A little unlucky!

Hi Guys, Well I've been browsing this superb forum for a couple of months now and thought it was about time I posted! I think I've had a little bad luck unfortunately, but due to the excellent customer service I have received I have no real complaints. I purchased my '06 Cayman S in April this year, within a week of owning it I noticed the oil dropping, a ticking from the engine and also a squeek when depressing the clutch! So in to my local Centre (Aberdeen) it went. Over a few weeks they monitored the oil consumption and informed me they would have to strip the clutch and investigate the ticking noise. The Centre I originally bought it from (Leicester) agreed to cover the cost of the work on the clutch if it turned out not to be a warranty issue. I did get the old 'the oil consumption is within Porsches tolerence' but still thought it excessive. Anyway today they phoned to say the squeeking was the Slave Cylinder which they have replaced, but the big problem now is the ticking noise.... they put a Bore Scope down each Cylinder and discovered Cylinder 6 is excessively scored, they believe something had broken off inside! They now have to strip the engine, take pictures and send them to Porsche along with quotes for fixing the engine or replacing the engine!! Hopefully they will go with the latter . Although I've had all these problems so early with my first Porsche I've got to say the service I've had from Porsche has been fantastic, a loan car (normally a new Cayman S) everytime its been in and a very helpful service. Buying a used Porsche from an OPC with a warranty has been worth its weight in gold. Sorry for the long first post but thought I'd share my initial experience..... Even with all these problems I still love my CS and can't wait for it to get better .

Can you post some pictures of the scored cylinder wall?

Sorry to hear about your problem, but glad you're aboard now anyway. Let us know how things turn out. :cheers:

Welcome to the site and sorry to hear about your troubles, but hopefully all will be in the past. Please post some pics if you can!

Thanks Guys, It's booked back in for the 16th August for the engine strip, so will ask to let me have a copy of the photos. The gear changing feels sooooo much better now . One fixed one to go! Will keep you all posted. Cheers.

Has it been fixed as yet?

The squeeky clutch has been fixed but not the scored cylinder, it is booked to go back in on the 16th August to fix that! They said they would need the car for at least a week! I've got it back for the time being! Cheers

Well the news so far is the CS is getting an 'engine rebuild'. Apparently it worked out cheaper than replacing the engine! They've got 4 sheets of parts on order which should all be in by tomorrow as some are coming from Germany! They are still not 100% sure what the cause was but I am told I will get a full breakdown of what has been replaced and hopefully a final diagnosis of what the cause was when I go to pick my CS up which should be next Tuesday. What do you guys think..... would you prefer a replacement engine or a rebuild? I was thinking that at least the replacement parts would be the latest revisions for that engine, possibly some of which have been identified in the past as being prone to failure and modified!

How many Cayman/Boxster engine rebuilds has this dealer done? From what I've heard, rebuilds on these engines are a fairly uncommon occurrence; complete engine swaps have largely been the order of the day since these cars were introduced. Hope it works out.

Hi, yeah its in at my local OPC. I was told when it comes to the choice they generally go with the cheaper option! Thankfully it's under warrenty though

I guess for me, I'd sleep better at night with a new engine than a rebuild. I just get paranoid that 1 little missing piece is left out of a rebuild. I was on a delayed flight before from Amsterdam to New York, where it was due to an engine problem. They took the whole engine apart on the tarmac in front of us, where all the passengers were able to watch. Man, were there a lot of pieces in a jet turbine engine. I commented that I hope they didn't have any extra pieces left over. I feel for you. I've also got a problem with my 2 month old Cayman. Very minor compared to yours. Dealer has also been good but problem not solved yet. It's hard to be too upset, where this is the most enjoyable car I've ever owned.

Sounds like a very rough start to your Porsche ownership experience, but good to read that you're remaining positive about it. Hopefully the advice and support from here will help. Good luck, hope it works out, Graeme

I know what your saying there, I kept on joking that I hoped the tech wasn't out on the booze the night before Well the good news is I finally got my car back on Friday.... and so far so good...... have been told to take it easy for a week or so as it has had a lot of new parts, including a new crankcase, all new pistons, etc, etc!! They are going to send out the full list of replaced parts for me as soon as they have them on their system. They also said to pop it back in in a weeks time just so they can have a quick look over it . Not the best start to Porsche ownership but a very positive experience with two fantastic Porsche Centres. Now hopefully I can get back to enjoying driving this beautiful machine and join in with all the banter and informative discussions on this fantastic forum :cheers:

Kudos to you and the dealership in working through this and getting it resolved. I would have been all over the place if my car had such issues within a week of a purchase. Did they figure out the reason for the tick?

I suprised myself how calm I've stayed to be honest would of been a different story if it hadn't of been under warranty though :helpme:. They believe the cause was a broken piston ring.... although they didn't sound completely sure!! Also started her up this morning and for the first time didn't see any smoke out the back window..... fingers crossed no more topping up the oil :dance: