Macster

Early to work yesterday and leaving the office at 1:30pm to get home to take my mom and dad to the doctor I walk up the Turbo and spot the right rear tire with an uncharacteristic sidewall bulge.

A quick check with a pressure gage finds the tire pressure down to 20psi. The other side a nice solid 44psi.

The air compressor that comes with the car is useless.

Carefully, slowly drive the car around to the side of the building and use shop air to inflate the tire to 50psi. We hear no leaks.

I head towards home. Not 1/3rd of the way I believe the tire is low and pull off and check. Just fine. Damn imagination.

Head straight to the dealer staying in the right lane in case I have to pull off the freeway.

Make it ok. Get the car in and sure enough a nail in the tire. Just put those on last July. Do not remember the miles.

The tires are covered by road hazard but I heard there might be a problem, the claim might be denied because it was the same right rear tire that had a screw in it in July that resulted in the tire being replaced. 'course, I had to pay to have the left one replaced since the tires had almost 23K miles on them.

Same this time too. Well, not the almost 23K miles part but the tech measured the tread and found 5mm which means the new tire and the other tire will differ by more than 30% so I have to pay to replace the otherwise fine left rear tire.

I had to rush away with a free rental car (Nissan something or other) in order to get my parents to the doctor on time so I wasn't able to hang around and hear what the tire company had to say.

It will cover the tire or I'll file a consumer fraud complaint against the tire company, distributor, the company that is supposed to underwrite the road hazard coverage.

Did have time to check out a nice hole punched in the driver's side rocker panel plastic panel. Looks like some road debris got kicked up and smashed the plastic pretty good. Tech says the damage is of little consequence but I asked the parts manager get me a quote on the cost of the panel. Tech says it take no time to remove the old one and install the new one.

Also, had a chance to look at the apparent RMS leak. It does look a little worse this time. A drop of oil was hanging, but I have not yet seen any oil on the ground under the car and there is no oil mess on the car's undercarriage.

Nail:


Panel:


RMS Leak:

The NSX dude

Macster,

Looks like you and me arent havent a good luck run recently, that only means things are about to get real good, real fast!

Michael

jumper5836

I found the air compressor quite useful. Used it for years at the track re-inflating my tires after the day. It does the job and it works better when you have the car running. Not so good if the car isn't.

Lucky your lower plastic panel is not painted. I replaced mine and it didn't cost that much. If it has to be painted it would have cost a lot more.

Macster

Good point about the engine not running. I hadn't started the engine while I was using the Porsche air pump.

A co-worker lent me his compressor and it proved to be equally feeble but the co-worker suggested I start the engine which I did and the pump perked up a bit but still seemed to be making no progress.

Maybe I didn't give it time? May never know.

mikerosi

Hey macster, I thought our turbos are immune to the rms leak, how long have you had the leak and what mileage do you have?

CincyScott

I thought mine had an RMS leak when I first got it, but it turned out to be an oil gallery plug further up. It required the motor to be removed to be fixed, but it wasn't an RMS.

All cars are susceptible to an RMS leak, just some aren't as prevalent as the M96 motors.

Macster

You are probably thinking about the IMS bearing problem. Turbos are immune from this. Not!

The Turbo engine has an IMS (layshaft) bearing that while it is a plain bearing it is like all bearings subject to failure from a variety of reasons -- though after a while lubrication takes over from just infant mortality -- but it does have a RMS and in fact a FMS too.

Either seal can leak.

As for the IMS (layshaft) bearing being an issue, this I gather is a very rare problem. I certainly do not lose any sleep over it.

Anyhow, I do not know for sure the leak is from the RMS. The tech said an RMS leak is the most common source of a leak in that area but I do not think he went over the other sources with me or if he did I do not recall.

Wait it is coming back to me.. He did give the engine a good inspection with a flashlight and didn't see any signs of an oil from other areas that have been know to leak but if there is a leak source at the rear of the engine that is under the transmission bell housing if this is the source of the leak won't be known until the back of the engine is exposed.

The tech spotted the leak last oil change almost 5K miles ago. Now at that oil change I had let the oil go for 10K miles, twice my always (well, save this one time...) the usual 5K mile oil/filter service intervals.

The leak sign wasn't present at the oil change before last so it could be somewhere between ~15K miles (assuming the leak started right after the change before the last one) to ~5K miles (assuming the leak started just before the last oil change).

Oh, I have over 104K miles on the car.

I note the car was a "low miles" car -- ~10K miles -- when I bought it used in 09. I wonder if the seal leak (and there was a transmission seal leak too though this occurred while the car was still under CPO warranty and in fact before 50K miles) -- arises from the low miles.

To fix the RMS doesn't require the engine to come out of the car. I'm told the techs can support the engine and remove just the tranny and other hardware (flywheel) and replace the RMS.

(When my car's transmission was replaced this is what was done: The engine was supported and just the tranny was removed. I have pics of this somewhere...)

Macster

Hope you are right. I bought lottery tickets.

Macster

I stopped at the dealer this AM and talked to the SM and told him if the company offering road hazard coverage refused to honor my claim I'd file a consumer fraud complaint against the company.

He thought that would be a good course action to take.

Then he checked with the parts manager and learned the tire is being covered and at that time (before 9AM) he told me if the tires came in before noon (which is the usual time tires come in) the tires would be mounted and balanced and the car ready to pick up later this afternoon.

Macster

driven so I called the SM and he confirmed the tires were on and the car was finished. I paid over the phone with a credit card and will pick the car up Saturday and at the same time drop off the free Nissan Maxima S rental car. M.

Kevinmacd

U sure its an RMS leak, and not the mainshfft transmission seal? Did you smell the residue? The RMS leaks on these cars are rare, why because the M96 engines did have alignment problems with the cranksahft and the case. Not so on this engine. Secondly, the IMS is a total different animal in this car, the IMS does not ride in the same bearing configuration as the M96 engines. In fact the GT3 engines which share some similarity have RMS leakage problems since the seals are installed backwards, to counter the crankcase vacuum when running. When there is no vacuum the GT3 seals leak, one fix is to use the turbo seal mounted as if it was in the turbo engine!

Macster

Pretty sure the oil is engine oil and not 6-speed transmission fluid. The fluid doesn't smell at all like transmission fluid.

It doesn't appear to be power steering fluid either.

While some RMS leaks in the other engine models arose due to the crank cradle being out of or moving out of position this accounted for a relatively small number of RMS leaks.

For the Turbo, and the GT2 and the GT3 those that have RMS leaks it appears the biggest cause is lack of use with one exception. The GT2 (or is it the GT3?) has a very low tension seal (to cut down on friction) and this can seep a bit of oil regardless. That often these cars get used very little though just makes the situation worse.

IIRC one fix is to install a different seal which then doesn't leak but of course increased friction though the amount probably has an undetectable effect on the engine's output.

Now I know the lack of use can't apply to my car -- assuming the leak is an RMS leak -- at least while in my possession but before the car came into my possession the car spent a lot of time sitting around while in the possession of the 1st owner.

I'm not too worried about the leak. I'll let it go until it gets bad enough to do something about. Then when (if) it comes time to do something about it I might kill two birds with one stone and replace the clutch. Depends upon what the condition of the clutch is though. At 104K miles the Turbo clutch doesn't even half the miles my 02 Boxster's clutch has.

Also, the car is coming up on its 5K mile oil/filter service. At this time I might switch back to the "summer" oil Mobil 1 5w-50 and maybe this oil will have a little less propensity to leak.

A small problem: the very handy Mobil oil distributor just a block or two from where I work has moved and so far I do not know where too. Did an online search and the same old address shows up but that is an empty building now.