Looks like engine replacement needed - advice needed

Hi, yesterday when I start the car there was a loud noise from the driver side engine. I immediately stopped the car, then saw huge amount of coolant + oil leaking to the floor. I did some search on this forum and it seems that I will need an engine replacement. Then I called carlson porsche in Redwood city, service manager told me the cost of a factory rebuilt will be around $11K to $14K with 2 years warranty (which seems to be in the range of what other folks are paying). My car is a 2000 cab. I got it for about 2 years and put on 30K miles (now at 73K miles). It has been reliable and very fun to drive. My questions are: 1) Is it worth to fix it or should I consider taking the lost and selling it. 2) If I fix it, what is the chance that I can use it for another 3-5 years? Basically, aside from the engine, what other major components can still fail (transmission? starter?), as you can see I don't know car that well. Thanks in advance for any advice.

That really sucks. I'd say your car has little value w/out an engine but I have seen some on this forum who have replaced the engine and have been very happy with the results...just not so much $ left afterwards. GL.

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Still worth almost $20k sans running engine...check eBay.

man oh man I am sick of reading about this happening. It is just sad that our marque does not step up and help owners who have had any number of problems with this motor. that being said, the new motor will come with all new accessories. The transmission should be solid as long as you don't have noise or slipping in 2nd gear - that seems to the be the weak point. The only guarantee is that the motor and will be good for 2 years (due to the warranty), but there are stories of people replacing new/rebuilt motors again, and there are owners who think their cars are cured for good. Problem is that no one knows for sure and (for me) I decided not to roll the dice again and sold the car before the motor warranty ran out. As far as I know, the new owner has had no problems. Good luck - that sucks.

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I had no idea you could get 20K sans motor. I stand corrected.

Sorry to hear about your motor. Give Sunset Porsche in Oregon a call. Their prices are typically about 1/3 to 1/2 less than my local dealer. Good luck.

Sad but true with this subject, very sorry to hear this. If I would be able to get 20K for it with blown motor/73K miles, I would pull the trigger and move on to the next, if possible. Hard pressed to find a good replacement motor w/warranty for under 10K installed. Hope things work out for you, GL

If you can get the motor installed for $10K (sunset maybe??) you should be able to get about 35k for the car (cars.com). It isn't much additional money (5k) for what might be a painful process, but it depends on your situation I guess. I would probably fix my car if it happened, because I like it and would keep it (maybe with a 997 engine).

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There's none on eBay right now, but I've watched two different 996s with blown engines sell for $18k+ on eBay in the past month, just to clarify.

just flat out ridiculous porsche

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I believed what you wrote tooloud, no doubts. I just don't know of his cars overall condition, options, etc... So, if everything would line up and the offer was made (20k) I'd bank all day.

This post makes me very nervous as my car is a 2000 with 60,000 miles.

My car was in pretty good shape. I've replaced a new top from GAHH, replaced battery, new tires and new breaks/rotors about 6 months ago, as well as a full 60K service. I think I will just fix it in the local dealer and use it for another 2 years or so - not sure how it will work to ship the car to Oregon, or sell it on ebay. Any advice as to what I should replace at the sametime when doing the engine job? like clutch? starter?

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We have absolutely no details here. This could be anything from outright abuse to a random failure. With no info, it is hard to blame Porsche or the owner. It would be nice to hear some details. It would be nice to see the ECU download on this motor.

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I'm looking for engine also, maybe we should be thinking of group by here.

Did you have a mechanic verify the engine is done? Is there anything that looks abnormal that you can post pics of for us?

I plan to tow the car to dealer this coming week. The car can still start, in fact, no CEL. but I don't want to take the risk. will take some pic tomorrow.

It looks like you do not have enough data to conclude 100% that you need a new engine. John

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From a sheer economic point of view, that's your smartest move. There are guys who have thought hard about dumping their cars when this happens, but it's an expensive way to feel better. Unless you can reverse the rotation of the earth and sell the car last week, your best move is to amortize this cost over some years of use. Very sorry to hear about the failure. As this unfolds, I'm sure everyone would be interested to hear what you learn about it.

rebuilt 3.4 on ebay 5500. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...spagenameZWDVW

I bought my first Porsche last August, a pristine 40th Anniversary with just under 11,000 miles. Fortunately, it also had some of the new car warranty with an additional 2 years CPO beyond that. After owning for 5 months and 5,000 the engine (intermendiate shaft) failed while sitting at idle. These engines don't blow, that is break under the heavy loads of making power, they fail, seemingly without provocation. Again I must note, go check out the boards of other marques (say BMW or Corvette) as see if you find anywhere near the volume of posts of failed engines. It is one thing if the reports were to the effect of " I was hitting the redline in fourth gear when....." as opposed to the typical Porsche engine failure, " I just started, (or was idling, driving normally, cruising etc...) when I heard a terrible noise (followed by smoke, oil and/or coolant). These engines don't blow, THEY FAIL. The intermediate shaft bearing in mine failed without any provocation on my part. This was a known problem from 1999 an still persisted five years later when my car was built. I am unaware of any other quality car which has this propensity for catastrophic engine failure, especially one that persists for years unresolved. To date Porsche has not explained the failure rate of this component or what, specifically, has been done to resolve it. I can only conclude either they don't know or it is a fundamental problem that is horribly expensive to remedy and thus the decision is made to let the owners assume the risks and costs,once warranty expires. The best answer I have heard is something to the effect that the replacement Intermediate Shaft bearing is "better" although the problem apparantly persists. I will have a hard decision to make approaching the end of my CPO.

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I think this is an excellent point, one that nobody has ever made before. It is now important that we generate a twenty page thread in which hundreds of posters each find a different way to say "this shouldn't happen", over and over again until everybody is paranoid and pissed off, and we drive 'engine failure' right to the top of Google page rank for any 996 search. Thanks so much for initiating this long overdue, neglected topic of discussion. It shouldn't happen. Got it. Now, if I were the king, I would only allow two kinds of posts on the subject: Posts about new failures we can learn from, and posts about solutions.

Ouch, there goes the market for used 996's.

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Fair enough, this topic has been gone over repeatedly. However it re-emerges again every time yet another Porsche owner's car has yet another catastrophic engine failure. Porsche could end this simply by coming clean on the issue. What is so problematic about a simple layshaft? Why is Porsche unable to come up with a final fix? If this is something that cannot be remedied why not just say so and maybe do something to help those affected. I love the way my car looks and drives but I am unaware of any other modern engine that has this kind of ongoing problem. Maybe a little less money should be spent on slick advertising and bit more spent on engineering. This is not something that wears prematurely, it fails without provocation or warning and is clearly not the result of driver abuse. I intend to do oil analysis at the first oil change after the repair and certainly on the last oil change prior to the expiration of my CPO. One last note, it is easy to complain about the repetive nature of posts on this issue.......if you haven't had it happen personally. These threads will continue as long as this problem is unresolved.

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I spoke with these guys couple of weeks ago and in my opinion I was left with the impression they would nickel and dime me and are used to problems with there product. They carriy a 6 month warrenty and said they would make it a 1 year if I paid them an extra $500 hence have chosen a porsche rebuilt for piece of mind. The picture they had in the add shows the only picture they sent me which does not show any detail and usually when an engine is rebuilt they look new because they hot vat all then engine parts block/ heads etc. Also I would count on paying there core charge because they want one that is rebuildable which could mean just about anything to reject yours. Just my 2 bits.

Here are some pictures I just took.. - it is still leaking coolant. The tank is almost empty and looks dirty - can't tell for sure if oil is still leaking, and if it is mixed with coolant.

Don't know if this was posted before http://www.autofarm.co.uk/pdf/911PW_Apr06.pdf Seems to be a rational discussion of wet sump engine features and problems.

@ ssit, Are you sure you just didn't blow part of the coolant tank? You don't have any other pics of something obviously wrong with the engine itself? Have you tried pouring distilled water in the coolant tank and seeing if you can find where all the coolant leaked from?

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You don't have to ship the car to Oregon, simply source the motor from there and have it put in locally. Swapping engines in this is not that complex as it was designed to be worked on out of the car. You could have a good indy repair shop do it at a lower cost. The reman engine should have a new starter and all accessories so you will not need to have those replaced at extra cost. The clutch is something you will definitely want to consider. Carlsen is an OK dealer, but they still have tried to upsell me on stuff I haven't needed yet and their labor rate is $150/hr. You can do better than that. I don't believe that the dealer has to put the motor in the car to get the 2 year warranty coverage. Good luck. PS. I'm still not totally convinced that your motor is blown based on the evidence you have posted.

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Absolutely. But tell me this: How many posts have you seen from somebody who went to war with Porsche over this? Not very many. I think that someone with a new failure can help us understand this by sharing their stories. I think that someone who finds a solution can do the same. Otherwise, go after Porsche and you help us all. Complain on an internet forum without doing anything about it and you hurt us all. It's really that simple.

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Great post, thanks. Very interesting.