Panamera SE-Hybrid soot in the manifold

[ScottN]

I have owned my Panamera for the last two years (since new), it has been pampered, cared for and driven as a Porsche should be on quiet country roads/motorways et al. At the 20,000 mile service in March the garage reported that there was soot in the inlet manifold that shouldn't be there, when queried why it was there they had no answers. The official Porsche garage did not have the necessary tool to clean it and in the end it took 4 weeks to fix the job under warranty.

The question I have is, is this a common problem or am I to expect future trouble and should consider changing now?

 

[shadow8]

Certainly not a common problem. I like you have pampered and cared for my Panny and rarely given it the beans (probably due to too many cameras). I think youve just been unlucky but I would certainly wanat to know the reason for the sooting up from Porsche whether the work was don eunder warranty or not. All Porsche will have done is replace all releavt parts with new ones and not got to the root of the problem Like all major prestige car manufacturers they are difficult to talk to but you must persist and find out likely if not precise reasons for it. Yes it will happen again if you don't discover the cause. However, the Panny is a remarkable piece of engineering, a very special car and I'd hang onto it If I were you making sure of an annual oil change and filter irrespective of service schedule.
Good luck...
Tony

 

[ScottN]

Many thanks, yes cameras are an issue, cruise control set at 75 all the way on the A9 but Cairn o Mount and the Lecht well..... Oil change every 10k and brake fluid changed at the same time, yes it is overkill but I normally have to top up the oil by 7k miles between services, car is driven and occasionally hard.
I pressed the garage at the time but they had no idea and subsequently I have moved to a different Porsche centre.

 

[Tony M]

We have a Cayenne Hybrid which has the same Audi V6 Engine as the Panamera.
The problem stems from the fact that Porsche have utilised an Audi Engine from the Parts Bin and added a few batteries to make it a Hybrid.
The Audi V6 was never designed to be an engine for a Hybrid car and the direct injection into the cylinders makes matters worse.
In a typical scenario, the car is driven for a few miles on electric power and the as soon as it it asked to do some real work, the stone cold engine fires up and being cold it produces soot.
The car then reverts to battery power and the engine cools down until the next time it is asked to do some work. The engine kicks in and a bit more soot fouls the secondary air system.
After 20-30,000 miles the soot build up causes the Engine Management light to illuminate.
The Porsche dealer cleans a percentage of the soot out to put the light out until the next time it occurs.
At 42,000 miles, my engine has been de-coked or de-Sooted 5 times and still the problem persists.
The latest engines have been modified as Porsche are aware of the problem but won't admit to it.
This is a Scandal and if I had realised I was buying a Porsche with an Audi engine in it I would not have bought it.
Who would want to buy a Ferrari with a Dacia Duster engine ? It's about the same !