DCJosh

Hi there 996 Forum,

I am writing you as my 2005 Porsche Cayenne Turbo met an unfortunate end and I would like to stay in the Porsche saddle.

I am currently interested in a 2003 C4S with only 47,959 miles. However, according to the service record history that the dealership provided (I'm not sure they read them...) the car has had some issues that were 'corrected'.

Main examples:
02APR2003 - 2,459 miles, engine replaced
03MAY2006 - 22,961 miles, RMS fixed
25AUG2009 - 34,167 miles, engine rebuilt due to IMS failure.

The car appears to be in very nice condition and it has an asking price in the upper $20's, but considering the low miles and the fact that it is a C4S make it look like an appealing buy.

Given the cars history, would you roll the dice and think that the IMS issue will not rear its ugly head again? Do you think that they would have repaired the IMS with the upgraded unit by 2009?

Are you a gambler?

Thanks for any input, I'm going back to reading about other peoples IMS issues..

Regards,
DC Josh

sfv_rider

The appropriate question isn't if we are gamblers. What about you?

I'd like to see the 2009 rebuild invoice, listing what was replaced. I thought in 2009 Porsche was still selling complete engines, and the cores were making their way back to Stuttgart.

For a price in the mid 25s, I'd jump on it.

c4racer

yikes. I dunno. Totally depends on what that rebuild means, who did it, etc.

If it's a factory replacement motor and now has under 15K miles on that motor, well - that could be a pretty nice find depending on the price. But if that is a rebuild of the first replacement motor, I would be very skeptical without a lot more details, personally.

white out

It's likely an entirely new engine. Go for it.

DCJosh

I have never attached anything before, I hope this works...

Fracture

25AUG2009 - 34,167 miles, engine rebuilt due to IMS failure.

need much more info

hooger

you should probably blackout the customer's personal information.

Kalashnikov

Stay away. Cursed cars are like jinx people, you stay the **** away!

Car is on the third engine after 35k miles. That's like a woman divorced 4 times, and you are considering being her 5th husband.

DHinkle

I would be all over this car if you can validate the engine work. Great car and a real keeper!

DCJosh

Information attached.

I will do that, if I can.

Interesting, on one hand I agree, on another, I think they are just machines...

I'm not sure what else I can do outside of the service paperwork that was provided. Any ideas?

kromdom

To some extent, we all took a gamble (though I prefer CALCULATED RISK) when we decided to buy a 996 in spite of its "scary" reputation. Get the car checked by a competent tech and if findings are OK & corroborate the car's service history, then my vote is GO FOR IT.

dgjks6

It sounds like they found the IMS was failing (failed) but had yet to cause a catastrophic failure. So they rebuilt the engine. Basically cleaned out the metal from the failed IMS. That all sounds great.

My only question is what IMS bearing is in there now? The engine is from 2003 and I am not sure of they were using the upgraded IMS bearings yet. If they just put a regular old Porsche IMS bearing back in I would buy the car and have an upgraded IMS bearing installed. But I am not sure in 2003 if they were using the larger, unserviceable bearing, that needs the case split to fix.

DCJosh

I am going to err on the side of caution and assume that there is an old bearing in there and replace it with the upgraded version. Fortunately, I am studying automotive engineering and the class that I am in this semester encourages using our own cars as projects. This one is looking more and more like a contender.

Soaringman

This is exactly what I was thinking.
Some things are good and some are bad

prosled8

I only see one major problem with a rebuild at the dealer. Where did they get the specs to rebuild it to? I thought Porsche never published clearances or tolerances for anything in this engine. How would they know of the crank was good? How would they know if the rod bearing clearances were good? How could they possibly pull off a decent rebuild without the specs to do so. They were guessing... I would guess this car hasn't seen its last engine.