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997 complete engine failure

Cracking post, Tom. I used to work for an electronics manufacturer who sold products mostly on their name; I can see how it can make a company complacent. The arguement that the actual percentage of failures is very low is no defence - if anything, isolated cases should be dealt with speedily and with more courtesy.
 
Amazing that this thread hasn`t been censored yet. Sorry to hear of your troubles, You might be cheered up in the not so distant future when Porsche are dragged into oblivion
by the failure of VW, unless they save themselves by shorting VW shares. Perhaps its a bad idea to buy cars made by a hedge fund.
jr
 
Actually Porsche have made billions out of the VW Share thing - the market went after Porsche only to find they had got there first - having taken out a range of products - Porsche have taken the liquidity out of the shares, so any dealers trading low have to buy the share from Porsche at a vastly inflated price or they go to Jail for trading shares they don't have. Porsche then excesses the options to buy them back at at a fraction of the price they were before the market moved. ie Porsche either have the shares or first refusal on all VW shares at a very low price. The other funds took a bath on this, Porsche made a mint, despite car sales falling 20+% they have just had their largest grossing quarter ever.

They have also just legally separated the fund so if it goes under it can't now take the group with it.

You can't say they aren't canny.
 

i`m up to speed on what Porsche did to the speculators recently, my point was that the VW group nor Porsche are immune to falling sales of their products ( how many of their plants are on a short working week ) and it will be interesting to see if all the brands survive. Their attitude to rectification of major failings in what is reputed to be an exemplar of top quality engineering is possible symptomatic of what`s to come. I also experienced the drop off of quality in Mercedes-Benz products a few years back and I will never buy another Merc again particularly after experiencing the attitude of its franchisees. How many Porsche customers are having similar misgivings?
jr
 
Porsche replaced my engine due to something similar. I noticed high engine oil usage and requested a check. My OPC took the engine out and said a number of the cylinders had become scarred. Can't remember the exact details, but I learnt my 54 plate C2S wasn't the first to require complete engine replacement.

Whole episode does make you question standards at Porsche.
 
ORIGINAL: jr


i`m up to speed on what Porsche did to the speculators recently, my point was that the VW group nor Porsche are immune to falling sales of their products ( how many of their plants are on a short working week ) and it will be interesting to see if all the brands survive. Their attitude to rectification of major failings in what is reputed to be an exemplar of top quality engineering is possible symptomatic of what`s to come. I also experienced the drop off of quality in Mercedes-Benz products a few years back and I will never buy another Merc again particularly after experiencing the attitude of its franchisees. How many Porsche customers are having similar misgivings?
jr
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JR appolgies if in misunderstanding your note I tried to teach you to suck eggs[8|]

Your point is well made, my earlier point on Merc as well was saying the same thing - loose a reputation and business it costs years and a lot of money to get it back, and you never got all your old customers back.

Ronnie - good point, I wonder how many 54 plate 997's have lost an engine that way. Any one else suffered the same?



 
My 54 997s needed a new engine at 7500 miles for exactly the same reason - fault was from new. Now have a 2006 unit in, and 20,000 miles later very happy.
Porsche tried to fob me off with a rebuild (the car was still under new car warranty and it was only my perserverance that got them to take it seriously). They ignored my concern about a bad ring / bore and insisted on changing oil separators and even the exhaust before inspecting the engine. My dealer (OPC Bristol) made up the shortfall in cost between the rebuild and a new engine (it was around £1500 ).
Porsche are playing with fire on this issue - as Merc have discovered, once you lose a hard earned reputation for world leading quality, it's a real struggle to win it back.
Mind you £7000 for a new engine with all anciullaries is serious value in this sort of car. I know 993 owners who have spend similar sums on rebuilds.
 
ORIGINAL: drmark

Mine 54 997s needed a new engine at 7500 miles for exactly the same reason - fault was from new. Now have a 2006 unit in, and 20,000 miles later very happy.
Porsche tried to fob me off with a rebuild (the car was still under new car warranty and it was only my perserverance that got them to take it seriously). They ignored my concern about a bad ring / bore and insisted on changing oil separators and even the exhaust before inspecting the engine. My dealer (OPC Bristol) made up the shortfall in cost between the rebuild and a new engine (it was around £1500 to be exact).
Porsche are playing with fire on this issue - as Merc have discovered, once you lose a hard earned reputation for world leading quality, it's a real struggle to win it back.
Mind you £7000 for a new engine with all anciullaries is serious value in this sort of car. I know 993 owners who have spend similar sums on rebuilds.
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Mark, hope you are keeping well. I remember communicating with you at the time about this. It was good to be able to share thoughts and experiences with someone in the same boat.

My advice to anyone with similar issues is to be extremely firm and use legal support if required.

There is no way such failiures should be swept under the carpet and the financial burden left on the owner.

From memory, the cost of a "new" 3.8, and it's not really a brand new engine, is more like £11k not £7k. Unless exchange rate and other factors have driven down prices??
 
Hi there
Just a thought that hasnt mean mentioned here-if it was me in your situation I would be getting a full report from your mechanic and contacting Porsche Germany.It may not get you any where but hey what have you to lose and you well may get sympathy from head office that wasnt to be seen in the UK.It may be worth fnding out who is a good contact before making the call.
Good luck
 
ORIGINAL: Ronnie C

ORIGINAL: drmark

Mine 54 997s needed a new engine at 7500 miles for exactly the same reason - fault was from new. Now have a 2006 unit in, and 20,000 miles later very happy.
Porsche tried to fob me off with a rebuild (the car was still under new car warranty and it was only my perserverance that got them to take it seriously). They ignored my concern about a bad ring / bore and insisted on changing oil separators and even the exhaust before inspecting the engine. My dealer (OPC Bristol) made up the shortfall in cost between the rebuild and a new engine (it was around £1500 to be exact).
Porsche are playing with fire on this issue - as Merc have discovered, once you lose a hard earned reputation for world leading quality, it's a real struggle to win it back.
Mind you £7000 for a new engine with all anciullaries is serious value in this sort of car. I know 993 owners who have spend similar sums on rebuilds.
Click to expand...

Mark, hope you are keeping well. I remember communicating with you at the time about this. It was good to be able to share thoughts and experiences with someone in the same boat.

My advice to anyone with similar issues is to be extremely firm and use legal support if required.

There is no way such failiures should be swept under the carpet and the financial burden left on the owner.

From memory, the cost of a "new" 3.8, and it's not really a brand new engine, is more like £11k not £7k. Unless exchange rate and other factors have driven down prices??
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I remember you Ronnie. Seems we both got sorted out in the end.
OP says £7k and he's the one paying for one at the moment so guess that's what they cost now. Some factory engines are new, some are "remanufactured" ones dissasembled after failing tolerance checks, and presumably others are rebuilt exchange units. All ancillaries and moving bits are brand new though. Interestingly some engine people prefer the remanufactured ones saying tolernaces are closer to blueprint - could be urban myth though!
No idea what mine is other than it's a lot sweeter than my first one and I have only put a litre of oil in it in close to 20,000 miles. My last one got through that much in less than a 1000 miles.
All's well that ends well.

 
You`ve sort of answered a question I was going to ask; How does one know if it`s a new engine or a reconditioned engine? As I understand it ,OPCs remove complete units and replace them with another, they don`t seem to open engines ( or gearboxes ) any more, they`re sent back to Reading and presumably on to Stuttgart for rebuilding. The reason for this is apparently to ensure consistency in quality of rebuilds , which is all well and good, but are these then sent back out as "new" or reconditioned? perhaps this explains the £7k or £11k prices quoted earlier.
jr
 
I've heard that of the Carrera engines that have been 'exchanged', owners always seem to get brand new ones in return and they probably just scrap the old ones.
The price is always the same though at nearly £7k inc Vat for an exchange engine - it's a fixed price available to everyone as it's on their pricing system as such.
 
Just read this thread with great interest as my 2005 C2S (26000 miles) has just been "recovered" to my OPC after the engine gave up last week. Awaiting diagnosis but I fear the worst..will keep everyone advised. At first I thought it was ignition coils as they had gone 10 months ago. I was told at the time by the OPC it was OK to drive it the 50 miles there on however many cylinders were still working but am now beginning to wonder whether that might have started the rot..has anyone had a similar experience?

BTW, car bought from and serviced by OPC so it hasn't left the network in all its life.

Hugh Blaza
 
Hugh,

Sorry to hear of your bad luck and although my car is running fine I too read this thread with interest having bought a 2006 C2S with 28k on the clock about three months ago. I fear that now I will be continually looking and listening for any tell tale signs of impending doom rather than enjoying driving the car. Out of interest did your car exhibit any signs at all before the engine gave up? Did it start using a lot of oil or running hot? I don't know much about how these things work but would certainly like to know if there is anything I can do to spot things going wrong in advance and possibly head off serious trouble.

Good luck with sorting things out with your car.

Paul.
 
Sadly sound like a good reason to be in the warranty scheme, it then lets you carry on enjoying the car as you should.... however admittedly at a cost [&:]

garyw
 
ORIGINAL: porcar

Hugh,

Sorry to hear of your bad luck and although my car is running fine I too read this thread with interest having bought a 2006 C2S with 28k on the clock about three months ago. I fear that now I will be continually looking and listening for any tell tale signs of impending doom rather than enjoying driving the car. Out of interest did your car exhibit any signs at all before the engine gave up? Did it start using a lot of oil or running hot? I don't know much about how these things work but would certainly like to know if there is anything I can do to spot things going wrong in advance and possibly head off serious trouble.

Good luck with sorting things out with your car.

Paul.
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From what I have read here and on other forums I believe excessive oil consumption and sooty tail pipe(s) are the first indications.
 
Should have bought a 993 boyz ;)

on a more serious note have you thought about a class action law suit as there obviously seems to be a build quality / design problem?

i'm sure a laywer would be licking his lips at taking a chunk out of porsche's billions in profits !

Sanjay
 
Firstly I of course have every sympathy with anyone who experiences expensive failure in their motor car. Yes, Porsche do have a fine reputation for quality and reliability. But we should remember a few things:

1. A Porsche is far more complex and used harder than a Ford Fiesta, hence arguably is more likely to fail.
2. A Porsche is no more unreliable than other high performance brand. Remember TVR?
3. If you purchase a high performance car second hand, do you really know how it has been treated? I would never buy a demonstrator for that very reason, despite the cost savings.
4. A Porsche warranty and Porsche servicing is expensive, but like an insurance policy, is great when you really need it. Take a risk and don't buy a warranty and save money... maybe!
5. I stick with the same OPC and am now on my 7th new Porsche. The dealership have never let me down or disappointed.
6. Buy a Mini if you want Swiss watch reliability. Good fun, but not a Porsche.
7. As for a comment about buying a 993, words fail me. For once! [:D]
 
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