Sudden loss of oil

Ivor · May 21, 2006

I was driving south down the A1 last night when there was a grating sound that I initially thought was something caught on the wheel. As I lifted off the throttle and the sound stopped it quickly became clear that it was engine related so I pulled into a lay-by. Oil was flowing off the undertray and collecting in the gutter. There had been no warning light and no damage to the underneath of the car. It has only done just below 19.000 miles since new at the beginning of August 03 and only 4,000 miles since its second service. To say I am shocked would be an understatement; I have never experienced anything like this on "ordinary" cars, never mind a Porsche. To be brought home with the car on the back of a recovery vehicle is the last thing I expected.

Could this be an extreme example of the dreaded RMS failure? Has anyone had a similar experience?

I will be contacting my OPC tomorrow for them to come and collect the car and give me a diagnosis of the problem. The conversation could be an interesting one.

Any advice would be welcome.

Mark_Bennett · May 21, 2006

Sorry to hear it [&o][&o][&o][&o]

It sounds more like an oil core plug failure (I've heard of a couple of these - not first hand, just on Forums).
Or I guess it could be failure of any bit that normally keeps oil on the inside of the engine?

As there was no warning light hopefully there was still enough pressure and you caught it in time? (Don't like the sound of the "grating noise" though...[

])

Hope it all works out...

Helen Goff · May 21, 2006

oh my[

] so sorry to hear about this, not a nice way to finish off the day.

don't let this put you off your Boxster (or Porsche)they are superb cars....i'll keep my fingers crossed for you, let us know what the OPC have to say

Tool Pants · May 21, 2006

My bet is intermediate shaft failure. The end of the shaft has a nut on it. If that shears off the shaft then oil dumps on the ground.

burrow01 · May 21, 2006

Is it still under warranty.....?

Pete

eleanorb · May 21, 2006

Hi Ivor,
After meeting you yesterday at Conningsby It was sad to hear of your loss of oil. Lets hope that you had stopped in time to allay any damage to the main bearings etc. It may be some external engine oil failure part which failed and allowed the oil to escape. OPC should put your mind at ease on this one
Brad
3.2 Carrera

Richard_Hamilton · May 21, 2006

ORIGINAL: Tool Pants

My bet is intermediate shaft failure. The end of the shaft has a nut on it. If that shears off the shaft then oil dumps on the ground.

Wouldn't the engine stop rather abruptly in that case, or does the shaft continue to drive when the nut has come off?

Ivor · May 21, 2006

No. I didn't take out the extended warranty as I think it is expensive and that with such low mileage (weekends and holidays) I was in the low risk band. Porsche do seem to be unusual in only offering 2 years warranty instead of three.

Thanks for the comments and sympathy - I will keep you posted on developments.

ORIGINAL: burrow01

Is it still under warranty.....?

Pete

Delbox · May 22, 2006

Hi Ivor,

Max and I are so sorry that you had this problem driving back from 'our' event; Max, in particular, is feeling really bad because it might not have happened in such an awkward place - causing you inconvenience - if you hadn't joined us at Coningsby. We both hope that the problem is simple to fix and does not cause you undue expense.

Del and Max

Ivor · May 22, 2006

Max shouldn't feel bad about it happening after Coningsby; it could have been anywhere at any time. At least it wasn't in the south of France or a mountain pass in Switzerland. The dealer is collecting the car this afternoon so I should hopefully know sometime tomorrow about what went wrong.

I'll keep you posted.

I still enjoyed Coningsby though!

Ivor · May 23, 2006

Tool Pants was right.

I've just phoned the OPC and the oil loss was caused by the failure of the intermediate shaft so the problem was as catastrophic as I feared it might have been, although hoped it wasn't. The remaining oil has a lot of metal in it so the engine will be replaced and the broken one returned to Porsche for examination. This is all (thank goodness) on the goodwill of Porsche GB and they are obviously keen to know why the failure occured. The new engine is on order and I will post an update when it is fitted.

Thanks for the messages.

PS Am I right in thinking that the intermediate shaft provides the drive to the ancillaries?

Guest · May 23, 2006

You must be so relieved that PGB are fixing it as goodwill. They fixed my first Boxster RMS as a goodwill gesture too when it was out of warranty.

tim court · May 23, 2006

Well that is heartening news, especially with all the bad stuff bandied about PGB and (lack of) warranty cover.

I bet alimac will be a bit peeved to see that there does not appear to be consistency with their attitude though.

Tool Pants · May 24, 2006

Seen it happen before.

In the bottom of the pic you see the intermediate shaft flange, held in place with 3 bolts. See the hole in the middle of the flange? Sticking out of that hole should be the threaded end of the shaft, with a nut on the end. The threaded end had sheared off the shaft, so you do not see the shaft or nut as it has fallen away.

You are left with one big hole for oil to pour out of.

Delbox · May 24, 2006

Hi Ivor,

I'm pleased that it seems to be turning out right in the end; Porsche GB supporting its product admirably. Now you will just have the dubious pleasure of 'running-in' the new engine for a few miles!

Del

JCB.. · May 24, 2006

ORIGINAL: Ivor

Tool Pants was right.

I've just phoned the OPC and the oil loss was caused by the failure of the intermediate shaft so the problem was as catastrophic as I feared it might have been, although hoped it wasn't. The remaining oil has a lot of metal in it so the engine will be replaced and the broken one returned to Porsche for examination. This is all (thank goodness) on the goodwill of Porsche GB and they are obviously keen to know why the failure occured. The new engine is on order and I will post an update when it is fitted.

Thanks for the messages.

PS Am I right in thinking that the intermediate shaft provides the drive to the ancillaries?

Ivor

The best possible result which does indeed restore a little faith in Porsche Cars GB.

It's a pity they don't place their criteria for goodwill claims in the public domain.

JCB..

Dapster · May 24, 2006

Fantastic news!! Now go on holiday with the £8,000 you didn't have to spend on a new engine!

Just goes to show how valuable keeping up the service history is in order to keep in with your OPC. I heard that Audi were rejecting warranty and good will claims for drivers servicing their cars more than 500 miles over the service limit despite being serviced at the Audi dealer. Madness.....

I bet alimac will be a bit peeved to see that there does not appear to be consistency with their attitude though.

Ivor's car is an '03 with 19k on the clock and a service 4k miles ago. Alison's I think from memory, was 7 years old with 70k. I think the OPC would use that as their argument plus the fact that I think Alison's has missed an OPC service.

JCB.. · May 24, 2006

Ivor's car is an '03 with 19k on the clock and a service 4k miles ago. Alison's I think from memory, was 7 years old with 70k. I think the OPC would use that as their argument plus the fact that I think Alison's has missed an OPC service.

I agree that it's stretching "goodwill" a little too far expecting a 7 year old car to be fixed for free.

burrow01 · May 24, 2006

ORIGINAL: JCB..

Ivor's car is an '03 with 19k on the clock and a service 4k miles ago. Alison's I think from memory, was 7 years old with 70k. I think the OPC would use that as their argument plus the fact that I think Alison's has missed an OPC service.

Click to expand...

I agree that it's stretching "goodwill" a little too far expecting a 7 year old car to be fixed for free.

I think one of Alisons issues was that this was the second engine to blow in the same car - ie a design / manufacturing fault that could happen at any time, not a maintenance/milage related problem.

I've just had the two 993 related recalls done at an OPC for free on my car, at 12years / 169,000 miles so I'm happy with Porsche so far [

]

Pete