Motor blown!!!

I was driving home last week and all of a sudden a warning light comes on. I look in the rearview mirror and see tons of smoke. There was no sholder on the road so I drove an about 1/4 mile before I pulled over. Had the car towed to the shop where I'm now told me the Oil Seporarator went bad and the motor is blown. Car just hit 43k miles. Lesson: PULL OVER RIGHT AWAY!!!!

Very sorry to hear this. Would love to know more.....which car? Have you tracked it? Maintenance record? Overrevs? etc....

Sorry to hear about it. This was your daily non-track toy driver? Ouch.

This was my 2006 Boxster . It was my daily driver with mostly highway miles. I never tracked it, no overrevs, and had just changed the oil. This car was babied. After this happened, I found out that this is a common problem. I'm thinking this is my last water-cooled P-car. These motors should not fail this easy!

Oh man, that sucks. Sorry to hear that. I also have a '06 Boxster , babied as well. I was worried about stuff like this when the warranty expired but now I'm really concerned. Please keep us posted on how much it'll cost to replace, etc.

Sorry to hear. With no shoulder on the road, I'd rather take my chances getting the car out of the way vs. causing a major accident given how little people pay attention while driving nowadays... You did the right thing. Best of luck with the repairs.

A rebuilt motor from the dealer is $8800 plus core. I found a used motor from an 07 w/ 15k miles for $5000 plus core. It took me a while to find that one as there seems to be a big demand for these engines. Right now, it's on it way to me. Hopefully I'll have it by early next week. Labor cost will be about $2500 to remove the bad motor and install the new one. I'm going to put a new oil separator ($110) on the new motor just in case. From what I've learned, the motors don't usally blow when this part goes bad. I guess I just got lucky

That seemed like the only reasonable thing at the time. However, if I knew then what I know now, don't know what I would have done.

If you can, upgrade your new oil separator to the Porsche motorsports VOS. It is the correct and appropriate upgrade for our engines

Bill, sorry to hear what happened, but it has nothing to do withit being a water cooled car or not. Any engine which bellows smoke and then driven for a further 1/4 mile is probably going to face serious damage. Best of luck with the repair. If it happened tome I may have been tempted to put a 3.8 in

I agree, it's not that it's water cooled. I was just using that term to refer to the newer Porsche products (996, 986 , 987, 997, etc). Since this happened, I've been doing alot of research. Seems as if too many of these motors fail. I'm still a Porsche guy, just very disappointed and frustrated at the moment.

Doesn't sound like you had any choice about pulling over. It's not worth the risk of serious injury or death from being rear-ended by someone texting on the freeway. Really sorry to hear about this, and I share your disappointment. My DD turned 40,000 this morning. Hope it holds up!

I'm sorry to hear about your motor. I hope you can get your boxster back up and running soon. I thought our cars were warranted for 4yrs-50,000mi?

and his 4 years are up if he bought the car prior to August 2006 (which is very likely) gk

Just talked to the shop. The fault might not be the AOS . Doesn't really change much either way. Car still needs a new motor. Might know more once motor is out.

Very interested in what you find out. I don't understand how a faulty AOS would cause the motor to be "blown". BTW what do you mean when you say blown? What part of the motor failed or is ruined?

when i blew a motor, i heard a loud PING. that was me throwing a piston. i had a nice size hole in the block. i don't know how it sounds when you blow a boxer motor though.

Bill, man i feel your pain. I have a 2006 987s and somwhere around the 35000 mile marker, I had that similar problem. I was cruising down a highway and suddenly hear a whiny squeal from the engine compartment and look in the rear view mirror and see billows of smoke trailing behind me--so much it startled other drivers on the road because one stopped to see if I was ok. I pulled over almost immediately since I had that luxury, although very dangerous since it was a main artery through Austin. I called roadside assistance and got towed into the dealer. After inspecting, the techs said the oil separater had seized causing nearly 3/4 of the oil turn burn out through the exhaust but the motor was fine. Im assuming that if I had kept driving, then the motor would have been running without any oil- thus blowing my engine. You did exactly what I would have done. Getting to a safe place is mission number one; people on the highways are crazy. I cant believe your engine got blown after driving an extra quarter mile. I would certainly ask more questions to the techs and found out exactly what happened-make sure they know what they are talking about. They may be inexperienced and have never heard of or seen a situation like this one or read any bulletins released by Porsche about this issue. I know when my separater seized, the engine would not turn over and would not start. Let us know more as you find out.

Why? Whould this cause a tech to mis-diagnose a seized motor?

Sorry to hear about your motor. My AOS went bad with tons of white smoke. Drove 1/4 mile very slowly and had it towed to the dealer. No motor damage, I was concerned that my water pump failure 6months earlier had blown a gasket or warped the head. All this at about 40K miles. Sheesh.

Ask the dealer to remove the oil filer and inspect for debris or even drop the pan and look at the underside of the motor.. They could also use a scope to inspect the combustion chambers via the sparkplug holes.

Bill: what was the build date on your car? should be on the drivers side door on the underside, month/year. I have an 06 Boxster also and am interested in what the final cause was.

could be a slim to none chance a cylinder is filled with oil and hydro locked.did they pull the spark plugs

Okay, so this exact same thing happened to me a while back (probably around 50,000 miles)--black smoke like CRAZY out the rear with any kind of throttle applications. Engine was all boggy and the warning light came on. In my case, they just replaced the oil separator--no engine damage. And I didn't pull over right away, but i did most of the distance while coasting. I don't see how an overflowing oil separator would cause an engine to blow. My case pretty much mirrors what dc216 reported. Interesting.

Seems like it would be pretty easy, though to see if the engine was seized. Doubt a Porsche dealer would be fooled on that, don't you?

If the engine is truly seized, and your car was an early - mid production run '06 Boxster , odds are good this is likely an intermediate shaft bearing failure. Early '06s still had the same set up from the M96 engines that were in the 986s that have these problems. Virtually all Cayman S cars from '06 have the M97 engines with the beefed-up bearings and bolts. They started changing Boxster 987s to the new IMS style much further along in the '06 production run.

UPDATE: Seems as if it is a intermediate shaft issue. Motor can be turned in reverse, but not forward. There is also oil leaking from the cam cover (I think that's what he called it). New motor should be here this week. Hopefully, car will be back up and running by the weekend. I think I'm going to put it up for sale after that.

I talked to PCNA today. Car is going to dealer tommorow. They need them to diagnnose the problem. Then they will let me know if they can do anything to help. The used motor is on hold till I get an answer.

Really sorry to hear this. Sounds like you did what you felt was the right and safe thing to do. If you're looking for specific parts, check out the website, and give us a call if you need help. Good luck. Graeme

I really feel for you. If at all possible, and if the failure is indeed IMS related, see if you can get PCNA to determine if your Boxster had the final version of the IMS bearing , stud, and bolt. The new type can be identified by a larger 22 mm nut on the stud. Also, following up on Mike_in OH question, "what was the build date on your car?" You can find it on a sticker on the driver's side door—it will indicate the month/year. Please keep us informed as you learn more. Good luck.

I'm in a similar position except that PCNA denied all coverage so I'm rebuilding my engine, and, it's already in pieces so I don't have to pay to tear down a crate engine. I'm rebuilding my engine to address all the known M97 deficiencies: IMS , weak rods and bolts, upgraded chain tensioner, deeper sump and an additional oil scavenge pump. oh, and a displacement increase to 3.6L. read all about it: Here! and yes, please - keep us apprised when you know more. -PM.

Glad that you got the car to the dealer. You are under miles and car has not been tracked nor modified. I would be surprised if Porsche did not work out a reasonable settlement with you. Please keep us posted.

UPDATE! Turns out it was the AOS all along. It filled the cylinders with oil causing the motor to hydro-lock. Once all the oil was removed (it was everywhere, including the exhaust ) the motor turned over. Put everything together, and the car now runs!!! On a side note. When the tech checked the IMS (which turned out to be fine), he noted that mine had the udated one. Going to do a full service while it is out. Car should be back tommorrow.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense! However, that is one massive failure of the oil separator. Wonder if Porsche will address this in future revisions, seeing as how it seems a lot of us have experienced this alarming (but relatively harmless) failure. Congrats!

I would not say it's relatively harmless. Had I driven my car a few seconds more, I might have blown the motor. They do make a fix: Motorsports Cup Air - Oil Separator:Suncoast Automotive Porsche, Audi, & VW However, Porsche won't put this one in our cars (unless we pay for it). They put the much less expensive ($100) unit that keeps failing.

Wow... I've been following your thread, and I have to say that I am really happy to hear that this was nothing serious. Question for you. You mention that your car started smoking like crazy, and that you pulled over some time later. Did you actually turn the engine off? Or did it stop on it's own? I find it kind of amazing that even with no AOS that you could suck up this much oil. Had you recently added oil to the engine, or had the oil changed? Severly overfilling the engine with oil could cause this.

I have one on my car...absolutely no oil use and no soot in the pipe. However... For track guys, you should know that this bigger oil separator will hold more oil in its canister. That's oil that's not getting back to the sump. TCP is working on a new fix for this oiling issue that will suck the oil out of the separator and send it to the pump quickly. They say the stock separator is preferable to the Competition one. Stay tuned for that kit. I just bought a TTP (Germany) "Oil Safe" kit. I'll have it put on my car as soon as it comes in. I don't want to have this problem. I'd guess, since you just had the oil changed, that it was overfilled and that caused the separator to go. Just a guess, but I think it's a good one. Also would guess that the trouble started well before the light came on and the car was consuming oil rapidly without your knowledge until the level got dangerously low, which triggered the light. No warning lights come on for just the oil separator blowing. Another good question is...Do you have any non-stock suspension/tire goodies on your car? Good luck with the repair. Hope all goes well. While they're changing the engine, have them put a good strong power steering oil cooler on the car. It's the other Achille's heel of these things. :cheers: