong and they had to order a new DME unit which was overnighted and installed the next day. What they apparently failed to tell me was that the key(s) must be reprogrammed with a new DME unit and obviously only the key I carry on my key ring was reprogrammed, rendering my spare and the valet useless. Now I'm a little irked since I'm already late for an appointment and can't leave with lights flashing and horn blaring. Called roadside assistance where I learned that there is no solution to this short of introducing a valid key to the system. In other words, time for a wrecker which rolled up 10 minutes later. Preferred to have the car sleep at the dealer rather than the parking lot at the body shop but not even that worked. The driver of the wrecker refused to transport my car since he:

1. Had to get into the front boot in order to configure the tow hook which was not possible.
2. Had to be able to turn the front wheels which wasn't possible either since the steering wheel couldn't be unlocked with the unprogrammed key.

So my car sits in the body shop parking lot awaiting....who the hell knows what in the morning. I suspect they can either reprogram my spare key from inside the car as long as the applicable equipment is portable, or......they'll have to remove both front wheels in the parking lot, jack it up and access the manual pull for the front boot where my good key is.

As much as I appreciate the length to which Porsche has gone to keep my car from getting stolen, this is a bit too much. When an owner with the original factory key in hand can't even arrange transportation of the car to a safe overnight location, some tweaking of the system should be considered imo.

YA911Fan

Welcome to the brave new world of gratuitous technology. The old fashioned keys didn't have these problems.

At least we don't have to put up with a superfluous engine start button!

Soulteacher

Darn! That really stinks. How could the dealership forget telling you to get your other keys reprogrammed? Hope your car is still alright when you get there today. Highly annoying. Great story, though.

wetstuff

Memo-to-self: take car and all keys to dealer when service is done.

I would have probably sold it next day. If labels in my shirts bug me; I can't imagine how I'd regress in your shoes. Sorry you had to go thru it.

sandwedge

Update: The body shop is disassembling the front bumper in the parking lot in order to access the manual pull to the front boot. Dealership told them there IS no other solution. Unreal.....

gota911

You might want them to zip tie the manual pull wire to a location that you can reach through the front grill opening. That way if your battery dies, you don't have to go through this (removing teh bumper) again.

sandwedge

Good idea. Trying to get them on the phone now. That said.......with a dead battery, can't you power the associated breaker to pop the trunk? What I was dealing with last night was a system that locked itself up completely thinking the car was being stolen. There was plenty of power.......it just wasn't allowed to go where it normally goes.

cello

Wow, that is unbelievable. You would think that the Dealer, presumably having done this before and understading the ramificaitons of such a 're-flash', would have told you bring all keys or deferred the service until speaking with you. I do not blame you for being frustrated. Thank you for posting this "warning"!

TT Surgeon

Wolfgang, you still doing a turbo?
C

sandwedge

lol.......frustrating for sure but nobody more frustrated than the guy who spent much of the day digging out the wire for the manual release. This tech is no slouch....working on a lot of the local track cars but he just had an awful time with this. Seems like he was told the path to success starts behind the passenger side headlight when in fact it starts behind the driver's side headlight so the best part of the morning was spent on that bum steer.

There was more.....including partial disassembly of the interior boot in order to reconnect the mechanism after it was released manually. What a waste of a day......and all of it because I entered the car with a key that allowed me to enter, only to freeze all systems and make the car impossible to move. How about keys that either work for everything or work for nothing?

YA911Fan

The cost for doing all this must be adding up. Has the dealer/PCNA agreed to reimburse you?

Deanski

Oh great... So where exactly is the "manual release" for the boot? I keep hearing there is one, but never could locate it in case the battery goes dead. I know I can jump it at the fuse panel, but think the manual release would be a better way of accessing the battery.

All this to get to the release? Why then did they (Porsche) put one in, but an owner has to go through all this headache to get to it? Just great!

When I go for my 20K service, I'll make sure ALL keys are with the car that's for sure.

I hope you get some type of compenstation for all the issues.

Regards,
Deanski

MUSSBERGER

Its inside the boot. its there in case you lock yourself in.

Deanski

I thought there is another manual release besides the inside latch release now required in new cars.

Deanski

cello

Really. Pretty simple solution, there.