Imo000

Mine has over 320K kms. Not nearly as much as the half a million in that link but still high for a 996. The PO must have driven it all the time as he was the only owner. The collection of gravel piles in the radiators is an evidence he drove it all the time in Illinois so it was driven in the cold too. Interesting how these engines are a hit or miss as some last for what seems forever and others fail before they hit 50K kms.


The beauty of getting a half a mullion KM car is that EVERYTHING in the suspension has already been changed probably TWICE.

jumper5836

I don't think driving in cold is bad while they engine is already up to temp, I think it is the number of cold starts from freezing and expansion of components during the warm up.
Also I have noticed that the displacement size seems to be a factor on reliability. Boxster engines have far few failures then with the 996 3.4's becoming more occasional 3.6l have more failures and with 997.1 gen 3.8 failing more often then 3.6l.

Imo000

Hmmm...interesting observation. Bigger the piston the more likely it will get stuck in the bore?

jumper5836

Maybe the liners are thinner with larger displacement.

Anyways mine was driven everyday but only short distance trips, have tons of cold freezing starts but I also drove it hitting redline pretty much 20 times or more during those drives mostly due to stop and go traffic and lights.
I like the one posted with 300k miles have cold start rattle that went away after warm up which gradually got worse until now even after warmed up will rattle at idle but sometimes doesn't. I have 135k of hard driven km on mine. I will eventually get it taken apart to figure out what the issue is. I imagine also it could be chain guides and drive train noise but I burn lots of oil so imagine need to do new liners and pistons.

Imo000

Canadian Tire has their Maximum Inspection Camera on sale from $300 to $100. Picked one up 2 days ago. Has a colour LCD screen and 1m long reach. Might want to get it and have a look what's going on in there. If you want to rebuild it, yo need to stop driving it becomes before it's unrebuildable. Probing it might be a good way to keep track of the deterioration to decide when to stop.