Are we NUTSO ?
 

M 96/97 Engine owners...We have to be nuts...we worry about RMS, IMS Bore Scoring, Engine "warming up"...and whatever else ...
I've owned at least 15 BMW's over the years...starting with a 73 2002 tii and up through 2800 Bavaria's, 3.0's es 320's 323's 528's, 530's etc and never worried about any of that (well, the early 6's did tend to have an overheating problem)
So what is it......(no answer required, just ranting)
And, yes I've had 6 911's 4 Boxster's, 2 356's and a 914....
The only real problem I had with the SC's was one blown air box.....

Doesn't BMW have the VANOS ticking time bomb in a certain era of their modern engines?

Same same.

Hmmmm, I think so but it doesn't "grenade"the engine....my "newest" is an 07 (bought because no VANOS problem...)

Older BMWs had issues though and modern ones are stupid expensive to work on. The e46 M3 had rod bearings, vanos and subframe cracking, in fact a bunch of BMWs from that era had rod bearing issues. I just think the Porsche seems worse because its just more expensive if the engine goes.

I have an easy solution for you: don’t worry about it, just drive it. Porsche, BMW, whatever. Worrying never fixed anything.

I had a 2000 540i Sport in which the timing chain guides got brittle and disintegrated. This caused the motor to jump time and ... well you know how that ends. I was left stranded on I295N between D.C. and Baltimore.

I must say BMW inline 6 motors are pretty bullet-proof however. The S54 was particularly sweet in my 2007 Z4M Coupé.

Almost every engine I've owned had some catastrophic ticking time bomb looming. I guess I'm attracted to otherwise undervalued cars that the smart money stays away from.

911 2.7, too long to list
944 2.5, too long to list
944 3.0, 2.5 plus timing chain
BMW N20, timing chain
VW I5 2.5, timing chain
Type IV, valve seats
and so on

And not once have I been the victim of one of these inevitable disasters

There's certainly a lot of money in playing to people's fears.

Never had a lot of problems with my ‘67 911 engine. On my ‘69 911 E the valve guides got a little worn so it burned some oil, then the chain tensioner started to go, the guy I sold it to had the engine rebuilt. My ‘76 911S had the timing tensioner go on the way back from Florida which chipped the teeth on the intermediate shaft gear, but that was not that expensive to have repaired. Never had any major issue with either of the 928’s I had. On my ‘00 996, cracked head and intermix, fixed it myself and still driving it.

But then on my Alfa I rebuilt the engine. My wife’s VW CC had the chain tensioner go at 6 years and about 60,000 miles had an extended warranty and they put in a used engine.

There is no such thing as an engine that never has problems, but the M96/M97 engines can be expensive to repair.

The only engines without major time bombs are OHV domestic V8s. You can run them hard a long time.

Welcome to the 996 section of Rennlist...the VERY successful infomercial channel of those making a good living from hyping and exaggerating the flaws of the M96 (and M97) engine.

It's extremely unfortunate that these companies have been successful at setting the narrative here (one of the best online Porsche forums) and ruining the ownership experience for many owners of these great cars.

The amount of enjoyment you receive from your 996 is inversely proportional to the amount of time you spend on this forum...that was not always the case as this forum was enjoyable and very entertaining in the past...

And so goes politics even on RL.... no middle road.

..

Kind of a silly discussion. There are lots of reliable cars out there. I’ve seen lots of Volvos, Hondas and Toyotas run nearly forever. Want a tank, buy a tractor like the UN does: Toyota Land Cruiser.

AMEN.....

If you factor in that 95% of 996 owners have probably never logged into these forums and don't worry about any of the things people worry about here, they think their 996 (probably don't even know it is called a 996, just think of it as a 911) is a great car. I worked as a Toyota tech for 5 years. I saw every pattern failure they had and worked for them during the unintended acceleration recall debacle. I replaced over 100 rusted out frames between Tacomas, Tundras, and Sequoias. But ask any of those owners and they are the greatest vehicle they have ever owned. I thought they were troublesome, very troublesome.

In a way, I wish I had the kind of personality that could just buy a vehicle based on its face value and enjoy it in blissful naivety , but I can't. I have to read forums in an attempt to learn, and then scare the crap out of myself and perform all kinds of rituals in an attempt to prevent the boogeyman from destroying my car. Now I buy 10 dollar a quart oil that I have to mail order, watch my RPM's while warming up, after warming up, and avoid a specific RPM while cruising. I listen to every little noise like it's the precursor to catastrophe all the while wondering when it's just going to let the smoke out while sitting at a stop light.