fragments of metal and plastic in oil filter and sump :-(

Took my baby to Porsche for a service and they found bits of plastic, which they recon could be from the tensioners, and more worryingly flakes of metal, in the oil filter and sump. Useless buggers threw away the oil before I could stop them, so cant test that. They did however manage to get some very high quality photos from a phone :roll: for diagnosis which i will include. They said they have seen it before and it could be nothing to worry about, or it could mean a new engine soon. To know for sure will require inspection of the engine at great expense. There were a couple of oil leaks also they said they had found. Otherwise it runs well, no smoke or funny noises. Bit kinda crapping it tho, so any help or advice welcomed! Cant really believe that a very well serviced 911 has at its heart a weak point (or 3) in the old 3.4 boxer. I feel they should give me a new engine for free!

Doesn't sound too good and I believe there is an inherent problem with the 3.4 engine affecting a number of units that have needed replacement. I don't know what the full symptoms are that lead to a blwon engine - and hope this is not one for them. My understanding is thatthe sump plug is magnetic and designed to concentrate metal 'swarf' so that it can easily be removed on oil change. I would be tempted to refill with oil and run it for a few hundrde miles and then take out the oil again and see what you get. There is, I recall a thread on PH that has been runniing for ages in respect of engine failure and trying to get Porsche to admit some liablility.

Cheers for your reply, found the thread on ph, its massively long and sprawling, but i get the jist of it. Porsche admit there is some faults, but probably wont pay for a new engine. I have some warranty, but im not that hopeful that it will extend to a new engine :-S or even replacement of the timing chain tensioners. Anyone know the estimated damage to my pocket having the engine inspected and those tensioners changed by a specialist instead of opc? Thanks again 12 miles and counting....

Speak to Baz at Hartech. They are the best in the business for this sort of thing, and have loads of experience rebuilding these engines - even the basket cases.

Absolutely get it looked at by maybe hartech or similiar, I would advise that you do not drive it until the source of the metal fragments have been established. If you get it seen to now it will probably save you 1000,s of pounds ,but if you continue to drive it, it will likely fail altogether and cost big time, if its the ims breaking you will be in big trouble if it goes altogether,but if you get it done now it will give many more miles. Mike

Doesn't look great although look on the bright side, you may have found it just in time to repair it at considerably lower cost. If there's no warranty the first thing I'd do is get out from the OPC and in to one of the indies who've got loads of experience of rebuilding these: Hartech, Autofarm, Tognola, Northway, JZM etc.

Just spoke to the warranty people. They said all parts are covered and labour up to £65p.h. All I should do is get the garage to call and relax. I really hope its going to be this easy Really impressive if this is the case, warranty is with "Customer Protect" for reference. Thanks everyone for your support & advice. Will keep this thread updated with progress.

Thought i may have spoken too soon Basically it boils down to this: The problem is unknown until the engine is stripped. If its a mechanical or electrical part(s) that needs replacing then its covered and i will receive reimbursement. If its wear and tear or none mechanical / electrical part (eg a seal) then i get to pay for it all. Advice anyone? Im currently thinking, take it to autofarm - or get them to collect it - and get them to investigate the issue. That way it should help reduce labour costs if its bad.

Hope it goes well. Warranty companies can be a pain and usually try to wiggle out with the "wear and tear" or "not a catastrophic failure" (i.e the vehicle still runs) lines... Reading from other forums regarding this company, I expect they will send their general engineer to give his "expert" opinion on the engine... Fingers crossed for you but get it over to Hartech and either way you know your pretty much in the best hands for these sort of issues.. They do post here as well, so may add some comments to this post..

Not sure where you are based, but even though Hartech were 200 miles away from me I still used them; you won't find anyone better in the country to sort it out. And from what I can remember they are better value than Autofarm. I would think you are looking at a min of £1,500 just to get the engine out and back in and then whatever bits need doing. When mine was opened up I also did some preventative bits like revised IMS, bearings, etc...so be prepared for a large-ish bill, but it will be better than wating for the whole thing to go bang and need a new engine.

It's not just 3.4 engines, it's all 996s (3.4s and 3.6s), 997.1s (not sure about the direct injection engines on later 997s), as well as all Boxster and Cayman models too. They all have basically the same engine design with cylinder liners that are cast into the block, althought there were some small changes to bearings etc. to try and help this problem. From what I've read there are no big symptoms before they go pop, perhaps what you've seen is a symptom, I've also heard you may get a small drop in water level or signs of water and oil mixing (i.e. oil on water in water tank). It is worth pointing out that a small amount of "mayo" under the filler cap is normal for 996s due to condensation caused by the filler pipe being long ad relatively cold.

How old is the car?

I am not an engineer, but can empathise with you. You need to answer a few basic questions to assist any diagnosis: - How much water is being used? - How much oil is the engine using? - Is there any "significant" blue (burning excessive oil)? - Is there any "significant" white smoke (burning water)? - Are you covering enough miles to notice high oil consumption? - Are there any significant oil leaks under the car that might indicate RMS or IMS failure? Regardless of the above it does sound like you need to get Hartech, Autofarm or similar engine specialist to to conduct a cylinder compression and camera endescope test on each of the cylinders (particularly 4,5 &6) to check the condition of the locasil finish on the pistons as this has a relatively rare habit of degrading or for scoring/cracking in the cylinder liner/sleeve... guess this could be the swarf/fragments that have been found. The endescope test doesn't cost much money (circa £150) but will put your mind at ease so you can start planning what the next steps should be and start to engage your warranty company. If the cylinders do need re-sleeving and or new pistons are required then better to identify this early and minimise the overal cost of a new engine.

I had my engine go and after examination had Autofarm replace it with one of their fully re-engineered exchange engines that overcome many of the original (and prior to 997 gen2 ) continuing weaknesses of the 996/7 engine. The new engine has been faultless ,feels stronger than the original and uses no oil at all. All the info is on their website. But depending on what the fault is you may not have to go that far. As others have said Hartech are also well respected in this area and i think do more replacement/alteration work as opposed to the Autofarm total engine solution.

Hi All, Sorry i missed the latest questions on this as ive been flat out! Progress update: I took it to autofarm (or rather they collected). The engine has been stripped and they found excessive play in the intermediate shaft bearing. The metal that was found has come from this. So its good that it was found early before any other damage has been done. The warranty inspector is going to check it out either tomorrow or on Monday, so fingers double, triple crossed there, because they have estimated around £7k inc vat to fit their modified intermediate shaft and a full set of bearings (mains & big ends) - including the refit and removal. It is a mechanical part that's gone and after 48k miles they can hardly call it wear and tear... or at least I hope not! and its not in the exclusions list...so begin praying I suppose its something that they are sending out the inspector. I make enough sacrifices to own this car already that i really cant afford that bill if they don't pay out! Also need a new clutch apparently so I'm hoping they can pay the big bill and I can pay the small one ;-) that would make it convenient that the engine was removed heh. Will continue to post updates. Plz keep your fingers crossed for me! :thumb: