I'm at the 100k mark, and the basic maintenance and wear items are still the only things wrong with it. Just keep replacing the wear items as they fail, change your oil every 5k with the proper synthetic, and keep on driving her. I drive mine as though I stole it every time I take her out. IF the engine blows, then the fun truly begins anyway....

time to upgrade :)

Jake really knows his business and will honestly tell people all that could go wrong with the car and since he's seen alot more destroyed engines than most of us combined I would trust his judgement. Having said that, his honest assessment of the M96 has the unintentional result of scaring people into wanting to sell their beloved Boxster. He wants to stay in business too and he will not succeed if everyone sold their 986/996s.
There's a chance my engine will implode but I will keep enjoying my car. I might get struck by a semi while driving my Boxster too but I will keep driving it rather than a Volvo. There was a chance I would have gotten blown up while I was in Iraq but I didn't and I kept doing my job and enjoying my time with my buddies. After becoming aware of the faults of the Boxster, one needs to balance their desire to enjoy the car and the chances of an engine failure, risk vs. gain.
If the failure rate was so high, Consumer Reports would not give it a 'better than average' reliability rating and I don't think most of us would continue owning these cars.

Retrofit kit
 

I already order the retrofit kit bearing because I have to change the RMS anyway and taking advantage of that i will install de bearing!!! i am impresed of the fact that the guy from flat6 innovations told me that people that drive porsches like a Grand mother are the ones having the problems and people that race the cars don't. It looks like we have step on it a lot LOL!!!!

I have been away over the Christmas period and today I am home sick with the Flu... So I thought I'd add a bit to this conversation.

I am a control freak and because of that the reputation of everything we sell has remained flawless. I do not give problems the opportunity to occur and today thats the only way to maintain perfection.

I do prefer to complete the IMSR procedure at my facility where we can evaluate the engine both before and after the process is carried out. We have had a couple of instances where the engine was found to have other impending issues and I refused to apply the bearing retrofit in fear that my work would be blamed for a failure. If the enginefails and it has the IMSR applied it would be fairly simple for someone to blame the bearing or procedure for some off the wall issue.

With us evaluating the engine before and after with dyno evaluations we are able to see exactly what our work has done to the engine and ensure that nothing is left untouched.

Yet again, I would rather ose a sale and lose money as to do a procedure that could forever tarnish the reputation of what Charles and I have expended so much development time in.

The key is sharing knowledge and making people informed of the issues and how to remedy them. Thats what 2010 is dedicated to here at my facility with classes, DVDs and other means of creating reference materials.

I certainly haven't seen a down turn in business, we are at 125% and wide ass open. If it was any better than this I would not know what to do, I guess we chose not to participate in the recession.

BTW- One poetr mentioned that he called my facility and was told that the crs that were driven easier failed more often, well that is the truth based on our numbers. He had talked to my assistant, Dean and ALL that Dean does here is handle failure calls and emails from all over the world while I do my work in the lab. He came in to 7 failure emails this morning! Some people say we are using scare tactics, but thats just not the case as we are only telling the truth and sharing it with the public. Not many people you'll find today are as straight forward as we are.

Man, I've never thought so seriously about selling my car.

That was 7 over the entire period of our Christmas shut down.. Thats not very bad at all, we've had 5 in one day before!

Why?
Because Dean answers the phone at Jake's office? ;)
That's kinda harsh.

Its a possibility that it could happen.
Its also a possibility that my chiropractor could break my neck, and kill me while making an adjustment, but its a small percentage. I know my life is worth more than a Porsche engine.

Heck, my new hip is worth more than a brand new Boxster S! :)

BC.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many M96 engines are out there?

cylinder wall crack
 

Hi Jake how many 02 Boxters M96's have you had with cylinder wall crack or cylinder failure??? because it looks like IMS is not the only problem with this engines. What I dont understand how is it possible that a $50000 grand car could come with so many problems not even KIA motors which I retain the worst car in human history has so many problems. And how 7 in a month is not bad???? we are talking about Porsche here!!!!! again not KIA

We have identified 20 modes of failure for the M96 engine.. The IMS is the most wide spread MOF, and there are instances where the IMS is blamed for a failure when it really isn't the root of the issue.

Modes Of Failure
 

[QUOTE=Jake Raby]We have identified 20 modes of failure for the M96 engine.. The IMS is the most wide spread MOF, and there are instances where the IMS is blamed for a failure when it really isn't the root of the issue.[/QUOTE

Can you tell me what are these modes of failures besides the IMS which we already know. See i'm in the process of selling the car if is to problematic I will get rid of it. it meas there are 20 modes for the engine to blow??????? or general failures that could happen to any car????

[QUOTE=tony0214] All I can say is it is a shame you are being scared into wanting to now get rid of the car. Look- against all recommendations (most people would suggest changing your oil at shorter intervals), in the 8 yrs. I have owned my car, I have been only changing my oil at 12-15k mile intervals (using only Mobil 1 0W-40 motor oil), and at 61k miles now on my car, my engine still has not imploded (no D-chunk failure, no slipped sleeve issue, no IMS bolt failure, etc). I do not have an upgraded LN IMS bolt. I do not have the low temp thermostat installed. I do not have that magnetic oil drain plug, and all the other goodies. My engine is still running. Ain't that amazing?! :) Listen, there may be a hundred different ways an engine can fail, but that does not mean that your engine will not last well over 100k miles without doing any of these upgrades. The percentage that do fail...even if at a high rate of let's say 10%, means that the other 90% will never see any issues whatsover!

I'm not saying that you shouldn't do any of those so called upgrades if you are worried, but it is a shame you are being scared into possibly selling the car, and not enjoying what a wonderful car the Boxster can be because of what you are reading on the internet. Again, take a deep breath, and relax. You car will most likely not implode on you, as the failure rate is still a minority percentage relative to all the cars produced.

My advice, just drive the car and enjoy!

you're going to get very little money out of an '02 with 80,000 miles. I personally think catastrophic failure rates a greatly exaggerated, and it's probably between 1% and 10%.

If you like the Boxster, save what money you can and upgrade to a newer model, with fewer problems, when you can. The '06 has an improved IMS bearing that should hold up much better, the '07 has a revised drive chain configuration that will improve things more, '09+ has no IMS.

Failures
 

i HAVE THE BEARING WHICH i'M SUPPOSED TO CHANGE THIS WEEKEND BUT i WANTED TO KNOW OTHER UPGRADES THAT i COULD DO TO BE SAFE DUE TO THE FACT THAT MY TRANSMISSION AND OTHER THINGS ARE GOING TO BE APART
THANKS IN ADVANCE

I'm gad to hear you're keeping the car, and if the IMS bearing upgrade lets you relax and enjoy it, it's well worth it.

I believe the other failure modes require more engine disassembly, off the top of my head : timing chain tensioners, lifters (not catastrophic), C-chuck failures ( rare except for '99 or so ) , oil pump drive ( very rare, only racing? ), rod bolts ( very rare-racing? ), oil starvation under racing conditions ( only with racing tires? ), cracked heads ( rare ) , heat exchanger leaking water into oil ( rare ), water pump failure-broken shaft.

I believe you have a Tip, so no clutch issues?

Failure Mods
 

YEs I have a tiptronic transmission, my car runs fine just bad air oil sep and some vacum leacks, valve cover and RMS leaks i am doing all that thi weekend and the bearing!!!!!! hopefully my cylinder walls wont crack

Tony,
Keep us informed as to how it all goes with your Big Weekend.
Theres probably a lot of us out here interested in your bearing changeout.......

[QUOTE=tony0214] I have an article being completed for my site that illustrates and covers in detail each of the MOFs. A post detailing it would take 4 days to write.

failures
 

Hi Jake!!!! well I thank you for trying to help me but by saying that it would take about 4 days to write I realized that Porsche is a piece of garbage beacause a car so expensive with so many problems??? I think it is worth to by a Corolla!!!!! at least never have a problem!!!

Jake is a bit of a glass-half-empty kind of guy on this subject!

Yeah, but remember in his line of business he only ever gets to hear bad news....

Porsches are designed to be run at high speeds and high revs on the Autobahn.
In my experience since the 70s, babying them causes more issues then driving them hard.

A Corolla is obviously your dream car, so what are you waiting for? No need to deprive yourself one more minute. Pull the trigger already and dump that overpriced, unreliable, and totally overrated piece of German trash on some other unsuspecting idiot. As they say, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

The glass is never full enough.

Its true that people who look our way are already having a problem so we are exposed to more horror stories than most anyone else. I do have a chunk of customers who have excellent running cars and just want to go faster than anyone else without boost, so they call me.

failures
 

I love Porsche obviously you can't compare it with a little car o toyota what so ever!!! look friend I have had about 30 cars since I was 16 years old right now I'm 31. It's not about heat is about reliability!! I expect a car that expensive to be more reliable than any cheaper car because it is suposed to be constructed with more quality. I have had 2 Mercedes, 3 BMW's, 1 SAAB 900 turbo, 1 Volvo turbo, 2 Alfa Romeos, 1 Fiat and other American and Japonese cars and the reality is that European cars are fun to drive and you feel that yuo really have a machine in your hands but they also breack down more than Japonese cars and that is statistics. But you know what?? I will keep on buying European cars because besides that the feeling you get when you drive one you don't get it with any other car!!!! What porsche did with the boxter was to create a cheaper Porsche for people that probably did not have enogh money to by a Carrera and that's what they created a "Cheap Porsche"
By the way My Dream Car is a "FERRARI"

I didn't mean to say Porsche is not a good car I was just responding according to how Jake talks about the 20 MOF an M96 has. Then I said if is really like that then it sucks.
I did not mean to offend anybody.

Those 20 failure modes apply to the 911 also, same engine architecture. It's not just the "cheap" Porsche.

The best you can get right know is an 2009 and 2010 I heard the dont have the IMS trouble!!!! and the cilinder walls are reiforced or thicker. I will wait until they go down in price a little bit and get into one. I sold my 2002 yesterday!! for good money so I took the head ache out of the system!!! Next time I will get it certified by porsche.

LOL. Way to go in scaring folks out of their cars!

Anyone wanting to sell their 1999-2008 911 Cab (cars with IMS) for cheap, please let me know! Heck, you know...those engines have like 20 modes of engine failures guys, so please sell them to me cheap....right now!! :D

One point which isn't usually brought up is that IMHO, the potential for engine failure is baked into the current pricing. I think anyone who has purchased a Boxster in the past 3 years or so has purchased a great car for the money.

Case in point, my wife (an accountant & car buff) figured it's still cheaper to buy a used Boxster (base), drive it hard (enjoy!), IF the engine blows have Flat 6 rebuild it better-stronger-faster, then it is to buy a Lotus Elise. The Lotus was the other car we were interested in, so it was our comparision model.

Just some food for thought.

Absolutely, and you, tony0214, were a beneficiary (I was, too). Let's be honest, you thought you were getting a cheap Porsche, but you didn't do enough research before buying and it didn't turn out that way. That said, you didn't lose your a$$ on your car like some people.

I've got a few years on you and have owned a number of the European cars you mentioned, as have many friends and relatives. Fiat (aka Fix It Again TONY) stopped selling cars here in over 20+ yrs ago, Alfa ~15 yrs ago, and Saab is in the process of being euthanized (deservedly). I think that says a lot about their "quality." Apparently you saw qualities few others did. I and many family/friends have also owned Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos in the last 5-10 years that we were praying would be stolen and never recovered. Mercedes in particular has had a very spotty reliability record.

BMW & Mercedes have and still do makes some great cars (Volvo, I don't think so), but when they get older and have some miles one them, they're less reliable and more costly to repair than Japanese and American cars. Better than they used to be, but still not up to the level of the Japanese. That's why their resale value isn't great in most cases. Like you said, if you want that European driving experience, it's going to cost you, sometimes a little more, other times a lot. If you thoroughly research before you buy, truly have the money to properly maintain the car, can do a little wrenching yourself and are willing to shop around for parts, costs won't be too painful and your ownership experience will meet your expectations. Mine has in spite of all the money I've spent.

I'm not in any way excusing all the M96 and other issues. They're really disappointing in such an expensive car, even in a "cheap" Boxster. I dealt with biggest MOF (IMS) by spending the $ for the retrofit. If the engine blows up on me anyway, I'll be pissed but I can accept that because I don't have huge money invested. My point is if you can't deal with the costs/risks of such a car, don't own one. If I wanted to drive an appliance, I'd get a Toyota or Honda. They're great cars and plenty of people love them, they're just not for me.