Introduction to the Porsche 992 Turbo S
We have in our care at Permagard Automotive in Miami since brand new, a 2021 Porsche 992 Turbo S, with only 3,000 miles on it, that houses a lithium battery. The vehicle is gorgeous and has received a complete Permagard interior and exterior treatment, as well as a Permagard Service Treatment in 2023. The car is slick to the touch and beads water exceptionally well, with no requirement for Permagard Shampoo during its maintenance washes. It’s also easy to dry and leaves behind no water spots on the treated surfaces. The only issue is that the lithium battery always dies on us. After countless searches on the internet, we noticed many Porsche owners are in the same situation dealing with constant dead battery issues on these new lithium batteries and not much to go on for how to resolve the issue.
After spending numerous hours on the subject trying to fix this issue, this is what we have found out:
Understanding the Dormant Mode in Lithium Batteries
The Porsche 992 Turbo S lithium battery will go dormant if the vehicle is not driven enough and the battery charge gets too low. What this means is your car appears to be completely dead, but it is actually preserving some charge in the battery, which then requires it to be “woken up”. To wake the lithium battery up, you need to get the hood of the car open using the emergency key and booster cable to unlock it. Take the booster to the battery’s terminals, which will wake the battery up, then allowing you to start the car. The battery will be charged just to the level for the idle stop to kick into action because the battery went into dormant mode. A completely dead lithium battery may require a replacement and they are quite expensive to replace, costing between $3,000 to $5,000. Also, be careful as Porsche states that if you don’t drive your vehicle at least 6,000 miles annually, the battery warranty will become void. For this reason, make sure to keep the charge level up on your lithium battery using the battery charger or by driving daily. If your Porsche 992 has rear axle steering, then it is very likely that it also has a lithium battery.
Avoiding Battery Issues with Proper Maintenance
Be careful as you start to drive the car, as the idle stop will quickly activate. You may think that the car will have stalled with a dead battery in the middle of the road, when in fact your idle stop is just working. A conventional battery will take a good amount of time driving in order to get enough charge into the battery before the idle stop starts working again. This is because a conventional battery deactivates the idle stop system if the battery decreases to a certain level of charge. The problem with a lithium battery, on a Porsche 992 Turbo S with low mileage, is that you need to keep the battery charged at all times with a trickle charger adapted for use on lithium batteries. You can usually acquire one of these at the Porsche dealership or online. The one we use is the NOCO genius 10.
Driving 10 or 15 minutes will have no effect on the charge level of your lithium battery. You will need to drive 2 to 3 hours to get it charged. If you don’t want to add the miles to your vehicle, you will have to use the charger, otherwise the battery will quickly go dormant again.
Challenges of Charging a Low-Level Lithium Battery
Also, Porsche lithium batteries are extremely hard to charge if the battery gets to a very low level of charge. In that case, you need to disconnect both the positive and the negative cables from the terminals and charge the battery directly with your ion battery charger. Trying to trickle charge a lithium battery when the battery is extremely low will not work without disconnecting the positive and negative cables. Once the battery is fully charged, you can reconnect both the positive and the negative cables and continue trickle charging the battery. Keeping the battery charged is easy with the ion battery adapted battery trickle charger if the battery is fully charged or close to fully charged.
If you wake up the lithium battery and drive short distances, the battery will quickly go dormant again, if it is not fully charged with an ion-compatible battery charger.
Permagard Treatments: Interior, Exterior, and Service
Despite the internal issues with this beautiful Porsche, the exterior still looks immaculate and 100% of the original painted surfaces are fully protected with Permagard Automotive. Permagard Automotive is the most durable sacrificial layer for your Porsche’s valuable original painted surfaces. It utilizes a process calling, “cross-linking,” resulting in a strongly linked chain of ionic bonds that fully protects the treated surface. Permagard Automotive protects against many environmental attacks, such as traffic film, bird droppings, tree sap, salt-laden air and water, and acid rain, just to name a few. Maintaining a vehicle that has been treated with Permagard Automotive is also very simple. Service Treatment applications can be applied every 12-18 months (or every 6 months for the meticulous owner), and Cleaner for Treated Surfaces can be used for spot-cleaning and bug splatter. Washing the vehicle is also much easier and doesn’t require any soap, but our Permagard Shampoo for Painted Surface is there for the particularly dirty jobs.
If you would like to learn more about our experience with lithium batteries, Porsches, or Permagard Automotive, give our Permagard Headquarters office a call today at (305) 662-5070!