DMichael

I'm considering a getting a '09 or newer Cayman S and am somewhat concerned about the direct injection into the cylinder. My concern is I'm likely to get a car with at least 40k-60k miles on it.

I've read a lot of articles, blog posts and videos saying that carbon buildup on the valve will eventually lead to expensive remediation of one sort or another. I'd imagine getting the intake off a Cayman to access the valves for cleaning would be expensive.

What are your experiences with the higher mileage cars?

ZuffenZeus

DFI is definitely a new problem not just for Porsche but other vehicles that use newer fuel system management via direct injection. I know first hand, just spent $2700 in repairs to valve train components as collateral damage associated with these new fuel systems. Half of the repair bill was covered under warranty. It would have cost me $5000.

However, DFI is not your top concern, it's cylinder bore scoring.

The "S" models in the 987 generation suffered from the problem. You should really consider getting a PPI that scopes the cylinders.

DMichael

To mitigate that, I'm looking at '09 and up 9A1 engined cars. (edited my OP to mention that)

Marine Blue

Was this on your Porsche or another car? Can you be more specific with regards to what other damage was done?

oldbutslow

Mitigating the oil that is introduced through the AOS would be my first area of concern. If it’s doing it’s job, that build up would be minimal.

Flat6 Innovations

We encourage those that are concerned about the negative effects related to Direct Fuel Injection, to watch this video we produced along with Lake Speed, Jr. (formerly with Driven Racing Oil) and Charles Navarro (LN Engineering).

Marine Blue

Great explanation in that video, thanks for posting that.

Clearly choosing the right oil and maintaining a frequent change schedule will help to significantly reduce the likelihood of issues.

RennHarry

Just as an aside- are the 9A1 engines known to have timing chain issues? Jake alludes to that in the video.
Cheers

deilenberger

The direct injection engines, caused by excessive carbon in the oil. Happily - my 2.9 isn't one of those... and we actually haven't heard of a lot of timing chain issues and most reported here were solved with new timing chain tensioners. When you listen to any mechanic or engine rebuilder - keep in mind - they see the failures. They usually don't tear down a perfectly good working engine, they're fixing the ones that failed. That inevitably seems to have an effect on their outlook of the engines. The majority of Porsche engines, even early 987.1 engines ARE trouble-free with reasonable maintenance. There isn't a 50% failure rate.. it's more in the single digits from what I can see. Of course, if your engine fails - it's 100%. Most of us avoid these sort of issues by ignoring some of the factory service interval suggestions.. mine is simple, everything gets an oil change at 5,000 miles - need it or not (or 1 year just so I don't forget..) I haven't had an oil-related engine failure in ummmm... about 45 years (and even then it was a valve stem seal problem on a VW Scirocco that was rather common.)