Engine Went Bang And Then Some Smoke - MICE?

Had my 996 in for tracking at OPC Stratford last week and they identified some issues that could be cured under Porsche Exteded Warranty last week - RMS, Spark Plug Tube Seal, Air Con Condenser, Window Motor etc and I said go ahead once I get it back for Friday as I had a track day booked on Monday. Delivered the car back to my work Friday night, lovely and clean but didnt have time to complete all the work but did the RMS & Spark Tube Seal. Left the car outside for 1/2 hour, went to it and tried to start as usual. Large BANG from the engine department with smoke coming from the Engine Cover NOT the exhaust. Sounded more like a major misfire/backfire than the actiual engine exploding. After I stopped swearing I left it for a short while and tried starting it again. No unusual noises from the engine. Would fire up but very rough and kept stalling badly. Tried revving to get thru the flat spot but very rough still and stalled. RAC turned up via Porsche Assist, looked at it with a torch and then called a low loader, another 1 hour later the car gets towed away. Its been at OPC Stratford since Sat am and they havent tracked down the problem. The removed the rear seats which cover some electronics and houndreds of wire and found evidence of mice chewing some foam at some point but none of the wires appear to have been chewed. And no sign of my little friend(s). Any ideas on what could have caused this problem? I am assuming the delivery driver got it to me without problems without limping it over to me? On a foot note - Porsche Assist is included with a Porsche Warranty and I have found them to be very good. Organised and paid for taxis for me and delivered courtesey Jaguar S type to my home. Cheers, Rob[&:]

OK, Right, after 2 days of diagnosis and taking the passenger seat out and the back seats and discovering Micky had visited they eventually discovered that a pipe had come away from the Throttle Housing. This either casused or was caused the misfire. 2 days or diagnosis and worrying and I have missed a track day at my expense for something I consider a basic fault finding exercise. Not happy. [ ] They havent charged me and have done something else FOC for my inconvenience! Thoughts!

Quite good service considering the usual Porsche attitude to customer service. I have heard stories where people have to wait 3 or 4 weeks for "mysteries" to be solved. Try buying a cat - should be a cost effective solution!! You didn't mention if the engine was smoking or the mouse?

Didnt see the mouse so I guess it was the engine smoking. Rather dissapointed only one Mouse joke though! Good service from Porsche all things considered, however, a pipe not connected to the throttle housing would have been one of my first and basic checks - making sure all the visual pipes and connectors were in place. Appartently none of the diagnostics lead them to think that this it was an air pressure related problem. Got the car back yesterday, drives fine but where they had dismantled the rear seats etc. it now rattles and, erm, squeaks! Loan Jag was a S Type. Lovely car but dripped a load of oil on my driveway. Thanks Guy Salmons. They will look at the car and get back to me.

sorry but they should have lent you a car under warrenty. i would have insisted they lent me something to do my track day in.

Hi Helen, I tried. This was all happening over the weekend and the service advisor didnt have any loan cars available and couldnt get hold of his manager. I tried organising it on the Monday morning, the track day itself, but couldnt get hold of them. I was, however, tempted to take the Jag on the track. Lucky I didnt as I probably would have been blamed for the oil leak. Thanks for the input though. Cheers, Rob