reidry

Anyone else read the discussion on Pistonheads about several of the replacement engines being recalled by PAG? Apolo reported that his car has a replacement engine installed, seems data wasn't looking right and they replaced it with another engine before returning the car to him. He states that his was one of 7 or 8 engines that were returned to PAG.

Certainly not confidence inspiring if true.

Ryan

SamFromTX

Oh nooooo. Please please make this be a rumor.

0Q991

Sam--at least that by the time we get engines in the US, it will have been quality tested in RoW.

Mike in CA

I'm sure you're right and that's a big part of it, Sam, as that is serious money. Also, my service manager believes that Porsche wants to maintain strict control over this operation from a QC and "security" perspective. He told me about the "3rd car" which was at another CA dealer. Techs were allegedly sent from Germany to remove the engine on a Sunday after everyone else had been kicked out of the service area. Since I had heard this rumored previously, I think it may be accurate. The point is supposedly that they don't want to take any chances with an engine being removed at a dealership and then sitting where it can be disassembled and examined by anyone other than Porsche. Paranoia? Maybe.....

Macca

Mike the 3rd car story is true I believe. However everywhere else around the world including UK, Switzerland, France, New Zealand and Australia the dealers have been performing these swaps so I would suggest it's purely an economics and liability issue in your market...

SamFromTX

This is interesting. From my discussion with the Porsche rep, he indicated that there are several cars from the US whose engines have been sent to Germany soon after the stop drive order. I don't know who took those engines out. I agree with Mike that there might be some trade secret involved but I would think it is inside the engine, rather than outside and that may be yet another reason to replace the whole engine, rather than have it fixed by the dealership. As Macca pointed out, the Euro cars are being done at dealerships. I don't know, I just want my car back.

reidry

I know he has an account here on rennlist and is likeky a great guy in person, but Apolo's online persona needs to be on an anti-psychotic.

His clarification states that only 2 engines of the first batch were returned to PAG and only due to clerical errors associated with the engine number assignments - sounds like there is engraving or stamping done when the engine is installed and someone transposed two car's numbers.

Ugh...

Ryan

reidry

There were reports shortly after the stop drive that cars at a few locations were sequestered by PAG and in an after hours session had their engine removed. Likely deduction is that PAG was looking for abnormalities in low mileage engines including instances of impending connecting rod bolt or cap failure. Since PAG made the decision to replace every 991 GT3 engine they must have found a relatively high number of occurrences.

Ryan

0Q991

Also, it could have been possible that they were unable to use a method of deduction that they felt would result in effectively capturing all the potentially affected engines.

R.Deacon

Ryan,

Good job sorting out that news , stamping error bummer , although minor on big pic

MJones

Here's a question:
If you opt for the Buy Back do you still receive the compensation you are due (3-14 to 6-14)?

reidry

All vast majority of the compensation negotiation has been verbal only with a promise to pay the compensation after purchase and delivery is complete. Likely a PCNA corporate check a couple of weeks later.

I don't believe you'll receive the stated compensation if you enter the buyback though you can be compensated for all your out of pocket expenses. I imagine it somewhat depends on how far down the lawyering up route you want to go.

Ryan

Mike in CA

That's a good point Macca, no doubt you are correct. Sam, my service manager was of the thought that with engines sitting in the shop after replacement, and waiting for shipment back to Germany, that curious mechanics could take the engine apart to see what the issue was. Apparently it's happened before. But maybe he was attributing more paranoia to PAG than actually exists.

I was told one could get a buyback or compensation, but not both.

SamFromTX

Great to know, thanks for posting this.

Makes sense.

If I was a Porsche mechanic, I can see the temptation.

silverrules

Guys, $400 to $600K saving does not excite the higher chain in command. Anything higher than $10M get's some attention. They just don't want anyone opening these engines which will open up all kind of questions. It would be nice to get these defective engines opened up. A competitor with Porsche should look into that if they have one of these bad engines on hand.