Yet another RMS issue question (did a search already)

So who has the most miles/KMs on their car who has NOT had the RMS issue? The more I see it the more I think that it is not as common as some of the forums make it out to be.

My 2001 had over 55,000 miles before I let it go with no RMS issue.

My 1999 C2 has 70,000 miles on it with no RMS problem.

My mechanic friend knows of one that has 140,000 kms with out the problem. As a mechanic that works on a lot of euro cars he says he works on 50 diff porsches a year (tune ups, mod installs etc) and has only done 1 RMS in the last 5+ years.

48,000 on my '99 c2 cab and no RMS issues.

2001 C4, 34,000 miles and Notta-Never

I recently bought a 2000 C2 with about 40,000 miles on it and it has not had the RMS replaced to my knowledge and currently the engine is bone dry(no leaks). A better question however would be who the f### cares about the RMS issue, if it does leak the repair is only about $800 and the work is guaranteed for 2 years. If you cannot afford an $800 repair bill you should not be driving a Porsche, but then this is just my opinion. I am sick and tired of hearing about the RMS issue already, the whole thing has been so overblown to the point that it is getting really ridiculous. Again, if you can't afford a possible RMS repair don't buy a 996. Very few high performance cars are without their share of individual problems and the 996 is no different. It is my opinion that the perceived RMS issue is the sole reason for the unusually steep decline in the values of the 996 when compared to the historical depreciation of Porsches, 911's in particular, and this is unfortunate because the 996 is a great sports car. Sorry if I am being too blunt but this issue is really getting old. Again, you cannot buy a sports car that is totally bullet proof and the 996, although very close, is no exception. If you cannot afford an $800 repair bill to replace the RMS then buy something else, but just remember that it too will have a weak point that you will be repairing soon enough.

Dreamcarrera I agree with you. I wanted to see about how many miles/kms ppl have without a RMS prob. From what my mechanic friend has told me there are many porsches he has worked on with over 100K kms without the RMS issue and that even it they had a prob now and even if it costs $5000 it still wouldnt be a big deal on a 100,000km $100K (cdn $) car

67K miles...no RMS......knock on wood~! but it is ridiculous that this RMS issue has not been dealt with by Porsche....if so many cars have the same problem it must be a design fault! Saying that if you can't affort paying 800 bucks to fix,,you got to buy another car is a little inconsiderate...I got the money to pay for it,,,but would be pissed if it would happen to me! It is almost like driving in a time bomb!! I love my timebomb though....so far so good

The only people who really have the answer to this are sitting in Ludwigsburg in Germany. Unfortunately they are not willing to release this information. This is standard practice for Porsche AG and one cannot make any conclusions about what you might think the reason for non disclosure is. Porsche have been somewhat secretive since their inception and when it comes to customer related information they just won't release it. Ask me how I know? What you have to remember however is that these forums including Rennlist only account for around 10% of owners of any particular model and in the case of the 996 even less than this. I have written about many models of Porsche and all have what could be considered design failures from; Who decided to use a magnesium engine case? To: "Who decided to do this with the design of the engine used in the Boxster and 996"? Nobody can genuinely tell you and the decisions taken are always quite complex. Also remember that Porsche has always been a bit of risk taker when it comes to design. Over forty years later they are still criticised for sticking the engine in the back. With all that said if you read the various sub forums on the Rennlist forum you will see that almost without exception when somebody mentions ANY kind of car there will be a whole bunch of people spring out of the woodwork claiming they had a bad experience or they know somebody who knew somebody who they thought had a bad experience with a car model or brand. In the end you go with your own head and your own heart. When purchasing any second hand car it's a lottery, but spend more time enjoying yourself than worrying about something that costs $800 to fix. For the record my 99 C4 has 70,000 miles and no RMS problems. Ciao, Adrian.

I'm totally new to the Porsche thing, but I've seen this kind of debate before: rear mains on Land Rovers, S54 engine failures in BMWs, etc. Some stuff I learned from the Rover thing: Trucks that got driven lots were less trouble. Trucks that got serviced regularly were less trouble. Little leaks are not the end of the world, they're just unattractive. And catastrophic engine failures on well driven, well maintained vehicles are very, very rare... you can usually see it coming. Obviously, they happen, I guess. But in the realm of things to worry about in life, it's pretty far down the list. Does any of this apply to my Porsche? I don't know yet. But given how relatively cheap the RMS is and the fact that the car has healthy mileage on it and I'm a pretty attentive owner, I'm just going to enjoy the ride and not think about it.

But given how relatively cheap the RMS is and the fact that the car has healthy mileage on it and I'm a pretty attentive owner, I'm just going to enjoy the ride and not think about it. Things like this can be carried too far. My own anecdotal research conducted by getting info from three local Porsche Dealers is that RMS leaks occur on about 20 - 25% of the 996s that they service, and none of the cars repaired with the new seal have returned with a leak. So as far as I'm concerned RMS is no longer an issue.

I wish Porsche NA would release the stats......RMS does no bother me unless it leads to needed replacement of engine.......seal is one thing, but having to replace the engine is something different......you would think they would have this issue resolved but I understand even newer cars are having issues.....geeze....but, with this one exception, I think the 996/997 is a very durable machine...it is high performance so, it will have issues from time to time. But, I think this car will be very durable over the long run.

I wish Porsche NA would release the stats......RMS does no bother me unless it leads to needed replacement of engine.......seal is one thing, but having to replace the engine is something different...... There are many posters on this forum who know far more about this subject than I, but as far as I know engines are replaced only as a last resort because seal replacements aren't stopping the leaks. In other words, RMS leaks don't cause the engines to fail.

they dont fail just leak

I agree.... I think this is a small part of it. The 996 has been the most popular 911 in Porsche history by a huge margin. I believe that a large part of the 996 valuation is simple supply and demand. Porsche sold more and especially leased more than ever before. So now there are quite a few used 996's on the market and that fact has affected pricing. For example, take a look at how many 993's Porsche produced vs. 996's. The difference is Huge.......that simple fact props up 993 values vs 996 values. Obviously, the 993 also represents the last of the "aircooled" cars. As such it will always have a special following for those owners that prefer the aircooled cars. For those that like the watercooled 911's the 996 is the first of many.....as such the choices are growing not stagnant. I like the old cars and the new ones....so I have lots of choices!!!

LOL. The leak occurs because the seal fails to due its job. Therefore, a leak constitutes a failure of the seal.

no i ment the engines dont gerneraly fail due to rms issues, there have been engines replaced due to the cradle being not aligned with the case casuing the seal to not ride on the crank and leak.

51k miles, 3 RMS's replaced

70,000 miles on my 99 & no RMS replaced & no leaks, prior to my purchase (to my knowledge) or after......