Boxster S 2003 Engine issue - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi everybody I had a misfortunate experience with my model 2003 986 boxster s yesterday. The car has driven 82.000 km or approx 51000 miles. It is the first time it hasn’t driven me all the way home. I had to stop on the highway when the motor suddenly did chopping sounds. I could see that the motor/engine oil had run out and my initial thought was to refill oil so that I could move on. Unfortunately that didn’t help. The motor could turn on but the display showed a yellow warning like ”Check engine – go to workshop”. I had the engine running a few mins and drove very carefully a few meters’ but it was still doing the chopping sounds and I turned off the engine. The exhaust had a smell of something burning. October this year (last month actually), I did a major service at Porsche and they found a few things that needed to be fixed. - Change of gaiters at the drive shaft (not a car expert but it sound to be around the engine) - Fix rattle sound from exhaust. Fixed with screws and a welding - Oil leakage (had a leakage like this done at last year’s service) I got the first two fixed shortly after the service but the leakage wasn’t fixed. They told me they had washed the spot where they thought there was a leakage but couldn’t se anything to fixed. They asked me to come back after 2 weeks and some driven miles, so they could check again. When I came back I was told there still wasn’t anything and that they didn’t have to do anything about it. Yesterday as already mentioned the engine oil had suddenly run out? Isn’t that strange? I can’t do anything about it until Monday, since everything is closed until then where I live. I am afraid the engine is messed up, any of you guys with more car/Porsche knowledge can give me a hint as to what can be wrong?

Well, I think I know what happened, but I don't want to jump to conclusions. Just search IMS and you'll see what I mean. Take it to a certified shop ASAP and have them take a look.

Wow that doesnt sound good! Engine replacement Cant find anything on how IMS acts when it hits you. Only polls and talk about engine replacements. What makes you think that is what happened?

Your description of what transpired is vrey similar to what others' have described when their IMS has failed. The metal to metal sound, followed be the rapid oil drain.

Good Luck. IMS Failure engine sounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWMlimt9w8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8mNVI9_G8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BQ5XAIzNVA A piston failure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnQwkcIsVAg Some info. on my failed Boxster: http://www.986shaft.com/ http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22172&highlight=IMS+ebay

If anything the sound was a little like the 944 when gassing. My brother who came to assist thought it sounded like a cylinder wasnt working. None of us are car experts. This is a reply i got from another forum: QUOTE (infocusf8 @ Nov 14, 2009 - 08:40 PM) When you say the engine oil had run out did you check it by the dip stick or use the readout on the dash? That M96 motor holds 9 qts. of oil which is a lot of oil to leak out. It seems to me you would have seen a big spot under the car or your oil warning light would have come on not to mention black smoke burning off the hot exhaust while you were driving. The only thing I can think of is you had a major RMS failure. The slight oil leak that the dealer saw is usually the first indication that the RMS is failing. If all the oil leaked out and the CEL was flashing and you continued to run the motor it could be anything and everything that was destroyed. My reply: Hi infocusf8 The thing was that it was pretty dark and raining quite heavily at the time so I didnt se any black smoke if there were any. The oil light warning wasnt on the display. I was on the highway and when it happened i knew i should stop and I did that. The motor was running and i did try to pres pedal and move slowly ahead but engine was chopping. I checked the engine oil on display (didnt think of the stick since it was dark and raining). When I put oil in I tried to move ahead a little again but same thing, chopping from engine, so i turned off the engine. This was the point where i realised running the engine further could harm it. I did let it check for motor oil again after refilling 1L and after one hour (cold engine) I could se that the oil was above half on the display. What is the CEL? The only warning light i saw was the "Check Engine - go to workshop" yellow warning. EDIT: CEL must be check engine light right? BTW thanks I appreciate your views

Ouch, get it towed to a good shop, good luck, Ed

Its taken a long time ( nearly a month) but the diagnosis that I got yesterday was that the intake valve at cylinder 1 is broken. Besides that the cam shaft have timing issues with cylinder 1, 2 and 3. I am no car expert but they tell me they will look deeper into the engine on monday to decide whether it can be fixed or whether to replace the engine. The thing is that fortunately my car insurance will handle the costs and for my own expenses it should only be around 1000$. I am in doubt as whether the repair they did a couple of weeks before this happened might have caused this? I dont know what the difference is between drive shaft and cam shaft. But they did as written in my first post: - Change of gaiters at the drive shaft (not a car expert but it sound to be around the engine) So could this have been caused by the Porsche mechanics when they repaired my car?

Nothing even remotely similar or related. The "gaiter" refers to the CV Boot in common terminology, but is basically a rubber boot (or gaiter) that covers the CV joint to keep contaminants out of the joint itself and its lubricant. These joints (there are 2 per axle) are between the gearbox and the wheel's hub. The camshafts (your engine has 4) are inside the cylinder heads, and actuate the valves (both intake and exhaust, of which there are 4 per cylinder, with one cam on each bank for the respective rows of intake and exhaust valves). How exactly did they diagnose a broken valve?

Hi Cloudsurfer Thanks for explaining. That helped. I cant say how they came to that conclusion. All I know is that they removed the engine to have a look at things. How about the oil leakage they first mentioned when I had a major service done and then they rechecked 2 weeks later, concluding there was no leakage. Couldnt this leakage be the cause of the failed engine?

I recall one fellow on Renntech who tried to inspect his IMS bearing, but without locking things down properly, which resulted in a chain slip and therefore a timing issue. Apparently the IMS flange and/or bolts can leak, which a tech might try to fix by taking all of the bolts out at once. And if things aren't locked down, this could result in the timing issue. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=29492&hl=IMS+slip+timing Probably a longshot, but it might be worth asking where the oil leak was and how they fixed it.

In retrospect this likely isn't the cause of your problem, as you say you were on the road when the engine died. If the mis-timing had occurred as I supposed, the valves and pistons would have contacted as soon as the car was started up at the shop.

Status of my car is that they are replacing the engine. No news on root cause of the fault unfortunately. Good neews is that the insurance is covering it and in the end of the day it seems like a pretty good deal for me. I have also ordered a clutch replacement since my clutch was so hard I usually think its broken every few times some days pass without driving it. In total I get a new engine and clutch for 2000 $ of which half is the amount i have to pay for the engine because of some speciel conditions in the ensurance policy. Cant be too sorry about that can I? Do you guys think this will make a significant change for the value of my car? I would personally love to get my used porsche with a new engine and clutch.

is it your warranty that is covering it or do you have insurance for it?

Its included in my car insurance.

That's the best reason I've heard to date for living in Sweden. I wish we could get car insurance that would cover engine failure here in the US. BC.

I dated a girl from Sweden, the women there is reason enough to want to move there!

So what does car insurance cost in Sweden?

Believe me I was just as surprised. When I opened this thread I had no clue the engine would be covered. I am not sure if every insurance company has this in Sweden to be honest. I have other insurances with them, which gives me speciel costumer status and an enchanced car insurance.

Yeah if you like gourgeous blondes Sweden is the place to go! I am actually in the states right now and the girls here arent to bad either.