"Free HV Heater Replacement for Your Taycan Now Available at your Porsche Center"

[whitex]

This must be a very expensive manufacturing fault for Webasto...

I recall reading their literature for this HV heater where they boasted of a 10,000!! hour service life. What a joke.

Why a joke? 10,000 hours of heater active, let's assume it's actually only coming on in the winter and let's say it's on 50% of time during winter drives (unless you drive with heat on HIGH all winter), so an average 25% duty cycle over the life of the car. That would mean the heater will last ~40,000 hours of driving. My Taycan shows an average lifetime speed of 31mph, so that means the heater would last me 1,240,000 miles. Even if I drove with heat on high 100% of the time all year round (which means I should have A/C removed too), that would be 310,000 miles, still not bad for a life of a heater. I don't expect to own my Taycan long enough for it to reach 1,240,000 miles, or even 310,000 miles, do you?

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[simcity]

Why a joke?

10,000 (if true) would be grand. But they're failing at a mere fraction of that eh. Hence joke!

 

[whitex]

10,000 (if true) would be grand. But they're failing at a mere fraction of that eh. Hence joke!

Ah, I misunderstood that you thought 10,000hrs of service is a joke.

 

[simcity]

Ah, I misunderstood that you thought 10,000hrs of service is a joke.

Indeed - some of these heaters infamously have been failing in the tens of hours, let alone hundreds or thousands of hours.

 

[whitex]

Indeed - some of these heaters infamously have been failing in the tens of hours, let alone hundreds or thousands of hours.

I know, this is why I brought a 12V heater with me for my trip home picking up my Taycan from the dealer (it was a VERY long trip in the middle of winter, all the way across North America), in case the darn heater dies I could at least defrost my windshield to get to safety.

 

[WuffvonTrips]

I know, this is why I brought a 12V heater with me for my trip home picking up my Taycan from the dealer (it was a VERY long trip in the middle of winter, all the way across North America), in case the darn heater dies I could at least defrost my windshield to get to safety.

Good point, so I've just now bought a £20 12v heater on Amazon for my >£100k Taycan in anticipation of a trip this week without benefit of overnight garaging. (Heater replaced 6 mths ago, vehicle manuf May'22, no current recall, not needed to use heater since Spring but a quick test today didn't impress me with its output).

 

[Tooney]

@whitex Thanks for the photo of heater and other components in frunk.
There was another photo posted in the forum of an installed, replaced heater. That photo showed the heater wrapped in what looked like a thick insulating fabric and held in place by a fabric strap. I wonder if the "improved" heater comes with a wrap, or if that is an existing separate part.

Any chance of labeling the other components visible in the frunk photo?

That manifold? with the hoses labeled A through J looks like fun to repair.

Is the car in the photo rhd or lhd?

 

[simcity]

@whitex Thanks for the photo of heater and other components in frunk.
There was another photo posted in the forum of an installed, replaced heater. That photo showed the heater wrapped in what looked like a thick insulating fabric and held in place by a fabric strap. I wonder if the "improved" heater comes with a wrap, or if that is an existing separate part.

Any chance of labeling the other components visible in the frunk photo?

That manifold? with the hoses labeled A through J looks like fun to repair.

Is the car in the photo rhd or lhd?

The manifold assembly with the various labelled hoses through it would have the various valves for the heating/cooling circuit for the powertrain: motor drives, inverters, battery and passenger cabin. There's something like 6 or 7 coolant changeover & mixing valves in the entire circuit and various modes of operation including heat pump functions with heat taken from the battery and/or three-phase motors drives to warm the cabin (in addition too the HV heater).

Other components...

- The silver box beneath the Webasto HV heater is the on-board AC charger.
- on the right is the coolant expansion tank for the powertrain (HV system) cooling system.

The four branches of the refrigerant (heating and cooling) circuit are shown in the diagram:

The car in the photo is LHD - you can tell from the sweep of the wipers.

 

[bluesky]

A previous comment about bad solder joints is probably what’s happening. If the PCB or component solder joints are solid, they’ll come apart from heat cycling or vibration (since automotive application), so you’ll see a bunch of failures crop up later from those production runs. MTBF times are only for the components involved, and doesn’t cover production defects.

 

[RedFiveGT]

I'm not sure how Webasto are still in business. This affects many different makes and models.

My previous car, a Land Rover PHEV had two replacement HV heaters within the first 10,000 miles.

 

[AngloCan]

I received the recall notice in July but the dealership was waiting on units before scheduling any vehicles. Fast forward to September to be told my 2020 TTS doesn't qualify for the first campaign of changing the heater as the early ones are deemed more reliable?? With temps hitting -10C and 6" of snow to greet me this morning, I'm hoping they're right! Even with a 'working' heater, the window clearing ability is poor.

 

[simcity]

To the best of my knowledge and evidence from this thread this recall is only for North American cars?

Have any European / British / Australian-NZ cars been campaigned?

 

[LotusPhil]

Just driven for 5 hours from Manchester to Norwich and kids complained they were cold.. couldn’t convince myself the heater was doing much at all…
My 71plate CT4 is going into Porsche for a “home charging software issue??” that might take an hour to fix apparently but it’s booked in for a week just I case they need to order parts. Might get a new heater too then perhaps… kids will be happier…

 

[LotusPhil]

Nope Porsche have no recall details for mine

 

[ChronoMax]

apologies if I missed it, but what is the build date / VIN range that are being replaced?
We asked and were told today that our '22 CT4 "is not on list of vehicles that is in need of replacement"

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