If your lucky the RMS will leak and you can repair it or get Porsche to repair it. If your unlucky the engine number two cylinder will crack out of warrenty and Porsche will stiff you. After you buy a new engine fron Porsche and put 2000 mile s on it the RMS will leak. Then Porsche will repair that for you free. Oh, don't count the loss of your valuable time. Be wary of high mileage 993's. The last batch of great cars for Porsche were the 80's Carreras.

 

you didn't have it as bad as me... $47,000 in repair costs and a couple engine fires in 1,100 miles of driving.. i think the fire department knows me my name now.. beat that one

i think my avatar describes my porsche experience.. i love the car, but have absolutely no faith in the reliability of this car... i wouldn't sleep at night without my extended warranty.. speaking of extended warranty, my check engine light is on again, so back to the shop today... I did get a couple hundred miles of good driving in though

 

My 99 cab had the RMS fail at 28k miles. I think it's a matter of when, not if ... unfortunately. And if the "when" is out of warranty, and the engine is found to be out of tolerance, that's the scary thing.

Vic
95 C4 cab

 

My engine was found out of tolerance first shot out of the basket with a RMS failure...got a engine replacement at a little over 30K.

However, you are also correct...it is indeed a matter of when, NOT if!
.
.
.

 

1) Is this RMS thing a question of "its going to happen" opposed to "it may happen"?

if you accept that rms failures are a mfg defect, it seems like 996s with rms replacments have repeat problems. if the car has a clear history, i'd worry less about it. i guess i've beat the odds...mine has >90k miles, and it has never leaked anything.

 

I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong, it must be bad Karma.
My car was just diagnosed with, you guessed it, it's rare, it's blown out of proportion......RMS leak.
I've been complaining that the car seems to use a quart every 1500 or so mi, Porsche claims it's 'normal'. I had the car on the lift today at RPM for some tires when I saw for myself, the telltale 'wetspot' at the tranny/engine junction. My car has never leaked oil, but it has consistantly used it, now I know why.
I'm due to take it in next week, this sucks what more can I say.

 

Sorry to here C4S. What will they hit you up for in NY for the repair?

 

Nothing, under warranty still.

 

C4S Surgeon, I still doubt very much that the RMS leak is consuming all that oil. If it did you would see puddles on the deck. At most you will see a couple of small spots per month. On my 6th RMS and still don;t use up oil in my 996, well apart from maybe a qrt every 5000 miles "if" I have been driving it hard. I would want to know exactly the diagnosis for all that oil being used up and tell them you won't buy the RMS being the cause........unless when they pull open the bellhousing and a bucket load of oil drops all over the engineer

 

Oh, and I forgot, my new gearbox goes in on Monday. I will get them to do the RMS again (since it's leaking) for the 7th time......just for kicks.....7s a lucky number.

 

Someone had mentioned Porsche was replacing the M96 engine at a rate of 170-200 engines monthly, worldwide. Dont quote me on that, but someone mentioned some time ago. That is alarming to me.

 

I agree with Scouser. You said that the Dealer stated that using 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles is NORMAL. I would make sure that that this is documented. That is a lot of oil to be simply passing by the rings. If it was 1500 miles over a 1 year period of time, I wouldn't be so concerned because of moisture, etc. You might just want to make a little stink about it and have it officially recorded as a concern of yours and to get whatever response the dealer has to the complaint in writing.

Glad the RMS is at no cost to you.

 

99, that's a good suggestion, you read my mind. You're right, it might be COMMON, but it ain't NORMAL.

 

Me,
I've owned a bunch of 911's and 356 over the last 15 years (10 or so) and they all have thier issues. My 99 has thus far been pretty good - my 92' cup uses oil at more rapid rate (1Qt every 3K miles, with a lot of track time, then)
I'll let you know when i get back after being away for a month and half - if it leaks it will be odvious.
Get it inspected and enjoy

 

chris,

my car is probably responsible for about 10% of that number of engines replaced yearly