Poll: RMS and Engine problem questionaire

[Phill Dougan]

Hi, my 987 has just had the RMS replaced at 14k, used for long runs at high speed 3k round trips, driven with passion but not flogged. also had the oil pressure release valve replaced it rattled at 2200 rpm common on the 987.

[MikenOH]

-How much oil were you leaking?
-Any comment out of the dealership on this?
-What do you mean by "long runs at high speed 3k round trips"?
-how'd you break the car in?
-S or base model?
-Manual or Tip trany?
Thanks,
Mike

[RandallNeighbour]

This makes me wonder if Cayman owners are experiencing RMS issues on the 3.4... I'm thinking about saving up and buying a 07 S when they start to come off 3 year leases and I HOPE they've fixed the problem by now... but I'm not holding my breath.

[YellowJacket]

1997
66k
daily commuter
no track time and minimal spirited driving
all maintenance done on time, +/- 1k miles
bought used
NO RMS

By the way, regarding the .5%-1% requirement for surveys, that's a load of poop. You need around 30-40 responses to start getting directional reads (as in, we could start saying "track cars tend to be more prone than street cars" or whatnot). You need around 500 responses to get reads at 95% confidence, and around 1000 responses to get reads at 97% confidence (have you ever noticed how all those consumer polls by Gallup and whatnot usually specify 3% margin of error with 1006 responses or something like that?). Still, these numbers require that the populations be unbiased and representative of the overall population, but we'd never get that here for 2 reasons:
1. People who've had RMS failure are more likely to respond than those who haven't.
2. Just the fact that you're on a forum for Boxster owners means several things about you that bias the group that would respond here.

Cool concept, but perhaps the only people who could do this survey the RIGHT way is Porsche, and the only people who could do it "almost right" is PCA, unless someone has a national list of Boxster owners floating around. :-)

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by YellowJacket

1997
66k
daily commuter
no track time and minimal spirited driving
all maintenance done on time, +/- 1k miles
bought used
NO RMS

By the way, regarding the .5%-1% requirement for surveys, that's a load of poop. You need around 30-40 responses to start getting directional reads (as in, we could start saying "track cars tend to be more prone than street cars" or whatnot). You need around 500 responses to get reads at 95% confidence, and around 1000 responses to get reads at 97% confidence (have you ever noticed how all those consumer polls by Gallup and whatnot usually specify 3% margin of error with 1006 responses or something like that?). Still, these numbers require that the populations be unbiased and representative of the overall population, but we'd never get that here for 2 reasons:
1. People who've had RMS failure are more likely to respond than those who haven't.
2. Just the fact that you're on a forum for Boxster owners means several things about you that bias the group that would respond here.

Cool concept, but perhaps the only people who could do this survey the RIGHT way is Porsche, and the only people who could do it "almost right" is PCA, unless someone has a national list of Boxster owners floating around. :-)

Hi,

I agree with you so far as statistical analysis goes. But, Porsche is MUM on the subject and PCA hasn't conducted such a survey to my knowledge, leaving only these Ad Hoc surveys to make some sense of it.

Still, whatever the bias, more than 30% of those responding here have experienced the problem.

That's a little higher than I expected because a PCNA Service Rep (on condition of anonymity) confided in me that they are seeing anywhere between 20% and 25% RMS Failure, it fluctuates between the two (he didn't breakdown Model Year, Model, Mileage, Multiple failures. Nor did he distinguish between 98X and 99X). Your caveats may explain the disparity between what he said and what we're seeing here.

If the PCNA Rep is off by as much as half, that's still waay too high for a Brand Name Sports Car in the $50k range. And, the fact that Porsche hasn't resolved the issue in a decade is perhaps even more deplorable. They just keep grinding them out, and the Public (whether ignorant, or just stupid) keeps gobbling them up.

Let's just hope that the Air Bag supplier, TRW, isn't experiencing an anywhere near similar failure rate!...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[jrkauffman28]

2000 Boxster w/ 55 K miles. Origanal owner. No problems so far.

[BoxsterQc]

02 Boxster spirited but not abused driving conditions, not a daily commuter and stored from Nov to Mar.
Bought it used , have 49K and had to change the RMS last spring after a long rest in the Garage for the Winter. When I brought it in for service at 45K they saw that the RMS was starting to go ( few oil drops) . Drove it twice and it started leaking. Had to change with the larger seal. So far have drove it all the summer and it's fine !
I'm going to cross fingers since I'm afraid that long period of storing the car will not help the RMS issue.

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by BoxsterQc

02 Boxster spirited but not abused driving conditions, not a daily commuter and stored from Nov to Mar.
Bought it used , have 49K and had to change the RMS last spring after a long rest in the Garage for the Winter. When I brought it in for service at 45K they saw that the RMS was starting to go ( few oil drops) . Drove it twice and it started leaking. Had to change with the larger seal. So far have drove it all the summer and it's fine !
I'm going to cross fingers since I'm afraid that long period of storing the car will not help the RMS issue.

Hi,

No need to cross fingers at all due to winter storage. See my post in the General Discussions on RMS & Winter Storage.

BTW, I was just in your wonderful city last week as my wife is going to be doing the '07 PGA President's Cup Tournament in Montreal next September at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. We married and honeymooned in Montreal back in '99, so I'll be accompanying her next year and we'll have a 2nd honeymoon there once the tourney's over. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[Boxter]

Unfortunately for all concerned parties here I think Yellow Jacket's post is spot on.

You typed my thoughts almost to the word.

...and as unscientific as this may sound I also think there is an element of superstition that may influence the Non-RMS replacement crowd from participating.

That said I have a 98' with 73K, only had it for a month, spirited driving, with a small leak back there, but no RMS diagnosed as of yet...

"knock/touch wood" just to cover all bases.

[Silverstreak]

Year 2000 type S, RMS replaced at 19K miles

[jci-joe]

99 Boxster
33000 miles
Tiptronic
no rms issues
orginal engine
i am 2nd owner and the original owner only had a small coolant leak that was fixed under warranty and an AC that needed charged

[just_me]

Originally Posted by xclusivecar

On the PPBB.com board they had a poster (LorenS?) who had asked everyone to participate in a survey regarding RMS and other problems. This was several months ago and I believe he is still compiling the data. He was doing this in his spare time and this is why it was taking so long. The outcome should be interesting if nothing else. I believe he had well over 250 surveys sent to him and the data compiled would be based off these. He is a stats guy and had some type of software that would paint a picture of problems compared to driving habits, mileage, etc...

Available on PPBB

[Rondog]

dealer informed me while performing 20M service (yes i was early) that there is a rms leak--- i never saw any sign of it ---all covered by warranty so i imagine they are telling the truth....

should anything else be done while that is being fixed?!?!?!

RD

[RandallNeighbour]

Ask them to inspect the clutch... if you've been real hard on it, now's the time to swap it out as the labor will be free.

Problem is that they will not let you supply your own parts and they're gonna rip your head off at the ankles for a clutch.

[fahlmanb]

As many of you have read in another thread, I have an '02 Boxster:

purchased used last May; currently ca. 35K miles; Tiptronic
no RMS problem
engine failed 2 wks ago due to failure of the intermediate shaft/timing chain

[Allen K. Littlefield]

Originally Posted by fahlmanb

As many of you have read in another thread, I have an '02 Boxster:

purchased used last May; currently ca. 35K miles; Tiptronic
no RMS problem
engine failed 2 wks ago due to failure of the intermediate shaft/timing chain

Ouch! I just purchased an '02 2.7 Tip with now just over 35k past Dec.. Certified vehicle and when I got it to inspection I notice a rms leak. Now wasn't that supposed to be taken care of by the dealer before they could sell it as certified? Fingers crossed in the frozen N.E.

986geezer

[Cloudsurfer]

02 S with 70k here, no RMS issues to date.

With regard to the last post, I dont see how PCNA would allow a car to be certified with a known RMS issue.

Patrick

[RandallNeighbour]

My sentiments exactly! However, if they put the kibash on certifying any boxster with a RMS problem, they'd have precious few cars to certify!

[porsche986spyder]

Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but what does RMS stand for? Rear Main Seal???

[RandallNeighbour]

RMS - short for "you have a leak where your engine meets your tranny and we're not fixing this factory flaw in our engines ... and we need to warn you right now, you need to bend over and take it like a prison inmate who has to pay $800 or more to get raped."

Yeah, it means Rear Main Seal.