After 4.5 years of gen1 ownership with no issues other than servicing and replacing the coolant pipes and one rad. I saw a lovely gen2 C4S at my local indy and was smitten .The car belonged to one of the guys involved with the indys race team he had wanted a car with 4 seats as close to a GT3 as poss so had asked the race team techs to make it happen and the car I now have was the result of this project . I saw the car as a base C4S arrive and everything they put on or took off that they didnt like so I kew they car very well .
When I brought the car it was quite modified so this suited me perfectly and there was enough left to do to still give me things to do to make it mine. this was 18 months ago .
From when I picked up the car until Xmas it was perfect and I enjoyed driving it daily and covered 10k miles . After Xmas the bills started , first the coolant pipes were misting at the joints so we dropped the engine to do that job. it was then fine for a month or so and I noticed the clutch slipping so booked it in to be done , the flywheel looked ok so it was decided to leave that job. then the engine had a strange lumpy running, back it went to the indy who couldnt find any reason for it and then suddenly it started to run fine while at the indy . nothing left to do but monitor it, so I did 1000 miles over a couple of weeks and all seemed ok. so next the road trip 1000 mile round trip to Dinslaken Germany with 40 odd other forum members, car ran fine apart from a window regulator breaking on the way out but easily fixed when we got back .
While in Germany the gearbox faulted meaning a loss of several gears anyway we got back to the UK using the gears we had . So off the car went for a gearbox rebuild at my indy their guy couldnt open the box (seems a common issue with the gen2) so it was sent to Parr motorsport who did have what was needed to fix it but it sat in a queue waiting for a build slot and parts it needed 2nd and 3rd gear full sets and syncros (bloody manual cars where was my gen1 tip that gave no issues lol) after a few weeks the gearbox arrived back at my indy to be put in the car, at this point we decided that it made sense to do the flywheel as the box was out and rebuilt and a new clutch it would be just my luck to put it back together and find the flywheel go .
I get the car back several weeks before Porsche on the prom Weymouth, drive the car most days no issues but on the way back from Weymouth the car starts to run very lumpy and missfire. So we limped the car back home . We put a durametric on it no fault codes just a visit workshop light but we see its missing on a single cylinder turn the engine off and restart the fault moves to another cylinder but just a single one again .checked coil packs although they were all new just before the germany trip. very odd decided we needed a PIWIS so this again showed missfires across both banks but only one cylinder at a time . OK lets try the easy fixes so we changed the 4 sensors in the engine the two on top and the two in the side , no change , changed the oil back to Mobil 1 just incase the viscosity of the millers was too thick (suggested by OPC tech) needless to say this was not the issue but had to be tried. We then decided to change the crankshaft sensor. nope issue still their , during the period of trying things and road testing we had refilled with VMax to ensure it wasnt a dodgy batch of fuel ,we had checked fuel pumps and fueling but the piwis would have picked up error codes for this , we checked the injector as this could have been damaged putting the gearbox back in .nope it was fine.
At this point we decided to seek the advise of the best of the best and I phoned Baz at Hartech , what a bloody nice and helpful guy he is 45 mins on the phone discussing what we have tried etc etc . He asked to see a set of boescore pics and asked for an oil sample to be sent for analysis as there is a very fine metalic film on the oil and several of the cylinders have unusual marks on them but not the borescoring Baz has seen on the gen2 before which is more of a jam at the bottom . We have also sent the magnetic sump plug to Hartech but that seemed clear indicating a non ferious metalic film in the oil.
We are now waiting for Baz to indicate the metal in the oil so hopefully it can lead us to what part has failed in the engine . the liners are allusil on the gen2 so it maybe that a tappet housing or valve has broken this has damaged a lining on the cylinder and thats the fine film in the oil. but thats speculation at the moment .
But it certainly looks like the third engine drop this year is going to happen and probably some form of engine rebuild . And before any of you say it no I cant have the 4 ltr Hartech convertion for the gen2 I already asked Baz :floor: its not ready yet :floor: :floor: .
So thats my Gen 2 journey so far .
Am I losing sleep NO, am I annoyed at my bullet proof gen2 YES,
I have done the man maths and due to my not chocolate engined gen1 costing so little to run while I had it I still estimate if I keep my gen2 for the same period as my gen1 I will still only be at an ave of 3.5k PA for my years of 911 ownership , based on the fact that I drive it most days and do 12k pa plus. and compared to if my hobby was golf that would cost me about 3k pa in membership and greenfees for a couple or three rounds a week. So I am not stressed about it. So thats where I am at the moment waiting to hear what Baz thinks before my next step.
I have said it so many times these cars cost several thousand pounds a year to look after and sometimes every owner gets a bit and the cost is spread and at other times some owners get away with little to spend eg me and my gen1 and either the owner before or one of the future owners catches some big bills eg me with my gen2 but the ave will still work out very much the same for every 997 .
As said in the thread title this is no way intended as a scare story about the gen2 and is just my experience with my gen2 which I do use as intened and do drive a mim 12k pa, but also follow all the reccomended proceedures. but like anything the odd thing can happen no matter no well you look after the car and its not suddenly a design issue with the engine its just sometime things break. :thumb: :thumb: I will keep you updated on progress
When I brought the car it was quite modified so this suited me perfectly and there was enough left to do to still give me things to do to make it mine. this was 18 months ago .
From when I picked up the car until Xmas it was perfect and I enjoyed driving it daily and covered 10k miles . After Xmas the bills started , first the coolant pipes were misting at the joints so we dropped the engine to do that job. it was then fine for a month or so and I noticed the clutch slipping so booked it in to be done , the flywheel looked ok so it was decided to leave that job. then the engine had a strange lumpy running, back it went to the indy who couldnt find any reason for it and then suddenly it started to run fine while at the indy . nothing left to do but monitor it, so I did 1000 miles over a couple of weeks and all seemed ok. so next the road trip 1000 mile round trip to Dinslaken Germany with 40 odd other forum members, car ran fine apart from a window regulator breaking on the way out but easily fixed when we got back .
While in Germany the gearbox faulted meaning a loss of several gears anyway we got back to the UK using the gears we had . So off the car went for a gearbox rebuild at my indy their guy couldnt open the box (seems a common issue with the gen2) so it was sent to Parr motorsport who did have what was needed to fix it but it sat in a queue waiting for a build slot and parts it needed 2nd and 3rd gear full sets and syncros (bloody manual cars where was my gen1 tip that gave no issues lol) after a few weeks the gearbox arrived back at my indy to be put in the car, at this point we decided that it made sense to do the flywheel as the box was out and rebuilt and a new clutch it would be just my luck to put it back together and find the flywheel go .
I get the car back several weeks before Porsche on the prom Weymouth, drive the car most days no issues but on the way back from Weymouth the car starts to run very lumpy and missfire. So we limped the car back home . We put a durametric on it no fault codes just a visit workshop light but we see its missing on a single cylinder turn the engine off and restart the fault moves to another cylinder but just a single one again .checked coil packs although they were all new just before the germany trip. very odd decided we needed a PIWIS so this again showed missfires across both banks but only one cylinder at a time . OK lets try the easy fixes so we changed the 4 sensors in the engine the two on top and the two in the side , no change , changed the oil back to Mobil 1 just incase the viscosity of the millers was too thick (suggested by OPC tech) needless to say this was not the issue but had to be tried. We then decided to change the crankshaft sensor. nope issue still their , during the period of trying things and road testing we had refilled with VMax to ensure it wasnt a dodgy batch of fuel ,we had checked fuel pumps and fueling but the piwis would have picked up error codes for this , we checked the injector as this could have been damaged putting the gearbox back in .nope it was fine.
At this point we decided to seek the advise of the best of the best and I phoned Baz at Hartech , what a bloody nice and helpful guy he is 45 mins on the phone discussing what we have tried etc etc . He asked to see a set of boescore pics and asked for an oil sample to be sent for analysis as there is a very fine metalic film on the oil and several of the cylinders have unusual marks on them but not the borescoring Baz has seen on the gen2 before which is more of a jam at the bottom . We have also sent the magnetic sump plug to Hartech but that seemed clear indicating a non ferious metalic film in the oil.
We are now waiting for Baz to indicate the metal in the oil so hopefully it can lead us to what part has failed in the engine . the liners are allusil on the gen2 so it maybe that a tappet housing or valve has broken this has damaged a lining on the cylinder and thats the fine film in the oil. but thats speculation at the moment .
But it certainly looks like the third engine drop this year is going to happen and probably some form of engine rebuild . And before any of you say it no I cant have the 4 ltr Hartech convertion for the gen2 I already asked Baz :floor: its not ready yet :floor: :floor: .
So thats my Gen 2 journey so far .
Am I losing sleep NO, am I annoyed at my bullet proof gen2 YES,
I have done the man maths and due to my not chocolate engined gen1 costing so little to run while I had it I still estimate if I keep my gen2 for the same period as my gen1 I will still only be at an ave of 3.5k PA for my years of 911 ownership , based on the fact that I drive it most days and do 12k pa plus. and compared to if my hobby was golf that would cost me about 3k pa in membership and greenfees for a couple or three rounds a week. So I am not stressed about it. So thats where I am at the moment waiting to hear what Baz thinks before my next step.
I have said it so many times these cars cost several thousand pounds a year to look after and sometimes every owner gets a bit and the cost is spread and at other times some owners get away with little to spend eg me and my gen1 and either the owner before or one of the future owners catches some big bills eg me with my gen2 but the ave will still work out very much the same for every 997 .
As said in the thread title this is no way intended as a scare story about the gen2 and is just my experience with my gen2 which I do use as intened and do drive a mim 12k pa, but also follow all the reccomended proceedures. but like anything the odd thing can happen no matter no well you look after the car and its not suddenly a design issue with the engine its just sometime things break. :thumb: :thumb: I will keep you updated on progress