PSCB Coating Failure at 44k Miles — My Experience and What I Learned

[Oboye]

Posting this in case it helps anyone else dealing with the same issue.

My 2020 Taycan Turbo developed PSCB rotor coating failure at 44,000 miles. The car is mostly used for regular commuting — nothing aggressive — and like most of us, it relies heavily on regen braking for day-to-day stops. The mechanical brakes barely get used.

I contacted Porsche Cars North America twice requesting goodwill consideration. Both requests were denied, with PCNA citing warranty expiration. They didn’t engage with the regen braking argument or acknowledge the existence of TSBs for PSCB disc replacement on the 2020 Taycan, which I found frustrating given those TSBs suggest this is a known issue.

I’ve since filed a complaint with NHTSA documenting the failure, mileage, and the vehicle’s braking profile. If you’ve experienced the same issue, I’d encourage you to do the same — the more complaints on record, the better the chance NHTSA takes a closer look.

A few things I found useful during this process:


• PCNA does have a goodwill process — worth trying even post-warranty, but go in with realistic expectations
• Reference the PSCB TSBs specifically when you contact them
• NHTSA complaint form is at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem — takes about 10 minutes

Happy to share the full correspondence if anyone wants to see how the PCNA exchange went. And if others here have dealt with coating failure — curious what mileage it happened at and whether anyone had better luck with PCNA.

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[gnr3312]

Thanks for sharing, and it sucks this happened to you. Did you go through a dealership for the goodwill effort or did you try directly? What is the amount you were quoted for replacement if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[tycanmt]

I've noticed that regen braking is disabled until after the first time brakes are used in a journey, and have (when I remember) made a point of braking reasonably hard on that first time every time I drive the car. Not sure if this actually helps but feels worthwhile.

 

[chun]

What TSB are you referring to?

My PCSB are fine for now, and knock on wood they survive until next year when I get rid of the taycan, but you never know

 

[Oboye]

Thanks for sharing, and it sucks this happened to you. Did you go through a dealership for the goodwill effort or did you try directly? What is the amount you were quoted for replacement if you don’t mind me asking?

I went directly to PCNA — skipped the dealer route for the goodwill request entirely. Contacted them by email, made the case around the regen braking argument and the TSBs, got denied twice. Their position was essentially that the warranty had expired and that was the end of it.

As for the replacement quote — Porsche Burlington MA came in at approximately $13,500 before taxes. Which, on a car that barely touches its mechanical brakes, is a tough pill to swallow.

That's actually part of why I filed the NHTSA complaint. The cost alone isn't the issue — it's that coating failure at this mileage on an EV doesn't behave like normal wear, and I think that's worth being on record somewhere official.

 

[Oboye]

What TSB are you referring to?

My PCSB are fine for now, and knock on wood they survive until next year when I get rid of the taycan, but you never know

Good question — the main ones I referenced are TSB No. 121-22 (PSCB squeaking noises from the front axle, covering brake disc and pad replacement) and a companion bulletin for the rear axle with the same scope. Both are symptom-based workshop manuals specifically addressing PSCB disc replacement on the Taycan. You can look them up on carcomplaints.com under 2020 Taycan TSBs.

My argument to PCNA was straightforward: if Porsche has issued multiple bulletins telling dealers how to replace PSCB discs on this exact car, that's not a warranty conversation — that's a known issue conversation. They didn't engage with it.

As for your situation — fingers crossed the rotors hold up. The good news is that regen braking is so dominant on the Taycan that the mechanical brakes barely get used under normal conditions. Most owners seem to get through without issues. Mine just happened to be one of the unlucky ones.

 

[Tango22]

I've noticed that regen braking is disabled until after the first time brakes are used in a journey, and have (when I remember) made a point of braking reasonably hard on that first time every time I drive the car. Not sure if this actually helps but feels worthwhile.

I had no idea this was the case. Thanks for the 'heads up'

 

[DerekS]

As for the replacement quote — Porsche Burlington MA came in at approximately $13,500 before taxes. Which, on a car that barely touches its mechanical brakes, is a tough pill to swallow.

That quote is crazy high, is it for all four?
I was recently quoted around 7k for fronts, but even that was high because the parts were at dealer markup.

Order the parts from Suncoast, pay the dealer for labor.
https://www.suncoastparts.com/category/taycan9brawhi.html

Unless the coating failed on all four just replace the fronts.
Rears are barely used.

 

[Oboye]

Yes, that's for all four — fronts and rears plus labor. Still painful but makes more sense broken down that way.

Good call on Suncoast.

As for the rears — the coating failed on all four, so I don't have the option to skip them unfortunately. But your point is well taken for anyone else reading this who's only dealing with fronts.

 

[chun]

As for the rears — the coating failed on all four,

That is very weird and unlikely, if anything, would indicate something broken with the brake system.

There have been multiple cases of delaminated PCSB discs, but it hardly ever happened to 2 at once, mostly 1... 4 at once, those are very very very small odds.


If I were you, and porsche doesn't show any good will, since the failure of all 4 coatings at once is very unlikely.... i would just downgrade to the iron discs and pads from suncoast, you'll lose nothing by being on irons

 

[prj]

Keep in mind that you guys are talking to chatgpt.

 

[AutoX]

That is very weird and unlikely, if anything, would indicate something broken with the brake system.

There have been multiple cases of delaminated PCSB discs, but it hardly ever happened to 2 at once, mostly 1... 4 at once, those are very very very small odds.


If I were you, and porsche doesn't show any good will, since the failure of all 4 coatings at once is very unlikely.... i would just downgrade to the iron discs and pads from suncoast, you'll lose nothing by being on irons

There is a downgrade option using the same calipers? Do you know the part numbers?

 

[freinando]

Keep in mind that you guys are talking to chatgpt.

The dashes give it up?

 

[prj]

The dashes give it up?

Not only, but every single post by that user here is straight up LLM. All of it.
Just figured I'll give the people the heads up that they're talking to a clanker.

 

[Oboye]

Keep in mind that you guys are talking to chatgpt.

Your are not chatting with ChatGPT. LLM has been used to fine tune what was composed so it makes sense. Note that not everyone has english as a first language. Everything posted here has been reviewed before posting.

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