New owner...already having failure warning

I've had my car for just about a week (also posted about a warranty) and today getting lunch i had a Failure on the dash with the oil symbol. The oil was at year, but nothing seemed wrong. it went away quickly and things were back to normal, but this is really stressing me out. I probably spent too much on a car, and now I'm totally freaked that its going to have problems and the cost will kill me.

What do you mean by 'oil was at year'? I would check the oil level with the dip stick. Also make sure you put the oil fill cap back good and tight. Maybe even wipe some oil on the o-ring inside the cap. These cars will show a CEL with a loose cap. But you need to settle down....maybe have a few drinks.

Get a warranty and you'll save your life...

If you mean the "Oil Indicator Failure" message 99.9% its not something to worry about much, just the oil pressure sender died or is about to or its terminals need some cleaning. John

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+1 This can be a very simple problem. Remember most people dont post my car was running great today. I just wanted let everyone know. This is true with any product or service. People talk about the problem and are looking for answers. Take a few deep breaths and let us know what you fine out.

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grantf you will have to have someone thats alot more knowledgeable than me to help you, i've had mine for 2 years now & it seems like i've had one or another on for a year. I've actually got two on now thats been on for probably 2 months that i can't get to go off, the ABS & Brake light & i think i've tried everything, even the indy couldn't get them off & thats after spending $2k on 60,000 mile tune-up. It will save you a whole lot of money if you can work on your own car, if not the cost to work on it could definitely kill you.

Sorry, I meant to say that the oil indicator on the right was at zero (usually at 5). I tried looking at warranties, but i'm in California and apparently its a lot harder to get it here. I couldn't even find a real company to sell one. The last guy I talked to was really helpful and explained that the policy for a similar car that is newer is usually $8,000. "oil failure indicator" is what it was saying, yes. Where is the oil pressure sensor located? Is that something I can clean myself or do i take it to a mechanic? I've had an e36 M3 (new kept it to 100K miles) and then a VW touareg (new to 75K, still have it) and then this car. After reading all the posts about this problem and that, and then seeing this warning light a week after having it, I didn't know what else to think except being a bit freaked.

Yeah, it sounds like the oil pressure sender, very easy, common and inexpensive fix. I've owned/tracked/raced literally dozens of cars, including almost 50k miles with m96 based motors now (that's the engine in your car obviously). I've even worked on these cars personally and professionally, keep in touch with dealer mechanics, independents, and instruct for the Porsche club, etc. From where I'm standing, the 996 has been one of the most reliable cars I've been around. It's amazing how much what I read online doesn't correlate to my personal experience in that regard. Good luck with the car.

warranty, try AAA. works for me in nj.

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Janusz it sounds like he doesn't want to spend any more money unless he has to, and if you do get a warranty you still don't have a guarantee whatever breaks will be covered under that warranty. I have heard the best one to get is the Exclusionary one (lists items it doesn't cover) I asked the rep for one of these companies & he didn't know what i was talking about, he told me whatever's not on there then it doesn't cover it. So what is the difference if it does or doesn't list what it covers isn't it the same thing, you still know if it does or doesn't cover what your looking for. I guess the main things you want covered are the IMS, RMS, AOS. I think you should only get a Warranty if you cannot afford the worst case scenario. Because these Warranty Companies are definitely gonna make their money.

By the way, I had the same warning twice a couple years ago, then never again. PS: If you are like me, your next surprise will be yellow froth on the oil cap. (Just oil-moisture mix which collects in cool weather when you take shrt drives)

Same thing happened to me. Oil pressured dropped to 0 (the needle just dropped like a dead weight) and the OBC stated oil level warning, etc.. Did a little research here and figure it was the oil sending unit just like everybody said. Regardless, get it replaced so your heart failure goes away

Like everyone says.....or it could be a rumored test bed porsche that sensed alcohol on your breath and set off the "you are lubed up" warning light.

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I respectfully but most definitely do not agree with both of these statements. First: - I do not know why would you say that. If you have a legitimate contract you know EXACTLY what you have covered. I have had my contract since Jan. 2009 and here is a quick list what parts and labour my insurer already paid for: - RMS leak twice - IMS leak once - Both front sway bar end links - Coolant expansion tank - clotch pedal helper spring And finally THE COMPLETE NEW TRANSMISSION flown in from Germany (ho,ho) And so, to address you second statement, my warranty company made no money on me but I profited handsomly. The best part of the deal is I still have 4 more years of use of my car with absolutely no worries about any expense. I strongly believe that on P996 specifically Warranty Companies (the legitimate, good ones) make no profit and most probably even lose money. 996 is a fantastic car but the failures are more frequent and MORE EXPENSIVE then any others.

Warranty threads, IMS threads, Oil Threads, are all designed to do two things: 1. Massive increase in page views of Rennlist.org 2. Generate enormous sales for :

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Janusz, If you've had all those problems you probably could have checked into that Lemon Law thing, you'd definitely have a good case. Please let the rest of us know who you have your Warranty with, whats the options & how much they charge. And last but not least (I own a Business) and i would like to know how a company could make No Profit & even Lose Money & Still stay in business, cause if it ever gets to that point i need to know how to do it, I guarantee you can't do it for long & if you do the IRS will want to know how.

Janusz, warranty companies act like insurance companies. With some customers, they will keep more of the paid premium than they pay out. With some customers, they will pay more out than what they collected as premium. They have actuaries who are basically very talented mathematicians who get paid a lot of money (I have 2 friends who are actuaries for Liberty Mutual insurance and another for State Farm that underwrites extended warranties) - and what they do is set a 'premium' and define what risks they will take on. Warranty companies, like insurance companies - need to make money to stay in business. They are "for profit" - and not charitable / non profit organizations. That means they need to keep more premiums than they pay out. I don't doubt your story that in your case, the warranty company paid out more than they collected from you in premiums. But I think as many here have stated, you are the exception - not the norm - and the warranty company probably keeps more $$ than they pay out because the number of customers filing claims and the amount for which they claim is far less than what they've collected in premiums. But anyway - GOOD FOR YOU! I'm happy it worked out for you.

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I'm no expert, but I've read that insurance companies make most of their money on invested premiums, not on the premium income itself.

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By law they are required to have a certain amount in reserves. Their investments do not count as reserves. That's not to say they don't make money through invested premiums, but their models require them to make sure that they're solvent even if invested premiums yield very little or negative return. Now of course things like mortgage backed securities didn't fall into that type of regulation

Hey grantf, I am in a very similar situation...I bought a 2002 996 a month ago. I've spent a lot of time (and some money) at the workshop and at a point I was also becoming paranoid about my decision of buying this car. I know very little about mechanics and I was afraid I had made a terrible mistake. However in my case, the sensational feeling I get when I drive this beauty overcomes all my worries. Hopefully both you and I have seen the worst and all we have ahead are miles and miles and miles of speed and fun!

rturlan and grantf - I'm not technically savvy, but I've met some incredibly talented/knowledgeable Porsche owners in the area where I live. They have taken the intimidation out of the technical considerations I have regarding my 996. Nothing beats getting some advice from an experienced do-it-yourselfers over a cup of coffee on a weekend. LVDell actually put my car on a lift and taught me to change oil, transmission fluid. SH || NC helped me pull the bumper off my car to clean out my radiators. And Jeff996 just helped me install a short shift kit. I would never have tried those things on my own 3 years ago, and a warning light would have blown my mind back then. Just my 2 cents. Best of luck to you. Bob

Probably the sender. However, if it's not... Don't ignore the light. Buy a warranty and delete this thread.

Just because a Porsche is cheap to buy doesn't mean it will be cheap to own. This has always been true, all the way back to the 356. I hate to sound heartless, but I really don't see the logic in buying a car for pleasure alone, and then making yourself miserable worrying about it. If I were in your shoes, I'd sell the car and buy yourself something you'll love and can live with. Life is too short, and the world is full of entertaining cars that won't stress you out like this.

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That's more accurate for life insurance. It's not the same for all forms of insurance. Actuaries and risk managers have to consider also the odds of claims, and the timing of claims. Given that most of us will live long lives, that makes investing the prime source of income for a life insurer. But if you're, say, a car insurance company, you're going to bet on things like commercial paper, treasury bills and the like, where there is lower short term risk and higher liquidity. Take a look at rates for those kinds of instruments right now, and you'll see there isn't much money to be made there. Moreover, the yield curve is flat as a pancake well past the five year mark. It's very hard to find security and decent returns when your claims risk is all packed into the next two or three years. Put more simply, nobody is going to park cash in a ten year bond when there's a risk they'll need it in two. So, if you want to make money, you have to make it on premium income. Nobody can seriously believe that an insurer is investing premiums at 2 or 3%, covering overhead and claims and still making the profits they do.

I took it to my local mechanic. He says the oil level is fine, the pressure is there and the light is off. Had the oil pressure actually dropped all the way to zero with the engine running something else would have happened and it wouldn't have just become ok right away. he is sure its an electrical thing-either a sensor or a wire. Unless it does it again he said not to worry about it.

Don't you feel better now? You can turn down that offer now.

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although very true, no other "attainable" sports car that I owned or drove had the steering of a 911 - it's one of a kind IMO

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Or, go an extra inch and buy a service contract!! How complicated it can be?

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ahh... but than you need to worry if repairs are covered? Will they approve the repair? Whats the deductible? Can I bring shampoo on an airplane? Why is the sky blue? Should I always drive flat out? Did Yoko really break up the Beatles? Did Oswald act alone? sorry.... I promise to ease up on the caffeine today

Re-read the OP's post: He's already worried about having spent too much on the car. I doubt that adding another 10 or 15% in sunk cost is going to make him feel any better. You are correct that an extended warranty is an option for him, and cost predictability is indeed one of the benefits of having one. But it doesn't cause me to alter my advice, which is more broadly based than just who pays if something breaks. I personally believe that it doesn't make sense that something you buy for pleasure should cause you anxiety. I'm entitled to that belief. Someone once gave me this advice about a horse I owned that was beautiful but so hot that I was peeing my pants every time I saddled him up. I took the advice, sent him on his way, found a more level-headed one, and never looked back. At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseam, life is too short.

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All you said is true except the last paragraph. Here is why: Please understand: I expressed my belief that my warranty company loses ONLY ON 996, especially MKl. Generally on almost all car models they make a hefty profit, no doubt. The good indicator that what I just said is true would be the fact of recent steady increases of specific premiums for 996 Porsches by my warranty carrier. They simply did not forsee how frequent and expensive water cooled Porsches repairs would be after the factory warranties expired. After all even they do not have a crystal magic ball. Porsche deals represent so miniscule percentage of their business that they did not pay a proper attention to this very segment of the business. My opinion is somewhat informed one since I am in insurance business for the last 29 years and I am sure that a simple quick poll of aftermarket warranty users here would fully confirm what I said on this matter.

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Seriously? I want to live in your world.

You do. you just dont know it. Run the poll, show me i am wrong.

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YES!!! Another poll of self-selected enthusiasts! That will clear this all right up! Please, someone help me remove this pistol from my mouth now.

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Words of wisdom......Be-careful of who you challenge......

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It's kind of sweet how innocent you are, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen. You see, when people make a multi-thousand dollar bet like this, they immediately become biased and reframe their decision based on subsequent experience. Those who made good use of the warranty will be very vocal participants. Those who did not will stay out of the discussion altogether. It's actually very difficult, even with a carefully designed sample, to get objective data when you're tracking satisfaction with a product like discretionary insurance. It's the same phenomenon that causes us to hear about winners in Vegas in far greater proportion to losers than could possibly have been the case, or that causes us to hear more stories about radar detectors saving people's asses in proportion to those that sat silent on the dashboard for months at a time. I refer you to the work of Daniel Kahneman (a Nobel winner) and Richard Thaler on the phenomenon of post-purchase reframing. Hell, you've exposed your own bias by saying you were in the insurance business. What Thaler would say is that the true benefit of insurance isn't economic anyway, it's emotional. Thus, the only valid research would be a study of general satisfaction of Porsche 996 owners, maybe even in two cells - one with warranties and one without - with both samples identically normalized for things like income and usage of the car, and then derive the emotional value of the warranty from responses to a battery of general questions about trust in the vehicle, anxiety about maintenance costs, and so on. I don't know how someone like Dell would approach this, but in the world of market research, this would produce a satisfactory level of confidence in the results. Whereas, only a fool would believe a voluntary survey on a topic like this. If you'd like to mount such a study, be my guest. I can recommend some excellent research houses to field the survey for you. Expect it to run you around $50,000. That's just over 50 IMS bearing upgrades, roughly.

Some of you guys try really hard to suck all the fun out of Porsche ownership, fortunately I am immune

Simple question: these people who've had an aftermarket warranty for over 3 yrs and 50 K Km just state if they lost or saved money. That would be all to convince everybody without being too scientific. Whatever. I just keep on enjoying my car for next almost 4 years carefree and then move to next one. No emotion here, just SIMPLE COMMON SENSE. For last 30 years nobody called me innocent, even my wife. You made my day, thanks.

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+1 When asked for my opinion about a sports car purchase, I often steer people to Japanese cars when they identify "reliability and low maintenance/repair costs" as their top priorities. Cars like the Mazda Miata and Honda S2000 come to mind as cars that are fun to own and, in this regard, have moderate entrance pricing whether new or used.

**** happens.. Take it to the shop and see whats up? Unless you want to work on it yourself.. If you do.. Dig in.. If not, take it to the shop. Please dont tell me you bought a porsche and cant afford the upkeep? Take the thing to the shop and see whats wrong with it. Sounds like a good plan to me?