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996 Engine Problems - Internet fact or fiction?

GD

Well-known member
Joined
20 Jun 2007
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1,280
On a topical note, there's been a lot of discussion around the reliability of the 3.4 and 3.6 water cooled engines.

Not that is helps the chap with the recent engine failure, but I have been looking around a bit on this subject and I am now very much in 2 minds as to whether I'm going to buy a 996.

A friend has had no RMS or engine problems in his 03 3.6 996 and I had no problems at all (inc. RMS) with my 2.7 Boxster over 5 years.

Present issue aside, is it possible that this issue is being blown out of proportion?

I mean, no disrespect, but Internet forums do attract a certain type of poster (present company excepted!!!) and probably isn't representative of the population of Porsche owners.

There's a survey being run on Pistonheads which lists this:

"Out of 73 996's:
- 13.7% or 10 engine failures (six 3.4 and four 3.6)
- 52% or 38 cases have had RMS. When you have it, you get it on average 1.3 times.
- 41% or 30 cases have had none of these two problems (seventeen 3.4s, twelve 3.6, one unspecified).
In the survey, there are 30 3,6s, 39 3.4s, and four unspecified.

To summarize, the mean car in this dataset is a september 2000 996, that has 52% chance of an rms problem at 39.6K and 13.7% chance of an engine failure at 46.6K."


Now this is massively subjective and is purely based on PH owners (past/present) that can be bothered to post. It's more likely you will post if you've had a problem (after all, this is a very popular reason why people register in the first place). Furthermore, I've also noticed that the posters on this forum (and PH) have a higher track day usage than average (not that this should affect the reliability)...and on average, a 7 year old car!

Furthermore, I bet that RMS are replaced under warranty because of the awareness (indeed, I am sure people take out extended warranty for this main reason...and to get a cheap replacement clutch).

It's a nice little earner for OPC, we take our warranty to cover ourselves and the dealer replaces it FoC, but of course invoiced Porsche GB (who I think own the OPC dealer network now anyway). I bet the used car warranty doesn't lose money for OPC, so the real losers here are the consumer.

Is it possible that the RMS problem wouldn't be so widely reported if it wasn't covered under warranty and people accepted that the car drips oil occassionally? I would bet money that this is the case.

I don't for one minute believe that greater than 1 in 10 911s have had engine problems. That would clearly demonstrate an issue that Porsche would have to address.

Looking at used 996s for months now, I rarely come across one with a replacement engine (I'd suggest more like 1 in 10)....although, that's not to say that more of them have had replacement engines, it's just the advertiser didn't think this was important to mention!!! :)

My view is that there is a small issue here, which does unfortunately affect a few unlucky few in a big, big financial way.

But is it any more than another manufacturer....I personally don't believe so.

However, this whole topic has really made me very concerned as to whether I want to pay £40k on a Porsche....and I'm gutted tbh. But not as gutted as I would be if I had a major problem and needed the engine replacing (whether in or out of warranty, because the resale value of the car would be affected regardless...not to mention the inconvenience of not having the car whilst it's repaired).

This is a reason why I'll never buy a BMW again, because these are nowhere near as reliable as they should be...especially when compared to Japanese cars.
 
take the extra warranty. :lol:
 
why do i put a porsche warranty on my casrs at a cost of a £1000 when i could buy a car care plan one for £400?

statistics are not an exact science

But i would be a lot wealthier man if i never had RMS's to replace on a lot of the cars i buy
its a big gamble if things go wrong and you have an intermediate shaft snap £10K OUCH!!
 
To be honest if you are now that concerned about it I wouldn't get one - it isn't going to go away once you have laid out 40k on it.

How about a TT :D :D :D
 
The turbo bodied cars won't fit in my garage. The nose catches on the floor, which leaves the normally aspirated 3.6 engine option only (excluding C4S of course).
 
I think its been blown a bit out of proportion- there are literally 100s of 1000s of M96 engined Porsches about worldwide- think of all the boxsters, 996s and 997s.

The catastrophic failures get reported, but are a very low proportion of cars sold.

RMS is not a big deal in 99% of cases. Most cars, not just Porsches, I suspect leak oil a bit from somewhere. My 993 needed work on RMS...

I certainly wouldn't let it put me off.
 
996s are big boys toys, big boys with big wallets, 993s are for the value conscious owner.
speak to Sid Spanner on this forum, he has replaced about 20 996 engines at his time with Porsche
 
Deepak Madan said:
996s are big boys toys, big boys with big wallets, 993s are for the value conscious owner.
speak to Sid Spanner on this forum, he has replaced about 20 996 engines at his time with Porsche
if you count boxsters that makes it 50 engine failures
 
Still less failures than M3 engines over the same period - and I got that from someone who had just moved from BMW dealership to a Porsche one.
 
Guildforddad said:
The turbo bodied cars won't fit in my garage. The nose catches on the floor, which leaves the normally aspirated 3.6 engine option only (excluding C4S of course).

move house
 
Sid Spanner said:
Deepak Madan said:
996s are big boys toys, big boys with big wallets, 993s are for the value conscious owner.
speak to Sid Spanner on this forum, he has replaced about 20 996 engines at his time with Porsche
if you count boxsters that makes it 50 engine failures

Is it true though that Porsche had dealers replace engines under factory warranty that had RMS failure?

What proportion of those 50 did you replace for int shaft or cylinder wall failure?
 
Is that a random event, or does driving style/service history have anything to do with it?
 
What is the intermediate shaft? Have heard of and know where the RMS is (have had that replaced twice - with an advisory at the last service it needs doing again!)
Notice in the history file of my car it had the intermediate shaft seal replaced at 12,000 - seems this one is the killer though if it goes - the RMS just results in drips on the garage floor!
Cheers
 
Deepak Madan said:
996s are big boys toys, big boys with big wallets, 993s are for the value conscious owner.
:? :? sweeping statement!!

On the subject of % failures and all the RMS stuff I can't comment, but on everyday consumer goods 'major' quality problems are hugely exaggerated, data in fact suggests a return of 1-3% faulty goods are deemed sufficient to get a product a reputation or perceived to have a 'quality' problem.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 996 issues amount to something like 1-3% meaning that you'd be hard pressed to come across any when looking to buy (i.e. 1 in 50). In fact given that 'the' issue can be catastrophic and expensive to fix some of these cars end up in the breakers yard, the lucky ones are fixed under warranty.

Statistics are a guide only but common sense prevails.
 

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