OPC Admits Engine Issues (Verbally)

Yesterday, I signed on the dotted line for a recent model 996 Carrera 2 from a UK OPC that shall remain nameless for now. As part of the buying process, I had a frank discussion with the centre's business manager over warranties and just what they cover (knowing full-well, having read it on this forum, that the Porsche extended warranty now covers RMS issues). I asked him whether the warranty covered 'an oil leak from the back of the crankshaft' and added that this was a hot topic of discussion on Internet forums and in particular this one. I also said it would not surprise me if his official line would have to be to deny knowing anything about it! His reply was absolutely amazing! First the 'just-rather-surprising' bit..... He stated that there is a 'known issue' with what HE described as the RMS (I'd deliberately not used that term). He then went on to describe the problem in some detail (where the seal is and what is required to replace it) and that Porsche GB had made a conscious decision to cover this under the warranty; primarily to remove the need for having to do work under good will (together with all the debate and time this took)! Now here's the amazing bit.... He then went on UNPROMPTED to say that in the interest of being up-front and honest, he would also tell me about another 'known issue' with the 3.6 litre engine that he described as the 'failure of intermediate shaft bearings' (which seems to be in line with the engine failure problems described elsewhere on this forum). He said Porsche were aware of this and had made a policy decision to replace all (warrantied) engines under the warranty without question if this failure happened - 'you wouldn't want some bits of old bearing blocking an oilway...' Something of a revelation this conversation! Not only is this confirmation that Porsche GB acknowledges the RMS and engine-failure problems, but that they also feel the need to do something about them. This is clearly also being communicated to the dealers, irrespective of whether they are normally forthcoming over them. What Porsche GB are actually doing by just covering things under warranty may not go far enough yet, but an acknowledement of the issues is quite an incredible step forward given the say-nothing, drawbridge-up, you're-on-your-own attitude described by some people here. For me, such an open and frank response has gone a long way to restoring my faith in all-things Porsche and I hope is a pointer towards better customer-relations and hopefully a better thought-through policy towards owners of out-of-warranty cars (as I was until now) in the future. Ian W

Ian That sounds like a significan gain. You may however want to write to said person, just efficiently thanking him/them for their help and confirming the transaction as a whole and mention individually the various "other" items discussed , thanking him for an open discussion. Leave it at that and put your copy away in a file. Should the need arise you have a copy of a letter between you and an elect representative of the said OPC to fall back on. Regards A[8|]

I may be a bit daft but if the engine is under warranty you'd expect it to be fixed. The issue is that the car could be 2 years and 1 day old, with 10,000 miles on the clock and it gets one of the failures. It's unnacceptable in my view that they don't do the repair as a matter of goodwill - these are clearly design faults which if they occurred on a Ford, Vauxhall or any other mass produced car would be major news (a bit like the Rover K series head gaskets which are replaced, or not, dependant upon what badge the car has as opposed to the actual engine designer).

As a new owner of a 2004 c2 these engine failures are a concern for 2 reasons: first is the obvious cost and hassle, but more importantly, what happens if they fail while being driven? I haven't seen any stories about accidents caused by a failure but maybe the drivers have just been lucky so far? Does the engine just deteriorate over time or is there a risk of something dramatic that is not signalled by warning signs? Surely Porsche would be in big legal trouble if a serious accident were traced back to a failure caused by a known fault? If so it seems odd that they should be so reluctant to reengineer the engine.

danofesher, dgb, Agree with you both entirely. It's just that until now, Porsche in the UK had completely denied any kind of any problem at all. The conversation I had was the first evidence I have ever seen (and I read all the Porsche forums I can find, avidly) that there has been any kind of acknowledgement whatsoever that there are really any identifiable problems with the engine (talking about the UK here). The fact that we can now say for certain that Porsche have positively acknowledged the issues and have started, in whatever small way, to begin to remedy the situation is surely a sea-change in attitude? Let's hope it's a beginning. I cannot believe that any commercial organisation could ever be so dim-witted as to go this far and not eventually deal with what is, in reality for them, not a monster of a problem. Ian W