As chronicled in this thread:

My first call to 1-800-Porsche

I shredded my front right tire on a rock in the mountains, and I could use the advice of the folks here.

I have 4.4K miles on the car, I haven't tracked or AXed it yet, though I take (obviously!) aggressive twisty road drives pretty much each weekend. I'm going to have to replace the right tire of course, but is there any question as to whether I'll have to replace both tires? What do you think?

Second question: I've never been to the dealer for service with my Cayman. My default at this point is to have my car flatbedded to the dealer on Monday morning (Porsche roadside svc said they would cover the tow to the dealer) and get them to replace the tire or tires. What would you recommend instead? Are there good wheel / tire places near the West Los Angeles area that would make more sense to go to first thing Monday morning? (I'll have to pay for the tow to them).

I don't have the ability to remove the wheels myself, fwiw...

I'd like to have a good plan for Monday morning...

Where is the car now? Already at the dealership? If not, I have a jack and impact wrench to get the wheel off it you need help. The only thing is that I won't be around Sunday during the day, but I'll be home in the evening. Check your PM for my cell #.

If it's at the dealership already, then it might just be cheaper and more convenient to just have them do it. If you end up paying for a tow, it will be more expensive to replace tire rather than just getting it done at the dealership.

Personally, I'd go for the Porsche dealer - free transport and you should be able to get a new tire for reasonably the same as a tire shop. I just put a new tire on my Boxster in March and the dealer was very competitive with the tire shops (some of whom weren't familiar with N tires). I also felt more comfortable shipping it to a dealer rather than tire shops where I felt is was more likely that the shop gopher would be tempted to go for a run.

btw - I had 13k miles on mine and elected to put two new tires on - I was close to needing two new tires anyway. I'd be tempted to go with just one in your case and see how the car feels. If you have 70% or so tread left that might be the sensible route. Ask the tire shops and the dealer and see if you get a consistent opinion from them on that aspect. Others on the site might have some direct experience with this also - when they wake up this morning of course!

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GT Silver CS
1980 Honda CBX
2004 Suzuki SV1000
2006 Subaru Legacy
2002 Honda Insight

This is correct per the manual. You should not have more than a 30% difference in thread. But at 4K miles, I would not worry about it.

Definitely let Porsche tow it to your dealer ... you paid for that in the price of the car.

As to actually buying the tire, I have found the dealer does not stock the tires and have to order it so be prepared to leave the car there. Also, I have found the tire prices more expensive than aftermarket. You can probably get a better price from Tirerack. You can have Tirerack drop ship it to your dealer

Best of luck

What happened to the wheel?
Others are right. The difference in what you will pay or the tire mounted and balanced by the dealer vs. your local tire shop pales in comparison to having to pay for the tow.

do you have wheel & tire insurance? I have over 14,000 miles on my car and developed a slow leak in the right rear tire. Took it to the dealer and got the tire replaced for $22 (I bought the wheel & tire insurance). Since the tires were no longer "balanced" I replaced the left rear with a new tire (ordered from Tire Rack) and now have a spare with a fair amount of tread remaining. I'd take it to the dealer. As a side note, check Tire Rack's website for authorized/approved dealers in your immediate area.

__________________
Papa in Austin

"be young, be foolish, but be happy!"

2007 Speed Yellow Cayman S

I don't have tire / wheel insurance. I'm not sure what it would have cost, but a single tire is going to be at least $340, then it has to be mounted and balanced. I'm sure in the end it would have easily been worth it.

I may look into it for the future.

Regarding the wheel itself, the only visible damage is a small bit of curb rash directly above where there tire was cut, which likely means the rock that sliced the tire was big enough to reach the wheel as the tire deflated.

It didn't occur to me that this wouldn't be fixed by the dealer in one day. Having to leave the car there is a big hassle for me... I'm not sure leaving it there longer while I wait for TireRack.com ordered tires to reach the dealer would be worth the time inconvenience. Man, I wish the Cayman had even a tiny crappy "limp to a gas station" spare...

Thanks for the tips, everyone.

I think you are located in the right spot for quick tire repair. My dealer has to order from your zip code to get a tire which is usually delivered in one to two days so I'm guessing your dealer could get one in a few hours.

The tire/wheel insurance is around $500 for 5 years. It is supposed to be only good when purchased with a new car but if you have a good relationship with your dealer they may be willing to sell it to you after the fact (mine did) but not to cover this occurance of course.

Well, I've got my baby back and now I feel whole again.

As Santa Fe suggested, the dealer was able to get the tire within a few hours.

Since this was my first experience with Porsche service, I thought I'd share my experience for those that might be interested.

I took my car to Beverly Hills Porsche service, which was the closest dealer service location (its nowhere near the Beverly Hills dealer "show room").

First the totals:

Cost to replace and balance a Michelin PS2 235-35: $443. That includes 30 minutes of labor (must have been a new guy...) TireRack's price for just the rubber is $340, btw.

I asked for an oil / filter change (not the low-mileage service). This is what went into it:

51 minutes of labor (I guess watching the oil drain out for 42 minutes counts as "labor"...)

Oil-filter insert $25.30
Alum seal ring $0.95
Mobil-1 (oil) $79.50
Haz disposal-engine oil $2.78
(and an unlabeled mystery charge of $5.00)

The total for the tire and oil was: $721.43

I also asked them to fix the drooping third brake light foam seal issue that I have, and they said the adhesive was gone and that they'd have to replace the assembly, which they didn't have in stock...

Though I didn't have any trouble with the service, I wasn't especially impressed either. Seemed a lot like a big Chevy dealership. Didn't make me feel "special" (poor me!). But the clincher was when I got it back, there was grease (!) on my hood and greasey smudges on my metallic-plastic oil/coolant door inside the car. That just pissed me off. I can assure everyone that my car went in there "detailed"... it would have been obvious to anyone working on it. That just shows me that the guys doing the service didn't clean their gloves (or put new ones on) when they started and then didn't clean up an otherwise spotless car. I didn't expect that from Porsche. But at least they put down paper floor mats (just like Chevy).

Anyway, I was hoping I'd be impressed and feel comfortable taking my car there for the little things that will undoubtedly come up during the warranty period, but my gut-response of not wanting to go there if it can be avoided has not changed.

How do others feel about dealer service (for minor things)?

Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a bitch session, but the grease inside the passenger compartment got to me!

Your car is always better off in your own garage.

My dealer seems to understand this too, trying to get it back to me as quickly as possible.

Your car is at risk at the dealership.

Can't believe they charged 30 min labor to change a tire. So that must be like $60-70? Damn, talk about rape. I can get all four tires mounted for the same price. At least you have your car back. Sorry to hear about the oil. You should take that up with the service manager.

!!!!I just paid $2k when I bought my CS for extended insurance that covers wear and tear on wheels, tires, brake pads, wiper blades. Did I get taken? I was told brake pad replacement alone tops out over $2300 and thought $2k to be a bargain. Did anyone else get something like this? I still have 25 days or so to get a full refund; should I get the refund?

Thom