greenbe

I few days ago my 2002 996 engine broke. It is the 3.6 M96 normally aspirated engine with 91K miles. Until now this has been a dream car. Usual wearable parts have been changed otherwise it has been good for 40K miles. Only exception was a water pump and leaky power stearing but those things happen. I have kept the car well maintained and serviced and never raced.

My engine light went on, but no noticable difference in the car it was driving normally. I figured it was probably gas gap or oil cap or emissions, I called my mechanic and was on the way to stop by and have him check the code. He did not think I needed to tow it. Within a mile I had a sudden loss of torque and heard a bad rattle as the engine idled. I coasted to a stop. On inspection he said I need a new engine, most likely the IMS bearing is gone. On further research, it is more likely it is one or both cam chains (not sure I got the details right) that have broken. Either way the entire engine needs to come apart.

Please can anyone with knowledge on this problem help, this is a major repair half the value of the car.

Also if anyone has a 3.6 watercool engine for sale, or wants to buy my engine as-is, let me know. I like the car very much and am not keen to part, but unless I can find a solution less costly than a dealer supplied Porsche remanufactured engine, I might have to.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Ahmet

I find it unlikely that an IMS issue would throw a check engine light prior to failure. Any other information your mechanic shared with you?

LVDell

Sorry to hear about the motor. Was the CEL solid or blinking?

redridge

oh man.... so sorry to hear this. Please keep us updated on what the cause of the blown motor may be. Will keep any eye on a new engine for you.

ivangene

Your motor is not worth much anymore. Rebuilding is alot more expensive than replacing (at this point), There are not many 3.6's "hanging around" as the need exceeds the supply.

Sorry man, its a tough pill to swallow.

greenbe

Check engine lite was solid. It seemed benign I thought just emissions. But I keep this car well maintained so the next morning I called my guy but it broke before I got to him I was on the way there. I would have had him check it anyway just to be cautious. If I had felt anything amiss after that light went on I would have shut it down immediately, so it went very suddenly (other than the light warning).

greenbe

I spoke to another mechanic specializing in watercool rebuilds. My mechanic has tons of aircool experience but only seen two broken watercools, one of the mine. The other porsche took away before he could fully diagnose.

The specialist felt it was more likelly a broken cam chain that either snapped spontaneously or was damaged when a nearby oil pump shattered. That is what he said he sees a lot besides IMS. He said for IMS I might hear a whistle or whine. I don't recall him saying something about it would not throw a CEL but he was interested in the type of light and exact sequence so that might have been part of it.

greenbe

My concern with Porsche remanufactured engine is that it will come with all the same problems again. Apparently they just use the same original parts from that year. You only get a 24K mile 2 yr warranty.

Any opinions on some of the rebuild specialists out there on the internet space?

Ahmet

Where are you located?

greenbe

Bay Area, Northern California.

ivangene

wel the new motor has the "latest" parts which also means the IMS bearing is completely un-servicable but the block and other parts are as good as any newer M96 ever was. - If it were my money and I was choosing between replace and rebuild......

hmmmm

I think replace and live with it. Rebuilding is a can of worms and until you are "in there" the true cost is not known. Might get a way with heads and chains... might end up tossing the entire block out and starting anew...search IMS on the Boxster forum, there is a thread started by Jake Raby that is pretty scary looking pics

here is a LINK

Pac996

Real tough experience with your car going like that. I could of sworn Pelican last month had some engines for cheap but I don't see them now. Could try suncoast.
http://www.suncoastparts.com/category/996Mech.html

I'm sure everybody feels for you. Everyone can do their worries about the engine going but when it does happen it really sucks. At 114k miles I'll still let it rip and I hope that keeps the engine stress free. I kind of look at it like relieving the stress in a rifle barrel blank. You gott bang it some good ones to keep the metal from biting you later on. Strange but true.

Macster

So sorry. CEL may have been unrelated but it may have been a cam timing error or misfire error or something related. You'll never know.

Don't kick yourself though. Many would have done the same.

Recently there have been some reports of Porsche goodwillling low miles engines that suffer some kind of failure out of warranty.

What my service manager sources tell me is generally Porsche will want a work order signed with the cost of a teardown as the estimate. This can be $2K. Porsche makes no guarantee it will goodwill the engine. Some agree but more than one owner has balked -- understandably so -- and taken the car away.

If Porsche does it probably depends upon what the teardown finds. Perhaps the failure has to be something Porsche has at least internally recognized as something that should be dealt with with a goodwill engine.

Not sure what I'd do in your case. The engine has 91K miles and even though you have taken care of it and have not abused it the chances are iffy, if that. But I may be wrong.

You might talk to your favorite Porsche service manager, pay him a visit, and in person and in a non-comfrontional manner run the circumstances of the car's engine failure by him and ask him what he suggests.

I have to tell you though were I in your shoes I don't know what I'd do if I was told pay maybe $2K just to find out Porsche won't goodwill or even partially good will the engine.

Now it may be that you can get some promise that even if Porsche offers no goodwill the $2K or whatever the actual cost is of the teardown will be applied to the cost of installing a factory sourced engine by the dealer.

Since you like the car and know its condition having a factory sourced engine gets the car back on the road in short order, with little risk. The new engine and installation labor are warrantied. And you might be able to negotiate a lower price. If the 1st dealer doesn't seem inclined to give you a price break call around. Some have reported saving several thousand dollars over what one dealer quoted.

You need to take your time and don't try to rush this. Expect the talking portion to take several weeks or so, but once you've given the go-ahead the engine R&R goes pretty quickly.

Unlikely the original engine rebuildable. Porsche techs now teardown an engine to ascertain its rebuildabilty condition for cars under warranty, but if you have to pay for this then find out the engine not rebuildable, ouch.

The engine as it sits may be worth something towards a core charge though I do not have any hard info on this, what kind of an engine satisfies a core charge.

You are in the bay area? Give Rector Porsche in Burlngame a visit. Or Stead Porsche in Walnut Creek. I favor Livermore Porsche cause I live near by the dealer and it is convenient and of course provides excellent service. John is the service manager there.

Sincerely,

Macster.

greenbe

I have an intro to the service manager at Carlsen Porsche. The first discussion was work order for 800 to take out the transmission to verify the problem. He will quote me the full replace upfront the 800 will go to that. They don't seem to rebuild they send it back to P. Good tip though to call around, I will try Livermore and get some quotes.

I am surprised nobody in the bay area or sac area has started a watercool rebuild effort. T

d11w

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your car. The same thing happened to me here just a little while back (see Not another IMS issue again). My light only came on to tell me that my oil pressure was low. Sure enough, it was. I was looking at ~1-2 bar pressure level when normally it should be around 4-5 bar. Had the car towed 200 miles to the dealer and got a call from them a couple of days later saying my shaft bearing seized and I would need a new engine! And I was ~ 1 1/2 - 2 months out of warranty. After a week the dealer called back and said Porsche would replace the engine for me if I paid for labour. Hm, does this sound like a good deal? YES!!!!!!!!

Now I'm about 800 miles with my new engine and still in the process of breaking it in. I've heard conflicting input regarding when to stop babying the engine, rev levels and so on so I'm not entirely sure how I should continue. Although I do have to say that I'm finding it difficult to stay below 4200 rpms!!!

Talk to the dealer and see what can be done. I'm TRULY feeling for you and do pray that this situation will resolve itself for the best ASAP.

Keep us informed!