Porsche Cayenne (9PA)
“955” is the unofficial designation used by the Porsche community to refer to the MY03-06 Cayenne, while “957” refers to MY07-10.
Desirable Features
- Air suspension – standard on the GTS and Turbo models, optional on all others. It dramatically improves the ride and off-road capabilities of the Cayenne (the basic coil suspension is stiff and compromises on ride height), and is considered to be vastly more reliable than Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz air suspension. Those who have it call it the “#1 must have” option for the Cayenne.
- Comfort Seats – these are the most comfortable car seats in which you will ever sit in your life.
- Advanced Off-Road Package – adds a locking rear differential, skid plates, and electronically disengaging sway bars
- Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) – dramatically reduces body roll, available on the 957 only
- Sport Exhaust – standard on the GTS, optional on all other trims
- Bose stereo:
- 955 vehicles – standard on S trim and above, optional on Base trim
- 957 vehicles – standard on the Turbo and Turbo S but optional on Base, S, and GTS trims
- Heated seats – standard on Turbo models (including rear heated seats) and on the S Titanium Edition, optional on lesser ones
- Heated steering wheel – included with heated seats, but deleted if the steering wheel was optioned with wood or carbon fiber inserts
- Xenon headlamps – standard on Turbo models and the S Titanium Edition, optional on lesser trims
- Manual transmission – only available on the GTS and the 955 Base trims
Engines
Click the links below to see common problems specific to the engines available on this vehicle.
- Porsche M05.9D (Diesel)
- Porsche M48.00 (S 955)
- Porsche M48.01 (S 957, GTS)
- Porsche M48.50 (Turbo 955, Turbo S 955)
- Porsche M48.51 (Turbo 957, Turbo S 957)
- Volkswagen VR6 3.2L (Base 955) – also called the Porsche M02.2Y
- Volkswagen VR6 3.6L (Base 957) – also called the Porsche M55.01
Problems
All Vehicles
- Driveshaft center support “Cardan” bearing – usually goes out around ~100k miles, can be identified by a rumbling or thumping from underneath the car that changes frequency with road speed
- Transmission valve body
- Thumping noise when decelerating – may be caused by the transfer case differential lock; simply requires reprogramming
- Soft touch buttons, especially those on the steering wheel, tend to wear cosmetically and can be good indicators for how the car was treated
- The aerials for the key fob are notorious for failure
- Tailgate struts tend to fail
- Despite being SUVs, many of these cars have performance tires. Combine that with their high weight (the Turbo, for example, weighs over 5000 lbs), and you’ll be lucky to get 20,000 miles out of a set. Smaller wheel sizes are preferred, as tires are much cheaper for them than the optional larger wheels.
Certain Vehicles
- 955 vehicles: Primary fuel pump failure – vehicle will run on full throttle, when cold, or with less than 1/4 tank of fuel, but stall otherwise
- Vehicles with panoramic sunroofs: Be wary, a new sunroof assembly is ~$6000
- MY05 S vehicles with engine serial numbers from M48/00 81 5 02130 to M48/00 81 5 03807 or VINs between 9P15LA60626 to 9P75LA61831: Vehicles may experience high oil consumption due to faulty oil scraper rings
Not Problems
- On 957 vehicles with PDCC, rumbling or clicking near the passenger front door may be caused by PDCC and is normal