Cayman ex demo purchase

[OliR]

Hi all,

A colleague of mine has put a deposit down on a second hand 718 Cayman, the car was sold from an OPC having passed the 111 point check, with approved warranty.

However, upon further investigation, we discovered that the car had logged overrevs in range 3 at the start of its life (while it was a demonatrator one assumes).

After the sale was agreed, the dealer recently confirmed that the investigatory work required to approve the warranty after a range 3 overrev was never completed, however they currently taking apart the engine to complete the work for this, however it’s a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

He has Not taken delivery of the car yet, just placed a deposit, if you were in this situation, what would you do? I feel like the OPC have been dishonest here and tried to cover it up, and he almost ended up buying a lemon.

Many thanks.

Ps if this is in the wrong forum, please move it, I don’t post here a lot.

 

[Motorhead]

Hi Oli,

Stripping the engine down for a range 3 over-rev! What are they hoping to find? If it were me I'd be inclined to walk away from the deal, particularly since the PC didn't do their job properly in the first case.

There are plenty of other 718s out there.

Jeff

 

[OliR]

I don’t know! Awful amount of work though! Apparently it’s standard procedure for a warranty after an overrev? But the fact they offered it without doing the work would worry me.

I have given him the same advice as it has clearly been driven hard from day one, would there be any likelihood of a large repair bill or decreased value given the situation?

 

[am1985uk]

Hi Oli,

A Range 3 over-rev will have strained the engine beyond its normal design parameters. That being so, there are three possibilities:-

1. It will have no effect on the life of the engine - Porsche are being over-cautious.

2. It will shorten the life of the engine.

3. The engine will go bang in a big way.

Two out of the three possibilities are bad news. I'm not sure whether stripping the engine down will reveal potential problems, unless the dealer has the facilities to do crack testing to aerospace standards.

I have to agree - walk away. There will always be another car on the market which does not have this question mark hanging over it.

Regards,

Alan

 

[Motorhead]

Oil,

Just to ask but does this car have a manual transmission? It was my understanding that the dealers have been advised by the manufacturer to disregard over-rev data on all PDK transmissions cars. Over-revs in ranges 3 and above should only occur through missed downshifts, which theoretically are impossible with the PDK ‘box.

Unless things have changed with the 718-series cars, a range 3 over-rev should only require a compression test and/or oil check and maybe a borescpoe check. If the dealer is stripping the engine then maybe something more serious is anticipated. Even more reason to advise your colleague to walk away.

Jeff

 

[OliR]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I was told it was a bore scope check which required “some stripping“.

Ill feed back the info to him tomorrow, still doesn’t sit right that all this wasn’t done prior to them slapping a two year warranty on it and selling it.

 

[Brian_Innes]

I would also be interested in whether the 718 in question was a manual or a PDK. I would guess the former.

I agree with Jeff regarding his comments on over-rev data data on manual cars caused by mis-downshifts.

My understanding is, the PDK will not downshift to a lower gear if the rev limit will be exceeded. Also in manual mode using the paddles, the rev-limiter prevents drastic over-revs on up-shifts.

Brian

 

[Buddy]

Over rev 3 is the first level at which checks are required for warranty, so the dealership should have got inspections completed before putting it up for sale or a warranty could be void but then it would be dated from the point of sale so as inspections are being done now it's in the balance and the warranty will stand but as others have said there will be more to choose from, as for whether to walk away from a demo car which will have a higher than average spec' I would say at least wait until the results are made available, check that the warranty covers the minimum two years but hopefully more and that they give some discount as the car has obviously been mistreated regarding the probable missed downshifts.

Over Rev 3 is 500-700 rpm overspeed so quite close to 10% and on such a new and low mileage engine I would definitely be concerned, not only that but the engine is a new design, it's capability of taking such treatment is unknown as there is no historical information available on what can happen with the four cylinder.

On balance, I would say to walk away but I understand the temptation of a high spec car being available and almost ready to collect.