To the OP: I'm glad you got it sorted out. But since this is your wife's car, I suggest parting with it asap namely to prevent any worrying on her part.

I plan on getting a new Boxster soon. Engine failure doesn't particularly worry me, as the driving experience it offers is absolutely unparalleled (at least in that brief test drive it did).

My two burning questions are:

Which dealers in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware area do you guys recommend?

What exactly constitutes as abuse?

I drive my cars hard though I take very good care of them (slightly more regular oil changes, premium gasoline [you'd be surprised at how many people fill up regular in cars that require premium), timely replacement of any necessary parts etc).

I've heard BMW owners that have two keys, using one to drive, and one to give to the dealer upon servicing (as the information about driving habits is recorded on the keys).

Does it work like that for Porsche?

Tough because our original emotions for buying a Porsche were personal, I at least tend to get "attached" to my Boxster, so, when I have to give it up for service, I take to results of that service personally. Service departments move cars in and out like herding cattle, none of the cars look any different then the one before it. Get 'em in, get 'em out, it's a numbers game. I've had some bad experiences too, I've wanted to throw s**t across the counter for the "failed stink factor" advice and for the overpriced work performed. Interesting enough, I've reflected back after cooling off thinking that maybe I jumped to conclusions a bit too quickly. Hopefully you'll be able to look back and feel better that you got you car back as good (or better) than before. Good Luck!

I am treated at Aberdeen Porsche the same way you were treated at Lexus, but i got to watch a cdvd regarding the Carrera gt getting built so i win.

Ive had two visits where money hasnt changed hands and ive had a result.

i ask them not to wash my car though.

The reason must be population, we have a smaller population which even though we are very expensive to live in aberdeen and there are loads of porsches, there cant be too great a demand on OPC here.

James

i have had very good dealings with Newton motorsports, the service manager (Brian Carter) has taken good care of me, they are a small dealer...but they do alot of porsche work
The driving habits are definetly stored in the computer, not the key

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think 18 days is out of line at all for a complete engine replacement. It's not like they have rebuilt boxster engines just sitting there at the dealer just ready to install. They have to special order these...probably from Germany and then install it. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't take longer to get the car back. I think somebody needs a reality check.

It took the dealership 10 days just to determine what was wrong and get Porsche to OK an engine replacement. The service manager told us the engine "was available", whatever that means. It only took 6 more days to get the engine and install it. That 6 days included 4 days the service department was closed for the Thanksgiving weekend. It then took 2 more days to fix the damage they did to the paint.

Optimum service would have been 1 day to figure out what was wrong, 1 day to get the OK from Porsche for engine replacement, 2 days to procure the engine and install it. 4 days altogether.

And a sweet demo to use during the interval.

Randijo,

Is your wife "Lou" from your other post?

I forgot to mention that after keeping our car for 16 days and admitting they had scratched up the paint, the dealership finally offered us a loaner. They offered us an Enterprise rental car. :(
We bought a Porsche because we wanted to drive a Porsche! If we wanted to drive a basic econobox, we would have bought one in the first place. We did without the rental car.

Actually, I am Lou, and my wife is Randi Jo. It's confusing because we share the same forum username.

That's what I figured ;) - so is your faith in the car restored after getting to enjoy the drive again?

Did they tell you what caused the old engine to fail?

How much was the replacement work? I think prices are on the invoice.

That's discouraging to read, as I said before, Porsche needs to exert more authoritay on their dealer channel.

The old engine developed a hole in one of the valve lifters. I think the cost of the repair was about $10K.

Randijo, make sure you properly break-in the new engine. I would also change the oil at about 1,000 miles.

Why does the oil need to be changed at 1000 miles?

We generally follow the maintenance schedule from Porsche which for our year says to change the oil at 2 years or 20,000 miles. Are we making a mistake?

Do you own or lease? If you own, I would change the oil at 1,000 miles. Just my opinion. Worth the $150.

If you liked the engine changing experience, just change oil every 20,000 miles. You should change the oil between 7-10K miles or at least once per year prior to winter storage.

Did you follow proper engine break-in with your first motor?

How often to change oil???
 

No lease. We own it.
We followed proper break in procedure on the first engine and we are braking in the new one the same way. We keep the RPMs under 4000, no full throttle starts, and try to vary the speed for the first 2000 miles.
The old engine only had 12000 miles on it after a year and a half. According to the maintenance schedule it wasn't yet due for an oil change. Do you really think changing the oil once a year will prevent engine failure?

Do you really think changing the oil once a year will prevent engine failure?[/QUOTE]

It wouldnt hurt to do it.

Randijo, good job on doing the proper engine break-in. Not an easy thing to do. Requires great patience! Must be even harder with the second engine, partly because you know what the car is capable of doing, and are more accomplished at driving it. :)

You should have changed the oil prior to last winter's storage. Did this cause your engine failure? I doubt it.

Let say you are going to keep the car 10 years. And you change the oil yearly. Will this "prevent engine failure"? In a nut-shell...yes. Could something else be the cause (IMS)...sure. If you changed the oil once in 10 years...would the engine fail...my money says yes. What if you change twice? How about 3 times? What is the level of risk you are comfortable with?

Changing oil is cheap insurance. Even cheaper for the many great DIY'ers on this Forum.

Don't forget, Randijo, the oil in our cars does about 40% lubrication and 60% cooling.

My two cents on a 1000 mile oil change, excellent suggestion. What I was taught at AFST (still have my id card) Association of Fiat Service Technicians, schools was to do this when breaking in an engine. The main reason is the tolerances of the engine are being used for the first time. That's bound to make more metal micro shavings or other contaminants in higher amounts. The motorcycles of my youth suggested the same thing and I'm sure Porsche does too for brand new engines. Think about it, if that wasn't going on then you would need no break in at all.

Better luck with the next powerplant and to the rest of you guys, may the Fix It Again Tony jokes begin...

PS Still have a fresh 124 sport spyder with 53,000 on the clock.

I have a 1998 Boxster with 105,000 miles on it. I changed the oil every 5000 miles. I do not trust the manufacturers recommended 15,000 mile oil change. I had a catastophic engine failure. It sucked one of the intake valves on the number 2 cylinder. I was quite pleased it was not the IMS. I live in nortern California and the dealer is Niello Porsche in Rocklin, Ca. They are awesome.

I cannot wait to get it back. I believe there is an obvious problem with the intermediate shaft and a recall should have been done a long time ago, but this is old news.

How is it possible to have a car for 10 years and only have 30,000 to 40,000 miles on it? I put 10,000 miles on it in 4 months. I could not get out of it. I found every excuse to drive it. I love that car. I WILL ALWAYS OWN A PORSCHE. There is no other car like it. (IMHO)

This is the first time for me to post. So I have stated good and bad. I like to read everyone else's posts. Keep it up. :cheers:

I've owned many Fiats, raced Fiats, and once worked for a Fiat dealer as an independent mechanic....

Failure in Automotive Technology

F'ing Italians Attempt at Transportation

are the ones I remember.

They can say what they wish, the 128 was the first car produced with a tranverse engine & transmission combo, copied the next year by VW rabbit, now used everywhere. When, I was a lot younger and the dealership was at it's glory, I tuned my Spyder every week, MG's Triumphs of the time were no match for a 124, I still enjoy driving it even if the manual steering is a #$%&^* when parking. Fiat had twin overhead cam engines and shim & bucket valve setups, far ahead of the competition of the time. Even the sedans came standard with Pirellis or Michelins before most people appreciated the difference. The American metal of that time, a la Maverick, Mustang II, comet, were no match in a corner for even a lowly 128 sedan.

I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...

[QUOTE=Paul]I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...[/QUOTE]


Yeah imagine that, lancia too. I had a 128 SL other than being geared too low and a bit underpowered it was one of my favorite cars. When I see what they sell for now on EBAY I'm shocked. I learned to drive on a 600, my dad let me and my bro solo at age seven, what a guy!! I had an X 1/9 too, my dad built race engines before he owned his own dealership and we built that 1/9. It had a triple angle valve job, shaved head, iskindarian cam ground to our specs and the biggest weber we could mount on it. You could blow right through the redline and keep revving, it never came apart. Many guys who feasted on the slow moving x 1/9's were surprised to have their ass handed to them. One dude followed me all the way to work to ask how it was powered, ahh the good ol days..

Since we are talking about Fiats....

I had two X 1/9s. 1975 and then 1981. 21 years of ownership. If I remember correctly Fiat was based out of New Jersey.

In 1999 I thought it was time to move on. Fiat/Berone had been out of the US market for a decade or so. But I could not let go. I did not care about the fix me again jokes.

What gave a slight push was a visit to Costco. The tires that fit were pirelli P3s or something like that. You could no longer buy that tire. Around 1998-1999 I went to Costco and there was a P something tire that was a bit wider but it would work.

I filled out the order form in the Costco tire shop for 5 tires (full size spare) and wrote down a 1981 Fiat. There were a bunch of young people working around the place. Counter guy told me to come back in an hour. You could not see the shop from the counter. They put a cone on my car in the parking lot with #24 on it.

I came back in an hour and the counter guy said they were still working on my car so I sat down next to the counter and looked at his motorcycle books, as he had just bought a Harley. As I was reading the books a young guy came in from the shop and said they could not find the "flat" on car #24 that they were supposed to replace. I said #24 was my car and did not have a flat and followed him into the shop.

They had taken my Fiat apart looking for a flat spare. None of my 5 tires were flat. They were looking for a flat on a Fiat. They did not know where the spare tire was. One of the guys said he even looked in the glove box for the spare.

I later bought a Boxster and then months later I donated the 1981 to a charity for a tax write-off at XXX dollars. I felt quilty so a few days later I went back to the donation place to see if I could buy back my Fiat for X dollars, but it was gone.

Good rip there TP, I sold my spider years ago the one I retain is still my dad's currently. I think NJ is right, What I like about the '71 is the hood is not "humped" and the chrome bumpers are not shock mounted. Seventy four was the last good year, then the five mile an hour bumpers killed the car, too much unsprung weight and no power offset. My future 71 is rot free, on my X/19 (used) the original small black, useless bumpers rotted off Fiat used some seriously poor quality steel...

TP have you ever seen the Abarth fiats? We wrenched on the aluminum abarth known as the "double bubble" they were lightweight racers. Man did they sound and look cool. Lastly, I had a chance when I had no money to buy a Dino Spyder for only six grand, that's right kids, a twin cam Ferrari 160 HP in a Spyder. I recently saw one sell on the bay for north of 50 g's...

PS FIAT Trivia the X/19 was marketed the first year of it's production as "the Porsche killer". Those crazy Italians, I can say that I'm100%.