I need some advice on my 2015 991.1 GT3. I did 3 sessions on track this weekend and had no issues at all, the car ran great. No CEL or other warnings. When I returned from the 3rd session, the guy next to me noticed a very small puddle of oil and we looked underneath to see a slow drip. We jacked up the car to remove the panel and take a look. The oil seemed to be coming from around the oil filter housing, but it was hard to tell the exact source since it seemed that oil had been blown all around the underside. We cleaned it up over the next hour and noticed it was no longer dripping. We also tightened the oil filter a hair and thought maybe that was the only issue. I took it for a short drive and came back to park again, and the dripping oil came back. So I sadly decided to cut my track weekend short and trailer it back home to a local Porsche indy shop who does all my routine maintenance.

They found oil leaking from between the engine and transmission and there are several codes in the DME such as Cylinder Misfire Detected, but no actual CEL on the dash. They cannot pinpoint the exact issue without pulling the drivetrain out. Since my GT3 is still under the 10yr engine warranty (02/2025 apparently) they recommended I take it to the dealer.

Only problem is- I have never really worked with a Porsche dealership outside of buying tires a couple times (had them shipped) or when I bought my GT4 years ago from a dealer several states away. The closest dealers to me are 2-4 hours away (Tulsa, Springfield, Kansas City). From reading stories of other owners on RL regarding engine issues (some resulting in replacement), there were both horror stories and what seemed like low-hassle success stories, depending on the dealership.

With the potential gravity of the situation, I want to make sure I pick the right dealership and was hoping to hear from others on what I could do to maybe "vet out" a few dealers. Obviously I am also a bit constrained on location, but I might not be opposed to *some* travel for the right one.

I'm also a bit unclear on how the engine warranty works. What exactly is covered and what issues do they determine requires an engine replacement? Is there a possibility I get it to the dealership, they pull the drivetrain out, find the issue after many hours of work, and tell me its simply not covered by the engine warranty... and I pay for the repair out of pocket?

 

Oil leaking between the engine and transmission is a rear main seal leak. AFAIK these cars are not known for RMS leaking. Sure it can happen,but why did it happen? I've seen blown out RMS from excessive crankcase pressure from a faulty PCV system for example. You say that the car has " several codes " : what are the codes? I understand misfires...the CEL might not be On because they are not hard misfires and only happen at higher RPMs and different loads of the engine.
You might be dealing with unrelated to each other issues here : perhaps your engine is giving signs of the infamous early 991 GT3s engine problems,but maybe the RMS leak is not related. Either way,if you're getting a new engine from Porsche it will come with a new RMS but it's important to investigate why that happened in the first place.

 

I would focus on getting it to a dealer quick while you have a warranty. An engine warranty is going to fix whatever is wrong with the engine. That’s a $60k bill I would not want to be picking up.

If it’s not the engine then it should not be overly expensive wherever you take it. Better to have a dealer look it over before warranty ends, there is some value in that.

If it was mine, I would look at dealer rating and get that thing on/in a trailer sooner rather than later.

 

I have not read all the details but, at least when it was initially posted on rennlist, the 10yr engine warranty was tied to the finder follower issue and was not a blanket extended engine warranty. before I paid dealer prices to take the engine I would want some level of confidence it would be covered. what are the terms of the extended engine warranty?

 

It is essentially a blanket engine warranty. To be specific there are 88 listed items covered in the bulletin that was disseminated to every Porsche dealer. Give yourself piece of mind, bring the car to the dealer that you think has the best qualified master tech. Tell them your concern, in 5 minutes they will retrieve and tell your the items covered. To my surprise even coils are covered. It is basically a blanket warranty unless of course your car has not been serviced as required.

 

This could be a leak from the PDK I have had two 15GT3's that had that issue. Both lead to replacement of the PDK. Hop yours turns out to be minor.

 

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I am waiting to hear back from one of the closer dealers about getting it in. I really do hope its "blanket", 991carreradriver. I was shown the long list of things it covered as well, so feeling more optimistic about that.

Someone asked the other errors in the DME- It had "cylinder (1, 2, 3) misfire detected", "Oil pressure control above upper limit", "Bank 2 fuel high-pressure control implausible", and "Misfiring detected"

452gt3- I wonder if it ends up being the PDK, does that mean its not covered under "engine warranty"?

 

This is interesting : so all the misfires are on bank 1 of the engine because AFAIK bank 1 has cylinders 1 2 3 and bank 2 has cylinders 4 5 6. What's also interesting is that the car is complaining about controlling the HPFP on bank 2,not on bank 1 where the misfires are detected. AFAIK these cars have HPFPs driven off the camshafts.
I don't know what's the deal with oil pressure control...could your car have timing problems...however I doubt it because these cars are highly accurate in identifying timing deviations and will set DTCs for it.

 

There have been some RS with blown engines if you do a search there are a few threads. It is not as bad as the .1 GT3s so I'm not sure if it is at or above normal I mean some percentage of high performance engines blowing must be a normal statistic.

 

Hi. Did you get more info from the dealer about your situation? I just started a new thread about my situation which sounds similar to yours. Here’s the summary of my problem:

My 2015 991.1 GT3 with a replacement G6 engine (from 2019) and 25k miles has developed a small leak between the engine and PDk casing at the bottom. Hopefully the attached picture and video will show the issue clearly.

I noticed the leak last week after an HPDE track day. No prior issues over the last 6-7 HPDE events in the last 12 months of my ownership.

The leaking oil does not feel like PDk fluid both in consistency and smell so I’m guessing it’s engine oil. I have changed the oil 3 times over the last 12 months and also changed the PDk filter/pan 4 months ago.

no error codes or CEL, no smoke coming out of the pipes and all temps are in normal range. Car runs great and no misfires.




thank you in advance for your help!

 

That sounds very similar to the same thing I had going on. I should have come back here to update the post. Unfortunately I did not get a new G6, ha.

The dealer had it for about 2-3 weeks. They pulled everything apart and found the crankshaft sealing ring to be bad and replaced it under the 991.1 GT3 10-year engine warranty. There was zero cost to me, thankfully.

The parts list included a "Radial shaft seal" and a "Shaft sealing ring" (and a number of new bolts and such). Here are the mechanic's notes:
​​​​
"CUSTOMER STATES NOTICING OIL IS LEAKING ON GARAGE FLOOR, CAN CLEAN UP THE SPOT AND THEN DRIVE THE VEHICLE AND MORE SPOTS WILL APPEAR OVER NIGHT. CUSTOMER HAS THE GT3 ENGINE EXTENSION WARRANTY. PLEASE CHECK PART NUMBERS FOR COVERAGE FOUND.

CRANKSHAFT SEALING RING ON FLYWHEEL SIDE WAS LEAKING OIL, RECOMMEND REPLACING CRANKSHAFT SEALING RING. NO OUTSIDE INFLUENCE FOUND AT THIS TIME.

REMOVED REAR COVERS, REMOVED REAR AXLES, REMOVED WIRING HARNESS, PLUGGED OFF TRANSMISSION COOLANT LINES, REMOVED TRANSMISSION, REMOVED FLYWHEEL, REMOVED OLD SEALING RING, REINSTALLED NEW SEALING RING, INSPECTED FLYWHEEL, REINSTALLED FLYWHEEL WITH NEW BOLTS, REINSTALLED ALL OTHER PARTS IN REVERSE ORDER, COMPLETED BLEEDING COOLING SYSTEM, COMPLETED MULTIPLE Q/C TEST DRIVES, INSPECTED VEHICLE. VEHICLE IS NO LONGER LEAKING."

Do you know if there is a warranty with your G6 engine?

 

Thanks so much for your detailed update. It’s awesome they found the issue and fixed it for free. Hopefully many happy and uneventful motoring years ahead for you in this car!

Supposedly my G6 engine is still covered till Nov’24 so we’ll see what the dealer says. I’ll update what I find.

in your case, did the dealer say they’d need to charge $ unless it’s an engine issue before they pulled things apart? I read different things in posts about people’s experiences. Want to be well informed as I walk into my local dealer.

 

Yes, thank you! Unless I somehow end up with a G6 engine in the next 6-12mo, I might upgrade to a CPO 991.2, as I think I'd be nervous continuing to track this car with no warranty safety net, ha

They really didn't give me a lot of info in the beginning of the diagnosis which was a bit nail biting. I'd imagine just the labor to get it all apart (not sure if they had to drop entire drivetrain or just split the tranny off) to figure it out, wouldn't have been minor. But they pretty quickly let me know it was all parts covered by the 991.1 GT3 engine warranty.