PCA SDR

Looking for others' experiences. Our 2017 Carrera is a very early build (Newport got the car in Feb 2016). We bought the car in Nov 2016, so it is now almost 6 years old. "Only" has 27,000 miles. Recently the instrument panel has been acting "funny." No lights unless I move to manual headlights (gauges working however); one pod still working. At Charlies Tech Session one of the gang mentioned that as the battery is failing, the car's computer(s) will start selectively turning off features. Our 2011 Carrera GTS "warned" me with a couple of slow turnovers (one at the top of the grade up I-15), then (we were driving to Vegas) just wouldn't start once in our son's garage. I've been to a couple of PCA-SDR events whereat someone who drove in just fine, got into the car to leave and - zippo - no start. One was at the Miramar Historics and Steve got the hood open (late model 911) but as I recall the car had to be flat-bedded out of the event. Today my local shop hooked up their very sophisticated and fancy battery tester. The tester said: "Replace Battery." I'll be at Fontana next week with Fast Toys and the last thing I want is to get stuck in Fontana with a no-start. 911 to Hoehn this Friday for a new battery - EVEN THOUGH ALMOST EVERYTHING STILL WORKS JUST FINE. So what say you? Has the "no warning" fail hit you with your Porsche??

Yes, modern no maintenance batteries tend to just fail, not slowly get worse. If the battery is 5 years old, just replace it. I may skip the dealer and just use a trickle charger in the 12V system to keep the computers happy when you change the battery yourself for a lot less money. The dealer is much easier if you are willing to pay $200 more.

New battery (Interstate) installed on Friday. Electrical Gremlins with the dash board did not go away.

On top of the battery issue, the dealership installed a software update. Most obvious result: when I left home yesterday to drive to Fontana, I found that my Google maps are gone. I'm not happy. Who knows what the update was supposed to do? I'll have to follow up on the situation.

Have 5 months actually passed?? The 911 was at Hoehn for almost a week and they couldn't find anything wrong with the programming. Still no dash pod lights unless the lights are manually turned on. Have had the car since new; they used to work. The 2017 is 3G, no longer supported, hence no Google maps...we're told. This affects lots of car brands, not just Porsche. Or does it? Just yesterday on the Rennlist forum about this problem an owner chimed in to say that his dealer did a software update (at no charge) on his 2017 Cayenne that brought back his Google Maps. All in all, frustrating. Once again, I shall be engaging the dealer's tech folks. Oh, just for fun: the Porsche internet connection has been down and the dealer hasn't been able to synch/program new keys for at least two weeks. Open your eyes: do you really want your microwave, fridge, stove, washer/dryer, etc., dependent on the internet network in your house? I don't.