Purchased a Boxster S from my local Porsche dealer in 2012. After a couple of weeks I noticed a knocking noise during engine braking. On investigation Porsche said they could find nothing so I took the Service Manager out for a test and he confirmed the knocking. He suggested that it could be the Dual Mass Flywheel but, due to the magnitude of the work to investigate further, he advised me to carry on driving until something else happened.

The problem continued but got no worse although I subsequently did not use engine braking as much.

The vehicle was under warranty until its last service late 2016. Shortly after this the clutch had to be replaced at 30,000 miles. I booked the car into a local independent shop and during the repair they informed me that the Dual Mass Flywheel was knackered and had to be replaced at a cost of £1000. Their opinion was that the DMF was likely also to have led to premature clutch wear.

Needless to say I went back to Porsche and pointed out that they had diagnosed a potential DMF failure in 2012 but failed to investigate it properly. (got the job sheet). I proposed that they are liable for the repair but of course they told me to clear off.

I am happy to pursue a claim by legal means. Just wondering if anyone can advise if I have a sustainable case ?

DMF failure after ~5yrs and 30000 miles? Don’t think you’ve got a hope of holding Porsche liable, DMFs are treated as a consumable now and a lot of places will want you to replace it when you do the clutch (sounds like this is what happened to you). 30000 miles seems low, but for all they know you’ve spent most of that time on track at 7000rpm.

Your only hope is to appeal to the goodwill of Porsche GB. Write a polite letter setting out the facts, don’t get emotive, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

The problem continued but got no worse although I subsequently did not use engine braking as much.

Seriously, for 5 years?

Generally with warranty claims, the key is that you reported a fault within the warranty period. That is to say, if you report a fault with something 11 months after purchase, they can’t flim-flam for a couple of months and then go “sorry mate, out of warranty now.”

I think the crux here may be that you didn’t decide to carry on driving (which could exacerbate any problems) but rather you were acting on the advice of the dealers who refused to investigate further. Even if you have “spent most of that time on track at 7000rpm,” you were still acting on their advice.

I think if it were me I’d be looking at a compromise where I paid for the clutch and they paid for the flywheel. But really I think you’re into the realms of professional legal advice / representation here.

My Mrs had a Merc 320CLK & the auto box went after 68K. It was a 36K car when new but Merc told us to jog when I asked for some ‘goodwill’. Cost 1.2K to fix. It was troublesome in other ways too. Had to have the brake pipes renewed at 7yrs old FFS (steel brake pipes on a 36K car??)
I won’t be buying another Merc. Or a Porsche either after reading the OP.

Ask Citizens Advice, they were good when I succesfully claimed against the garage who mis-diagnosed the problem in the 1st place.

Thanks for the comments.
Just to clarify……Porsche suggested a DMF problem when I first flagged the issue in 2012. It was Porsche who advised me to keep driving. It was Porsche who would not investigate the problem further as it was too big a job.
If they had done a proper investigation in the first instance I would not have had to fork out £1000 for a new DMF even if it is a few years later.

It was Porsche who advised me to keep driving. It was Porsche who would not investigate the problem further as it was too big a job.

Do you have proof of this – is it written down somewhere ?