996 C4s - major oil loss

My wife used the 996 C4S today, said she heard a funny rattling noise like an exhaust falling off - Stopped fairly quickly and looked underneath to notice massive oil leak & big puddle. I got there and no oil along road, only under car where she stopped. AA came out & said oil seemed to be coming from main oil seal area... car being towed home tomorrow so looks like RMS & major expense! However, there has not been any previous signs of a leak and would the seal suddenly burst?. Also, any ideas what the noise may have been? Car has only done 30kjavascript:emoticon(':sad:')

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that's engine failure! What has happened is the failure of your intermediate shaft.

Sounds very similar to my intermediate shaft failure. Had a rattling noise from the rear which I initially thought was something that had worked loose in the engine bay. Next thing was a significant loss in power and when I pulled up the a massive puddle of oil appeared, similarly no trail, it just seemed to let go when I pulled up. Is the car under warranty? If not I wouldn't panic, mine wasn't but was resolved without any expense on my behalf.

Tell us Chipfork, how did you proceed to get resolution without cost :dont know: Ray

A friendly expert confirmed the actual problem. I also talked to someone in the know who explained that Porsche have a goodwill system in place and that my low mileage example (19k miles) should be looked upon favourably. In many cases Porsche had contributed significantly to the costs. He suggested that I shouldn't claim any knowledge of this and simply get it to an OPC for diagnosis. The OPC rang back, explained it would need a new engine whereupon I was bracing myself for a discussion about the cost. To my surprise they said an engine had been ordered and that it should be delivered the following day. When I asked about cost they said it would be covered by Porsche. Diagnosed on a Weds afternoon and collected on the Friday afternoon, amazing! When I went to collect there was a form I had to sign and attached were photographs of the engine and all the bits they'd recovered from the sump, not pretty. Not sure if there's any basis in this, but I was told it was likely Porsche picked up the entire bill in order that I would have no implied warranty or comeback if the new engine had a problem. If I'd had to contribute then this would provide some comback. While the car was in the OPC did a free 111-point check, I thought a warranty might be a good way to go. They also carried out some minor work for next to nothing and fitted two new front tyres for the same price as the best I could find on the internet. I went from severely stressed to extremely impressed, excellent service from the OPC and relief that Porsche had immediately authorised a new engine. I hope ktmkev has a similarly troubleless experience getting his car sorted out!

Bad News Exactly as you diagnosed. I got the car back to the Indy that I bought it from 15 months ago (very reputable company) and they took sump off to confirm fault. Cost estimated at £3,500 + vat ! I asked about assistamce from Porsche but was told that Porsche only help if car bought from OPC and serviced by them. Surely a 4/5 year old Porsche with only 30k miles should not fail. It has been serviced regularly as per the schedule.. but by the Indy not an OPC. I asked what the chances are of the same fault occurring again and have been told that the replacement bearing is different. Does anybody know how the sale of goods act may help in this case?. I seem to remember that there is something in law that states a consumer is protected beyond any standard warranty period and up to 5 or 6 years if goods prove to be of insufficent quality during the period that they could have reasonably expected to have lasted. I would have expect a Porsche engine to last longer than 30k miles.

Sorry to hear it's as people suspected. As for assistance from Porsche, my car was bought from an independent but did have a full OPC service history so that may have been the difference. I was told by an ex OPC Service Manager to get it to an OPC and to not mention that someone else had looked at it as this may have prejudiced my case even though it was purely diagnosis. As for the replacement bearing, I was told that 2004 year models had an uprated part already so this may well be a third party improvement. I'm hoping that my replacement engine has such an improvement. I don't know if the sale of goods act can help your case but I know the indy that diagnosed mine were assisting with claims for one or two of their customers for the same failure. The guy there is very knowledgeable and might be able to offer some advice, feel free to pm me for his contact details. Good luck and hope that Porsche resolve it to your satisfaction.

3.5k + vat for an ims failure! i thought you were talking a new engine plus fitting?? to be honest this is one of the reasons i sold my c4s (which was mint and in perfect working order with full opc history) but if was going to fork out 12k on a new engine and fitting etc id be happy to, if it was NEVER going to fail again, but from what ive heard and read, all id be getting is a new version of the engine that just failed, it just wasnt worth the worry for me anymore, loved the car, hated the stress.

IMS bearing failure is one of a few classic reasons we need to rebuild these engines. We have 3 cars in our workshop at the moment with this problem. In our experience they are always rebuildable but the debris which gets dragged round the engine can wreak other components such at the oil pump, scavenge pump, etc which adds to the cost. In most cases £3-4k + VAT (if not on our maintenance plan but considerably less if participating in the scheme) usually sorts it out but there can be the rare occassion when more damage has occured (possibly through driving it for too long once the problem has started). Whilst apart its a good time to address other "weakspots" such as new cranks shaft bearings, timing chains, fitting restraining rings to the top of the cylinder bores, fitting a better IMS bearing with modifications, a stronger IMS spindle, overhauling the cylinder heads, etc. On a more positive note the vast majority of 986's & 996's we look after don't suffer from engine problems and are very reliable. Grant

Thanks for that Grant - it seems to me that low mileage cars are most susceptible to IMS failures - is that accurate, and could it be as a result of using the car too little, could it be better to buy one with a higher mileage? Cheers, LOJO

I see that Jake Raby and LN Engineering are working on a retrofit kit for replacing the problematic dual-row IMS bearing for an improved version - with the engine in place. Not cheap, but could potentially save a packet. http://www.flat6innovations.com/saving-an-engine-ims-retrofit