My engine is done as well. (2004 2.7L) - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I had a simliar incident to jhandy on Monday... driving along the highway doing 120km/h and all of a sudden I lost power. Engine died while I lifted my foot off throttle. Pulled over and wouldn't start. No oil on the floor, no smoke, no strange noise (that's loud enough to be heard with the top down crusing on the highway.) Long story short, after I got it towed to a local independant Pcar garage I heard the worst news today. Engine suffered catastrophic failure and requires complete teardown to find the actual cause. Note on the invoice states "Check engine for no-start, engine cranks but does not start. Check fuel pressure and ignition - normal. Scan vehicle controllers for faults - none found at this time. Remove spark plugs and perform engine compression test - 0 PSI results at all cylinders, suspect valve damage. Scope cylinders, found valve seats dropped, head damage noted, block and lower engine damage possible, requires dis-assembly." I have 68,000KM on the engine, oil change was done just 3k ago. Owned it for just less than 2 years. I'm making a few phone calls and preparing a letter to Porsche Canada.

that sucks...maybe po will help out..good luck

Wow sorry to hear about that. Mine turned out to be a cut cam position wire. Fixed and ready to go pick up today. Did they say IMS? I guess it does not really matter at this point. Jake may buy it for core if you upgraded with him. If you are thinking of keeping the car, thats an idea. Sorry James

Sorry to hear that. If it was the IMS it would have lost Oil correct? Also curious what brand of Oil was used?

these are the threads that make me lose sleep at night... i cringe to think what this will cost to fix. for what it's worth, I am VERY sorry...I am only imaginging this happening to me and it makes me get shivers.... Let us know what happens with your situation... and GOOD LUCK!

Another member here expressing commiseration. Sorry to hear your news Ekam.

Man, I am very sorry to hear this. I am supposed to pick up my 2004 (3.2L) next week which experienced an IMS failure a couple months ago. When my IMS failed I started looking into posts on various forums about other failures and I found (what seemed to me at least) and unusally high number of failures in the 2004 cars. It makes me wonder if Porsche got an inferior batch of IMS parts in some of those cars. Feel free to PM mail if you want any info into what I looked into for my repair. Good luck with your next steps.

Add me to the list...that's just so disheartening to hear. Sorry for your misfortune, and good luck with its resolution. Keep us posted---when it comes to engine failure, we've ALL become curious (and a bit nervous) onlookers around here...

I noticed that too...that upon reading about all these failures on the net, that the majority or them were 04 model cars. Perhaps as you say, a bad batch that year. ekam, sorry to hear about it. Hope Porsche helps you with this.

Spoke to Porsche Canada, they want me to tow it to a dealer to do a detail assessment. No promises from them but there is still hope!!!!

Good luck with that. I had success with Porsche on mine. A few things that I think helped me were: 1) I had some 3rd party documentation on the IMS problems (if that ends up being your problem). I used 2 of the 3 Excellence Magazine articles on the M96 motor issues. 2) I tried to build a case on why it made business sense for them to help me. Luckily my age and income put me squarely in Porsche's target demographic for new vehicle sales. I also serve on some local BOD's and have a lot of local contacts with others in their target demographic that I beleive worked in my favor. 3) I had terrific maintenance records I could share with them. I'd say be prepared to build a case on why they should help you. I think that's best shot at getting some goodwill assistance. Good luck

Your misfortune makes me both sad and angry. Best of luck to you and please keep us posted. Bob

Classic example of either a broken IMS drive chain, broken IMS timing chain paddle, or IMS bearing, (or all of the above).One of those possibilities has a preventive available that could have possibly kept this from occurring. We get a good number of calls from owners with the mileage that you have, it is one of the sweet spots for failure. Sorry for your loss, this has been a week for failure, 7 callers have reported failures this week of some sort and I've had 4 emails of similar situations along with two cars being shipped to us with intermix issues... They seem to come in herds.

So sorry to hear about the motor. I have to ask, was your car sitting in storage over the winter up in Toronto? Is it possible that sitting had an affect on oil getting into the IMS bearing? Having recently purchased an '04 986 that now has 47k mi... hearing this makes me squirm.

Speaking of which, Jake, I'm getting ready for an IMS and clutch/RMS for the fall (among other things). I'm having problems finding on your site, the cost for the IMS shipped. What's it going for for a 2.5 (99) these days?

Hey Oaktown, I live in the Bay area as well. Interested in doing what you're doing as well. Let me know if you'd wanna work together. I could meet you at your place with my car as well. tran

Guys: we have been so busy with development, engine builds and IMS procedures that we haven't been selling the individual bearing kits for the last few months or any other parts as well.. It was taking our focus away from our specialty; carrying out critical procedures. The other issue was the extreme questions and support that purchasers and shops alike were demanding during the IMS procedure, all that time made the sales of the bearings more of a liability to us than anything else. I've been referring everyone to LN Engineering directly for the bearing kits, at least for now as I finish the updates to our property and expand operations into a 3rd building dedicated to manufacturing our components and finish up our backlog from the winter. If we start selling the bearings again, I'll let you know. in the mean time we are kicking ass on IMSR procedures carried out under our roof, of course we provide the bearings for those procedures that we do here.. A word to the wise: If you are considering a procedure during the fall you had better order the parts and schedule your procedure NOW.. You and EVERYONE ELSE that owns these cars wants to do the same thing. Due to that schedules and components in the fall will be in much more demand and you'll either have to wait or will be disappointed when we say "The schedule is booked". The economy hasn't impacted us at all, hell we are busier than we were when times were perfect!

Right; well, today would be a great day to meet each other as well as an indy mechanic. I'm heading from the City at 2:30 to Oakland to 23rd where Bauer Repair is to have him check out my 99. Wanna meet up around 4ish there? I have to make a quick trip to my e. bay crib to pick up the car after I get done working...

Moving our convo to PM.

... and this is why I have scheduled with a local LN Engineering listed dealer to install the new bearing retrofit with my new clutch and RMS next Wednesday before I start enjoying the new Boxster S I picked up for the summer...