How Many Times Has Your 986 Left You Stranded On the Road?

[tonycarreon]

*knock on wood* so far, the car has 105k miles and is 12 years old.

it has never actually left me stranded on the side of the road. it's always made it "somewhere" that i can repair or replace a broken part. most were at home.

the alternator failed on the way from nowhere texas to nothing texas on the highway, but the car kept going to a small town with a parts store. the water pump started failing in nebraska, but made it to denver without a complete failure. ignition switch had issues for a while before i finally replaced it. those were the closest to stranded. cracked coolant tank was replaced at home.

[thom4782]

Wow, it's looking like I may be the record holder on this one....and that's not a good thing. Thank goodness for AAA.

[bar10dah]

Small sampling size, so the numbers won't mean too much. However, I do believe the data will be skewed just a bit, as appears most folks here are enthusiasts who mostly DIY and perform routine maintenance. They're less likely to "break down" as compared to someone who just owns a Boxster and only puts gas in it.

It's still cool to see the common failures that'll leave one stranded somewhere. Good thread!

[bar10dah]

Originally Posted by fatmike

Once.

2nd ignition switch failure (The ignition switch had already been replaced). Drained battery in the airport parking lot. I couldn't even open the trunk to jump start the car. (spectacular car design flaw).

So I had to do the whole plug a portable battery into the cigarette lighter dance... The problem is my portable battery is at my house (not at the airport after flight).




/

The dead battery procedure in the owner's manual didn't help you figure out how to open the hood?

[fatmike]

Originally Posted by bar10dah

The dead battery procedure in the owner's manual didn't help you figure out how to open the hood?

Ignition switch drained battery. Alarm left on. Manually (physically) opened car with key which sets off a dying car alarm sounds. Jump start procedure (touch to frame and special spot to open hood) would not work when alarm is going off. BTW - you can't open the trunk either when the alarm is going off.

This is the Porsche circle of stupidity. Can't get to battery, I am stranded...

Just give me a manual frunk release and none of this would ever happen.



/

[jsceash]

Not yet a few mile off 30,000 for me, and the car has 56500

[tortoise944]

Never in the 4+ years of owning my '98 986 and never in my 3 months of owning my 981 S.

I did have a 944 blow its timing belt and break some valves around 12 years ago. That was my only Porsche let down. And it was my fault as I put off replacing the timing belt by 6 months.

Lesson learned on Porsches: always be preventative and they are solid. Ignore servicing them at your peril.

[porscheinthewoods]

Never since I bought my 2000 at 76K km and now at 198k km. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[clickman]

Once. And if I had half a brain I would have paid attention to the warning signs.

The car wouldn't start - dead battery - due to the voltage regulator being shot.

The warning signs were slow top operation with the engine off and slow window action.

[Bmod986]

Once I ran out of gas. My gauge was a bit off and I was pushing her on third gear for a while. It was the weirdest feeling, first off never felt a car run out of gas before and secondly i was just downshifting thinking that I was losing power but then I realized that it was a gas shortage. So I lost a good amount of roll time meaning more pushing. Luckily my friends were behind me so they pushed me to an empty lot and we went to get some gas.

The one positive thing that came out of this is that my friend quit smoking cigarets after feeling like S*** after pushing my car. A negative for a positive.

[fusionist]

Never once.

[san rensho]

Once. Dead battery, due to age. I don't really consider it a Porsche failure. A dead battery will kill any car.

[bglz42]

Neither my Cayman, nor my Boxster, have left me stranded...

[Brockmeister]

I've owned mine for 2 1/2 years. Started at 66k, now has 88k. has not left me stranded. Even when a deer hit me in 2011.