kurthutchinson

Hi everyone, I'm a newly minted Porsche owner that has learned he didn't do enough homework with his first Porsche purchase.

Anyhow last year I bought a 2008 Boxster S at purchase it had 20K mile. It came from the dealership that previously held a Porsche Franchise before it spun off to be "Indigo Porsche of Saint Louis".

The car has been a blast, but I noticed maybe within the first month (after a spirited jaunt with my BMW buddies) that it consumed a bunch of oil, the warning light came on, I immediately went to Autozone bought a quart of Mobil-1 0W-40 and kept it moving. I had previously ready about the bore scoring issues, so I start being hyper-aware of the oil. So with the first 3000 miles I ended up adding about 5 quarts of oil. This seemed abnormal to me, so I brought it to Porsche St. Louis and asked if they could check on why my car was consuming oil. They told me that it was the air/oil separator (like within 5 minutes) and by the next day I was on my way (August 2017). The oil consumption seemed to be within what the manual stated (1.5 quarts every 622 miles), so I just kept going with adding oil. I changed the oil at about the 24000 mile mark, and kept driving.

Fast forward to August of this year, I got a Check Engine soon and Maintenance required warning. Reading the codes it showed the preCat O2 sensor was shot. So I figured I would change the O2 sensors and do an oil change. After doing this work I learned I couldn't clear the Maintenance warning so I brought the car into the dealership.

I asked what the minimum I could do in order to have them reset the maintenance light, and I was told that I could not do a minor service and that I had to do a major service in order for Porsche to approve the Maintenance being reset. So at this point I asked, if I'm required to change the oil (after I just changed it 50 miles prior)and pay $1700 for the major service, could they validate how much oil comes out of the car since it seems its still burning oil excessively. Obviously they can't do that, but I wanted them to validate I don't have any Bore Scoring.

So, they set me up with a loaner (2018 718 Cayman S) and sent me on my way. Later I get a call, and what I suspected came true, Bore Scoring. I'm not shocked nor am I upset, I bought the car with a solid warranty and I wasn't expecting much hassle.

Well, I was sure surprised. Last week Friday I got an additional call that the Warranty has come out and scoped the engine and agree that there is Bore Scoring, but what they seem to be agitated is that I brought the car in at 23000 miles and the dealership didn't catch this, and they are accusing them of improperly diagnosing the car and causing more damage. As such apparently the dealership has quoted the warranty company $28K to do the work. This work consists of a new long block ($7k) 52 hours of labor ($5.2K) and $16K for all the other pieces. They will be attaching the original head to the new long block so me and the warranty company are struggling to understand why so much. The Warranty company is wanting to source their own used engine (which I do not want either), or possibly their own new long block (which I'm told Porsche wouldn't warrant). The Warranty company is also wanting a complete tear down before agreeing to pay for the repair (ugh!). They want to see if there were other circumstances that would of caused the scoring (overheating or lack of oil).

The dealership is saying I'm now on the hook for the tear down and rebuild if the warranty company deems that the issue isn't covered because of some other damage. After talking to the warranty company I was assured that as long as I didn't run the car overheated or without oil I should be fine.

I called Porsche NA for advice on this and they suggested that the dealership open a good-will case on the matter. I was surprised that Porsche NA mentioned this, but the dealership didn't offer to do this. I asked my service advisor about this and he was fairly negative about this, and suggested because I didn't buy the car from a Porsche dealership, and I don't have a long service record that I would be turned down. I'm a bit miffed because all through this experience I've felt talked down because the car is 10 years old as if I should expect this type of mechanical break down. Also, I'm still having to pay for the Major Service after all this. So all in all when is all done, they could potentially got $30K from me for all this, if not more.

So I write all this to ask:
Does this all sound normal?
Are there others who had this issue and went through a long block replacement?
Am I foolish for pushing forward with this repair (assuming the warranty company pays)

The car was running as great as ever when I brought it in, I've loved every moment of ownership while driving. I just feel trapped at the moment.

daylorb

I've never heard of oil consumption of 1.5 quarts per 622 miles. That certainly doesn't seem normal. In my three Porsches I've never consumed so much as a few ounces between changes. That seems like a crazy pace.

In terms of the warranty process - that sounds like the type of run-around you could potentially get from a warranty business. Who did you buy the warranty from?

hf1

Sorry for your problems. If I was in your place, I'd try to save myself time and nerves by looking for a good used engine, a good non-dealer Porsche mechanic/shop to replace it (about 20hrs labor), and the Warranty Co to pay for it all. If you can find a used engine for under $8k, then total cost shouldn't be much more than $10k.

It seems that the Warranty Co balked from the egregiously padded bill from the dealer which is why they are demanding more diagnostics in hope to distribute some of the blame (and high cost) to the dealer. That dealer bill is more than the car's worth. They may be more willing to cover a more realistic cost of solving your problem without too much argument or diagnostics. Good luck and keep us posted!

EDIT: And I agree that your oil consumption was way too high from the get go. I never had to add ANY oil between oil changes on my now sold 06 987.1 Boxster S for 40k miles of ownership.

Tom R.

It seems someone is passing the blame. I dont blame the warranty company. They should total the car and give you the value of the car. That's what Geico did when the crankshaft in my Astra snapped. At first it was a junkyard motor, then when they saw it hit the tranny the totalled it.

If you want to keep the car, look at the used motor options.

Noah Fect

The dealer has overplayed their hand, killed the golden goose, and invoked a number of other cliches associated with self-defeating levels of greed. Reclaim the car from them and have a good indy shop put in a used engine, as hf1 says.