Dispeling M96 engine rumors

[sd_boxster]

If Porsche believed that any of their powerplants was supposed to last forever, they'd offer a lifetime powertrain warranty, like the one I've got on my Jeep Patriot. Porsche does not intend for their vehicles to last forever - they intend for them to be performance machines.

The harder you use a piece of equipment, the sooner it will wear out. Indy car motors are designed to go 1200 miles between rebuilds, not because they are crappy motors, but because of how they are used.

Are there weak points in the Boxster engine design? Yes, I think Jake has proved that. Will replacing those guarantee you still won't blow a motor? Nope. They may buy peace of mind, but there is no guarantee. If you have the money and the inclination, absolutely go the Flat6 route. I personally will drive the hell out of my 986 until something breaks, and then I will decide if I want to go with a flat6 upgrade or dump the car as a roller and move on to something else - maybe a Cayman PDK, if my car lasts long enough for prices to come down.

If you can't live with the FACT that any machine will break (even really expensive ones), that the Boxster may be more prone than other machines to break, and that driving it hard will increase the odds that it will break, sell it.

If you can't afford to replace a motor but want a Porsche, buy CPO, don't ever track it or do anything else to jeapordize your warranty coverage, and keep it until the warranty is up and then sell it to someone else. (Note: Please don't be one of the tools I overhear at the track discussing how to best defraud the dealer if they blow a motor at the races. Man, that pisses me off.)

If you don't fall into either of the two preceding categories, go climb into your Boxster, crank the key with your left hand (ain't that a hoot?), feel that flat 6 rumble to life behind your kidneys, and go find yourself a twisty road. Driving a Boxster is like that beautiful girl you dated when you were 16. Who knows how long this is going to last? Enjoy every minute while you can.

[husker boxster]

Jake and Charles -

Have you run across any 987 IMS problems? If so, approx how many compared to 986?

I've watched the "my engine just blew up" posts and none of them are from owners of 987s. I asked in one post if anyone with a 987 had experienced an IMS failure and no one replied. The OP stated a design change was implemented in the 987 and I'm wondering if it appears Porsche did it better.

What have you found?

[CenterIsl]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I've watched the "my engine just blew up" posts and none of them are from owners of 987s.

Actually, there's a 2005 near the end of the "Short Lived Engine Survey" thread, which had 67 posts. It wasn't obvious how many catastrophic failures there were since the the thread wandered around a bit. I do recall another thread - can't quickly locate it - where there was a running count...guessing it was in the 30 failures range when it petered out.

Somewhat related to this overall reliability issue, there's also an RMS poll that shows about 30% of respondants experiencing RMS leaks.

But...there are over 19 THOUSAND registered members of this forum, and - as has been pointed out seveal times - the registered users of this forum are likely atypical of all boxster owners. So...dozens of complaints from thousands of owners doesn't seem worth obsessing over. Just IMHO.

As John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead."