Dave_D

I realize it's a small pond I'm fishing in here, but has anybody experienced cracks in the spare tire holder of their Transsyberia or other spare-wheel-equipped Cayenne? I seem to recall a conversation with a fellow Transsy owner - probably at Rennsport Reunion in Utah - that suggested a recognized design flaw and perhaps even a recall or other recourse.

I thought my hairline cracks were merely in the paint and was happy enough to ignore them, but today, while receiving minor body work to the hatch, the shop informed me that the cracks are structural and that the entire spare tire holder should be replaced. Cost? $6,070.02. <gulp>

Any advice is appreciated.

theprf

Get the cracks V'd out and welded.

max911

My Cayenne S with rear spare tire carrier was rear ended two years ago.
The carrier was "no longer available" from Porsche at that time.
The impact broke open the carrier tube towards the passenger side. I was surprised by the amount of corrosion inside the tube.

Good luck,
Max

max911

max911

Does the Transsyberia have the same rear spare mount option as the other Cayenne models?

Dave_D

The shop tells me, "The rack is structurally cracked with the part being case metal we can’t weld on it as the welds will fail." I'm gonna take his word for it, especially after seeing max911's photos. It looks brittle - doesn't look like metal at all.

Yes, I believe they're the same.

Thank you for sharing those photos. I feel better about having the part replaced after seeing this. For the last few years, I dismissed the cracks as merely cosmetic, believing the underlying 'metal' wouldn't crumble apart like this - just the paint. Now, I can see the cracks are a serious structural failure.

max911

It seems to be some low grade steel that is encapsulated in about 1/4 inch thick hard plastic. You were probably seeing cracks in the plastic caused by a weakened and flexing inner steel core.
Good luck getting a new one, as when I tried to get one they were showing NLA.
Cheers,
Max

Dave_D

Thankfully, they're telling me the part is now available. It's p/n 955-722-010-00-4.

I believe the final digit represents the version of the part. I don't know if that suggests a redesign, if that's even an option, or merely four manufacturing runs. Either way, I didn't think there were enough of these spare tire holders in circulation to warrant four versions in thirteen years. [Or, maybe they're so rare and bulky, they only manufacture three at a time?]

Porsche Care is discussing my situation with our local service center. I'm not expecting much since I couldn't find anybody to corroborate my claims, but it's worth a try and worth sharing in case anybody else comes looking with the same problem.

jeremy@matrix

Hi Dave,

I believe you're the only TSSY in the USA with the OEM spare tire carrier. I only know you have one based on the sleuthing pics I came across. Your TSSY's options don't list the tire carrier however, so I can't browse my database and search for who else has the carrier. But I haven't seen any other TSSY's with it.

I am shocked that Porsche brought back the part from the dead, and are offering it again. Perhaps Porsche Classic got involved with that with the increased fervor for 955 and 957 overland stuff. Good to see.

All the best with getting your rare bird fixed up.

Dave_D

That's wild! I've only run into a couple of Transsy owners in person - all of them at Parade. Again, that's where somebody asked me if my carrier was cracking "too." Wish I'd gotten their name.

During COVID, I almost had it removed in favor of a roof rack cuz Porsche didn't have the servo for the latch (which we've had serviced three or four times now - it goes dead every few years). We waited two years to get the part replaced. All the while, the rear hatch was unusable because somebody removed the manual override cable and never told anyone.

Well, now I know it's a rare part, I'm definitely gonna get it replaced. And, if it's really such a rare configuration, maybe I should start babying it more. That's gonna be hard though. It's such a vicious snow car, I drive it like a rally racer around here.

jeremy@matrix

Do you mean to say you ran into a couple of TSSY owners who also have the OEM Porsche tire carrier?

We need a pic of you rallyin' your TSSY in winter.

Dave_D

Yes. I remember a black and orange one in particular with the fog lights. [I so wanted that option but it precluded a ski rack.] I ran into the driver a year later at Rennsport Reunion in Monterey and he told me he had already sold it. Wait, wait.... Come to think of it, he may or may not have had the tire carrier.

But his was the only black and orange one there and he was absolutely not the person who asked me about the cracks. So, yeah, it must've been the gray model, like mine. I didn't think much about it at the time. I was just sorta bummed he pointed out something wrong with my car.

I read somewhere there's 400 Transsyberia's in the US - 200 shipped in 2019 and 200 in 2010. I thought the off-road package was standard and the spare tire carrier was part of that package. No?

Will do! I run a dash cam for self defense any more. There's usually something fun to share when it blizzards around here.

jeremy@matrix

No, tire carrier was not part of PT2 or PT3 offroad package.
Only 102 TSSY to USA, 17 to Canada. 31 total of those were gray/silver.

Looking forward to your Tasmanian Blizzard vids.

Dave_D

Huh. Do you suppose the tire carrier impacts the car's resale value? If it's not adding value, this might be the time to have it replaced with a roof rack, rather than spend $6k to fix it.

And again, the latch fails every few years too, so if these parts ever become unavailable, I'm gonna end up having it removed anyways.

Thoughts?

jeremy@matrix

Probably depends how pristine the rest of your TSSY is, and whether a new owner wants all of the factory options present or not.
Essentially, will you get $6k more value when/if you sell it, but fixing the tire carrier now? (Or, will you get $X value back, by buying just the carrier and holding onto it for when you sell the TSSY?)