MadCow

Cruising down the highway two weekends ago in my '04 Anni Edition (29000 km) and I get this horrible sound coming from the back of the car...kind of like a trashcan full of loose nuts and bolts rolling around (no CEL or gauge swings on the dash). I pull over to a safe spot and call 1800PORSCHE and have the car towed to my dealer in Toronto.

Monday afternoon I get the call, " You need a complete engine replacement because the intermediate shaft failed, bearing disintegrated...I was afraid of that. To make a long story short they replaced the engine within a week, gave me Cayenne to drive while it was being repaired and I'm glad to see that Porsche and the dealer handled things so efficiently.

So my question is, since this 996 has the X51 Powerkit as standard and I am told that this is also replaced is there an obvious way of checking that I do indeed have the factory modifications to the engine that comes with the X51?

Ray S

Open the engine bay and look at your new motor. There are plenty of visual cues (on the outside of the motor) that will let you know if you got the x51 on the new motor.

jerler

The most obvious is the intake manifold. The standard one is mostly black plastic. The X51 one is alloy.

stanm5

Glad it was taken care of quickly. Was it Downtown Porsche? I used them while my car was in warranty and they always treated me well.

Stan

JimB

I've often wondered what Porsche would charge for a replacement X51 motor. Does you invoice say what the dealer paid for it?

AndyK

Jeez...another engine failure. Every time I get all psyched to start looking for a 996, I get knocked back by stuff like this!

Riad

I'm on my second 996 and I've never had an engine failure. Hope this helps.

perfectlap

wow..do you know how much the repair bill was? good thing you still had a year on that warranty.
No way do I buy a second hand Pcar without at least an extended warranty or extremely low miles.

MadCow

It was Pfaff Porsche. The flat bed truck was there within about 40 minutes and the repair was approved and engine ordered within a few hours. Excellent service (as expected)!

MadCow

Thanks jerler. That helps me a bunch, I'll check it out tonight.

MadCow

No price - just zeroes against the parts list but one of the gents in sales mentioned to me that just the engine was about $17k Canadian ($14.5 US) and about 12 hrs labour.

MadCow

I'm good until 2010 because I bought used as a Porsche Certified Pre-Owned. The service advisor mentioned it wouldn't have mattered if I had tracked it every weekend or just driven it to church on Sundays!

I've also received a follow-up call today from the dealer to make sure everything is cool and that I'm satisfied.

The B

I'm sure engine failure is less than the amount of time the driver fail the car.

itorque

My 03 had a very similar noise, it sounded like a coffee can with beebes inside rattling around just in front of the tranny. I cought it before it got too loud.
Porsche also replaced the engine within a few days. The new motor is great. I was not aware of an X51 thingy but will look at my intake to see what I got. The motor sounds like a sewing machine and pulls great up to 4Krpm (not to go over that until 2,000 miles), I am very very happy to have the new motor. I am also happy that it happened on the last month of the initial 4 year warranty :-).

AndyK

Wow! Talk about dodging a bullet!!