Receiver

DFC.

jferrer1

Sean,
Sorry to hear of the 02 C4S engine failure. It is really pathetic that an engine from Porche at those miles needs replacement. (Covered or not) Based on your previous post it seems you bought the car last year after a good search. Did you say 42,000 or 72,000 miles? Did you change the oil at 5000 or 15000 miles? If you did your own oil changes did you ever examine the engine for signs of "oil" leaks. How strick were you with not running below 3000 RPM's, occasional red lines, no lugging and 5W/40 oil? You seem to be a seasoned Porche driver and I am only asking to see "if" any of this nonsence really makes any difference. I have gotten to the point of calling it "preventative driving" a Porche. For a car with such a racing pedigree this is pretty poor performance. Not really knowing the previous history of how the car was driven by previous owners really makes it impossible to predict the failure rates of these engines. I do my oil changes every 5000 miles with 5W/40 and spend some time looking for signs of oils leaks. I am wondering if more folks did their oil changes and observed their engines if the failure rates would be the same. I too daily drive my C4S and hope not to be reporting the pathetic Porche engine swap.

Receiver

Covered under the CPO warranty.

Remanufactured ( read new ) engine ordered. Should have car back next week.

The bolt on the IMS seal broke and that is what the marble sound was. I'm told by some indy friends that the problem has been resolved on the engine which I will be getting as a replacement as they have beefed up the bearing and seal. Anybody know anything about this?

SH || NC

That's awesome. I think I'd send the GM or Service Manager a nice Xmas card!

The only details I've been able to find out about the bolts is using some that are encapsulated with a sealant to prevent weeping leaks.

Receiver

When I get the car back, I'll definitely make my appreciation known to the service mgr. Throughout the process, I'm going to try and find out as much as I can re what Porsche has done on the replacement engines to ensure that the problem doesn't re occur. My CPO warranty runs out next year and I'll have a decision to make at that time.

M3 Defector

I've never heard of this. What is the 3,000 RPM... all about? As a Porsche newbie the rev range on this thing is much different than the old M car and I've been wondering where I should run it.


Has a class action suit against Porsche ever been attempted to get them to do a recall?

Macster

My opinion is 3K rpms is a red herring. Most engines spend their lives at part throttle and 3000 rpms is about that. If an engine has an inherent weakness then its failure can come at any time and it just so happens most fail "at 3000 rpms" or close cause that's where these engines spend alot of time.

On a road trip my Boxster for instance can spend hours at 3000 rpms. Even around town 3000 rpm is a good cruising rpm in the appropriate gear.

My advice is to give the engine time to warm up a bit. I usually wait until I hear the secondary air injection pump shut off, though with my Turbo I can't hear that but I can sense when the engine rpms drop a bit and the engine's idle smooths up.

Then drive the car reasonably gently until all vital fluids (oil mainly cause it takes the longest to warm up) are up to operating temperature.

Then just drive the car. Avoid abnormally low rpms/high loads as a matter of course and I'd not advise to keep the rpms at red line for long periods of time, but anywhere between these two extremes is just fine.

Use a guality oil and change it every 5K miles (my oil/filter change schedule) to oh I don't know, pick a reasonable number of miles: 6K or 7K or even 10K, but I feel close to 10K approaching the oil's safe service life end.

My desire is to have a pile of oil change receipts and not one engine replacement receipt. That is I'm willing to splurge a bit on oil/filter services because I believe doing so will prolong the engine's useful life at a reasonable cost in more frequent oil/filter services.

So far so good and my 02 Boxster has reached 226K miles with 5K oil changes and no engine replacement.

Sincerely,

Macster.

soverystout

Sunset Porsche is promoting and engine sale. No core return required.
If you inquire about this via email they will send you a sales list of all engines available.

M3 Defector

Thanks Macster!

BruceP

To me, the issue is <3,000rpm under load. One look at a torque curve for this engine, and you see the problem: it is extremely inefficient much below 3,000 rpm in a gear that doesn't offer a lot of torque multiplication. I am not excusing Porsche, and I'm not saying that low rpm operation causes engine failure. But I strongly believe that an engine will last longer if it is not operated under load at an rpm at which it's that inefficient.

Plus - and this may be my imagination, I guess... - once you get the image in your head of how that intermediate shaft sits in there, the idea of the engine bucking because it's being lugged is the stuff of nightmares.

M3 Defector

You don't have to convince me to run it over 3K, I love the way it sounds there Just kind of felt obnoxious always running it there, but now I have an excuse...the engine will blow if I don't

jrgordonsenior

I believe a reman motor is guaranteed for 2 years. Let us know what they say...

jrgordonsenior

I saw the list yesterday. There are no 3.6 X51 motors available, but they have the 3.8 X51 motors for only $8,190. The manual 3.6 motor was also $8,190., but I heard they already sold out of them. No 3.4 996 motors on the list....

Jake Raby

I'd be happy to talk to you about options.. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.
This seems to be a week of failures, we've had more calls than usual this week and that sucks just before Christmas.

Dharn55

It is so hard to believe that a 3.8 X51 engine can be bought for $8,190 while the last time I priced a 3.4 it was $11,795 plus core. Sunset is great and they do not control these prices. But how can Porsche sell a 3.8 X51 for so much less than a palin vanilla 3.4. Maybe they are taking into account the failure rate on the 3.4 and know they might have to replace it again in the 24 month warranty period.