RMS fixed once: good news or bad?

[JG986]

I am looking at a used '03 Boxster with about 20k miles, the RMS was fixed under warranty. Question is this good news because it has been fixed or bad news because once a problem its likely to recurr or is there no relationship what so ever?

Excellent forum by the way!

[RandallNeighbour]

While I have no personal experience with a failed RMS (thank God), I've been watching threads on it ever since I bought my boxster.

One guy I know personally bought a boxster that had an RMS repaired a year before he bought it and it went bad again, and the dealer who put it in warranted the work in part and he paid part of it because he wasn't the owner at the time of the original repair.

However, I've read about people replacing their RMS and having no future problems with it. I think it is a case by case issue, and certainly not something to keep you from buying one of the best convertible sports cars ever built. Now which one in particular you buy may be a different story!

The one you're looking at appears to have factory warranty remaining on it, and that's a beautiful thing... I sure wish I had a warranty on my car! That should give you a lot of peace of mind. I think if the RMS is going to fail again, it will happen inside a year or so and it would be covered.

You might call the dealer who repaired the RMS and ask them what kind of warranty they will offer you, a new owner, if the RMS starts to leak again.

One more piece of advice... get a PPI from a dealership done on this car before you decide to buy it. Best couple of hundred bucks you will ever spend. If the car pulls to the right or left, also pay to have a laser four wheel alignment done on the car to insure it has no subframe damage... you'd need it done anyway if you bought the car.

[Brucelee]

I have never seen reliable data on this.

If the RMS was repaired correctly, one could theorize that you are less likely to suffer another.

This might be esp. true if repaired more recently, as they have changed the seal and the process.

Good luck.

[limoncello]

One thought would be to get the engine shaft alignment checked to see if it was in tolerance. Doesn't Porsche have a tool to check this, and the reading then used to decide whether engine replacement is needed or not? (Course, if the same dealer dodged the engine bullet and just put in a seal, they wouldn't be likely to tell you, would they?)
For the others - isn't the alignment, or lack of, between the shaft and the outer boring the key to the seal's longevity?