Slipstream - November 2010

Cliff’s Ramblings: Riding The Fine Line In A Porsche Workshop
By Cliff Blackshear
With a Porsche that is in its
warranty period, defining
the line between what is
warrantable and what is not, is an issue
that has become most interesting in the
past decade for me. So many owners
now enjoy DE’s and other pursuits with
their P-Car. I’ve been thinking about
that subject a lot lately as I have slowly realized just how
different things are now.
From a pure technician’s perspective it has been an
interesting role for me. In my environment we want to
represent the owner’s needs to the factory. Porsche adjusts
their perspective only when a workshop can properly show
a failure that should not happen when a vehicle is driven on
limit in totally stock (unmodified) form.
Imagine presenting a warranty issue to the factory from
my side. Flywheel seal leak in a GT3, early clutch failure
in a Cayman S, failed synchro in a 997 Twin gearbox,
or overheated power steering fluid issue in any Porsche
assembled since 1997 (intro of Boxster). I could go back
further in time but I’ll go to Boxster intro year for this. All
of them tracked in stock configuration.
Imagine you are looking at these failures and the car
has GT3 seats, harness bar, 5 point harnesses, etc. etc. I
face that dilemma a lot and I’m the one at our shop that
communicates with the factory on failure issues.
Yet it is not hard to deal with. Porsche does not shut the
door on failures that have nothing to do with the car being
driven on the track or modifications to make the car more
track friendly. I can readily answer, “Yes the car is tracked”
to anyone I deal with at PCNA and that has no bearing on
final warrantable decision. Sometimes I get the feeling that
if the car is tracked, they take the failure personally and do
not want it to happen again. I’m serious here.
Certain areas require much thought and understanding.
Example: Drive any Porsche with stock suspension and tires
at the track and lubrication issues rarely occur. Change the
overall grip level with sticky track tires and or suspension
set up strictly track related (hence higher lateral G’s) and
things are much different. Oiling the engine can become an
issue. In our shop, we have worked hard to educate owners
in this area. If you change the car from street design when it
comes to lateral and longitudinal G’s to a track oriented set
up, these forces have to be dealt with. A different lubrication
dynamic has to be considered. Oil separator needs work,
windage tray in oil pan needs “race style” set up. As far as
the factory is concerned that is what GT3RS and Cup Cars
are designed for.
Going to short throw shifters with stock synchros can also
be a problem. The system works well until an owner is really
running some adrenalin and trying to get better lap times,
even then really good drivers do not wear down synchros.
In the past the cars and the technology available were
pretty primitive. A stock Boxster built today has so much
potential it is amazing. Minor upgrades to suspension or
brakes are easy and results are huge. Work on these cars as
long as I have and come out of a 356 as your starter car and
you would understand.
Anyhow. Here is what I’m getting to. I’ve spent time with
factory people for decades at the repair level. Met engineers
that came out to investigate issues way back (for me, actually
first time was early 1972 911S car, late in the year 1972; I’ll
never forget that one).
They still come out today if I report anything new or
unusual on a new car. It is quite different now. There is a
team of engineers that 20 of us dealers report to monthly. I
am required to get in a minimum of 10 reports a month to
them. High res pics are a must and written documentation
of every step taken to resolve an issue is required. We 20
reporting individuals have a special site we go to, set up
just for “product reporting”. There we log on and send our
information. If a part failed we take pics of bar code on part
so they can view production date, where produced, etc. Plus
our feedback on a failure must include symptoms failure
caused, any consequential failures that result in the vehicle,
and pics of all damage etc.
The engineering team is a group of very passionate
people. I absolutely love conversing and reporting to them.
No failure of anything is considered beneath investigating
for them. Something as simple as a light bulb failure can
produce some interesting results.
The cars now have monitoring software that can show
mechanical over-rev situations. Any idea how many people
accidentally pull second gear when intending fourth gear
and at redline in third gear? We see quite a few yearly... It
happens. It is human to make a mistake. Unfortunately that
is an expensive mistake. We’ve seen GT3’s that recorded
11000 RPM over-revs. Amazingly this usually only results
in things like ring gear on flywheel shifts out of position
and often times the clutch disc explodes into pieces. If
the engine checks ok otherwise as far as leak-down tests
and compression check goes, it still leaves many unknown
possible damage that may rear its ugly head at a later time.
Like stretched rod bolts, minutely bent valves that kissed a
piston, etc. I do not ask the factory for assistance in repairs
like that. That is the owner’s responsibility.
It is a moving target for me when people track their cars
and failures occur. I want honesty on all fronts. Porsche
responds well to honest data. I enjoy every minute of being
in this position. It keeps me interested in so many ways.
Cruising along! Cliff
November 19