The RENN HAUS TEAM has over 70 years of combined experience in servicing and repairing MERCEDES BENZ, PORSCHE, BMW AND MINI fine German automobiles. Team RENN HAUS' professional level of maintenance, service and repair is unequivocally committed to the right solution for each customer’s car. Each technician always asks himself when
The RENN HAUS TEAM has over 70 years of combined experience in servicing and repairing MERCEDES BENZ, PORSCHE, BMW AND MINI fine German automobiles. Team RENN HAUS' professional level of maintenance, service and repair is unequivocally committed to the right solution for each customer’s car. Each technician always asks himself when working on every car, “How would I do this if this were my car?” They then apply that principle to every job.
Plus, our 30 plus years of tuning and performance modification experience is second to none. Our tuning provides the best performance possible for your car without changing the driving dynamics you love. Our technicians hold certifications for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Master Technician, Mercedes Technical Specialist, BMW Technician, Lamborghini and Porsche Specialist, Mercedes SLR McLaren, Mercedes G-Wagon, Mercedes Diesel and many other system specific certifications.
RENN HAUS has over 40 years of experience serving the Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice areas; and is one of the top companies for tuning, modifying, fabricating custom exhaust systems, transmission rebuilding and engine rebuilding in the USA.
Our RENN HAUS tuned Mercedes Benz E55 AMG has 600hp, 630lbft of torque, runs the 1/4 mile in 11.536 seconds at 120.53 mph and goes 0 to 60 in 2.99 seconds. RENN HAUS can turbocharge or supercharge many of these cars as well as correcting many tunings and modifications from other company's that did not meet expectations.
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Verified CustomerRENN HAUS sympathizes with Paul that his problem was not resolved by us. However, in Paul’s financial interest, we advised him to take the car back to the shop that just performed $6,000.00 worth of service and in our diagnosis feel that work is part of the cars problem.
However, there are always two sides to every story and some significant information needs to be added.
Paul visited RENN HAUS a few months ago to interview us about providing service for his Porsche 928 and perform a considerable amount of required service such as replacing the timing belt and water pump. I personally gave Paul a tour of our facility and discussed our technician Steve’s expertise with engines/engine building and specifically his past 928 work, including a performance engine build to 6.5L in a 928 S4.
After this meeting Paul decided to have this work performed along with some engine wiring damage caused by a rodent, about $6,000.00, at another shop that from our prospective does not specialize in Porsche’s much less the rare 928 as RENN HAUS does.
Paul then contacted me a few weeks ago to discuss the limp mode problem and made an appointment for us to diagnose. During my discussion with Paul he mentioned he had significant work performed at another shop and that he was very unhappy with that experience, but it was too long of a story for him to get into.
Upon our inspection we found that three of the eight spark plug gaps had their gap changed to zero while in the engine, which is a very odd and unusual problem, along with other electrical issues causing problems with the vehicle. Ryan talked and walked Paul hand in hand through every step of our time as we tried to determine what caused these problems and the history of the past service/repairs.
Rennhaus replaced their current bore-scope in an effort to properly inspect the pistons & cylinders for any potential items that could be causing the 3 spark plugs to have their gap changed within a few miles of driving. No issues were found when inspected, and then Rennhaus performed a compression test to check for any irregularities between each cylinder. We found that the engine was down on compression on the 3 cylinders that were having issues with the spark plugs. This along with noise coming from the engine when running indicates to Rennhaus that there are internal issues with the engine and more diagnosis time would be needed to estimate needed repair.
After spending the time approved by Paul to diagnose the problem, our 30 year Master Technician could not determine the source for the multiple problems without significant further diagnosis time. He felt that some if not all of the problems had to do with the past service work. Therefore, when speaking with Paul we recommended that Paul take his 928 back to the shop that performed the past service in an effort to have them make it right as opposed to him paying us to fix another shops work. Again, this was recommended in Paul’s interest and not in RENN HAUS’ interest of getting a possible large job.
RENN HAUS fully understands and is sympathetic to Paul’s frustration. However, RENN HAUS did not have anything to do with the current issues he is experiencing with his Porsche 928 and performed as requested and approved by Paul our efforts to diagnose and fix the problem. Unfortunately for Paul, the problem points back to the previous shops work.
I am fully open to discussing Paul’s disappointment and anything further we may do or provide him.
We would appreciate being apprised of the final fix for Paul’s 928 issue and at that time would be happy to review that repair invoice and consider any adjustment of our invoice for the RENN HAUS charges if it shows our diagnosis was incorrect.
Below is a review by a previous 928 owner to show our past history with this specific Porsche.
Testimonial - Wes and Marianne
Thank goodness for Renn Haus and Guy Covington and staff. Our '89 Porsche 928 had been in storage for 4 years and when put back on the road was not functioning correctly. A dealer had quoted an astronomical amount to repair the transmission, a/c, and various other maladies, so I contacted Guy for his opinion. After his thorough examination, it was determined that what was really needed was some electronic repair to the engine and a complete tune-up. Now the car runs like new and the price was astonishingly low compared to what the dealer had quoted . We are most satisfied with Renn Haus and recommend them highly.
Wes and Marianne
1989 Porsche 928
Sincerely,
Guy Covington - Owner
I originally brought my 928 to you to solve the immediate problem of why the engine is running in the limp home mode. The car has been running perfectly, but after shutting the engine down for only 60 seconds it restarted in the limp home mode. The question then becomes what could have happened in that short time, or on engine start, to cause this problem? I’m sure a 24 year old car will have other issues, but there is only one malfunction that is causing this limp home problem, and that is the only issue I specified to be fixed. Since I did not want to drive the car in that condition I had it towed to your facility.
You checked the spark plugs and found that the gap on three plugs was closed. The gaps were readjusted and the car was taken for a test drive during which time it performed perfectly for 15 minutes before again going into the limp home mode. Since the engine needs spark, fuel and compression, and the engine ran perfectly for 15 minutes with only work to the spark plugs, we can therefore rule out fuel and compression as causing this problem. I also sent Ryan an e-mail with several possible malfunctions that I found on the Internet that could cause this problem. These included exhaust temperature sensors, the M A F and the ignition protection circuit. However, I do not know if these items have been checked and/or the outcome of that inspection.
Your next plan was to borescope the engine and install new sparkplugs. The borescope was clean and new sparkplugs were installed, but this did not solve the problem.
The next thing I knew the engine was given a compression test although compression is not a variable that could cause this immediate problem, especially since the engine ran perfectly for me and during the test drive.
The bottom line is I found myself in a position of having new sparkplugs, a borescope, a compression test, several hours of labor, with a bill of several hundred dollars, and still there was no idea of how to solve the limp home problem. I therefore had no choice but to remove my car and take it to a different repair facility.
I am certainly not a mechanic, but if I had to tackle this problem I would find out why Porsche built-in this limp home mode, and what specific malfunctions would cause it to activate? There can only be a certain number of malfunctions that would cause the engine to enter this mode. I would make a list of all those potential malfunctions, and since working on the sparkplugs seemed to solve the problem, I would put all electrical malfunctions at the top of the list. The immediate problem of having the engine in the limp home mode has to come from a failure of one of the items on this list. However, I don’t know whether such a list has been made and investigated.
In closing, I would like to say that Ryan represents your company very well and was certainly trying to solve the problem. However, in this case I think he was misguided to check engine compression to solve the limp home problem when the car ran perfectly for me and for 15 minutes during the test drive.