Is anyone still having issues with the PCM randomly rebooting while driving (Mine's a '21)

[bluegrassvroom]

I know this I was big 2-3 years ago - and i think there's a combination of it getting a LITTLE better for me and my just getting used to it

But every once in a while - my PCM just goes black and reboots - all 3 screens (including passenger) but NOT the main cluster gauge screen

Now - it used to freeze the #$%^&*(@%##$ up and i'd have to hit the magic two finger force reboot on the top right, and i'm DEFINITELY doing this less often - but still once in a while

Several things suck about the rebooting:
-um, it's a friggin 6 digit car HELLO, EVERYTHIGN SHOULD WORK
-it takes about 3-4 minutes to reboot - so no music or anything for that time
-normally the hvac will stay on what it was on - so you keep getting the heat or a/c that was on (at least)
-i have a short commute - i have half my drive with no music. blah

So here's why i'm sending this - i have maybe 6 months of warranty left. The last time i was in they did a HUGE PCM update/upgrade/whatever - wiped my settings and everything. They said "maybe this will work" but it didn't

When we all first got these 3-4 years ago the Porsche purists were like STOP BITCHING ABOUT THE ELECTRONICS, IT'S A DRIVER'S CAR AS LONG AS IT DRIVES STOP YUR COMPLAINING. SO i backed off - and i wasn't sure if i saw less complaints because everyone else's stopped doing it - OR if ya'll just got used to it (like me)

But it's seriously not ok to have this happen. it probably happens once every two weeks - maybe once in 40-50 trips - all short in length. Used to be twice a week so hey, it's gotten better

I'm thinking of keeping this car for like 5-7 years - i'd rather have it covered under warranty than not, and my time's a-dwindling for that to happen

And i've told the service guys every time i've taken it in (i'm not horribly close to a dealer) about it with no resolution

here's a vid of it literally happening when i was taking it to the dealer for something else. No judging me for the smudgy/dirty screens - they look fine when they're on and the sun's not directly on them...

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[W1NGE]

I know this I was big 2-3 years ago - and i think there's a combination of it getting a LITTLE better for me and my just getting used to it

But every once in a while - my PCM just goes black and reboots - all 3 screens (including passenger) but NOT the main cluster gauge screen

Now - it used to freeze the #$%^&*(@%##$ up and i'd have to hit the magic two finger force reboot on the top right, and i'm DEFINITELY doing this less often - but still once in a while

Several things suck about the rebooting:
-um, it's a friggin 6 digit car HELLO, EVERYTHIGN SHOULD WORK
-it takes about 3-4 minutes to reboot - so no music or anything for that time
-normally the hvac will stay on what it was on - so you keep getting the heat or a/c that was on (at least)
-i have a short commute - i have half my drive with no music. blah

So here's why i'm sending this - i have maybe 6 months of warranty left. The last time i was in they did a HUGE PCM update/upgrade/whatever - wiped my settings and everything. They said "maybe this will work" but it didn't

When we all first got these 3-4 years ago the Porsche purists were like STOP BITCHING ABOUT THE ELECTRONICS, IT'S A DRIVER'S CAR AS LONG AS IT DRIVES STOP YUR COMPLAINING. SO i backed off - and i wasn't sure if i saw less complaints because everyone else's stopped doing it - OR if ya'll just got used to it (like me)

But it's seriously not ok to have this happen. it probably happens once every two weeks - maybe once in 40-50 trips - all short in length. Used to be twice a week so hey, it's gotten better

I'm thinking of keeping this car for like 5-7 years - i'd rather have it covered under warranty than not, and my time's a-dwindling for that to happen

And i've told the service guys every time i've taken it in (i'm not horribly close to a dealer) about it with no resolution

here's a vid of it literally happening when i was taking it to the dealer for something else. No judging me for the smudgy/dirty screens - they look fine when they're on and the sun's not directly on them...

Never in 2 different Taycans over 4.5 years.

 

[chun]

Happened to me only once, passanger screen got very hot, system froze, and then it rebooted itself

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Used to happen to me from time to time (MY23). Not happened for ages then did it about 2 weeks ago. Very annoying. I think it has mostly happened when I did something with the satnav (like cancelling the route)

 

[Watchesandburgers]

This hasn't happened to me... ever that I can remember. And you're totally right, this shouldn't happen in a car like this from a company like this. Can't expect it to be a Tesla, and giving up on OTA updates is fine (though disappointing), but crashing shouldn't be OK. Talk to the dealer and see what they recommend. If the full flash/reload of the PCM software didn't fix it, have them try again and do whatever they can before your warranty runs out. That's my 2c.

 

[SergeyIndy]

This is known to happen sometimes with a simple fix of locking the car and walking away for more than 30 minutes. Waiting for it to reboot in the car does not work if it takes longer than a few minutes with Porsche text on the center screen fading in and out.

I had it happen a few times in almost 2 years of ownership.
Not a big deal, but yes annoying and should not be happening.

 

[Sace]

I've never seen it while driving. Before the last PCM update it would refuse to boot from time to time. That has happened only once since the last update (one year ago). So it surely seems like yours is performing worse than it should.

 

[d00d]

When I drive past a lake resort in season, the PCM in both my Taycan and an ICE Macan loaner restarts apparently due to Wi-Fi repeaters aimed across the road.
Probably not the same issue, but notable as another bug.

 

[eddieterry]

Never had this happen in the nearly two years I have had mine (MY23) so get it logged with the dealer before warranty runs out.

 

[EvFamily]

My 22 taycan CT had that happen all the time. The screens would go blank and restart. I had a passenger screen in that taycan. We ended up trading for 22 sedan and it doesn’t have a passenger screen, I’ve never had my screen reboot. It’s only been a few months but my Ct had a reboot weekly.

 

[snstevens]

First, if you decide to keep the car, then get an extended warranty. There is no telling how many issues you might have in the future, and this is a peace of mind issue. Something like a headlight failure might cost $2k to fix, so having an extended warranty is a big deal.

Second, once in a while the PCM locks up on startup in my 2021 4s. The “upper” PCM display shows “Porsche” text and just cycles through shades of gray without going on to display navigation, settings, or whatever. However, the lower control panel works fine. If I walk away for 15 min it resets, but the Two Finger Reset does nothing to fix the problem. It may happen once every 3-4 months or so, but I always find it irritating since it shouldn’t be happening at all.

So what to do? From my perspective this is a pain-in-the-ass aspect of owning a first generation EV where the software development team was distributed across multiple companies AND there was at best a shitty SW architecture. At some point Porsche will get its act together and at that time I’ll upgrade to the latest Taycan. Perhaps it will be one running a PCM based on the Rivian SW platform, but I don’t really care as long as they get their act together.

 

[Vim Schrotnock]

Yes - about once every 6 months, so maybe 8 times in 4 years. Just annoying, but don’t see this as a major issue. Posters are correct though - this should not be happening.

 

[Jenner]

This started happening to my '21 Turbo S in the fall of '24 but I don't have a ton of miles on mine (~11k).

From my experience it starts slow but it will continue to get worse over time. Right before I brought it in for service it was doing it EVERY SINGLE time I turned on the car and there was no fix or reset.!

When it first started I could fix it with the 2 finger engineer mode while driving. Soon after I could fix it with a quick power off/power on and now there is nothing I can do to get it back. Pulling over and starting/stopping the car does not bring it back of it if does it is short lived.

On my recent ~30 min drive to Porsche service I had no screens and made them send out a tech before turning off the car so they could witness it. I had no nav, no music, no Carplay, no garage door controls, no phone. Heat was necessary here in CT as it was 32*F out I had no climate control. and no heated seats for the entire trip.

While I did not buy the Taycan for it's "technology" this is a huge issue in a $200k+ vehicle for me. Almost every "feature" I lost that I listed above has been around at least 10 years (if not or longer!). This isn't rocket science!

They smartly put climate control and heated seats as physical BUTTONS that can't "disappear" on the brand new loaner Macan 4 EV they gave me and my phone hooks into the Carplay almost instantly (mine took a very long time before the latest PCM update) and the screen much nicer than mine in a car costing half as much. The screen might be 4 years "newer" than my Taycan BIT come on! LCD touch screens have been around AGES so I find that excuse lame.

Porsche service manager claims the PCM update they performed (RECALL #WPN9 PCM) will rectify my issues but since getting the car back from this update in January 2025 (along with many other recalls and fixes) I have already lost the screens 1 time so I have a feeling this issue will continue to plague me.

I find it very strange that others have NEVER encountered this issue! But looking at the (tiny) sample size in this thread it seems more common in the US spec Taycans than in outside the US. Curious if that could have something to do with it.

 

[ejcintr]

I

This started happening to my '21 Turbo S in the fall of '24 but I don't have a ton of miles on mine (~11k).

From my experience it starts slow but it will continue to get worse over time. Right before I brought it in for service it was doing it EVERY SINGLE time I turned on the car and there was no fix or reset.!

When it first started I could fix it with the 2 finger engineer mode while driving. Soon after I could fix it with a quick power off/power on and now there is nothing I can do to get it back. Pulling over and starting/stopping the car does not bring it back of it if does it is short lived.

On my recent ~30 min drive to Porsche service I had no screens and made them send out a tech before turning off the car so they could witness it. I had no nav, no music, no Carplay, no garage door controls, no phone. Heat was necessary here in CT as it was 32*F out I had no climate control. and no heated seats for the entire trip.

While I did not buy the Taycan for it's "technology" this is a huge issue in a $200k+ vehicle for me. Almost every "feature" I lost that I listed above has been around at least 10 years (if not or longer!). This isn't rocket science!

They smartly put climate control and heated seats as physical BUTTONS that can't "disappear" on the brand new loaner Macan 4 EV they gave me and my phone hooks into the Carplay almost instantly (mine took a very long time before the latest PCM update) and the screen much nicer than mine in a car costing half as much. The screen might be 4 years "newer" than my Taycan BIT come on! LCD touch screens have been around AGES so I find that excuse lame.

Porsche service manager claims the PCM update they performed (RECALL #WPN9 PCM) will rectify my issues but since getting the car back from this update in January 2025 (along with many other recalls and fixes) I have already lost the screens 1 time so I have a feeling this issue will continue to plague me.

I find it very strange that others have NEVER encountered this issue! But looking at the (tiny) sample size in this thread it seems more common in the US spec Taycans than in outside the US. Curious if that could have something to do with it.

I have had the same issue (screens disappearing etc) even after the WPN9 update... I also have a MY21 4S... I am resigned to the fact that I will always have an PCM SW issue because Porsche has no clue - and if you read the MACAN EV forum apparently they still don't have a clue.. I do see less instability if I don't use the built in Apple Music capability- really I just try and use Car Play... that seems to provide the most stability for the PCM at least in my experience.. Hopefully with the rivian investment Porsche finally will get a decent sw stack.. not holding my breath.

 

[F1Ruaraidh]

I know this I was big 2-3 years ago - and i think there's a combination of it getting a LITTLE better for me and my just getting used to it

But every once in a while - my PCM just goes black and reboots - all 3 screens (including passenger) but NOT the main cluster gauge screen

Now - it used to freeze the #$%^&*(@%##$ up and i'd have to hit the magic two finger force reboot on the top right, and i'm DEFINITELY doing this less often - but still once in a while

Several things suck about the rebooting:
-um, it's a friggin 6 digit car HELLO, EVERYTHIGN SHOULD WORK
-it takes about 3-4 minutes to reboot - so no music or anything for that time
-normally the hvac will stay on what it was on - so you keep getting the heat or a/c that was on (at least)
-i have a short commute - i have half my drive with no music. blah

So here's why i'm sending this - i have maybe 6 months of warranty left. The last time i was in they did a HUGE PCM update/upgrade/whatever - wiped my settings and everything. They said "maybe this will work" but it didn't

When we all first got these 3-4 years ago the Porsche purists were like STOP BITCHING ABOUT THE ELECTRONICS, IT'S A DRIVER'S CAR AS LONG AS IT DRIVES STOP YUR COMPLAINING. SO i backed off - and i wasn't sure if i saw less complaints because everyone else's stopped doing it - OR if ya'll just got used to it (like me)

But it's seriously not ok to have this happen. it probably happens once every two weeks - maybe once in 40-50 trips - all short in length. Used to be twice a week so hey, it's gotten better

I'm thinking of keeping this car for like 5-7 years - i'd rather have it covered under warranty than not, and my time's a-dwindling for that to happen

And i've told the service guys every time i've taken it in (i'm not horribly close to a dealer) about it with no resolution

here's a vid of it literally happening when i was taking it to the dealer for something else. No judging me for the smudgy/dirty screens - they look fine when they're on and the sun's not directly on them...

About once a week for me. Also a 21 Turbo S CT.

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