Hello fellow 6speeders

I believe this is my first time posting and I'm hoping to get some help/suggestions. I live in the great north (Toronto to be exact). I have owned my Cayman S for 4 years now and love the car to death. I also understand owning these cars comes with a price and a constant paranoia of it breaking down.

I store the car every year for 4 months due to our heavy snow fall winters. Last year i learned the hard way by just leaving the car in my garage with the car plugged in and all. The battery obviously died and I had to replace it. I decided to go with a porsche OEM battery and walked out with a $500 bill.

This past winter i smartened up and hooked the car up to a trickle charger for 4 months while i stored it. Started the car once in a while and it was fine. Came April and i fully brought the car out and it was running fine. Replaced rear brakes and thought i was in for a great season. I work an hour commute from home so I do not always drive the car daily. Two weekends ago I tried to take it out on a weekend and found out it wouldn't start!!!! I would say i must have driven it maybe every 4 days and i cant believe the battery would die. I have put it on charge but it still wouldn't start. So before I go ahead and get a tow job back to porsche, I'm seeking some advise. Are there any common electrical issues I'm not aware of with the 987s? What can be potentially sucking up the battery so much? If the battery is dead, is it worth it to go back to porsche for an OEM battery again? or any battery would be the same?

your help is much needed and appreciated. Cheers!!!

 

Earlier this year I let my 08 Cayman sit in the garage for about a month without a trickle charger and it would not start. I used jumper cables to get it going and drove it to my Porsche dealer. They told me it was the original battery and it had some life left but not much. They wanted $360.00 to install a new Interstate MTP-94/H7 battery which they told me was better than the Porsche battery. About a week later I decided to change the battery but I had it done somewhere else for $200.00. The battery you replaced should have a warranty so If I were you I would jump start your car and take it to where you bought the OEM battery and have them check the cells to see if it is defective. I am not aware of any electric gremlins that would have caused your battery to fail. Good luck.

 

Thanks cremaley!!!! I just called Porsche and the battery has a 2 year warranty. Hopefully i can jump start my car at least to drive it to their lot. Thank you for your suggestions/comments. Much appreciated. Hope it all works out without costing me an arm and a leg.

 

I replaced mine pre-emptively with an Autozone battery. Here in Florida we worry about heat destroying battery. My 07 Boxster was still on the original battery and was able to do the job in about 30 minutes at about $140 USD and 3yr warranty. Wound up doing my 08 Cayenne S although it took a little longer (battery under the driver seat).

I drive enough not to have to use a trickle charger but find that when I use the CTEK charger, it seems to work fine on my old 930S cabrio which sometimes sits during summer months when its too hot to drive.

Not a big fan of OEM batteries..I like "fresh" batteries and Autozone and Walmart consistently rank the highest on Consumer Reports.