Macster

The engine comes with a parts warranty is my info. However things change. Always before one buys an engine from a dealer (from any source) he needs to confirm just what the warranty is.

It has been some months back but one person posted of having an indy replace his Boxster's shot engine. The indy bought the (new/remanufactured) engine from a Porsche dealer.

After installation the engine proved to be sick.

The dealer at first balked in taking the engine back under the parts warranty, in this case obviously lots of part, an entire engine's worth of parts. The engine was intact just sick not in pieces.

The car's owner reported the indy persevered and was successful in convincing the dealer and whoever else needed convincing the engine was sick and it was not something the indy did or did not do and the engine was taken back under warranty and a new engine supplied which proved upon installation to be ok.

The car's owner had to I believe absorb some of the cost of the additional labor to remove the sick engine and of course install the 2nd engine. The indy shop owner might have offered some goodwill too. I do not recall.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Zeus993

I think the problem may be so HUGELY EXPENSIVE to repair that PAG is just doing their best to keep it under the carpet... (AKA let the sleeping dog lie). What's the time on replacing the IMS - 2 days per car or something? A bit different than replacing faulty valve springs, at least I think. You'd just need to pop off the valve covers to get to them V.s. dropping a 911 engine and cracking it open. The dog keeps waking up...

Zeus993

Footnote - for the literal minded among us I mean no defamation of our canine friends or in no way infer that my car or anyone else's is a "dog". The expression is is used to denote a problem that may occur... I, like many, truly love my car, and my dogs.

Elena7856

Wow. Ouch. Let us know how your warrenty works out. Say - what is the build date on your car (check drivers door plate, upper right hand corner should have a month/year). Thanks.
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holden997

Lenelsa,

Sorry to hear about your engine but I'm glad you're covered with the CPO.

Being a 2005 997s, your car has the M97 engine but it might not have the new improved large single row IMS bearing.
To determine if your M97 engine has the improved IMS, you will need to check your engine number.
if the engine number is 68509790 and below, unforunately it stilll has the dual row IMS bearing.
if the engine number is 68509791 and above, it will have the new large single row IMS. The IMS cover also has the 22mm nut.

Can you please let us know your engine number.

Thanks

holden997

2 more questions:

Do you use a magnetic oil plug, if yes, was there any metal particles?
In your last oil change, did you analyze the oil filter for metal particles?

Thanks,

Neotorque

The problem with your theory is that, if the IMS problem were really as widespread as some people on here seem to suppose, there would be no way for the aftermarket warranty business to operate on these cars. As I've pointed out before, I was quoted a 4-year power train warranty on my 2005 C2 between $2,000 and $2,500, and that seems very typical for what I've seen on this board. A typical catastrophic engine failure might cost 10x more than the premiums on the policy, which obviously also covers a lot of other issues, overhead expenses, and a hefty profit margin. So the insurers, who have the data, are obviously not seeing these problems very often - it would likely have to be well under 1% of M96/97 engines just to make the numbers work.

Unless the insurers are somehow in league with Porsche and willing to take a huge loss on their policies, we're talking about something very rare. All cars fail. From what I can see, Porsches fail far less frequently than others, and Porsche has done a lot more to stand behind their product than others. That's not to say IMS failures never happen, they do quite obviously, and that's dreadful for those people who have to deal with it, but there's a ton of undue hysteria and paranoia out there that doesn't help anyone.

Charlie C

Even it that's true, an engine should not grenade because it was driven less! It's a poor design that hopefully has been solved with the newer (+09) engines which don't have an IMS.

FYI: The IMS died on my 2004 Boxster S with 27K miles at 5 years old. When you know you've never abused the engine and have always maintained by the book, (actually better) it's disheartening to have the engine die. Mine was replaced by Porsche and the head tech told me it has a "more robust" design.

sandwedge

This whole thing seems very personal and emotional to you for some reason. Serial posting trying to turn it into a non-issue. You keep pointing to the fact that after market warranties are being sold as proof of your theory. By that reasoning, hurricanes hitting the Gulf coast is a non-issue too since home insurance can still be bought for a fraction of the cost of a catastrophic failure the house.

To give you an example, I know a guy who owns a $6 million house with almost direct exposure to the Gulf Of Mexico. His annual insurance which includes dwelling, wind and flood costs him $26,000/year. That's less than half of 1% of the value of the house. For a 997.1, let's use a value of $50,000 for the car and $3,000 for the extended warranty. Comes to 6% of the value of the car even though the extended policy only covers mechanical issues and would never be on the hook for the total loss of the car. Still don't think they allow for some unusual exposure here? The extended warranty I bought for an -01 E46 M3 cost less than one third of the one I bought for my -06 997.

DreamCarrera

Don't post percentage figures as though they are fact when in fact they are the result of a VERY unscientific poll.





Any other sage advice for me?

utkinpol

My advice is to drive the car more, read forums less and have spare $20k on savings account if you have no warranty left on your 997.1 car. Or pay even more if you want to trade in your 997.1 car for '09 997.2 with cpo.

Marine Blue

If the IMS is a known issue why wouldn't all current owners just have the LN Engineering solution installed? Wouldn't this effectively reduce/eliminate the issue at a fairly reasonable cost (vs engine replacement)? Unless of course the LN Engineering solution isn't a perfect solution either?

I ask because I may someday purchase an older Boxster or 997 for track duty.

To the OP, good luck with the engine replacement. If you can I would ask the dealer to identify which engine is going in and if it is a revised design or the design as you already had. If its the same design I would think that installing the LN Engineering upgrade would make sense before the engine goes in.

mgordon18

Holden - can you please source this information? From where did you get those engine numbers?

And if those numbers are correct, approximately when do you think engine 68509791 was placed into it's chassis? That date would at least give us some indication, within a few months, of what production date to make sure we're buying after.

kes7u

Are you not aware that it is a known fact that 47.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

soverystout

To address 2 of your questions, the LN bearing isn't "perfect". A very small number of engines with a single row LN beearings have failed (I think a total of 3). I don't believe they have concluded that the bearing was the cause of failure either. The dual row bearing for the 97-01 M96 engines are doing very well.

The OP will get a reman m96 engine with all of the upgrades that Porsche has made to the engine, including the larger (unserviceable) IMS bearing. It's unserviceable because the bearing itself is larger than the hole in the engine case. The orginal 97-04 M96 engines had IMS bearings that can be extracted through the engine case hole because they are smaller.

To another posters comment, most engines in the 05 997 were M96 engines, not M97.