[Well known problem] - great cell signal no data - requires dealer visit to resolve

[daveo4EV]

in another chapter of Porsche's mastery of all things digital - apparently the vehicle's cellular modem can get wedged to such a degree that while it has a perfect cellular signal it will refuse to engage in any actual data transfers. Symptom's include but are not limited to:

• PCM weather app offline
• PCM news app offline
• PCM no traffic updates on navigation
• PCM in ability to login into different porscheID accounts
• no remote access via the myPorsche app
• owner frustration and further confirmation that Porsche's mastery of all things mechanical is starting to wear thin with an ongoing set of "digital snafu's" that are unbecoming on a $150k+++ vehicle
• two lines with a slash through them indicate no data service is functional - this icon is not helpful or remotely diagnostic - the "icon" shows up in the upper right portion of the upper center screen

according to myPorsche app - my car has not been seen online since Oct. 16th…I finally tried to diagnose and recover it this weekend and there was no joy…

800-PORSCHE confirmed the problem this past weekend and provide a detailed writeup for me to show my Porsche dealer such that they can resolve the issue with a dealer service visit. The phone representative confirmed this is a known issue, but no fix other than dealer service visit is available at this time. The customer support level of this phone call was excellent - polite, knowledgable, and a targeted resolution - but this problem should not exist and if it does it should not require a dealer visit to resolve a "wedged" modem - but I have zero complaints about the actual phone call…

NOTE: if/when this problem happens out of warranty it would be a for-pay service at your dealership to "reboot/reset" this wonky Modem in the vehicle - for that I lack words and consider this utter crap - my Taycan is still in warranty - but honestly a dealer visit to reset/reboot a fault component that isn't a hardware fault? This would not make me happy.

I plan to drop the Taycan off for this "fix" when I have reason to visit the dealer for other reasons later this week…

Taycan's a great car - but other aspects of it after 3+ years of ownership are wearing thin…

text of the customer support eMail provided below:

Dear[name], Thank you for contacting Porsche Cars North America. The issue you are experiencing has been seen before and can be resolved by scheduling a service appointment at your Porsche dealership. The module that is responsible for cellular communication needs to be reset to restore the data connection in your Taycan Turbo. The module is sometime referred to as the connect control unit or the conbox high. If your service technician is not certain the module that needs to be reset please give them this email and if they run into issues with the reset they should contact us for further advisement. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to assist you. Otherwise we wish you safe travels and thank you for being a part of the Porsche family. Kind regards, [Customer Suport Name] Connect and Charging Expert Porsche Cars North America One Porsche Drive Atlanta, GA 30354 Phone: 1-800-PORSCHE (1-800-767-7243) Email: [email protected]

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[bluesky]

Can you post the remediation writeup, or slip it to me? I’d like to see it. If I get a Taycan I plan to get PIWIS and I may be able to help people out with this or other issue.

 

[DougFrisk]

This happened to my wife Lori just yesterday, she parked in a gully where there's poor voice service and terrible data service. She came back to the car and the PCM asked her to log into an account or continue as guest, but refused to let her log in. I walked her through rebooting the PCM with no joy. She drove logged in as guest to a grocery store and when she came back out to the car it was logged in as her again.

The whole time, the car reported a decent cellular connection. It's going to be interesting driving to the cabin where you have to climb a hill in order to get a poor Verizon signal.

 

[daveo4EV]

This happened to my wife Lori just yesterday, she parked in a gully where there's poor voice service and terrible data service. She came back to the car and the PCM asked her to log into an account or continue as guest, but refused to let her log in. I walked her through rebooting the PCM with no joy. She drove logged in as guest to a grocery store and when she came back out to the car it was logged in as her again.

The whole time, the car reported a decent cellular connection. It's going to be interesting driving to the cabin where you have to climb a hill in order to get a poor Verizon signal.

this is not the same problem - there is no recovery of the data connection with out dealer intervention in this case - it will never "fix" itself.

 

[tigerbalm]

I've a hunch that a "12-volt reset" would probably reset the modem and get it going again – if you wanted to skip out on a dealer visit.

 

[daveo4EV]

I've a hunch that a "12-volt reset" would probably reset the modem and get it going again – if you wanted to skip out on a dealer visit.

I've tired it - no joy.

 

[SergeyIndy]

@daveo4EV, I was about to ask the forum if anyone experiencing no data issues with PCM built in LTE connection in case this is widespread. Currently, this exact issue happened to the Cayenne with PCM 5 over the weekend and I called it in to Porsche Connect with evidence today. The connection shows fine, but as you mention Porsche ID login times out, no Nav traffic, no Nav destinations can be sent to car from the app, and no Weather. I would be interested to learn the procedure, if there is one to rest the modem or SIM.
However, if I connect the PCM to external internet connection (Phone hotspot, or Home internet, which is possible on the Cayenne) then everything works normal. I will keep everyone posted if they resolve this. Now, I need to see if Taycan also has LTE connection icon but in fact has not data.

 

[daveo4EV]

@daveo4EV, I was about to ask the forum if anyone experiencing no data issues with PCM built in LTE connection in case this is widespread. Currently, this exact issue happened to the Cayenne with PCM 5 over the weekend and I called it in to Porsche Connect with evidence today. The connection shows fine, but as you mention Porsche ID login times out, no Nav traffic, and no Weather. I would be interested to learn the procedure, if there is one to rest the modem or SIM.
However, if I connect the PCM to external internet connection (Phone hotspot, or Home internet) then everything works normal. I will keep everyone posted if they resolve this. Now, I need to see if Taycan also has LTE connection icon but in fact has not data.

in my case - sim status shows good bars and celluar network (Verizon) - in the case of Taycan you can't connect to home-wifi - so if the cellular connection is "wedged/hung" apparently it requires a dealer visit to "reset/restore" the modem's sanity…

it boggles my mind that…

1. this requires a dealer visit
2. it's a problem that doesn't fix itself will a full power down (disconnect the 12v battery)
3. that it can come to this
4. Porsche knows about it and has no apparent plans to 'fix' it
5. that if my car was out of warranty they'd charge me to fix it

I'll provide details when I have them - as I said the next time I have to go to the dealer I'll be dropping my Taycan for this repair - I hope to visit the dealer sooner rather than later, but right now I'm in world wide shipping logistics hell so I have no idea when my opportunity to visit the dealer will present itself.

 

[SergeyIndy]

I just checked our new Macan with PCM 5 and sure enough it has LTE connection lit up but no data as the Cayenne. No traffic, Weather is dead. I am not going to try to login with Porsche ID since I still have Nav destinations cached and showing. This would make me think this is a widespread event. Now going to check Taycan LTE data, will keep you posted in a moment....Taycan is working good.

 

[FlyingPoint]

I had the same issue early on after 6 months of ownership. Those were the early days and it took Porsche over a month in the shop to get it to work. No hardware was replaced, I guess some software glitched.
I do agree that these types of repetitive issues wear thin once one is out of the early adoption mindset.
Good luck and I hope it gets resolved early in the process. By now, Porsche should be pretty familiar with this issue. I must have read about this problem a dozen times on various forums.

 

[whitex]

I've a hunch that a "12-volt reset" would probably reset the modem and get it going again – if you wanted to skip out on a dealer visit.

The modem (a.k.a. CONBOX-HIGH) has its own backup battery, which requires service (replacement) every few years

 

[whitex]

There may be a way to reset the CONBOX-HIGH via commonly available CAN tools, like car scanner.

https://piembsystech.com/ecu-reset-service-identifier-0x11-uds-protocol/

 

[Murph7355]

I strongly suspect I have the same issue (though in my case I can logoff and on again). Waiting on a call back after raising an "Instabug".

I have no fundamental issue with glitches happening. But having to visit a dealer to rectify common ones is poor.

 

[Payton48]

This happened to me also but the car fixed itself and regained connectivity when I plugged a level 2 charger into the driver's side (AC only) port. I noticed that I was unable to access the car from the Porsche app sometime in Oct and saw that I was missing data since 10/11. I drove it around normally, charged using DC fast chargers a few times, but it never came back online. I was about to try the 12v disconnect but had to go on a work trip and parked the car at the airport. I plugged it in using my AC charger and car started sending data to the app again. It's all working normally now but I'm still missing data from 10/11 to 11/06.

 

[CaliPorsche]

I had this same issue when I Was traveling on a long road trip (that I have mentioned in a prior post)….

Porsche support like in the OP case were extremely helpful, they also told me it needed a Conbox High reset at the dealer (same email from them almost verbatim) …. The dealer however was weeks out in my case.

I bought a 10mm wrench… tried the 12v reset …… did not work, tried again this time with a longer power down …. And it worked in my case.

So far I have not seen the problem again since….

Based on Daveo’s experience here - this is clearly not going to work for everyone but I strongly suggest to others to try that approach first.

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