Macan 4 Delivered Without Functioning AC

[ExVolt]

Note - I'm creating this thread for the "known issues" list...

Our Macan 4 was delivered without functioning air conditioning. We accepted the car as it's fall, so we figured we could live without AC. The specific problem is when we turn the AC on, it turns off automatically after a few seconds.

The car was charged with refrigerant so it's not that.

The service department told us that a service bulletin has been published relating to "pinched AC lines". This is what they believe is the problem. I will be returning the car to the service department next week. They said it's a minimum of a 3 day job.

 

[krissrock]

Interestingly, the last time someone mentioned that there's a service bulletin for this, i couldn't find it on the nhtsa site
So I'm wondering if this issue is infrequent

 

[craz8]

I'd be very cautious with this, as the AC system is also used to cool the main battery if it gets too hot.

Someone else on here had a similar AC problem and the dealer wouldn't let them take the car because of the possible battery damage if it gets too hot and can't get cooled.

 

[john SMjr]

interesting
look like we may have an issue
but our seems to be more of a fan issue
also the heated seats are not heating

 

[sarinotropeano]

I'd be very cautious with this, as the AC system is also used to cool the main battery if it gets too hot.

Someone else on here had a similar AC problem and the dealer wouldn't let them take the car because of the possible battery damage if it gets too hot and can't get cooled.

I

I have the same problem and I posted it two weeks ago. The car is still with the dealer waiting on a back ordered part. And yes I was told that the parts needed also cool the battery which is why I was not able to use the car. FYI I was on a road trip and noticed that after DC fast charging the battery temperature shot up to 130-130 degrees F. It had been steady at 75-80 F.

 

[ExVolt]

I

I have the same problem and I posted it two weeks ago. The car is still with the dealer waiting on a back ordered part. And yes I was told that the parts needed also cool the battery which is why I was not able to use the car. FYI I was on a road trip and noticed that after DC fast charging the battery temperature shot up to 130-130 degrees F. It had been steady at 75-80 F.

I noticed a similar pattern. The weather has been very nice in SF and the battery stays at ambient temperature (~65 degrees Fahrenheit). I've only fast charged twice and I was at 50% SOC when I started. Both times, I noticed the battery heated up to 90-100 degrees (Fahrenheit). I won't be fast charging until this is fixed (I have a slow charger at home if necessary).

Did they mention which part was back ordered? I'm asking as my dealership let me keep the car while they ordered the part and I'm scheduled to bring it in this Wednesday for service. I don't want to bring it in if they don't have the correct part as we aren't planning to do any big road trips and we can trickle charge at home if necessary.

 

[craz8]

Fast charging will cause heating of the battery. 55 Celsius is a number that can be seen when heating for many EVs. This is 131F when converted, which looks much scarier.

The problem with a broken AC system is that, if the car can not stop the temperature rising any further, damage could occur.

But to re-iterate, 90-100F is not a problem, even 131F is Ok, for the top temperature when charging your EV.

Tesla Bjorn has some videos on YouTube that show charging with a set of car sensor data, including Cell temps that regularly are over 50C for other car brands. Here's a video of his with specific info about charging rate and temperature - these things need to be hot to get full charge rates.

 

[PanameraFrank]

Fast charging is supposed to heat the battery.

 

[sarinotropeano]

I noticed a similar pattern. The weather has been very nice in SF and the battery stays at ambient temperature (~65 degrees Fahrenheit). I've only fast charged twice and I was at 50% SOC when I started. Both times, I noticed the battery heated up to 90-100 degrees (Fahrenheit). I won't be fast charging until this is fixed (I have a slow charger at home if necessary).

Did they mention which part was back ordered? I'm asking as my dealership let me keep the car while they ordered the part and I'm scheduled to bring it in this Wednesday for service. I don't want to bring it in if they don't have the correct part as we aren't planning to do any big road trips and we can trickle charge at home if necessary.

I received an update on the back ordered parts- they are the refrigerant lines. And I was told that it is now looking like the parts won’t be shipped until the first week of December. At this point I am very disappointed. First the delay in getting the car. Then issues with the software not updating. Then Plug and Charge not connecting without a third software update. And this AC/cooling issue which should have been checked prior to delivery. Porsche is supposed to be a premium anu company. This has really soured the whole experience.
I was an early adopter- owned Audi Etron Edition One. When I had a problem in second year of ownership they gave me another etron which made the whole process much easier. The Porsche dealer has given me a 2025 Macan ICE. And after only driving EVs for the last six years I am not enjoying the experience. Really notice the difference. Hopefully the parts will come sooner than December. Not looking forward to road trips with the loaner.

 

[PanameraFrank]

Sorry to hear about your experience.

These early EVs always seems to be a dicey proposition, unfortunately. I had an early iPace that was a lemon, a very early Taycan 4S that was perfect (although many others had lemons), an i4 M50 that was perfect, and two Rivians that have both had issues.

Hopefully they can get this fixed for you and it's the last issue you have for many miles. I would certainly reach out to PCNA for some form of compensation.

 

[ExVolt]

I received an update on the back ordered parts- they are the refrigerant lines. And I was told that it is now looking like the parts won’t be shipped until the first week of December. At this point I am very disappointed. First the delay in getting the car. Then issues with the software not updating. Then Plug and Charge not connecting without a third software update. And this AC/cooling issue which should have been checked prior to delivery. Porsche is supposed to be a premium anu company. This has really soured the whole experience.
I was an early adopter- owned Audi Etron Edition One. When I had a problem in second year of ownership they gave me another etron which made the whole process much easier. The Porsche dealer has given me a 2025 Macan ICE. And after only driving EVs for the last six years I am not enjoying the experience. Really notice the difference. Hopefully the parts will come sooner than December. Not looking forward to road trips with the loaner.

Our service department thinks "pinched AC lines" are the problem with our car. They ordered these 2 weeks ago from Atlanta and they arrive in SF last week. We are scheduled to drop our car off tomorrow (Wednesday). They say it's a labor-intensive fix, so they want it for at least 3 days.

Note, I'm not sure if "refrigerant lines" and "ac lines" are the same things.

Besides this, the car has been pretty great. Very fun, fast, and the right amount of luxury for us.

I will let you know how long this takes to fix as I suspect 3 days might be optimistic. Wish us luck.

 

[ExVolt]

Got the car back today. They were able to overnight the parts to SF from Atlanta so the repair went fast.

The shop supervisor said there was an early batch of cars where the AC lines got pinched during their build The nhtsb bulketin Porsche published exactly described the problem and solution.

The shop supervisor did the work himself. He said he felt obligated to get our “sassy car” back on the road asap. Never had a car called sassy; kinda like it!

Our dealer gave us lots of nice presents to thank us for the inconvenience. Very nice experience and very nice staff.

An aside- the loaner they gave us was a new ICE macan. My partner and I are shocked at how much better the ev version is in every aspect: speed, luxury, handling, fun factor.

 

[sarinotropeano]

Glad you got your car back quickly. Having the parts shipped overnight and having the manager do the repairs— excellent.
my dealer has been good at communicating with me but yours took to the next level.

 

[PanameraFrank]

Great news, @ExVolt. If only every problem was handled so well!

 

[Colin the Best]

I'm in the same situation , or at least I think,...I can't get hot air until 20 minutes after starting (fans only, not a/c)..The first few days, it took very little, now which is even colder (2-4 degrees centigrade) takes much longer and as soon as I turn on the fans alone, the autonomy drops noticeably... with air conditioning the same thing, it takes a long time to produce heat and consumption gets even worse ( obviously ) ...next week I'll have to take the car to the dealer to find out what the hell happened.
P.s. the battery never gets hot, it always stays around 7-9 degrees centigrade,...I haven't done any fast charging yet,...I'm quite disappointed, after the adventures with the Taycan, I was hoping Porsche had finished with the beta tests..

Sponsored