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Ronzi · 11-02-2005, 08:17 AM

According to an explanation in the most recent issue of Panorama, the monthly Porsche Club magazine, the RMS failure is a design problem with the water cooled flat six Porsche engines, including all Boxsters and Carreras to date.
In a nutshell, the rear of the crankshaft is unsupported where it exits the block, and the flywheel and clutch are hung on the end of the crankshaft. Over time, the crankshaft starts to sag minutely, causing the seal(s) to fail, and thus the leak.
According to this article ALL of these engines (except possibly for Tiptronic equipped cars) will eventually experience an RMS leak, it's just a question of when.
There are some redesigned seals that can mitigate the problem, plus some sealer that can help in some cases. If the problem is serious enough, it can require an engine exchange to cure ... temporarily.
The only true fix for this problem is apparently an engine re-design, which is why the '04 and '05 engines experience the RMS problem just like the earlier cars.

PS - Look at Pablito's post "Busted Tranny" for yet another possible result of the RMS problem, albeit an extreme one.

11-02-2005, 08:17 AM	#3
Ronzi Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Location: Denver CO Posts: 748	According to an explanation in the most recent issue of Panorama, the monthly Porsche Club magazine, the RMS failure is a design problem with the water cooled flat six Porsche engines, including all Boxsters and Carreras to date. In a nutshell, the rear of the crankshaft is unsupported where it exits the block, and the flywheel and clutch are hung on the end of the crankshaft. Over time, the crankshaft starts to sag minutely, causing the seal(s) to fail, and thus the leak. According to this article ALL of these engines (except possibly for Tiptronic equipped cars) will eventually experience an RMS leak, it's just a question of when. There are some redesigned seals that can mitigate the problem, plus some sealer that can help in some cases. If the problem is serious enough, it can require an engine exchange to cure ... temporarily. The only true fix for this problem is apparently an engine re-design, which is why the '04 and '05 engines experience the RMS problem just like the earlier cars. PS - Look at Pablito's post "Busted Tranny" for yet another possible result of the RMS problem, albeit an extreme one. Last edited by Ronzi; 11-02-2005 at 08:31 AM.