bronston

I have a 40th anniversary I purchased used with 10,000 miles last August. I put an additional 5000 miles since then. Today I drove about 15 miles (normal drive) to my dealer, Barrier Motors in Bellevue (Seattle) to take advantage of the lifetime free carwash. While waiting in neutral with the engine running I heard some very strange clattering, scraping noises coming from the engine end of the car. I visual inspection showed nothing but to be safe I drove over to the service bay about five blocks away with the engine making the noises for a bit but which stopped before I got there. Once there we looked for a possible source of the recent noises to no avail. After shutting down,the engine began spilling oil from the bell housing, not dripping, not gushing, just a steady flow. They guessed it might be an intermediate shaft failure. After reading this board for the last few months I gather this is not unheard of. The mechanic indicated that they do engine repairs as well as engine replacement. What are the pros and cons? The service records indicate that RMS was replaced in the past. Should I expect (or insist upon) an engine replacement? Does the two failures suggest a problem with this particular engine? This is my first Porsche and this type of dramatic failure is not confidence inspiring.

BTW it is still under new car warranty with an additional two years of CPO coverage beyond that.

Is this why I was mildly flamed on a previous post wherein I admitted to using an automated carwash? Did my car commit suicide rather than submit to another automated scrubbing??

Your thoughts and suggestions, please.

pl

if u are under warranty, press for a engine swap.

Wellardmac

Sounds like a classic IMS failure - good that it's under warranty.

chsu74

If it starts; rev it and make sure you kill the engine. It will be replaced under warranty.

bronston

Intermediate shaft failure is the current best guess. My concern is this: If this component failed with only 15,000 miles, why? Is there something misaligned in the engine case itself? As I noted, the drive over there was just normal city/freeway driving. If this is merely repaired/relplaced am I likely to have this failure repeat? What is the nature of the weakness?

Thanks.

carpundit

A. Sorry your car died; and

B. DAFS !!!!!

bronston

I even googled DAFS without a sensible result. Please translate.

BruceP

Three of the letters mean "Do A Search". I'm sorry for your trouble, but the topic has been done to death around here. Some raw nerves.

gota911

Sometimes the IMS is not centered correctly and damage the seal causing an Exxon Valdiez (massive oil spill) which results in a catrostophic engine failure. Your situation is probably pretty rare in that you heard it starting to break loose and it dumped the oil in the dealaer's lot no less.

Unless they can give you a 100% guarantee in writing that no damage has been done to the enginge, I would recommend that you push for a new engine. You will get a nice remanufactured X-51 engine, which will have some improvements (changes) that have been instituted since your original engine was built in late 2003 or in 2004.

Pugnacious P

+1 this is a known possibility based on questionable original design

bronston

Actually I did a FS but didn't find the info I was seeking. My foremost concern is; is there an increased chance of repeated failure of the intermediate shaft if it has failed once on a particular engine. Also what is the likelihood that some of the failure products have caused additional damage or might remain in the engine to do so in the future. Is this failure similar to the RMS which seems to repeat itself in some engines? The RMS problem, while annoying does not make the car stop and spill its vital fluids, and is much cheaper to fix at one's leisure.
The mechanic indicated that Porsche has become a bit stingy about full engine replacement as opposed to repair. Are there any out there who having had the intemediate shaft failure repaired/replaced, found no futther problems?

The dealer will not be able to get to the car until next week and I want to know as much about this problem before I discuss the fix with them. If this is something that just "happens" every now and then but does not repeat then I would not argue with a repair of my current engine. If it does tend to repeat with some engines and there is a good chance I have one of those I would of course push for an engine replacement.

This is a lightly used car, only 10,000 by the first owner, so I assume it was a "garage queen". I am usually a gentle driver, easy on clutch and brake, not so much on the throttle. I drove for a living and am not hard on machinery, the TR-4 I had as a kid left my possession with well over 100,000 miles and the original clutch.

Nat

.........

roberga

I think I saw you in line behind me today... I took my MB there and saw a 40th in line. Jeff , Justin and Gary are great guys and will push to do the right thing. Jeff is the key person that will communicate with the Porsche rep. Good luck

bronston

If you saw me at the service bay there was alot of oil on the floor.

roberga

no---at the car wash.