Car Died - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

MAC986 · 06-15-2007, 07:34 AM

On my way to work yesterday and my car died. No warning, no nothing. Today I'm still in shock can't believe that the dealership told I have to get an entirely new engine put in. Told this was due to a broken internal shaft bolt. I don't understand how this could happen, my 01 box doesn't even have 50,000 miles on it and I have taken it in on a regular basis for the routine maintenance.

Has anybody ever heard of this happening or has had this happen to you?
Don't think my insurance will cover this and unfortunately I do not have any warranty on the car. Any comments or suggestions on what to do would be a great help.

Thanks,
MAC986

JAAY · 06-15-2007, 07:39 AM

Time for an upgrade. 3.4, 3.6. For real though, that sux. I know if that happend to me My car would be under a cover for about a year. Good luck.

Brucelee · 06-15-2007, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAC986

On my way to work yesterday and my car died. No warning, no nothing. Today I'm still in shock can't believe that the dealership told I have to get an entirely new engine put in. Told this was due to a broken internal shaft bolt. I don't understand how this could happen, my 01 box doesn't even have 50,000 miles on it and I have taken it in on a regular basis for the routine maintenance.

Has anybody ever heard of this happening or has had this happen to you?
Don't think my insurance will cover this and unfortunately I do not have any warranty on the car. Any comments or suggestions on what to do would be a great help.

Thanks,
MAC986

Sadly, it appears that you are screwed. Yes, the IMS failure is not uncommon and many like you have posted here.

Porsche continues to deny they have a design issue.

I would push this up the Porsche chain, and see if you can get some financial relief.

Good luck.

Boxtaboy · 06-15-2007, 08:31 AM

Damn. Sorry to hear man. Mine's an 01, with similar mileage, so you got me worried too.

As Bruce says, I would try to bring this issue up the chain at Porsche to see if they could help with the engine replacement, as this is sort of a known issue. Good luck!

denverpete · 06-15-2007, 01:03 PM

So sorry for your loss....

Ahh yes - exactly why I originally joined this forum. Mine just stopped running while at a red light - 12,000 miles on it and I'd only owned it for 26 days... I was lucky enough to have a 90 day warranty and my dealership had to cover it.

I'm with BruceLee on this one, you need to contact Porsche of America either personally or through the dealership. With enough pressure and pleading you might get them to cover 1/2 the cost of the engine or, if you're really lucky, the full cost of the engine minus installation. Believe it or not they do this quite often and, in my humble opinion, signifies that they are aware they have a design problem. You REALLY want to pursue this since you're about to be out around $10-13K.

Keep after it, post any questions, and let us know how everything turns out.

blinkwatt · 06-15-2007, 01:49 PM

Try to get PNCA to cover the labor at least. This might be able to save you some money,make an offer of around $2k-3k and you might get a good deal;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-03-986-Boxster-2-7-2-7L-Engine-Motor-27K-Mi_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33615QQihZ006QQitemZ 160124807261QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

I don't know if the 03' is the same engine as the 01',I know the ECU was redesigned. I'd ask about a warranty.

Now if you feel like scaring 996 owners;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-02-911-996-3-6-3-6L-Complete-Engine-Motor-18K_W0QQitemZ160124790628QQihZ006QQcategoryZ33615Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

JCL12 · 06-15-2007, 05:16 PM

Wow! that sounds absolutely frightening. This is really scary for me given the fact that I have a 2001 boxster with similar mileage. Please keep us posted on what (if anything) porsche of america does to help you out.

hk987 · 06-16-2007, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAC986

On my way to work yesterday and my car died. No warning, no nothing. Today I'm still in shock can't believe that the dealership told I have to get an entirely new engine put in. Told this was due to a broken internal shaft bolt. I don't understand how this could happen, my 01 box doesn't even have 50,000 miles on it and I have taken it in on a regular basis for the routine maintenance.

Has anybody ever heard of this happening or has had this happen to you?
Don't think my insurance will cover this and unfortunately I do not have any warranty on the car. Any comments or suggestions on what to do would be a great help.

Thanks,
MAC986

Shucks.. I know how you feel dude. I bought my 1 yr old 987 Boxster S around 7 weeks ago. Literally the SAME DAY I paid for it and drove out the Dealership the engine died (intermediate shaft failure) and thank god I had warranty. The car has 4,000 miles on it and apparently I am the 12th IMS failure out of 987s and 997s this year. After 3-4 painful weeks they shipped a brand new engine from Europe to HK to replace it, and now I am stuck with having to run-in the new engine.

If your ride has regular Factory Service record, my 2 cents is you have better negotiating power in asking them to foot some of the Engine replacement cost. I had surfed this forum and others like Renntech and the feedback is same globally - it just happens... out of nowhere...

YellowPorscheMan2002 · 06-16-2007, 06:30 PM

Really makes me angry to hear this type of thing; my condolences. I hope you seek and obtain the relief from Porsche you deserve.

Question to the group:

Is this a problem inherent only to the Boxster? Perhaps I should sell mine and buy a 911??

Brucelee · 06-16-2007, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YellowPorscheMan2002

Really makes me angry to hear this type of thing; my condolences. I hope you seek and obtain the relief from Porsche you deserve.

Question to the group:

Is this a problem inherent only to the Boxster? Perhaps I should sell mine and buy a 911??

To my knowledge, this is a shared problem.

spine911 · 06-16-2007, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YellowPorscheMan2002

Really makes me angry to hear this type of thing; my condolences. I hope you seek and obtain the relief from Porsche you deserve.

Question to the group:

Is this a problem inherent only to the Boxster? Perhaps I should sell mine and buy a 911??

ALL 986 and 996s have the same engine casting flaw. Im also starting to see a rising trend on the newer 987s.

JCL12 · 06-16-2007, 07:20 PM

I've read posts that this is not just a boxster thing, but a 911 thing as well. However, I may be incorrect.

Since this is a boxster forum, even if the problem is just as (or more) prevalent with 911's, we probably wouldn't think it was due to the imbalance between boxster and 911 related "problems-posts" here.

MAC986 · 06-19-2007, 09:33 AM

Well, found out this was an internal shaft failure that blew the engine. So the final outcome is they will only pick up 1/3 of the cost. It would of been more but I was told by the service manager it was due to the fact I did not get my 45,000 mile service done. What a crock of BS, come on they definatley know its a major problem on there end and we're the ones who have to pay out the ass for there design issues. So, my total out of pocket cost is 9,722.12.

So the question is now....once the engine is replaced do I keep my car or should I sell it and get something brand new. So far after 14 months of ownership I will have spent a total of 11,200.00 to get this car fixed.

Hope you guys have better luck with yours!

denverpete · 06-19-2007, 09:50 AM

It ain't over yet. Keep fighting for more. You ought to be able to get at least 50%. Overall cost is also going to be a function of how new the engine is. No reason why a slightly used (under 30k miles) motor wouldn't be acceptable. Perhaps this will put your financial outlay into something more reasonable.

As to the 45K service - I suppose they are essentially saying that P-car engines catastrophically fail when they don't get serviced within 5,000 miles? What a bunch a hooey.

Not that I'd recommend this route (although I sure would love someone to have the cajones to do it) - tell them that you think you are better off taking the $10,000 and starting a class action lawsuit on behalf of all Porsche owners under the Implied Warranty of Merchantability and Fitness of Purpose.

porsche986spyder · 06-19-2007, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAC986

So the question is now....once the engine is replaced do I keep my car or should I sell it and get something brand new. So far after 14 months of ownership I will have spent a total of 11,200.00 to get this car fixed.

Hope you guys have better luck with yours!

Well this sounds like it would fix all your problems, but whos to say there wont' be more. It's all about "chance" at this point. If it were me, I would fix it and sell it and try to get some of my money back.

MAC986 · 06-19-2007, 10:10 AM

I don't want to push to hard and piss them off to the point they may take offer off the table. Unless you have some other suggestions Im definatley up for getting to the 50/50 mark.

spgribben007 · 06-19-2007, 10:30 AM

MAC986 - so sorry to hear about your nightmare! I also have a 2001 (64,000) and got me wondering.

Is 01's the only year to be concern? Maybe I should upgrade to a 3.2/3.6 from a later year before this happens to my engine. Is there anyway to find out the actual number of recorded failures compared to the number of 2001 996's and 986's on the road today?

MAC986 · 06-19-2007, 12:20 PM

Ok, I'm so frustrated with this situation, that I'm thinking of selling the car as is. Does anyone know how much I can get for it. I have already had the back plastic window replaced and in Feb it was in the shop and had a brand new alarm control unit installed. I also have brand new BS Potenzasl. I swear I'm sick about this.... finally got my dream car and its been nothing but a nightmare.

Any info on what I can get would be greatly appreciated...thanks for listening.

MAC986

super66 · 06-19-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spine911

Im also starting to see a rising trend on the newer 987s.

shhhhhhhhhhh......knock that kind of talk off.....

I'm not interested in losing sleep over this....

sorry MAC....I would definitely shoot for 50/50.....

dharrisonwu · 06-19-2007, 03:49 PM

Regarding the talk of lawsuits, I would not recommend it because they've heard it before -blah-blah-blah and unless a person is willing to back it up with real legal action, it just makes someone look plain silly. To get a class action is not as simple as it seems. The tough challenge is to get the Court to certify the representative plaintiffs as a class and then what? Who's going to front the costs for notifying ALL the potential class members?