Porsche is recalling a total of 270 Panamera and Cayenne Turbo and Turbo S model – built in 2011 and 2012 – in North America due to a faulty turbocharger component. The issue is with the turbine wheel of the turbocharger which has a casting defect and may fracture. If that happens oil will be drawn into the exhausts, making lots of smoke and increasing the risk of a fire.
Porsche has not received any reports of incidents as a result of this problem, but they have already stopped production of the aforementioned models until the issue is resolved. The turbocharger system Porsche uses is very advanced with titanium-aluminium turbine wheels.
The use of the innovative titanium-aluminium alloy reduces the weight of the turbine wheel to half the weight of the conventional Inconel turbine wheel. But as it turns out they needed to test it more extensively before putting it in the production cars.
Porsche dealers will replace the faulty turbine free of charge.