Any Porsche exec's listening?

[ky944s]

Originally Posted by Jeph

Please don't let this example deter you... You'll miss out on a great car. When everything goes fine with the ownership of a Boxster, one doesn't post that "everything is going swell." These engine tragedy cries are often the loudest. I'm not debating the whole "Should Porsche do something" riff. I'm just mentioning to read a few posts of engine failures and decide the car is no good is premature. But it's your call of course.

Another thing; those that have these problems usually aren't on the message board for long... not because they have no use for it due to engine explosion, but because it's first (and last) thing they post about. These posts are like grenades.

I've seen some with over 100,000 miles on them and this is a good thing. I havent writen a Boxster off yet. I drove a 2001 last Sunday and WOW the owner let me open it up once and that was enough for me (I tried to hide my grin).
I just wish there was a way to catch the problem before things go bad.

[Jaxonalden]

I agree with Jeph. I was on another thread talking about over-revving these motors and how that's not a good idea. A couple of people wrote back saying if these cars couldn't take banging off the rev limiter or shifting at redline repeatedly they aren't worth the cost of owning one. They, of course, don't care about their cars in my opinion. Abuse is abuse and you will pay the price for it. With that said, buying any used car without checking it out first "thoroughly" is like picking up a girl at the neighborhood dive and having her tell you she doesn't have any STD's.

Good thing about Porsche though, you can look into the diagnostics and see the abuse. Those are the cars you stay away from.

[pbanders]

Originally Posted by Jaxonalden

I agree with Jeph. I was on another thread talking about over-revving these motors and how that's not a good idea. A couple of people wrote back saying if these cars couldn't take banging off the rev limiter or shifting at redline repeatedly they aren't worth the cost of owning one. They, of course, don't care about their cars in my opinion. Abuse is abuse and you will pay the price for it. With that said, buying any used car without checking it out first "thoroughly" is like picking up a girl at the neighborhood dive and having her tell you she doesn't have any STD's.

Good thing about Porsche though, you can look into the diagnostics and see the abuse. Those are the cars you stay away from.

Touching redline when shifting under WOT isn't abuse. If it were, every PCA and BMWCCA DE event would be littered with broken engines. It doesn't happen. Abuse is exceeding redline. Abuse is going to high revs with cold oil. Abuse is repeated drop-clutch full throttle starts. There is a difference. BTW, touching redline or briefly engaging the rev limiter is not the same as exceeding the maximum specified engine speed.

I drive my car is it was designed and intended to do, as do I suspect most owners here. As for "paying the price" for doing this, I have owned Porsches since 1982 and have never had any problem with engine failures, including signficant track time. I encourage other Porsche owners to fully utilize their car's potential, and do so without feeling the need to "baby" it.

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by pbanders

Touching redline when shifting under WOT isn't abuse. If it were, every PCA and BMWCCA DE event would be littered with broken engines. It doesn't happen. Abuse is exceeding redline. Abuse is going to high revs with cold oil. Abuse is repeated drop-clutch full throttle starts. There is a difference. BTW, touching redline or briefly engaging the rev limiter is not the same as exceeding the maximum specified engine speed.

I drive my car is it was designed and intended to do, as do I suspect most owners here. As for "paying the price" for doing this, I have owned Porsches since 1982 and have never had any problem with engine failures, including signficant track time. I encourage other Porsche owners to fully utilize their car's potential, and do so without feeling the need to "baby" it.

I don't get the sense that the older air cooled engines imploded at anywhere nearly the rate as these newer designs.

Any thoughts on that?

[pbanders]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

I don't get the sense that the older air cooled engines imploded at anywhere nearly the rate as these newer designs.

Any thoughts on that?

There were problems with the cam chain tensioners that plagued engines for years (finally fixed), issues with the 2.7 L case, I"m sure there are gobs more issues. That said, the bottom end of the air-cooled sixes were capable of going as much as 300K before rebuilding.

However, I don't think that any of the air-cooled six variants had the failure rate of the early 996 motors, but Porsche isn't talking so facts and figures are hard to come by.

Other significant Porsche engine problems: early 944 cam belts (snap!), 928 Nikasil blocks, etc.