Oil Leak, but could it be RMS? I'm really not sure....

Evening all, Had a fantastic day at Brands Hatch today. Did my first track day in my 1998 996 C2. Thoroughly enjoyed it, drove well, had good instruction and even managed to get past another 911 and a Lotus Elise. Very please wil myself. Not so pleased with myself however when I drove back to my garage and noticed a knocking noise coming from the left hand side of the engine. The noise was worse if I bent down beside the nearside rear wheel. It's sounded either mettalic or possibly the sort of noise you get on an exhause manifold leak. Oil pressure fine, oil level fine all things checked out lovely. Until ! ! OIL ! ! I noticed a small puddle gathering on the floor. It drips down to the left hand side of the engine, just behind the nearside rear wheel and then again about 6 inches closer to the centre of the car, still on the left though not at the centre. There always was some dampness on and around an indented nut or plug of some sort and if fear it has now developed into a leak. My car is a Tip and although it's entirely possible, the RMS is a less common problem with Tips. I have driven the car hard many times. I use it every day to drive to work in the City (64 mile round trip) but it just so happened that something went at the track today. I switched off the engine, allowed it to cool somewhat and then decided to head home and do some research. Haven't found anything yet that really sounds like my symptoms. On a brighter note however, the engine knocking noise had stopped when I restarted the car and was still quiet after a nice relaxing law abiding drive home. Hydraulic lifter oil starvation? RMS? According to Parr (where it was last serviced) they did alert the previous owner of an oil breather pipe on the left of the engine that needed replacing. But was that left looking backward or left looking forward? I will find out tomorrow. In the meantime can anyone help or advise from past experience or knowledge of their own? I'm expecting a large bill of some kind but with the engine knocking like that and the oil leak I would like to know what it could be before someone tries to baffle me with "it could be's" and bills me for the privilledge. If I had damaged something I would expect the engine to continually knock, I could have blown an exhaust box, they do look tired. Are there any issues with oil starvation? I have had to put 1/8 litre of oil in in today to take the level up to where it was before I hit the track but have seen no oil pressure warnings or even poor readings at the gauge. It reads about 2 bar on idle when hot and 4 1/2 bar when cruising with an engine speed of about 1500rpm so looks healthy enough from it's readings. The right hand side of the engine seems fine. Any help would be appreciated. If there are any R25 Porsche Club members on here then a good recommended indy in Kent will be appreciated too, especially one that offers discount with club membership ! ! Many thanks for your time. LeeRoy. PS, can anyone tell me how to upload pictures? I browse for a file, click the add attachment button, something happens and then I see nothing uploaded !

I may have the answer myself already ! According to Parr the car has no had a oil change since 2006 when it last had a 24k service in Dec that year. It had a low mileage service in January this year but the oil wasn't changed as the car hadn't done 9000 miles since it's last service. Is this a common practice? I change the oil in my Saab 9-5 twice a year! The oil leak is apparently coming from the Oil Seperator convolutor pipe. Apparently a fiddly job to do at home as the separator is up above the engine somewhere. Is this an engine out? Parr don't seem to think it is. Anyone done this before of their own accord? Can it not be accessed from inside the car?

Porsche do an annual check for cars doing less than 9k miles, but the service is 12k miles/ 12 months for 2003 cars and before. Not really sure how long you can leave the oil for over the year, if you're doing low mileage, but the annual check is about £150 and the minor service is £350, so I'd just pay the £200 extra. Not sure about the noise, but does sound worrying, so if it was me, I'd get it looked at straight away.

lmurthwaite, if you are driving into the city from Kent, I assume you will be heading through SE1 - therefore I can recommend this place: http://www.towerporsche.com/ 5 minutes walk from london bridge tube station. Cheers, Ben

Yes I drive right past them every day but had never heard anything about them. Just spoke to John who was very straight with me. I was thinking about getting the IMS and RMS done too, although they haven't gone yet. He advised me not to as it could open a can of worms. A case of if it's not broke, don't fix it. So considering he turned down extra work I admire his honesty. So, I've booked the car in there and he has given me a really good price. Very good in fact. As I work in the City and Porkers are two a penny i'll be recommending them to others if they do a good job. Thanks for the recommendation.

Hi lmurthwaite, Thanks for keeping us upto date. Do let us know how things get on.

Well, I got the car back today. I must say it is a different animal. Quieter in the cabin and much more responsiveness through the throttle. My MPG seemed to go up too. Was reading 39mpg at one point (cruising in the speed camera zone on the A2 from London to Kent). John showed me the old Oil Separator, the bellows pipe had split and was sucking in air and blowing out oil over the top of the engine. They also flushed the engine through, replaced the oil filter and oil (5W40 Mobil 1) and cleaned the throttle body for me. £850 all in, 11 hours work. Unfortunately the Tiptronic 996 does need the engine taken out to get to the Oil Separator. Anyone that has done one in situ has arms like Mr Tickle or was working on a 986 or manual 996. Overall very happy with their service. John seems a nice bloke and seems pretty genuine. Have not heard any horror stories about them on any of the foums. They have definitely got my work from now on (well, stuff I can't do myself anyway). Next job, rear parcel shelf and concealed subs to go with the new 1100W amp, Becker Grand Prix 7990 and infinity 42.7i speakers all round. Also want to replace the boot/engine cover opening trigger. mine is scratched to buggery. After that, replace the rear discs and front drop links. The discs are lipped, Tower Porsche can skim them but may as well get new ones on the back. Any suggestions on the lowering would be welcome. So in a nutshell, a big :thumb: to Tower Porsche www.towerporsche.com

glad it got sorted, and not at a ballbusting price. Also very happy to get a recommendation for a good indy near me (clapham). Lowering: unless you want to do something hardcore, then have a look at the Porsche sports suspension kit click here which is sold by many places. I think its bloody good value, but its obviously not as hardcore as the other aftermarket suspension stuff out there. Ask the garage to check out your lower track control arms before you get the work done. The bushes degrade and separate from the arm over time and need replacing. Hartech do reconditioned ones. Might as well get them done at the same time as lowering (if they need it).

Hello again, Glad to hear you were satisfied with the service - I went there on a recommendation myself and have been very impressed. Been in a couple of times now and will be going back for the 48K service in January - can't remember the exact price John quoted but it was definitely less than £500. Incidentally I have actually fitted a Becker Grand Prix in my car too - just the stereo, not speakers - it's quite straight forward. Let me know if you need any advice. Cheers, Ben

regarding replacement stereo (I assume this is true for all brands) you will need to stick some tape on the left hand side of the stereo unit (roughly in the middle) to prevent the metal stereo casing touching the car alarm contact. if you don't do this, you will hear the alarm 'pip' when you lock the car.

Thanks for all the replies ! The Becker unit is in the car already with the infinity 42.7i speakers. I had to make one loop on the front fade as the speakers are 2ohm, creating this loop made them offer 4 ohm impendance. This means they drew double the power from the head unit when there was half the impedance. So far we have installed the 1100 watt amp. Believe it or not it is perfect to drive the infinity speakers as they drew so much from the head unit, the 1100W amp was required to offer them up at 100W RMS which is what the speakers RMS is after creating the 4ohm loop. We are going to run the subs from one of the other amp chanels, gain it correctly and cancel the HPF so that we have a good balance in the cabin. For 10cm speakers, the infinity's make excellent mid and tweater units. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch. I'm a DJ so I'm half deaf but the system sounded excellent with a really cheap £20 bass tube stuck on the back seat for testing the system after the amp. Once my parcel shelf is built and the subs that I choose are installed it should sound mustard. I have already had the lower suspension arms replaced on the front of my 911 about 10,000 miles ago so they should be fine. I will do the front drop links before I drop the suspension though. They kind of knock right now over Londons speed bumps anyway. More a dull thud than a knock. I was thinking of just replacing all the bushes, front to back with a powerflex set. Should offer up a nice tight ride... Anyone else experienced the powerflex bush set in it's entirety ? I will post a full write up on the ICE when it's all done and got my thumbs up..