997S RMS - Porsche 'Goodwill' Covered It!

[Ian W]

In a thread below, I described how it had been discovered during a warranty inspection that the RMS on my 997S had failed. To my surprise and delight, I've just been informed by Porsche Wilmslow that Porsche are picking up the cost of both parts and labour despite my car being a few months out of warranty. I have to say that this wasn't expected and I'm genuinely shocked!

Anyway credit where it's due and thanks to Porsche Wilmslow for taking up the cause for me and Porsche GB for covering the cost of the repairs. This has properly renewed my faith in the whole Porsche experience.

Looks like they're a decent bunch after all!!

 

[kivne]

a friend recently had the same with his Boxster 550, it was a year out of warranty and was replaced foc by the local OPC. They called it something like a 100 % goodwill contribution from Porsche.

 

[garyw]

[] Great news.. pleased that the company has done the decent thing and shown good faith to you and the brand.

Out of interest, will you be renewing the warranty..?

garyw

 

[Lancerlot]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a RMS please?
Regards,
Clive

 

[Ian W]

ORIGINAL: garyw

[] Great news.. pleased that the company has done the decent thing and shown good faith to you and the brand.

Out of interest, will you be renewing the warranty..?

garyw

Yes, definitely. I bought this car not long after the factory warranty ran out and this is the first chance I've had to get the inspection done. I was VERY surprised that there was anything 'wrong' with a 2 yr old car - thankfully it looks like Porsche GB took the same view!

I've always believed that the extended warranty was very worthwhile and it has normally paid for itself (for me) in the past.

 

[Ian W]

ORIGINAL: Lancerlot

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a RMS please?
Regards,
Clive

It stands for 'Rear Main Seal' - a misnomer in reality. It refers to the oil seal around the rear of the crankshaft (behind the flywheel) that has been a perennial problem ever since the release of the watercooled Boxster / Carrera engine in 1997(?).

The problem appears to stem from the design of this motor (it is a totally different engine from both the air-cooled cars and the GT3/ Turbo series). A number of the design elements appear to conspire to allow for 1) the seal and its housing to be 'off-centre' relative to the crank giving rise to failure due to uneven pressure on the seal and/or 2) the crank to rotate non-concentrically with the seal causing it to fail due vibration-induced wear. The design limitations and attempts to nullify them in the move from 996 to 997 era are extensively documented elsewhere on this and many other forums.

In most normal circumstances, 'RMS' leaks or failures are non-catastrophic - they are simply a pain in the rear (main seal? !!). There was evidence that those (usually early) engines that suffered many consecutive failures were far enough out of tolerance that other failures could be expected.

In all, the problem was quite widespread but never of the epidemic proportion it was occasionally made out to be.

If you ever suffer failure of the seal, these days it isn't usually a problem other than getting it replaced.

 

[acegames]

Glad to hear you got it fixed

 

[Guest]

Would this give any clutch problems or just an oil leak.

 

[garyw]

ORIGINAL: wrighty

Would this give any clutch problems or just an oil leak.

If left it could let oil get to the friction plate, most are a very small leak that becomes a drip off the bottom of the engine.

garyw

 

[Ronnie C]

ORIGINAL: garyw

ORIGINAL: wrighty

Would this give any clutch problems or just an oil leak.

If left it could let oil get to the friction plate, most are a very small leak that becomes a drip off the bottom of the engine.

garyw

Gary, do you think this leakage into the friction plate would create a creaking clutch and / or other clutch noise issues??

 

[Ian W]

ORIGINAL: Ronnie C

Gary, do you think this leakage into the friction plate would create a creaking clutch and / or other clutch noise issues??

I just had my clutch replaced whilst the gearbox was off for the RMS replacement. Mine used to click and creak and had gone very heavy. The workshop found the cluch plate was well worn and also found the slave cylinder was partly seized!

Replacement of the clutch has made the most almighty difference to the car. Clutch action is light and positive - no creaks, groans or bangs - AND the quality of the gearchange is now completely, totally different! The notchy, recalcitrant pain-in-the-rear tractor gearbox has been replaced with a genuinely nice unit - 'knife through butter' comes to mind! I guess the wear and cylinder problems were causing the old clutch to drag.

So in answer to your question - creaking and groaning cluch noises are likely due to wear not oil contamination. The amount of oil that gets past the rear seals is normally nowhere near enough to cause clutch contamination and it also has no way to get onto the cluch plate anyway (it would have to drip upwards, crawl along the top of the bellhousing then drop down again exactly over the cluch plate)!!

 

[Ronnie C]

ORIGINAL: Ian W

ORIGINAL: Ronnie C

Gary, do you think this leakage into the friction plate would create a creaking clutch and / or other clutch noise issues??

I just had my clutch replaced whilst the gearbox was off for the RMS replacement. Mine used to click and creak and had gone very heavy. The workshop found the cluch plate was well worn and also found the slave cylinder was partly seized!

Replacement of the clutch has made the most almighty difference to the car. Clutch action is light and positive - no creaks, groans or bangs - AND the quality of the gearchange is now completely, totally different! The notchy, recalcitrant pain-in-the-rear tractor gearbox has been replaced with a genuinely nice unit - 'knife through butter' comes to mind! I guess the wear and cylinder problems were causing the old clutch to drag.

So in answer to your question - creaking and groaning cluch noises are likely due to wear not oil contamination. The amount of oil that gets past the rear seals is normally nowhere near enough to cause clutch contamination and it also has no way to get onto the cluch plate anyway (it would have to drip upwards, crawl along the top of the bellhousing then drop down again exactly over the cluch plate)!!

Thanks for the quick response.

However, I had my clutch replaced at my cost when my engine was replaced. My OPC swore that this would finally fix the graunching problem; it didn't.

So I'm trying to look at other possible reasons / fixes. Most of my clutch parts have been replaced at one point or another, plate, cylinder, cable, etc, etc.