Nikasil Bore Wear on 2.5's

stanleask · Nov 20, 2005

Hi, I'm trying to find out some more information about the 'rumoured' Nikasil bore wear problem which affects 2.5 Boxster's.

From research I've found out that it was allegedly due to the poor high sulphur fuel around in the mid-nineties.

Is this still a problem with the early Boxster's or if it hasn't happened to a car yet is it likely that it isnt going to affect it now??

Thanks.

Mark_Bennett · Nov 20, 2005

It's so rumoured I've not heard of it before...

Edit for pooor sppoollingg...

stanleask · Nov 20, 2005

Hi Mark, thanks for your response.

The issue was advised to me by a well known independent specialist. It's also quite well known in certain BMW's from the 1990's, mainly 540's I think...

As I understand it the sulphur in the fuel reacted with the Nikasil liners and caused excessive wear. The problem can happen at 30,000 miles or 100,000 miles and obviously with worn liners the only remedy is an engine rebuild.

Thanks.

Tool Pants · Nov 20, 2005

Nikasil is not used on the Boxster. It is Lokasil.

The Boxster engine is cast by Kolbenschmidt.

You can find more info here if the link works.

http://www.kolbenschmidt-pierburg.com/index.php?lang=3&fid=272

http://www.kolbenschmidt-pierburg.com/index.php?lang=3&fid=272

Guest · Nov 20, 2005

Nikasil is used on the GT2, GT3 and turbo 996.
The other 996/997 models and all Boxsters, use Lokasil (as mentioned by Tool Pants).
It is a new, cheaper process developed with the supplier for the watercooled cars (Boxster, 911).
I am not sure about the Cayenne.

Mark_Bennett · Nov 21, 2005

I still haven't heard of any premature wear...

ToolPants, you've seen more of these in bits than most of us, have you heard of this?

stanleask · Nov 21, 2005

Have just spoken to the specialist again and I'm afraid I misunderstood what was being said...

The problem is due to the liners slipping inside the block, nothing to do with nikasil and sulphur in petrol. Sorry for any confusion I've caused!

My point still stands though in that the 2.5 Boxster's suffer from an engine problem (i.e. slipping liners) that 2.7's or 3.2's do not... Does anyone have experience of this?

I'm just trying to gather as much information on the subject before buying a car. Thanks again.

Mark_Bennett · Nov 21, 2005

Ahhh...!
Don't scare us like that! [

]

A small number of early 2.5 engines did suffer from slipped liners.
There was a faulty process/tool, which caused faulty blocks to leave the supplier, and the faults didn't show up immediately. Normally the engines failed in warranty (and were replaced FOC), but I suppose there could be ultra-low-milage cars out there that this could still happen to...
The warranty will likely be long-gone by now.[:'(]

stanleask · Nov 21, 2005

Ah ok, thanks Mark. Is there anyway of telling what model years were affected, or is there a series of engine numbers buyers should be aware of?

The specialist says that he has had the problem on high and low mileage cars so if the problem can be narrowed down to a group of engine numbers that would be useful information...

Would Porsche know or willingly give out such information?

Many thanks for your help Mark.

Stan (soon to be a Boxster owner)

ScottishSpyder · Nov 21, 2005

In 2001 I had my 2.5 engine fail at 13000 mls which was a pretty common failure mileage at the time. According to a Boxster forum in the US it was thought the problem affected engines manufactured between October 1997 and January 1998. Porsche replaced the engine FOC even though the car was 8 months out of warranty

Mark_Bennett · Nov 21, 2005

I think Lawrence has the most comprehensive answer you are likely to get (above)...!

Porsche have, as far as I know, steadfastly refused to release the engine numbers that MAY be affected - probably because they do not want (or need) to replace, say 5000 engines when only 200 may actually be affected (scale up or down as appropriate - but that would be the average number of units produced over 4 months).
As there is aparrently no way of telling which individual engines were affected in the batch, you can see the problem they would have.

These engines tended to fail at fairly low milage, so the thinking is likely to be that they would all fail under warranty in any case (Lawrences didn't, but they replaced FOC anyway [

] )

Tool Pants · Nov 22, 2005

This link will explain what was told to me 6 years ago by another PCA tech advisor named Peter Smith who is the shop foreman at my local dealer.

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={F3EA752A-E838-43E5-A43D-BB4F445F5A8F}

(Copy the whole of the above line & paste into a browser address bar)

He took several pictures of the failure.

Edit to try and fix the link - Mark