What a sad situation for fellow 996 owners!!
Discussion
Very sad to see two 996 owners suffer more engine problems in recent postings. I know they both have warranties but what a sad situation when you buy the car of your dreams and are forced to pay a another £900 to make sure your it does not turn into a nightmare.Granted that if you are not a mechanic, the warranty is a no brainer but then you are tied into them servicing as well.
To you guys who have not got a warranty, If your 996 or Boxster suddenly dies, do not try to drive the car if the engine is making any sort of strange noise. Get it relayed home and contact one of helpful guys on this forum.Same thing if it overheats and blows the water out. Unless the car has cooled right down you will crack the heads for sure if you refill it.
Shame Porsche do not help the owners of the older cars a lot more as a matter of good will as 99% of the cars that blow up have been serviced to death and it one of a few well known design problems that have caused the trouble. These have been very well covered in Hartechs great buyers guide.
When i bought my Boxster S the first thing I did was buy a spare engine. Was only £100 more than the warranty but I am lucky enough to be able to play with the car anyway and is something i enjoy doing.
Any way lads hope the warranties come through for you and you get your Porkers back soon to enjoy thi great weather!!
To you guys who have not got a warranty, If your 996 or Boxster suddenly dies, do not try to drive the car if the engine is making any sort of strange noise. Get it relayed home and contact one of helpful guys on this forum.Same thing if it overheats and blows the water out. Unless the car has cooled right down you will crack the heads for sure if you refill it.
Shame Porsche do not help the owners of the older cars a lot more as a matter of good will as 99% of the cars that blow up have been serviced to death and it one of a few well known design problems that have caused the trouble. These have been very well covered in Hartechs great buyers guide.
When i bought my Boxster S the first thing I did was buy a spare engine. Was only £100 more than the warranty but I am lucky enough to be able to play with the car anyway and is something i enjoy doing.
Any way lads hope the warranties come through for you and you get your Porkers back soon to enjoy thi great weather!!
Dr S said:
SNDa said:
how were you able to get an engine for a grand?
or perhaps the question should be, in what state is an engine that cost a grand?
or perhaps the question should be, in what state is an engine that cost a grand?
Warranty NOT engine...
Dunit said:
When i bought my Boxster S the first thing I did was buy a spare engine. Was only £100 more than the warranty..
am i reading that wrong?
Dunit said:
...Same thing if it overheats and blows the water out. Unless the car has cooled right down you will crack the heads for sure if you refill it.
...just curious - why would the heads crack if the car were refilled with, say, water at room temperature? If the heads DID crack, how would this manifest itself and would this problem be immediately apparent?
Dunit said:
Shame Porsche do not help the owners of the older cars a lot more as a matter of good will as 99% of the cars that blow up have been serviced to death and it one of a few well known design problems that have caused the trouble.
Its not the most profitable car company in the world for nothing. I think their stance on elementary design failings and some of their OPC servicing and possibly their scandalous PEx prices is what really lets Porsches public profile down with owners.
Unfortunately like the rest of us I love their cars...so they'll probably never change!
964RS said:
Dunit said:
Shame Porsche do not help the owners of the older cars a lot more as a matter of good will as 99% of the cars that blow up have been serviced to death and it one of a few well known design problems that have caused the trouble.
Its not the most profitable car company in the world for nothing. I think their stance on elementary design failings and some of their OPC servicing and possibly their scandalous PEx prices is what really lets Porsches public profile down with owners.
Unfortunately like the rest of us I love their cars...so they'll probably never change!
IMO they have become the most profitable maker DESPITE the problems with 996/boxster engine failures......and the real cost to the business as a whole has not been seen yet.
It takes time for these reliability issues to filter up through the market and then more time still for it to turn full circle and start damaging the brand - look how long it took before Merc's were generally regarded (relatively) low on quality.
For Porsche's sake I hope they have already listened and done something - any reports of 997/987/Cayman engine failures yet?
Hi guys
I bought the engine the engine on ebay from a guy in Wigan. He paid £1500 for it and it came from a 32K milage 2001 write off. His Boxster had been using water and the guy who does his cars thought the block may have been cracked. Turns out it was only a head gasket so he bought a set of timing tools from OPC For £1050 and replaced the gaskets. So Bought the engine and also the tools sepperately. I have pulled the cam covers of and every thing looks fine and no leaks from the Rms .Also being a 2001 engine it has the late Hyvo crank and shaft. New parts for these engines cost a fortune -- Heads £2800 each.Crank £2600,Rods £1500 and crankcase dont even go there.Also i now have the w/s manual,Interface and software to get in to the ecu.
If you know what your doing these cars can be very cheap to run and are quite straight forward even for a old codger like me
Bob
I bought the engine the engine on ebay from a guy in Wigan. He paid £1500 for it and it came from a 32K milage 2001 write off. His Boxster had been using water and the guy who does his cars thought the block may have been cracked. Turns out it was only a head gasket so he bought a set of timing tools from OPC For £1050 and replaced the gaskets. So Bought the engine and also the tools sepperately. I have pulled the cam covers of and every thing looks fine and no leaks from the Rms .Also being a 2001 engine it has the late Hyvo crank and shaft. New parts for these engines cost a fortune -- Heads £2800 each.Crank £2600,Rods £1500 and crankcase dont even go there.Also i now have the w/s manual,Interface and software to get in to the ecu.
If you know what your doing these cars can be very cheap to run and are quite straight forward even for a old codger like me
Bob
Regarding the cracking of the Cyl heads unfortunatly the overheating does not happen where there is a source of boiling water to refill.9 times out of 10 your stuck in some traffic jam the things starts to boil over so you try and limp to the nearest garage or pullover at the side and try and beg some water. Once one off these engines is boiling it takes a good hour for them to cool down. They also to an exstent oil cooled as well with one supply oilpump and Two scavengers. Once all this lot gets overheated it takes some cooling down. All i am suggesting id be patient,let her cool down.refill and try to get somewhere safe to sort out.
Take care.
Take care.
I can understand why the recent postings of engine problems may have worried some of you again - but the incidences are still extremely rare and so although there are well documented problems they have only aflicted a small number so far.
The original air cooled 911 range and water cooled 944/968 range were so predictable that we were happy to include cover under our Lifetimne Maintenance Plan even for an engine or gearbox problem (and did do so on a couple of occasions which is exactly what the plan is there for - to avoid anyone having a huge repair bill).
However - we were always worried about what would happen if this new generation of engines eventually exposed a common fault that affects most of the cars sold, requiring complete engine rebuilds - as our plan goes on for as long as you own the car regardless of the eventual age it reaches or the eventual mileage covered (and is charged out at the same price regardless of the age or mileage covered) so we obviously could not afford from that to cover things that even the manufacturer no longer feels able to cover themselves after "x" years or "y" miles.
So our Lifetime Maintenance Plan does have a clause that allows us to exclude a problem being covered if it turned out to be an obvious major design/manufacturing/assembly/material mistake from the manufacturers - that aflicts almost every car in time - just because it would be impossible for us to afford to cover every car against - say - a major engine blow up. However we have never invoked any such clauses - nor have we actually refused any warranty claims so far - and have rebuilt a number of the later engines of various types under warranty over the years for the parts cost only.
I don't blame others however for wondering how we would handle a claim and if we would use that clause to wriggle out of responsibility like so many others do - which was never our intention - we just wanted to protect ourselves from something that was clearly beyond avoidance with good quality maintenance or was extremely unusual and unexpected in other cars (unlike water pumps, bearings rings etc which all cars would need one day and which were always covered).
We felt that we had to eplain this clause previously because we are not the type of people to hide an escape clause (like so many others do) and then try and invoke it when it suited us - but I can now confirm that - because the incidences of failures are so rare - we will not exclude cover for engine or gearbox failures in 996's and Boxsters that we have sold (or will sell in the future) on the grounds of a common manufacturing fault - until further notice.
Furthermore - if ever there is a failure that becomes so common and predictable that a very high proportion of the cars that fail have the problem and we find the situation changed - we will then inform our customers exactly what we may have to partially or wholly exclude - or what we intend to do about it - so they have the choice to continue or not - and as payments are monthly and can be stopped anytime there would be not lost cover as there are with annual payments) and I don't think we could be any fairer than that.
When the problems first came to public knowledge some years ago - we actually stopped selling these cars for a while - not wanting to lumber ourselves or our customers with them - but time has given rise to our own confidence and anyway we have now developed some alternative solutions - so we are not so concerned as we were when they first appeared and are starting to stock and sell these models once again.
I think that this now makes the value of our Maintenanace Plan far higher for cars that we sell and hope that it clears up any confusion about the cover offered and in the process it should give everyone presently worried about their cars - a boost in their confidence about them and generally more happy to buy one.
Baz
The original air cooled 911 range and water cooled 944/968 range were so predictable that we were happy to include cover under our Lifetimne Maintenance Plan even for an engine or gearbox problem (and did do so on a couple of occasions which is exactly what the plan is there for - to avoid anyone having a huge repair bill).
However - we were always worried about what would happen if this new generation of engines eventually exposed a common fault that affects most of the cars sold, requiring complete engine rebuilds - as our plan goes on for as long as you own the car regardless of the eventual age it reaches or the eventual mileage covered (and is charged out at the same price regardless of the age or mileage covered) so we obviously could not afford from that to cover things that even the manufacturer no longer feels able to cover themselves after "x" years or "y" miles.
So our Lifetime Maintenance Plan does have a clause that allows us to exclude a problem being covered if it turned out to be an obvious major design/manufacturing/assembly/material mistake from the manufacturers - that aflicts almost every car in time - just because it would be impossible for us to afford to cover every car against - say - a major engine blow up. However we have never invoked any such clauses - nor have we actually refused any warranty claims so far - and have rebuilt a number of the later engines of various types under warranty over the years for the parts cost only.
I don't blame others however for wondering how we would handle a claim and if we would use that clause to wriggle out of responsibility like so many others do - which was never our intention - we just wanted to protect ourselves from something that was clearly beyond avoidance with good quality maintenance or was extremely unusual and unexpected in other cars (unlike water pumps, bearings rings etc which all cars would need one day and which were always covered).
We felt that we had to eplain this clause previously because we are not the type of people to hide an escape clause (like so many others do) and then try and invoke it when it suited us - but I can now confirm that - because the incidences of failures are so rare - we will not exclude cover for engine or gearbox failures in 996's and Boxsters that we have sold (or will sell in the future) on the grounds of a common manufacturing fault - until further notice.
Furthermore - if ever there is a failure that becomes so common and predictable that a very high proportion of the cars that fail have the problem and we find the situation changed - we will then inform our customers exactly what we may have to partially or wholly exclude - or what we intend to do about it - so they have the choice to continue or not - and as payments are monthly and can be stopped anytime there would be not lost cover as there are with annual payments) and I don't think we could be any fairer than that.
When the problems first came to public knowledge some years ago - we actually stopped selling these cars for a while - not wanting to lumber ourselves or our customers with them - but time has given rise to our own confidence and anyway we have now developed some alternative solutions - so we are not so concerned as we were when they first appeared and are starting to stock and sell these models once again.
I think that this now makes the value of our Maintenanace Plan far higher for cars that we sell and hope that it clears up any confusion about the cover offered and in the process it should give everyone presently worried about their cars - a boost in their confidence about them and generally more happy to buy one.
Baz
You had me worried when I started reading your post Baz, I thought you were building up to a "were pulling the plug" moment 
Great to hear that you're happy to continue with the 996, I noticed you had a couple for sale which surprised me, now I see why.
I noticed that the guy who posted about the engine problem has had the fault diagnosed as a loss of power steering fluid which is good news.
Cheers
Great to hear that you're happy to continue with the 996, I noticed you had a couple for sale which surprised me, now I see why.
I noticed that the guy who posted about the engine problem has had the fault diagnosed as a loss of power steering fluid which is good news.
Cheers
hartech said:
.. Some good stuff..
It's great having you on here Baz , to throw some light on the reality that these are still bloody fabulous cars with fantastic reliable components and engines.
I'm keeping my warranty though , and if my car and I weren't a swim away from you , I'd be signing up to your lifetime plan in a HART beat
Hi Gary
Regarding the RMS the way to check is when the gearbox is removed for a clutch change most mechs will zipp the flywheel off to check to see if it is leaking. If it is pull the seal out with a small impact puller . When you install the new seal Porsche recomend you press it in slightly deeper so that it runs on a new surface of the crank. Also you can check the int shaft housing for leaks and install new bolts.
Regarding the cheapness of the warranty this is prob heavily subsidised by Porsche as the alternetive would have been a safety recall if the owners had ever got the TV media involved.
As someone mentioned the USA markets I think you will find they are far more intollerent of bad customer care than we are and Porsche replace the engines without to much hassel.
As a matter of interest I have just been looking through the OPC invoices i was given when I bought my 2000 S and I see that it had major engine work done in early 2006 when it was well out of warranty. This included replacing Cracked heads Etc Etc. The labour was over 2k and the parts came to 4k . As the parts include new cyl heads,Vario cam adjusters ,Heat exchanger,3 Rads and every hose on the car I thought how come the parts bill was only 4k ??
Guess what ,Porsche Authorised a 50% discount on the spares as a matter of good will!!
So it pays to kick up a stink.
Cheers Bob
Regarding the RMS the way to check is when the gearbox is removed for a clutch change most mechs will zipp the flywheel off to check to see if it is leaking. If it is pull the seal out with a small impact puller . When you install the new seal Porsche recomend you press it in slightly deeper so that it runs on a new surface of the crank. Also you can check the int shaft housing for leaks and install new bolts.
Regarding the cheapness of the warranty this is prob heavily subsidised by Porsche as the alternetive would have been a safety recall if the owners had ever got the TV media involved.
As someone mentioned the USA markets I think you will find they are far more intollerent of bad customer care than we are and Porsche replace the engines without to much hassel.
As a matter of interest I have just been looking through the OPC invoices i was given when I bought my 2000 S and I see that it had major engine work done in early 2006 when it was well out of warranty. This included replacing Cracked heads Etc Etc. The labour was over 2k and the parts came to 4k . As the parts include new cyl heads,Vario cam adjusters ,Heat exchanger,3 Rads and every hose on the car I thought how come the parts bill was only 4k ??
Guess what ,Porsche Authorised a 50% discount on the spares as a matter of good will!!
So it pays to kick up a stink.
Cheers Bob
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