Upgraded the Cayenne

 

When we bought our 2021 Porsche Cayenne back in 2023, I had been looking for a Cayenne eHybrid but could not find one. We ended up with the 2021 Cayenne which we owned for almost 2 years and 50k miles. It was a great vehicle but lacked some features I really wanted including: Android Auto, surround view, and of course the hybrid powertrain. There were also several nice-to-haves: 4-zone ATC, rear side window shades, head-up display, and air suspension. We also wanted light colored interior. I kept looking every couple months ever since we bought the 2021. In March 2025 the car we wanted showed up at the local Mercedes dealer. It was exactly the way I would have ordered it. It is a 2022 Porsche Cayenne eHybrid loaded with all the right features and the right color combination. We traded in the 2021 and bought it this week. 

The hybrid powertrain offers many advantages, the main advantage for me being the power delivery. Acceleration is very smooth and powerful across a much broader rpm range. The base Cayenne has automatic engine start/stop, as most new cars do. This is a problem when using the air conditioning, which is almost year round here in Las Vegas. Since it is hybrid, the start/stop does not require starting the engine to accelerate from a stop either so you don't have the interruption you get with straight gasoline start/stop. The hybrid has an electric air conditioning compressor so when the engine turns off, the AC does not. You can also start the AC before you get in the car using the Porsche app, like you can with battery electric vehicles (BEV). It offers most the benefits of BEV but with the benefits of the gas powertrain as well.  We can drive it fully electric for miles if we wanted to. I have solar on my house so the power is free. In hybrid mode it can greatly extend the fuel economy in town to about double what the gas powertrain can do. Most of our driving is in town so we will see this benefit. While most would view hybrids as all about fuel economy, hybrids are also about performance. In fact many modern supercars are hybrids. Formula One cars are also hybrid.     

The rear steering makes the back wheels better follow the front and allows the vehicle to turn much sharper at low speeds. It is great when trying to navigate very tight parking lots. At high speeds it adds stability by making the vehicle feel as if it has a longer wheel-base.  

Kohler Engine Noise

I have a 2001 GT3000 Craftsman mower with a Kohler 23HP 2 cylinder engine.  I bought it used back in May 2009.  It has many hard long hours on it.  I had a 5 acre place I used it on for many years, and my lot now is over half an acre. 

I went to mow the lawn and heard a knocking sound.  I heard it while cranking as well as running.  Engine load made no difference so I figured it was not a main or rod bearing, or a piston issue.  It was an odd sound actually.  I listened with a stethoscope and narrowed it to the crankcase area, not the top end.

I removed the engine and as a drained the oil I could see the metal in it.

Once I took the engine apart, I checked the rotating assembly to find the source of the knock but it all looked good.  Everything was nice and tight still.  Piston skirts looked good too.  This was expected since the knock did not change with engine load.  I had to look deeper.  Finally I found where the crank had worn into the lower case (oil pan) which also serves at the lower thrust bearing.  Strange they have the crank go right against the end case aluminum to serve as the thrust bearing.  I could feel the crank end play was excessive too.  The knock was from the fact that the crank had worn so deeply into the end case that the crank throw was actually grinding into the oil pump gear and bolt.  

I measured the crank end play and found it to be 0.080".  That is ridiculous!  

You can see in the photo below how worn down the oil pan is on the thrust surface. This is supposed to be flat.

Notice the wear on the oil pump gear.

Here is what it should look like.

When I think back to the way it sounded it was not a pure knock.  It also had a grinding sound element to it.  Now it makes sense.  By the way, the photo above is a used part listed on eBay at the time I wrote this.  It had a buy it now for $45.  There were several others around the same price.  Far less than the over $200 for a new one.