Won the Porsche Lottery Today
 

Pulled into a parking lot, coasted around the corner and with no warning at all the engine died. Put it in neutral, cranked it to hear one second of the most gut wrenching sound in the world.

I change the oil every 5K w/Mobile1 as directed, examine the filters and they've been free of debris but I was due for an oil change. There are no fluid leaks, no noises. It's a 2004 S with about 52,000 on it.

Thanks Porsche.

Damn man...I hope it's nothing real bad...

When are you taking it in? Keep us posted

Ugh... I hate these post. Hang in there and keep us posted.

Pull the oil filter to check for metal. If there is metal, then drop the sump plate and see if there is any metal debris in there. If there is a lot of metal, well you have problems. If little to no metal, then remove the drive belt and turn the motor over by hand, clockwise only. If there is major damage, you will feel the interference. Don't force anything. I would probably pull the plugs before rotating by hand, it will be much easier to feel interference if there is no compression. If it locks, well you wil have to take the motor apart at that point.

If it rotates easily, I would start by pulling the cam end plugs to check if the cams are still in timing. If its still in timing, pull the cam covers to see if you have a bad valve, look for sheared lifters.

What kind of noise was it making? Was it a deep rapping sound (probably a bearing) or a rat tat tat (probably a valve).



Good luck.

I had it towed to a local indie (Stuttgart Specialties in Louisville, KY) as that sort of work is beyond my skill level. There was no sound prior to the stall. I'd describe the horrifying sound emitted during the second or less I cranked it was one of large parts flopping around, not small ones.

Bummer.....

If the IMS let go, you're within the 10 year "settlement" window with a 04 model. Just make sure you follow the criteria for the repair and filing of the claim.

Check the water pump. Mine went out and it made the most awful sound that I thought was IMS. Not sure if a water pump death can cause an engine to die - but just offering a suggestion.

How many miles did you have the car? Did you do the LNE IMS swap?

Granted many done for engines are wrongly atttributed as IMS fail.

I will light a votive candle tomorrow for you in hopes it is something other than the IMS. You took it to a good shop, I've heard others in your area speak highly of them.

Coincidentally, got to talking to the cleaning guy at our office tonight before leaving work, he pulled in in a used 2nd generation Miata. Pretty good looking car with 150k on the clock, he said it has run like a top for the couple of months he has owned it, paid $2500 for it.

He then went on to tell me about the incredible deals to be had on used Boxsters, I sat back and let him educate me for a few minutes. Since I had to leave I let it drop and said I'd talk more to about it next week, he's a good guy but I know that a scenario such as this would be completely devastating to his wallet.

Good Luck Foydawg.

No preventative swap and it has about 52000 miles on it.

It's my impression oil leaks leading up to an IMS failure and post-failure are typical and I haven't had seen either. Mine is a Tiptronic if that makes a difference in allowing the oil to hit the ground vs. a manual.

patssle has me hoping it's not that serious.

Lottery
 

never played the lottery till i bought an 02 s 88k from brumos then did my research, as the brumos mech. said " cosmetically its a beautifull car"! car now has 113 k and i play the lottery all the time... but now jake has me stressing on the lifters oh well i guess alot of people would love
to have my lottery ticket

Foydawg,
I live in Louisville and have all my work done at Stuttgart. I've been using them for almost 3 years. They will sort it out for you. Hope it is good news for you. I have a 2000 with 68,000 miles and have not had the IMS bearing done. We all hate hearing about these issues. If you need any help let me know.

UPDATE: It is an IMS failure and as a non-CPO second owner car, I theoretically would be eligible for 25% coverage under the class action suit BUT, since Porsche says my 2004 Boxster S was "put into service" on 7/4/03, it's over 10-years old and not eligible - EFF Porsche!

Please don't give up so easily. Six weeks outside the "window" is an extremely short time. A personal appeal to the right people at Porsche may result in some concessions.

Determining who the "right people" are will be the challenge. Like people who could not afford bad publicity from a disgruntled owner about their hallowed marque.

If done objectively and with a modicum of class, it just might work............. ;)


TO

Absolutely stinks.

I gotta tell you, I love my 2000S (112K) and have had great 'luck' with the car. It's at a price point that I think I could stomach it if the motor took a crap. I love the look of the 987's and the new 981's but am unwilling to play the lotto with more $$ on the line.

It's funny. We picked up an '04 350Z roadster a month ago for my wife. The car has right at 100K miles and for some reason, it doesn't scare me at all! Time will tell.

been there, so I know how disappointing it is. Waiting to see if Porsche really does follow thru. I was out 20K for the new engine and am eligible for the 25%. I know what you are going thru trying to decide whether to put in a new engine or shop for a new car.

Sorry to hear that. How many miles did you get out of the car (minus previous owner mile) before it went kaput?
Mind sharing what you paid?

I paid about $24K for it in late 2010. It had 23,000 miles at the time. I've put about 29,000 miles on it.

Good advice. I submitted an inquiry with the attorneys that won the class action. My local dealer, Bluegrass Motorsports, simply referred me to 1-800-PORSCHE.

I hope it's an 04.5 350Z. The younger ones had tons of problems. I had an 03 and it was the only time I've had a manual tranny or clutch blow....and it happened 4 times due to design flaws on both the clutch and tranny. Problem went away when they upgraded me to 05 tranny and clutch assembly.

I wasn't worried about any sort of Porsche lottery and was blissfully ignorant (having loads of fun driving it) until I started reading this forum after I bought mine on the last day of June. Now I'm paranoid as hell and have never done so much preventative maintenance on top of having AOS go out after 3 weeks of ownership and then a significant leak around the driver side bank. I've gotten real good with the 4 jackstands and still love the car, though...

I should have taken out stock in Pelican parts in hindsight...lol

Sorry if it's a dumb question as I'm a Porsche newb, but how much are we talking to fix such an issue if IMS goes out? The parts guy at the dealership just laughed when I asked...(although I don't ever plan to use the dealer)

The lesson I learned is the bearing can fail with no warning signs. Although, I change my oil every 5K and I was due for an oil change.

The indie that's doing the work said the last IMS repair they did was about $6K. They're tallying the parts required for mine as of today and don't have an estimate yet.

Thanks! It sounds like I'm going to have to make my cash reserve for repairs a bit bigger that $2500 (which I've already used this month). I am very glad I paid cash for this car and didn't buy a much newer model with a decent sized note. I don't know if my wife would go for both a note and a large repair slush fund!

Here is to your bill being smaller! I heard over $10k from someone else, but I don't know if they used the dealership or not.

I sure hate this happened to you. I do hope some for the guys who haven't yet upgraded the IMS will heed the lesson here. Whatever the cost for the fix where you are, it's way cheaper than a failure. I had 2 m96 cars before my current one and got lucky, plus I did change the oil every 5k miles, still just lucky with a 97 I sold with over 100k miles and a 2000 996 with 80k and no major failures.

I knew my luck would have to run out eventually, plus when i heard about the performance upgrade from jake I just couldn't pass it up. The 3300 someone quoted in this thread earlier sounds high, but well worth the cost if for no other reason than piece of mind. No one but maybe Porsche knows what % of these engines fail, but whatver the number it is fairly predictable given the shortcuts they took with the engines compared to all f the engines that came prior to these water pumpers.

I'm sorry this happened to you especially given you're just outside the 10 year limit. My car is also outside the 10 year window and for that reason, I am sending a letter to the court that objects to the settlement. I hope others send similar letters.

My view is that owners have a reasonable expectation that these engines will last for more than 200,000 miles without experiencing a catastrophic IMS engine failure. And because I believe that Porsche sold knowingly sold these cars with a IMS design defect, I argue that the court should only approve a settlement based only on actual mileage, i.e., without a time limit. Pick a number somewhere north of 150,000 miles and I'm OK.

Just a shame. We own marquee sports cars and keep having failures like this. This one is close to home and at my Indi for repair. Makes you simply want to sell and get out. Porsche should be required to fix of replace all failures of their wonderful engineering feat.

Wow Foydawg, your story is the same as mine except my car was built in 04.
I bought my 04 S in Texas Nov 2010, 23000m miles.
Car ran great right up until the moment it died.
Nov 06, 2012 driving down the I95 in Maine bound for warmer pastures in North Caroline, we pulled off at Augusta to grab a coffee. When I stopped at the end of the Interstate ramp the car engine stopped with no warning, I restarted the engine and then "The Death Rattle" (44,000 miles). It sounds like nuts and bolts in a clothes drier! I drove the car 500 ft to the gas station, shut it down and called a tow truck.

I had the engine rebuilt and now I just have to install the fuel injectors before putting it back into the car.

If you don't want the challenge of a Project you have two options (1) after talking to Porsche N.A. take the Porsche refurbished deal, you'll get 2 yr warranty. (2) take your car to some one like Jake Raby or others on this forum who knows Boxsters.

Got a call from the shop today. Approx. $6,800 to repair the damage including a new 05/06 era intermediate shaft among other things. Should be back in action next week.

??

why put the part that broke, back in the car? since they're in there upgrade to the LN or jake's new one... my 2-cents anyway. your car, can do what you think is right.

also, the 05/06-era IMS bearing doesn't make sense since the whole thing was redesigned for the 06 model year making the bearing non-servicable.

i'd call them back and ask for clarification on that one.

As I understand it, Porsche does not sell the shaft without the bearing. Yes, he could remove the new bearing and replace it with a ceramic one (or go all out with the' solution', or the direct oil conversion sold at Pelican), but I guess it depends how long he intends to keep the car. Afterall, he got 50,000 miles and 10 years out of the original bearing.

Brad

The old shaft is trashed and a used shaft isn't available at the moment. The new shafts come with the 05/06 non-servicable bearing. According to him, those cars aren't the problematic ones. It sounds like your suggesting it might be better to find a used shaft and use an LN bearing since it could be replaced long-term?

all m96/m97 engines have the IMS bearing, and that is the problem. porsche removed the IMS for the 2009 MY.

it is possible to replace the bearing in the larger shaft with an LN bearing, but requires removing the shaft from the car (your current situation).

if it's already there i'd replace it. though LN recommends replacing every 4 yrs/50k miles. meaning you'll have to disassemble again if you go with the larger one from porsche.

it all depends on if you want to roll the dice again. there are people on the forum who have had multiple failures, and those who have had no failures.

let me ask, since you have a TIP, what's your driving style? hard? easy? somewhere in between? do you let the car get near the reline, or just let the transmission do the shifting?

Thanks for keeping us posted. I've got to get my 03 done on the IMS asap.

Unless I'm on a freeway I drive it in manual mode for the fun of it and to to keep it from lugging around like it would in auto. I avoid 4,000+ until it's warmed up and I run it hard every day ot two under the theory oil sloshing around will lube the IMSB (and for the fun of it). I don't baby it, but don't thrash it either. I've never tracked it.

Soooo Foydawg, if you've had an IMS failure that stalled the car and you need to replace the IMS and bearing what about other parts of the engine? were there any other parts that failed? Was there metal in the filter or sump or fillings in an oil sample? Does the crank and bearings look good?

Got it back today after writing a $7,000 check. The parts highlights were: new IMS w/bearing, oil cooler, engine gasket set, cylinder head bolt, timing chain, elective water pump and AOS with a host of small parts.