3.4 ENGINE

What are your thoughts on the 3.4 engine? Have read some bad comments on this engine. I've got my eye on a 2000 996, with 40,000mls, and full main dealer service history with one owner. Just a bit dubiuos about purchasing this car after reading some reports on the 3.4 engine. Am i being paranoid, please HELP.

i,ve got one , 1999 55,000 miles , what do you need to know ? if you have a service history and remember that porsche are a quality engineering company then it should be good . hope that reasures you , remember you only hear about the bad ones. 75pno

mine has 101,000 on the clock and still going strong.

76,000 miles and still going strong.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 3.4, in fact it is a truly excellent motor, powerful, economical, smooth, flexible and torquey. To read some of the stuff written about the 996 and the 3.4 in particular you would think that the 996 project had been a disaster, whereas it is the motor which saved Porsche, and I for one have nothing but praise for it and would have no hesitation in recommending a 996 to anyone subject to the usual checks. My 996 C4 Cab has now done 95,000 and still drives like a 10,000 miler - as Porsches do!

A small number gave problems like all engines. There is a fair amount written on forums about the 3.4 engine because of bad PR by Porsche AG. I've just sold my '99 Carrera Tiptronic and in the 3 years I had it it was the best car in the world. The previous owner did about 50k miles in 18 months. I sold the car with 76 k miles and it was still going strong. I still miss my car. Even the new Ferrari 458 has not been fault free. The BBC website article would suggest a few would rather be a bonfire than a car.

I've just bought a 2000 c4 with 94000 on it and a full service history,it's a fantastic car and incredible value second hand,the guys at work all believe it's worth £25000 and think I'm loaded.I've bought it as I believe if it's done that sort of mileage it's a good one,if anything was going to happen it would have done it by now,those words might bite me on the arse in the future but in the meantime I'm driving a car my mates are envious of and I still sit in it and get a buzz out of knowing what a bargain it is.Just buy one,worry later,it probably won't happen.

Thanks for your replys guys, you've put my mind at rest. I'm going to look at a tiptronic tomorrow.

Mine has now done 125,000 miles although it had a new engine fitted in 2005 at 46,000 miles . Porche Reading fitted it so not sure what happened to one before.

Like any car, faults and glitches are ironed out through the model lifespan. Buy a late 3.4 and you will no doubt have some minor changes over an early one - continual improvement and rectification process. The major 3.4 faults are still there on the 3.6 engine - IMS, RMS. 3.6 engines are just as prone to ovalised bores as the 3,4; at least on the 3.4 you have a bit more metal left in the casting if you wanted to get an overhaul and rebore ! Remember Porsche only overcame the weakness of the IMS by removing it all together in the very latest engines. Change the oil and filters regularly and you should be fine. Tiptronic cars benefit from an early gearbox oil change too, Porsche recommend something like 80k miles, but 50-60k miles seems to be beneficial, the old oil looking very used at this point.

110,000 miles on mine but you'd never know it. I'm not sure that the low mileage is as big a benefit as you think. I was worried about buying one when I got mine almost 6 years ago but I have it looked after by Hartech on their maintenance plan, they service it every 6 months even though I'm only doing about 6k a year in it now. It gets well looked after and I don't have to worry so much about a disaster happening! I think the key is to buy wisely with a good service history and have a warranty or if, like me you're lucky enough to live near Hartech, have their maintenance plan and then enjoy the car, they are superb!

Thanks OGiii - you are wise indeed to be on our plan because despite the euphoria above about how good the engines are (and entirely consistent with everything we have published explaining that only a very small number fail but that if they keep going they run exceptionally well into very high mileages) - the average cost of fixing a failed engine is around the £4000 to £5000 mark (unless you are on our Plan in which case it may be around £600 to £1500 depending on what went wrong). They were not really designed to be repaired and with Porsche main dealer prices it would not usually be ecconomic to try - but on our Plan @ 6k/year (£44/month + Vat if you bought it from us or £55/month + Vat if not) if you deduct the cost of the annual free service and MOT we supply plus the free labour when you inevitably need some suspension, brake or minor replacement parts - your cover is relatively free. It is just that if you were one of those very unlucky small number of owners who's engine lets them down and have to pay full price for the repair it is hard to justify against present and future values. You would easily save the "parts cost" on our plan if it did fail because if it was early on - as you only pay monthly (not annually in advance) you will have paid out very little monthly in total for an engine rebuild free of labour costs and if instead you had been on the scheme for a long time - you would have accumulated savings well in excess of the parts cost compared to other schemes. Baz

Sorry I forgot to add another important point that needs correcting - the "faults" (if that is what they are) - perhaps better described as the "common things we find going wrong" when that small number fail - are just the same and the newer generation of engines of 3.4 Cayman S, 3.6 996, and 997 engines with more torque and horse power - are introducing some new "faults/common failures" into the mix - so I think the scenario of a production design of generally very exceptionally good and reliable engines - but with a small number having typical expensive failures - will carry on throughout the whole production batches until the whole design was more recently changed and therefore some form of affordable protection will still be the best advice. Baz

Baz , can you put your plan on here so I can read it? thanks

Here you go: http://www.hartech.org/lifeplan.html

thanks