Boxster S 2003 Engine issue

[fiveseven]

If anything the sound was a little like the 944 when gassing. My brother who came to assist thought it sounded like a cylinder wasnt working. None of us are car experts.

This is a reply i got from another forum:

QUOTE (infocusf8 @ Nov 14, 2009 - 08:40 PM)
When you say the engine oil had run out did you check it by the dip stick or use the readout on the dash? That M96 motor holds 9 qts. of oil which is a lot of oil to leak out. It seems to me you would have seen a big spot under the car or your oil warning light would have come on not to mention black smoke burning off the hot exhaust while you were driving. The only thing I can think of is you had a major RMS failure. The slight oil leak that the dealer saw is usually the first indication that the RMS is failing. If all the oil leaked out and the CEL was flashing and you continued to run the motor it could be anything and everything that was destroyed.

My reply:

Hi infocusf8

The thing was that it was pretty dark and raining quite heavily at the time so I didnt se any black smoke if there were any. The oil light warning wasnt on the display. I was on the highway and when it happened i knew i should stop and I did that. The motor was running and i did try to pres pedal and move slowly ahead but engine was chopping. I checked the engine oil on display (didnt think of the stick since it was dark and raining). When I put oil in I tried to move ahead a little again but same thing, chopping from engine, so i turned off the engine. This was the point where i realised running the engine further could harm it.
I did let it check for motor oil again after refilling 1L and after one hour (cold engine) I could se that the oil was above half on the display.

What is the CEL? The only warning light i saw was the "Check Engine - go to workshop" yellow warning.
EDIT: CEL must be check engine light right?

BTW thanks I appreciate your views

[edevlin]

Ouch, get it towed to a good shop, good luck,

Ed

[fiveseven]

Its taken a long time ( nearly a month) but the diagnosis that I got yesterday was that the intake valve at cylinder 1 is broken.
Besides that the cam shaft have timing issues with cylinder 1, 2 and 3.
I am no car expert but they tell me they will look deeper into the engine on monday to decide whether it can be fixed or whether to replace the engine.

The thing is that fortunately my car insurance will handle the costs and for my own expenses it should only be around 1000$.

I am in doubt as whether the repair they did a couple of weeks before this happened might have caused this?
I dont know what the difference is between drive shaft and cam shaft.
But they did as written in my first post:
- Change of gaiters at the drive shaft (not a car expert but it sound to be around the engine)

So could this have been caused by the Porsche mechanics when they repaired my car?

[Cloudsurfer]

Originally Posted by fiveseven

Its taken a long time ( nearly a month) but the diagnosis that I got yesterday was that the intake valve at cylinder 1 is broken.
Besides that the cam shaft have timing issues with cylinder 1, 2 and 3.
I am no car expert but they tell me they will look deeper into the engine on monday to decide whether it can be fixed or whether to replace the engine.

The thing is that fortunately my car insurance will handle the costs and for my own expenses it should only be around 1000$.

I am in doubt as whether the repair they did a couple of weeks before this happened might have caused this?
I dont know what the difference is between drive shaft and cam shaft.
But they did as written in my first post:
- Change of gaiters at the drive shaft (not a car expert but it sound to be around the engine)

So could this have been caused by the Porsche mechanics when they repaired my car?

Nothing even remotely similar or related. The "gaiter" refers to the CV Boot in common terminology, but is basically a rubber boot (or gaiter) that covers the CV joint to keep contaminants out of the joint itself and its lubricant. These joints (there are 2 per axle) are between the gearbox and the wheel's hub. The camshafts (your engine has 4) are inside the cylinder heads, and actuate the valves (both intake and exhaust, of which there are 4 per cylinder, with one cam on each bank for the respective rows of intake and exhaust valves).

How exactly did they diagnose a broken valve?

[fiveseven]

Hi Cloudsurfer

Thanks for explaining. That helped.

I cant say how they came to that conclusion. All I know is that they removed the engine to have a look at things.

How about the oil leakage they first mentioned when I had a major service done and then they rechecked 2 weeks later, concluding there was no leakage. Couldnt this leakage be the cause of the failed engine?

[clickman]

I recall one fellow on Renntech who tried to inspect his IMS bearing, but without locking things down properly, which resulted in a chain slip and therefore a timing issue.

Apparently the IMS flange and/or bolts can leak, which a tech might try to fix by taking all of the bolts out at once. And if things aren't locked down, this could result in the timing issue.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=29492&hl=IMS+slip+timing

Probably a longshot, but it might be worth asking where the oil leak was and how they fixed it.

[clickman]

Originally Posted by clickman

I recall one fellow on Renntech who tried to inspect his IMS bearing, but without locking things down properly, which resulted in a chain slip and therefore a timing issue.

Apparently the IMS flange and/or bolts can leak, which a tech might try to fix by taking all of the bolts out at once. And if things aren't locked down, this could result in the timing issue.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=29492&hl=IMS+slip+timing

Probably a longshot, but it might be worth asking where the oil leak was and how they fixed it.

In retrospect this likely isn't the cause of your problem, as you say you were on the road when the engine died. If the mis-timing had occurred as I supposed, the valves and pistons would have contacted as soon as the car was started up at the shop.