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Cautionary tale

A

artfailier

New member
Hello All,
Some time ago I posted several pieces about a mysterious missfire on my 2003 C2 Targa. After much investigation and frustration over the last year ,it has finally been traced to the variable inlet valve lifters on cylinder 6.
I will shorten the story but the problem turned up three weeks after the waranty ran out and the OPC could not diagnose the problem. Much happened since -new battery ,coil pack ,MAF unit etc but it still did not fix it.
The car has been to the local OPC but I also took it to Parr who know what they are doing.
Finaly whilst talking privately to an OPC mechanic, he said -is it fairly low mileage? Yes - 23,000- Is it cylinder 6? Yes ,or a multiple missfire code- Aha, you need new valve lifters on the RH bank ,he said !!
It seems they have done quite a few 996s with this now at the OPCs.
I wrote to Porsche setting out the details of this tale of wow to see what the could offer to put it right bearing in mind it was first recorded by them three weeks after the waranty finnished - NOTHING was there answer. It is just a flook! Turns out that a new man at Parr knows all about this 'non exsitant problem'. They fixed it yesterday ,well I was not going to let an OPC get the money. So beware, I am told -don't use the car for short journies(which I don't).don't leave it for long periods. And if your missfire code shows cylinder 6 then get out your waranty card quickly!
All the best
 
Hi Adrian £1600 inc VAT and a couple of other small jobs. The 6 valves alone are over 400 and it is quite a lot of work!
 
Blimey, what an absolute gutter! It's a bit worrying for me as I only do about 1,500 mile a year in mine.
I had to start her the other day - just to get her up to temperature and there was a ticking coming from the drivers (right) side bank of cylinders. It was still there when she got to 90 deg C - but I hadn't touched the throttle until then. It then disappeared when I gave the throttle a small blip up to about 3000 RPM. She then idled as normal. I tend to favour a 10/40 oil too, so I do sometimes wonder if that's such a good idea - especially after this has happened.

There's been a lot of posts about the ticking (presumably the hydraulic tappets) that you can get when the engines are cold on these 996's. I get the same on my Merc 190E when I start her cold - but it only lasts about 2 seconds until the oil get up to the head AND she has done 154,000 fault-free miles. My Porsche, on the other hand, has covered just 19,500. I paid £400 for my Merc 3 years ago and slightly more than that for my Porsche! Funny old world, ain't it?
 
This is interesting, and I note that you replied to my post about the emission light coming on. Did your warning light come on? The misfire on mine seems to be the left hand bank (as you look at the rear of the car) so I am hoping that it is a different problem (unless left is right!!). My '98 C2 has done 90,000 miles so the problem is unlikely to be caused by low mileage!! I am going to book it in for a diagnostic check to find out exactly what is causing the problem.
 
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