dhud

Superfans:

The leak will be dripping in the center of the car at the point where the transmission and the engine meet. There is a bolt at this location holding a fluid line and if you look under the car this bolt is the lowest point at the center of the engine. You will usually see the oil dripping off of this bolt. This area should be dry. If you rub your fingers over it and they come back wet with oil, you may have a RMS leak.

Paul S.

I find the "relatively little use" notion amusing--I owned an 01 Turbo (recently returned at the end of its 4 year balloon loan) for 4 years and 33,000 miles--no issues, none. My 02 Boxster S--RMS and itermediate shaft seal replaced at 3 yrs. 19,000 miles. Miles or lack thereof, don't seem to have any correlation. Yeah, many, many years and tons of miles later any seal may leak. But there are plenty of Turbos out there with as many or more miles than the average Boxster or 996/997 and you don't find the prevalent RMS issue. I don't recall anyone reporting a RMS leak on a Turbo, and even if I missed the post, I haven't missed the "so numerous I cannot even guess the number" of RMS leak reports on the M96 engine.

Sure looks like a design issue to me.

Christer

108000 miles and no RMS problem

JasonF

7,500 miles and this has been the most reliable of the 12 new cars I have purchased over the years (and those include Hondas and Acuras). So far the car has been tight as a drum, without a leak, squeek or rattle, knock wood.

1080iAddict

I don't have the RMS issue (knock on wood) but here is a reference to a post I saw on Rennteam - apparently there is a DESIGN FIX and new part for the RMS problem - this just came out today apparently:

http://www.rennteam.com/showflat.php...&page=0#141137

Speed

How did you discover the leak? My '02 996 developed an RMS leak at 15k mi. which was discovered when I took it in for its 15k service. The first scheduled service on the 997 is not until 20k.

infestation

I had one of the first 997 RMS issues very early on. Got it fixed ASAP and haven't had a problem since. Now, I've got nearly 20,000 miles on my car.

Riad

I've been fortunate. My 2001 had 55,000 miles on it when I sold it and my 2004 C4s Cab currently has 30,000 miles... no leaks or problems with either car.

Coochas

Does anyone know the actual percentage of blocks that develop RMS leaks over time. Surely Porsche must know what the failure rate is (i.e. %/year fail over time or whatever other stat you want to apply).
I am curious if it's 1 out of 10, 100 or 1000 over the life of a car.

Snowboarder54

4285 miles and just today I noticed the first oil on the garage floor! Anyone have any idea how long it has been for the repair?

Speed

If they have the parts, it can be done in a day. That was my experience when my '02 996 developed RMS. I dropped the car off at 8 a.m. and got it back at 4 p.m.