Underbody Protection Panel damaged. Batteries and coolant lines need inspection. $72.5K replacement & labor cost. Dealership is Tom Wood in Indiana

[TeecanToocan]

This is a different turn of events in my view, meaning that just exceeding 3mm on the underbody panel is not enough to call for battery replacement. Evidently, there is some "thorough diagnostics" data somewhere that determined what needs to be replaced.

I completely agree with you here. Some where Porsche has decided due to whatever witchcraft that this is a serious issue and warrants replacement. I believe too many commenter's are getting hung up on the idea that 3mm is too small a dent. Porsche seams to have that spec for a reason.

Sponsored

 

[rb33gl]

It's not difficult to see the size of rocks being kicked up during this little Porsche-promoted excursion could quite easily do some serious 3mm+ damage to the undertray...

I'm sure we're not all about to enter the Dakar with our cars, but Porsche has always prided itself on the rugged durabilty of its brand. It's what appeals to me over say a fragile Ferrari or Maserati. Cars built for Le Mans. Endurance.

The fragility of the protection for the battery has been an eye-opener to me and I suspect quite a few others on here.

 

[TeecanToocan]

I buy OEM parts online all the time and have the dealers install them. Been doing this since 1998.

Sure that may be your experience with your dealer. But that dealer's tech is going to send their quote to that dealer's parts department. Who will then get their prices and part numbers from whatever catalog they use. Likely something specific to Porsche. It doesn't make sense that they would spend the time hunting online for something they know they can find directly from Porsche themselves. When I look for parts for my Honda CBR I first open up Honda's catalog to find what I am looking for the same as anyone else. However I definitely wouldn't do that if my car is still under warranty or something as complicated as a Taycan. I mean in this case we are talking the primary power source of the vehicle. It isn't guaranteed that the part found online would even work.

 

[Maelstrom]

Whether this plate is made of steel or aluminum does not make a difference to my statement. Workable metals will stretch and deflect when impacted. This is a fact of the world. Do you know how much harder you would have to hit a steel plate to create a permanent 3mm dent?? Waaayy harder than aluminum. Which now leads me to believe that you hit something and don't want to admit you are at fault.

Now I am not on here to point fingers in any type of way. Unlike many who are on this post. I would be grand if this dealer had someone come on here and clear up all of the misconceptions and give a better understanding to what is going on.

I find it hard to believe that they would just quote you willy nilly when it comes to something at important as the protection of your high voltage battery.

You also many times bring up data. What data??? There is impact damage to your battery. What more data do you need?? Many many times it has been stated my you that a 3mm dent in the center of your battery warrants further inspection. Clearly the dent is greater than 3mm and clearly there is a dent in a cooling line. So at this point you no longer have an argument.

I agree with you that what the dealer had said is quite harsh. Some training in customer interaction should definitely be issued. However the investigative part of me believes you are leaving something out. Calling liability short sighted is a complete fallacy. Read this thread from the start and all you hear is lawyer lawyer lawyer. That was even my first thought.

A dealership has many many rules and regulations they have to follow. If they miss one thing and something happens they will lose in court. So if papa Porsche says it's not serviceable then what is that dealer supposed to do?? Just bilt on a new plate and go hush hush until you experience a thermal event??

I would hate to be the Porsche tech working your case. Even after they perform the repair I almost guarantee you will think of something to complain about.

I can promise you there's nothing I'm leaving out and have documented pretty much everything. Change your focus - 3mm warrants a replacement HV tray with no additional data and/or diagnosis from the dealer other than charging $4.5k and then taking some pictures??? There is a chance the cooling lines are undamaged - the lack of THEIR DATA is where the focus should be.
As for not pointing fingers - well that's exactly what you did and you clearly haven't read the whole story.
As for a 3mm dent into steel - well, when your doing 70mph and something kicks up off the road that's not hard!!!!

 

[bn8959]

Is this thread slightly at risk of overblowing the issue here?

Taking the OPs tribulations, I 100% feel their pain, and I’d be fuming at being treated the way he has. For the purpose of this thread, I’d like to see the focus being on supporting the OP getting a successful outcome.

I don’t feel that we are all going to be writing off our cars any time soon due to some stones being kicked up, and there may not be such a catastrophic issue that we all have to be thinking of running from our Taycans.

I don’t see stories of many other similar issues - I think we’ve seen more instances of brake failure!

The OP has been exceedingly unlucky. Granted the OP didn’t know how the dent happened (ie he didn’t hear a massive thunk after driving over a brick), so that’s leading people to come to the conclusion is was ‘something small’, but it still could have been something significant (meaning the protection may not be as bad as people think). The dent unfortunately happened to exactly align with one of the cooling channels. An inch either side and there likely would have been no damage to the HV tray at all, meaning only a new protection plate being needed (or even just the dent hammering out!). A lot of bad luck here and I’m certainly not worried about my car (currently!).

 

[tigerbalm]

The only winner on this thread is the metric system – it has got Brits and Americans thinking and talking in millimetres!

 

[TeecanToocan]

So, a 3mm dent on a protective plate is a big problem, that can start a fire; but the car gives no warnings or errors.

In this case, it is very easy to start a class action lawsuit and have porsche recall / buy back all 150.000 taycans sold

As a car with this kind of issue being sold in EU is illegal.

Will make sure to email porsche CEO that this specifc USA dealer (Porsche Tom Wood Indiana) has recommended we start a class action lawsuit, as they consider 3mm dents on a protective plate to be critical failure with fire, and the car is not signaling this which is illegal in eu.

You go right ahead and do whatever you want lol. Doesn't effect me in anyway. I will sleep soundly in my bed and hey if you get any traction I will laugh while reaping the benefits. Yet I live in the real world.

Damage to a vehicle caused by normal use would get beat in a court room 9 times out of 10. Especially because this isn't some manufactured defect. I mean by your logic if your driving down the road in a normal ICE car and run over a stick that flies up and cuts a brake line and punctures your fuel tank then leaks onto your hot exhaust and starts a fire. But wait!! You can't stop so you crash into a bus full of Nuns! That warrants a lawsuit??? I mean come on. The plate did it's job and stopped the undside of the battery from being damaged. Sure it still has to be replaced but nothing worse happened. Just some bruised egos.

 

[TeecanToocan]

Is this thread slightly at risk of overblowing the issue here?

Taking the OPs tribulations, I 100% feel their pain, and I’d be fuming at being treated the way he has. For the purpose of this thread, I’d like to see the focus being on supporting the OP getting a successful outcome.

I don’t feel that we are all going to be writing off our cars any time soon due to some stones being kicked up, and there may not be such a catastrophic issue that we all have to be thinking of running from our Taycans.

I don’t see stories of many other similar issues - I think we’ve seen more instances of brake failure!

The OP has been exceedingly unlucky. Granted the OP didn’t know how the dent happened (ie he didn’t hear a massive thunk after driving over a brick), so that’s leading people to come to the conclusion is was ‘something small’, but it still could have been something significant (meaning the protection may not be as bad as people think). The dent unfortunately happened to exactly align with one of the cooling channels. An inch either side and there likely would have been no damage to the HV tray at all, meaning only a new protection plate being needed (or even just the dent hammering out!). A lot of bad luck here and I’m certainly not worried about my car (currently!).

Hey you better be careful with this kind of talk! You may be a spy from the pesky Tom Wood Porsche out of Indiana!

As I stated from my original comment I am not worried at all about my Taycan. To me this means that they care more about the performance and safety of these vehicles. Sure the dealer appears to have been rude but we are only hearing one side. Instead of griping about the dealer maybe gripe about the roads??? I don't know about the road conditions there but I would imagine they are the same as the rest if the states that experience winter ??

 

[chun]

You go right ahead and do whatever you want lol. Doesn't effect me in anyway. I will sleep soundly in my bed and hey if you get any traction I will laugh while reaping the benefits. Yet I live in the real world.

Damage to a vehicle caused by normal use would get beat in a court room 9 times out of 10. Especially because this isn't some manufactured defect. I mean by your logic if your driving down the road in a normal ICE car and run over a stick that flies up and cuts a brake line and punctures your fuel tank then leaks onto your hot exhaust and starts a fire. But wait!! You can't stop so you crash into a bus full of Nuns! That warrants a lawsuit??? I mean come on. The plate did it's job and stopped the undside of the battery from being damaged. Sure it still has to be replaced but nothing worse happened. Just some bruised egos.

Europe has consumer rights, unlike the shithole that is the US of A; when it comes to consumer rights.

Damage to a vehicle, while caused by normal use, if considered unresonable, will get a company to make a recall 10/10 times

We are talking 3mm of dent on a protective metalic sheet, on the side of the car that is ment to come most in contact with the ground and debris from driving; resulting in complete battery failure according to this porsche dealership, with mandatory full replacemnt to avoid fires; about which the owner of the car is not informed in any way, as the cooling lines for the battery seem to have 0 pressure or temparature sensors

This will lose in court, if taken to court 10000 times, it will lose 10000 times.

 

[TeecanToocan]

I can promise you there's nothing I'm leaving out and have documented pretty much everything. Change your focus - 3mm warrants a replacement HV tray with no additional data and/or diagnosis from the dealer other than charging $4.5k and then taking some pictures??? There is a chance the cooling lines are undamaged - the lack of THEIR DATA is where the focus should be.
As for not pointing fingers - well that's exactly what you did and you clearly haven't read the whole story.
As for a 3mm dent into steel - well, when your doing 70mph and something kicks up off the road that's not hard!!!!

I am still confused about this data?? Is it possible that they caught this before it became a major issue? Has the dent always been there? You said Porsche has a spec of >3mm in the center. Their tech measured the dent and found this to be an issue that much is clear.

I think you are underestimating the strength of steel here. If you are driving down the road and an object strikes the underside of you vehicle it will not be perpendicular. I don't even think a pro baseball pitcher throwing a 100 mph pitch could make a dent of that size. Especially with that dent being almost center of 4 bolted point. So it's even braced. Front the picture you posted of the underside of your vehicle is where I draw all of my questions. If something just flew up it is highly likely it would have bounced and then struck your vehicle again.

Do you have any pictures of the inside of the protection plate?? I think that will tell more of the story to how much the metal is deformed. If the tech would have ran a long straight edge I bet the dent would be deeper total than the 3mm measured. What I am getting at is I think it is more damaged than just the exposed metal dent.

 

[Maelstrom]

I am still confused about this data?? Is it possible that they caught this before it became a major issue? Has the dent always been there? You said Porsche has a spec of >3mm in the center. Their tech measured the dent and found this to be an issue that much is clear.

I think you are underestimating the strength of steel here. If you are driving down the road and an object strikes the underside of you vehicle it will not be perpendicular. I don't even think a pro baseball pitcher throwing a 100 mph pitch could make a dent of that size. Especially with that dent being almost center of 4 bolted point. So it's even braced. Front the picture you posted of the underside of your vehicle is where I draw all of my questions. If something just flew up it is highly likely it would have bounced and then struck your vehicle again.

Do you have any pictures of the inside of the protection plate?? I think that will tell more of the story to how much the metal is deformed. If the tech would have ran a long straight edge I bet the dent would be deeper total than the 3mm measured. What I am getting at is I think it is more damaged than just the exposed metal dent.

Plenty posted in the thread (multiple times)

 

[TeecanToocan]

Plenty posted in the thread (multiple times)

I did not see any of the inside of the plate. There are pics of the outside dent and the dent in the cooling line. None of the part of the plate that actually contacted the cooling line. That is what I want to see.

 

[Maelstrom]

I did not see any of the inside of the plate. There are pics of the outside dent and the dent in the cooling line. None of the part of the plate that actually contacted the cooling line. That is what I want to see.

You and me both - they didn't take that plate off or provide any diagnostic data. PCNA are requesting the latter from the dealer

 

[Maelstrom]

Zero pressure or temp sensors?? Does your car not display battery temp in the cluster?? I know mine does. So that definitely means there is a sensor measuring the temperature of something. Most likely coolant. As for temperature of the battery cells themselves I don't see why a driver would need to know that. Batteries store electricity so when discharging and charging they temperatures would be high. Which could lead people to panic. Go rip around a rc car then touch the battery and tell me they don't get hot.

Again with this "3mm dent". The dent does not indicate the battery needs to be replaced. It clearly indicates further inspection is required. OP just got unlucky and it hit a cooling line. What if it had hit nothing?? Then it would just have been replacement of the protection plate.

I'm not saying Porsche is always right however this time they were. It is only money. If you work you make more every day. If this dealer had ignored this and the Taycan battery experienced a thermal event we would be having a different discussion.

Also I am not here belittling your tiny country you call home. Wasn't it one of the largest at one point?? ? So it would be appreciated if you didn't throw insults at mine. You Brits like to forget your history that much is clear and it's thanks to the US of A that you are not speaking German right now.

You probably need to take a breath and take your hands off the keyboard - he simply pointed out that the consumer laws in the UK and EU are more focussed on just that - as opposed to the ones here. Factually correct and in no way belittling anyone
Also - bear in mind, no errors and/or lights or high temperatures before taking the car in for the warranty work - I think that's what he's referencing

 

[TeecanToocan]

You and me both - they didn't take that plate off or provide any diagnostic data. PCNA are requesting the latter from the dealer

Okay so there are no pictures provided if the inside on the protection plate itself got it. However they definitely removed the plate or you would have a picture of the coolant line being damaged. Again I would imagine there would be no data do to it being physical visual damage. Unless you are asking for the temperatures of the cells that would be effected by the damage to the cooling line. Even then why would that matter?

Sponsored