New g/box in 98 996 C4 !!

It's a long story so bear with me. I bought my 996 privately in June this year, and thanks to all your advice I didn't purchase until it had passed the 111 point check at an OPC. The car was sent to Sutton Coldfield (as this was closest for the chap who was selling) and the car passed everything with a clean bill of health, and I hence purchased the extended warranty. While driving the car home, I thought the gearbox was a little bit noisy (like a diff whine) but nothing to noticable, and I'm a bit fussy when it comes to "car noises". I didn't worry too much as I had my trusty warranty to aid restful sleep. About a week later the ABS and PSM light came on under heavy load with high revs - which was quickly diagnosed as air mass meter, so the car was booked in at Wilmslow Porsche as it is the closest to me. When I got there to drop off the car I thought I would take the opportunity of demonstrating the noise to the engineer. He immediately said the pinions are knackered - you need a new box at £5500! - but it didn't bother me as the warranty covered it. There was also another noise which I can only describe as a resonance noise from the o/s/r area of the car and I assummed that he had heard that aswell, but apparently- not because the car car still makes the same noise!!! I'm not complaining - 'cos I have a new gearbox fitted when it probably didn't need it, but my point is this - the car passed 111 point check at Sutton Coldfield only 2 weeks prior to Wilmslow saying it was knackered and fitting a new one, which leads me to think that the fault had been there from the start and they had missed it. So, if any of you have " a bit of trouble" with your car and currently do not have an extended warranty, may I advise that you send the car to one dealer for the check and another for the warranty work - then they will never know! Will keep you all posted on what happens with the "other resonance noise" - maybe they will keep replacing parts until I have a virtually new car - extended warranty is an absolute bargain - count so far £5500 on box, plus a new air mass meter. Simon Hill

If you had the 111 point check, but had NOT bought the warranty only to find yourself on the end of a 5 grand bill a fortnight later, would the first OPC pick up the entire tab out of goodwill I wonder? I fear they will! Surely they check everything agaist chassis/engine numbers at some point and would rumble you if you had not taken the extended cover.