996 40th year anniversary breakdown at 64,000 km

Hello everyone, I was a proud owner of a 911 40th anniversary limited edition Porsche until last month when couple things went wrong until a complete break down. This car has done only 64,000 km and was mostly used as a weekend car. It has full service history and had no issues in the past until last couple of weeks when it left me dead 3 times on the road in one month. First I had a dead battery which was replaced, then 2 weeks later the alternator died, again it was replaced. And finally 2 weeks after that, the car just stopped in the middle of the road with no warning signs. I took it to my Porsche dealer and they came back to me after one week saying the engine has failed and in best case scenario, the Intermediate shaft with some other parts has to be replaced. In worst case, I will need a new engine. I let them open the engine and it took them 10 days to state that the Intermediate shaft failed and the ball bearings caused more damage to the engine. The expense to fix it is huge (about 75% of a new rebuilt engine). My question is to you - why has there been an engine failure after only 64,000 km if all the maintenance has been done regularly? Porsche engines are built to last! I was hoping for this one to make at least 150,000 without major issues. Thanks for the help. Petar

You did not drive the car enough, it failed. 64k kilometers ~35k miles in 10 years means car sat all its life. Sitting is bad for cars. If you drove it more, it would not have failed. Dead battery means you don't drive the car, dead alternator is more of the same. My car is at almost 250k kilometers on the original engine and transmission. This is a common theme here, garage queen motors failing. I see the car as a person. You have two people of the same age, one works out all the time and constantly stays active; another never does anything but eats and sits around. By the age 40 both will look vastly different. Sorry about your engine.

I'm not sure I'm prepared to say if you drove it more it would not have happened, many cars had these failures regardless of usage. It is true however that a sitting car is a degrading car. If you are the original owner you might get some traction with the company. If you are not then it's going to be a dealer negotiation. Sorry to hear about your engine, I lost a 986 way before it's time too, it just happens sometimes.

Too bad about your news. If you've been reading regular post online, you no doubt know that it is the hot topic of discussions at least on this forum. I'm still on my original engine, clutch and IMSB at almost 68k miles in a MY99 C2, but I guess it could eventually happen to any of us who own a 996.

Please don't beat yourself up for the car not having been driven more, no automobile should have a catastrophic failure simply for sitting. But... some 996 engines seem to suffer more than others for not getting driven more often and in a spirited manner (isn't that why we buy sports cars?). Now you just need to figure out what course of action you're going to take. There are several great alternatives versus having the dealer install a replacement engine. Cheaper as well.

This is the 3rd similar post in the last 4 days with users with 1 post. Something fishy going on. I though flat six innovations was booked solid for 2 years....

8% failure??? seems more like 70% when you read this forum.

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What? Wait? Oh I see what you did there. You're a bad boy. My take is cars are coming out of winter storage or being used more often than they have been given the weather has been so bad.

In your 64,000km of ownership, did you ever drop the oil pan cover, checked the filter for metal shavings or did you have a magnetic plug by any chance installed? If all those checked out good than i am worried about my 40th AE too. I never believed in the not driving it enough theory, that means that no 996 should've survived in my town, or as they are all (99%) parked away for the winter and generally not driven much thanks to the crappy weather. Mine was bought here and was in town since the first owner. It's at about 35kmiles, oil pan clean as a whistle, nothing in the filter. Doesn't starting these cars in cold weather score the cylinder walls anyways? Oh no, guess we are just simply f...d!

I know of a 40th in my area (GTA) that was low mileage and its engine also needed a rebuild and the issue was cylinder/piston scrub. The owner elected to rebuild instead of a new engine in order to preserve originality with the same engine number and it wasn't cheap... (it was also an X51 option)

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Petar - I'm really sorry to hear of your misfortune. I have a 40AE, too, and proactively replaced the original IMS bearing with the LN ceramic bearing. My bearing was fine when they took it out but that's frankly irrelevant. Anyway, I tried to PM you but you must be too new to yet permit that. I keep the registry of the 40AEs here on RL and would like to know the limited edition number of your car and a few other details if you don't mind providing them. I'll post a visitor message for you, too. Again, sorry for the bad news. Ted

I am surprised to see a 40th anniversary engine going.. I thought these engine had all the go fast / reliability bits to avoid failure. that sucks... I am curious to read the exact cause of failure once the engine is opened.

Ditto, I would too. Especially maintenance schedule and usage (i.e. how often driven, how hard, etc..) Does suck though :/

I also did the preventative service on my 40th anniversary with the LN kit even though it was also low mileage when I purchased. I also had the alternator go and figured the peace of mind of changing/upgrading the IMS was worth it. The other issues I've had have been the power steering hose where it attaches to the pump and oil/air separator hoses which after 9-10 years isn't unexpected.

Something fishy here... new user and not enough information. Why dont we ask the forum's admin to check his IP and compare it to other user's ip and see if there is a match? LOL

Search through the threads and you will find plenty of theories about this. Some are actually worth reading. And,,,, for all you "new poster" skeptics out there. Do you really think someone would go to the trouble of making several "fake" accounts just to destroy the 996's reputation? That damage has been done thanks to the 75,000 MOF and CEF's.

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Yes but the hundreds out there driving trouble free 996's are not posting.

The main reason I got the 996, especially the 40th anniversary (#1275) was the $$$ to fun factor. It is much more reasonable and fun than a lower equipped 2005 997. Mine has the best of what was available on the 996 and most non-Porsche people think it's new. I appreciate that by the time the 40th was made, Porsche had all the kinks worked out (discounting the IMS design) and it is MUCH easier to work on and troubleshoot the few times it's been necessary since I purchased it 2 years ago. I'm using as a benchmark every other car I have and had which includes 3 Audi's, a BWM wagon, and a couple Japanese. For those whose Porsches are not driven daily or even weekly, remember that the 996 is at least 10 years old - rubber, plastic, gaskets and such do not last forever even with the most careful protection. So for the hoses I just had replaced after 10 years, it speaks of the durability of the design rather than any sort of frailty. For Neto, I had to post since it's my birthday, I love my two Porsches (40th anniversary and 2008 Cayenne), and wanted to contribute regarding something that I also experienced with my alternator about 6mo after getting her in Mar 2012 when she had 41k mi driven. If you're incredulous still, I think I have the only 40th in MD and am at Hunt Valley Horsepowering on Saturdays every couple weeks. I'm the type to read and absorb the wisdom of others and only post if salient.