May be motor time??

Local Porsche place is removing the motor today. 55K 99 6 speed. At idle the motor would make a slight banging sound (as if you were tapping on the engine block with a small hammer) The tech seems to think that the crank has developed play and is sliding back & forth. If so.. tech says its not a repairable item and the motor will have to be replaced. Lets see how my $3,600 Aftermarket Warranty handles this....

what warranty do you have? Warranty Direct??

Western General is the warranty co.

If the warranty company does take it on the chin, you will have more than gotten your moneys worth from them. Let us know what happens.

western general is a nightmare to deal with

here's a guy who had WG

good luck rick, let us know what happens!

That sounds like rod knock. That kind of thing is rare, but can be caused by other factors. Whatever the cause, I'm guessing they will replace the engine. The bad news is that if your mechanic cannot tear down the engine, then you might not find the exact cause. My advice is to gather as much information as you can as to the exact cause. That way you and your mechanic don't have to guess and replace the cooling system for example.

thanks for all the info.......... I'm holding my breath, and why couldn't this happen in the winter??

He will get a tear down extened warrenty companys always make you tear it down

A couple comments... first if the problem is RMS wobble, I belive PCNA is still covering those even out of warranty. They should be able to check this with the engine in place. There is a special tool to do it. Second, there are a number of hydraulic systems on these cars which will not fully pressurize at idle, particluarly cold idle and will "rattle" a bit. This is normal. If you rev the car to a consistant 3000 rpm, do you still hear the noise?

never seen any rms issues casue a noise and havent seen porsceh good will any engines for it in a few years

I agree that the crank out of round problem that damages the RMS should not make any noise, just leak lots of oil and keep damaging RMS after RMS. I believe PCNA is still dealing with these since it was a problem that was there originally when the car was built. Also, I have yet to see one of these engines fail softly, trypicall they blow apart into lots of pieces inside and they don't just make a little noise. IMO, it is quite likely there is nothing wrong, just the normal noises that these engine make when the chain tensioners and valve actuators are not fully pressurized.

Ed, this noise is not heard at 3000 rpm, RMS has always been dry. Noise is not worse hot, or cold. Believe me this noise is NOT normal, its scary at best.... Thanks Rick

Good thing for that warranty - you should more than get your $$ back on that investment. Then you will have a nice factory warranty - good for resale hint hint. TT?

Porsche shop has still not removed the motor as of today.(6/26), Maybe this Thusrday, I will post results and warranty co. response... Rick

if i could only tell you how much western gernal sucks to deal with. this is what i will say I have customer who had an engine failure, they have western general. The car has been in the shop for 67 days so far fighting with the warrenty company. They are finaly getting taken care of but we will never deal with western general again

In my experience it takes a lawsuit to get them to pony up. Sad and the reason that I generally won't spend the money on an aftermarket warranty since you never know whether they will honor it willingly. Rick, I'm currently n the process of replacing my 126k mile motor. Shoot me a p.m. and I'll enlighten you on what I've found, assuming that WG decides to play games.

Good luck with the warranty co - give em hell. Not to hijack, but does this seem to be less and less of a freak occurance to anyone else? No longer is it newbies coming here for information or help with a blown motor, but veteran members are having to replace motors now too. It is sad. I know Dell will school me about statistics, but this is happening to the 99's WAY too often in my opinion.

Based on what you are saying Rick about the noise, my guess is piston skirt crack. I will assume the engine runs fine and still has good power. When a piston skirt cracks sometime it will not break a piece off but it will still create enough play that the piston will "wiggle" in the bore and cause the tap or "slap" under fire. I will be interested to see if they do a tear down just what the problem really is. eric

Chain tensioner is more likely imo, also the IS can make a similar racket.

You are correct in your assumption that the car runs fine, and has not lost any power at all. Rick

Update, Went to Porsche sop today. Tech says Thrust bearing Failure, and the crank has "up & Down Play" He has contacted Western General, They are sending someone by Tuesday to "Verify" the problem, and go from there....