Rear Washer.

[Gander101]

All ..... not sure if this one has come up before but received the below mail from a PCGB member.

"On Monday this week, the warning flashers came on. They would not go off.
I rang my OPC to be informed how weird ? It just so happened that
another Cayenne had just recently reported a similar problem. It was due to
the rear washer freezing up and the water pipe being forced off. Water leaks
behind the dashboard and causes a few problems.

I had to get breakdown services to help me out as it was evening and the car
could not be delivered to the garage until the next day.
They removed the fuses (one from each side) to stop the lights working and
the battery discharging.

It is quite an experience driving with hazard warning flashers continually
on !

So, it takes a day for Porsche to find the problem.
The water leak has corroded the wiring loom and the electronic control units
as well as soaking the carpets.
Repair cost .. approximately £10,000. ( somewhere close to 50% of its value
!)

Fortunately the OPC guys have found a repair kit that can be
used to replace the corroded bits of the wiring loom .... and my bill will
be circa £2000.
Quite a lot for labour ... as it is about a week's work.

It seem to me that this is a serious design fault. A 5 year old quality
marque car should not have corrosion behind the dash. How long has the leak
been going on ...I am not sure. They had to do a repair to the rear washer
when the car was under warranty about 2 years ago. The washer was leaking
into the rear compartment at the top of the tailgate."

Has anyone else had a similar issue - issues resolving - would be interested to know.

Thanks.

 

[gdavison]

Paul - yes .. Twice .. but only the "simple" version .. At 2 years old . mine popped the pipe and was washing the rear window from inside the brake light

A few weeks ago did it again .. when I was at the freebie OPC "winter Check" day at Reading last weekend of course it was picked up .. Was chatting to the mechanic and I said it had done it before .. he said "lucky its not watering the control units" at the time I was puzzled wondering what "control units where in the rear spoiler" ... Know I know you story I see what he meant

G

 

[NIL98]

Ditto again. Mine was in at Indy last week for loose rear washer leaking out of brake light AND suspected broken washer bottle in engine bay that turned out to be another loose pipe in the front. Didnt cost much to fix but rear one has already gone again, though I spotted it right away. Its back in for remedial work next week.

Symptoms with the rear pipe leaking is it dumps a lot of water down the inside cavity where the loom and CD stack is hidden. Before I discovered the leak, I had an intermittant PCM problem "Error cannot find CD, cannot find amp, cannot find phone" which I now know was caused by this water leak.

 

[gdavison]

Mine is booked in for a service in a few weeks where they are fixing the rear washer.. Its currently loosing all the fluid "overnight" but I put this down to one of the headlight washers "being missing" which is also scheduled for a fix .. if its not and I have another leak elsewhere .. where should I be looking ?

G

 

[NIL98]

Mmmm sounds familiar! Mine is also losing most of the fluid in a day or two. Despite rear washer pipe being loose, leaks from front of car from stone guard near passenger side fog light. I guess the waters running down from bottle? First time it happened I presumed it was a secondary leak, but obviously related??

 

[gdavison]

My Update .. Luckily I am told .. there where "no other leaks" .. the pipe had separated from the brake light cluster washer and was simply filling that assembly.. As posted earlier thats twice now .. once at 2 years old and once at 3 years old

However the OPC where "unable" to clear the washer blockage and therefore where "forced" to replace the whole assembly at a sum of 85 GBP

So lesson ... sounds like all Cayenne owners should regularly clean the rear washer nozzle to esure its not getting blocked . I plan to use a thin flexible wire to clean the nozzle as part of the cars wash

 

[fhauser]

My Cayenne started to leak from the rear headlining,a pipe had come of,luckily I found it early,Certainly points to a design fault and an exspensive repair by the sound of it

 

[MMacD]

Same story with our 53 plate S. During the cold snap earlier this year our rear washer stopped working. Then it started spraying filthy smelly water inside the car by the driver footwell.

No damage done and all sorted at service, but apparently the pipes had come off at both ends. I was concerned that all that water spraying around above the fuse box wasn't entirely good news, it sounds as if others have had much worse experiences.

 

[uknick]

Is this something that all German cars do? I had a Mk IV Golf which leaked from the rear wash wipe every couple of years. Not just mine, my brother's and my neighbour's also did it on a regular basis.

However, not being a Porsche the only damage was a replacement tailgate locking mechanism, about £30. Oh, and one roof lining replaced under warranty due to a water stain.

 

[mikegentle]

Fixed the leak above the rear headlining today. As with everyone else the joint in the pipes had come apart. Very difficult to get to, couldn't join the pipes back in the place there are meant to be but rerouted them and fixed them together with self amalgamating tape. Not planning to remove all the trim ever again. Would have posted some pics, but it started to rain so I put it all back togther quickly.

I imagine that the next leak will be near the fuse box, so as a preventative measure I intend to seal this joint with tape also, if someone can point to where the joint is - any photos or service book diagrams available?