Matt Romanowski

I'm really sorry to hear about this! It stinks that your first experience is sub-par. I hope you the best in getting this worked out to your satisfaction.

Matt

First986NJ

I'm sorry guys....but I have been watching these threads for a few months now. and I have to believe that the engine issues may have a little something to do with the owners too......There seems to be good engines and "bad" ones from almost any model year. I also notice that the people with a "bad" engine, tend to have had more than one "bad" engine.....comments like "mine's on its third engine..." and "I've had 2 go bad on my 99".

Even if Porsche had a problem, found it, and fixed it, do you have any idea what the odds are of you getting MULTIPLE bad engines?

Draw your own conclusions...

Charlie C

Please keep us posted. I've been watching this for a while without joining in. I have a feeling a LOT of us are watching this to see Porsche's response.

Back around 1999 or 2000, I was "inbetween Porsches". I spoke to my independent Porsche mechanic and he advised to not to buy a Boxster because of the problems with the engines at the time. In '04, I finally did buy a new Boxster since the problem was supposedly solved. (I'm not talking about the ongoing RMS issue.)

Anyway, best of luck in getting this worked out with Porsche.

J-RAD

I tend to agree with your post. It doesn't add up.

cdodkin

Quite possible that that owner interaction with the car has an effect on some of the Boxster issues.

There is some evidence that cars that don't get driven regularly have a greater risk of RMS problems for example.

However, there is also considerable reporting evidence from the motoring trade, that early Boxster issues are design/quality control issues, and will happen regardless of the driver history.

The problem is that there's more than one reason to have an engine swap, so just because drive A had two engines, doesn't mean he had the same issue on both occasions.

The vast majority of engine swaps under warranty have been for RMS - and RMS leakage can happen to any Boxster/996/997 engine, because of the inherent design - independant of year.

We need to move away from engine replacement being seen as a single cause event - and make sure we have the details.

In this case, it's not RMS, it's mechaical and likely to be porous block or slipped linings.

Of course, if they don't stip the engine down, we may never know the real cause!

Porsche have a track record of denying issues, and failing to issue recalls.

For example - If you are a Cayenne owner, you may be aware that the transmission on that SUV is a serious problem - there's no recall, but if you go to your stealership, you'll see rows of Cayennes having their transmissions dropped. Same for the VW Toureg.

Porsche do have a track record of fixing a huge number of these issues FOC under warranty - and that's how they tend to deal with the problems.

There is a German newspaper that is looking at the Boxster engine issues, and they think that as many as 50% may be effected in one way or another - and they're trying to get Porsche to go public with the facts.

Unlikely they will of course, and anyone that does get a settlement signs Porsche paperwork to say that Porsche admit zip, and that they won't disclose their 'free' replacements to anyone.

Agree with the poster who suggested taking it up the tree at Porsche, the attitude shown by the rep was out of order regardless.

It's never an easy fight out of warranty on any manufacturers car!

So how about this:

Complain to your local Television "Trouble-Shooter", and if none of that works then complain to a lawyer

Chris.

akif

While I agree with the math, how do you blow up an engine on these new cars? You have the rev limiter, etc. as safety.

From a driver's point of view, unless you're downshifting and throwing into high rpm, running without oil, or with a faulty cooling system - what do you have to do to blow these types of engines?

Another option is that the replacement engines aren't coming from the same pool as new engines - whatever pool they're coming from has a higher failure rate.

I've only owned a Porsche for a short while, so don't know too much history about this problem. I'm just contemplating about the options of multiple failures.

blinkwatt

Couldn't you run a test on the DME to see how many times the car has hit the rev limiter/red line? There are enough post on ANY forum to indicate that Porsche knew that these cars have had issues. I can personally send you a copy of RMS failure documentation from the dealership when it was "fixed" with new RMS. I know it doesnt have to do with "linear failure" but there is still enough proof on the web to support "flaws" in Porsche's engineering.
None-the-less I still drive my car everyday and enjoy every minute of it.

one

what year exactly did they fix the problem for sure? 2000+ i assume. i was looking at a 99 yesterday, but ..... not now!

99firehawk

yes you can, we run a report of number of ignitions over redline everytime theres an engine failure. but i really dont think that rpm is a casue of a failure on boxster or 996 motors, I think its just random. Tiptronic cars wont allow you to exced redline and they fail just the same.

mborkow

to be honest, i am not that worried about RMS. if you catch that early then it is a $1k repair (correct?) which is just like new brakes, or a major interval servicing (anyone who has any porsche is used to $1k repairs --they are pretty run-of-the-mill ). what i am worried about is catastrophic engine failure requiring a whole new engine...that fear would keep me from purchasing any car.

99firehawk

any vechile make or model can have a catastrofic engine failure. honda gm porsche or bently it doesnt matter, mechanical things fail

mborkow

are you trying to say that this problem is being blown out of proportion?

btw, after doing some research (here mostly) it seems the best route might be the boxster S (RMS doesn't have me that concerened)

99firehawk

some of the early cars had sleve issues, soem of the newer cars have intermediate shaft failures.
some of the cars have timing chain failures, but alot of the cars off all the years neevr have any problems. No one ever comes on and talks about how great and problem free their car has been you really only hear about the ones that break or fail.

mborkow

that isn't quite true. a lot of peole say how reliable their boxster is (you are apparently one of them?)...but a lot of people have said their engine blew up (even if it were 1/100 i would say that is a pretty high rate of failure). i bought a honda element when they first came out (very cool car), and i was pretty active on that forum; in 2 years i never once read on that forum about any problem worse than a broken windshield (the result of a bad weld on some of the first elements). when you compare the boxster to the element (admittedly not an apples to apples comparison) you simply do not get the same warm and fuzzy feeling for the mechanicals...

it seems to me that porsche (over the last 20 years) is incapable of making a car without at least one major defect which affects either the engine, or the tranmission and can cost the owner $ks without much warning...and, in spite of the fact that these are defects, porsche does not stand behind their cars and fix them.

99firehawk

for the most part I have see porsche stand behind their cars , if you are the orinal buyer and you have maintaned the car (and have records) I dont see how a 3rd owner should be covered after the vechile is outside of warrenty thats just my opinion . Perfromace cars have a higher failure rate then econmomy cars rpm and power per liter come into effect. Even multi millon dollar f1 cars fail.
Im not by any means saying that its accpetable, there is a good percentage that fail, every car has a weak link.
Just out of curiosity what porsche has had major transmission defects. and really what air cooled had major defects.