Nick Crooks

Guys, please indulge me I know the subject has been beaten to death but I am now a victim. Car is 18 mo. old 996 with <10k miles and began dripping oil after a spanking on N. Ga. mountain roads (RMS suspected of course). I left the car at Hennessy Porsche in Atlanta on my way out of the country for a 2 week biz trip. They called late last week to tell me it was an RMS seal and they had already fixed it. They also checked the crankshaft measurements and concluded that the seal was probably installed wrong at the factory, ahem.

My question to the board is should I have any specific assurances from them when I pick the car up? Such as list of procedures performed on crank measurement etc? Also, if I lose a second seal should I receive a commitment of a replacement engine? Should the factory warranty on the seal (only) reset at the replacement date? I am concerned about building a file as the car is 18 months into the factory warranty at this point and I don't want to see another leak right after the warranty expires without some remedy available.

I assume they will have needed to change the oil as a result of draining the oil to open the housing, true?

BTW, Hennessy has been great thus far, I bought the car from them (Certified) in December after the original owner obsessed over it for about a year and drove it only 5k miles. My sense is he never drove it hard.

LVDell

Two things:
1) Any repair UNDER warranty doesn't restart the clock on your warranty. If you were to get a RMS replaced under warranty on the last day of your warranty it would only last 1 day. But if you paid CASH for the repair the day after your warranty expired you would get a 2 year warranty on the parts and labor.
2)Yes this topic has been beaten to death. Do a search and you will find what you need. No need to have the same thread again and again and again and again and again and again and........well you get the point.

Tool Pants

Get the repair invoice when you pick up the car.

If you can get the measurements that would be nice and you would have something to compare to if the replacement leaks. There should be 4 numbers.

The M96 motor has been in production for 9 years and they have no yet figured out how to install a seal properly at the factory. That is a typical story told to a customer. Ask them to explain how it was installed incorrectly while they show you the old seal. The old seal is supposed to be saved.

The seal is below the oil level so the oil is drained.

This subject has been beaten to death - until it happens to you.

Re-animator

They have a technical protocol for seal replacement vs. engine replacement secondary to the "peuedo" dry sump issues. If the engine seal area is out of spec (more concave than round by a specific measurement), then the replace the whole motor with a crate motor. With every RMS change, it is required that the tech include the measurement in his notes. A service manager worth his salt will disclose the measurement to you, but I don't think he is required to. The block specs could be pertinent later if your block goes more concave and can't seal regardless of seal change later. Hope this data helps.

Nick Crooks

Thanks fellas, very helpful advice. I will definitely get the repair papers and hopefully notes. I'm assuming that the specific measurement Re-animator refers to is pretty small?

Re-animator

Relative to making the round seal on the tranny casing unsealable to the warped concave engine casing. I'll try and find out the point at which the new motor goes in.