Poll: RMS and Engine problem questionaire
 

Please answer yes or no to the following questions related to RMS and engine failure. Please include particular information in your response regarding the year, mileage, model, whether the car was purchased new or used, transmission type, driving style and adherence to scheduled maintenance and break-in recommendations. Thanks for participating. (hope this appears as intended)


Have you experienced a RMS leak? (yes/no)
Have you experienced mutiple RMS leaks (yes/no)
Have you experienced an engine failure (yes/no)

You may want to make this a poll format thread.

Ok, I voted and limited the question to just the RMS
 

My particulars are in the earlier post if anyone wants to assemble some data if we get enough posts.
Thanks to all for participating.

Mike,

I think you're on to a good thing. And, without over-complicating things, a suggestion: To make the Data meaningful, consider expanding your poll to at least include:

Current Mileage

Mileage at time of RMS Failure

Bought New?

Bought Used?
(Mine was used - RMS @4k mi., but if I had not been persistent, I would have never known - the Dealership did not want to release that info to me, fairly common Dealer Practice from several reports I've seen. So someone could have a used vehicle with replaced RMS and not know it.

Do you Track or DE your Car?

Is All Maintenance performed in a timely manner?

What is your Normal Oil Change Interval?

What Mods have you done?

Without some additional information to qualify the RMS leak(s), you could be hearing from people who's RMS Failure is due to Abuse, Neglect or Extreme Use, which of course can't be specifically pinned on Faulty Design or Manufacture.

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Good points, Jim..
 

I'm just not sure how I would have worked it into the poll format that this board provides. Maybe somebody smarter than me can figure it out.
What I do hope to get is a handle from those who frequent the board on the stats of leaks and at least compare those to a poll I did in our PCA club last year with 29 respondent.

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... :cheers:

I just "stuck:" this thread so it stays on top of the pile!

:cheers:

How will we change answer
 

Hi Bruce,

Good idea with this.

How are we going to allow for someone who votes no and then gets a leak?

Don't know. I doubt we can get TOO scientific given the structure of the board's technology.

Have you tried voting twice? It may allow it.

:cheers:

I think we should find a stat guy who can help us develop a true scientifically accurate poll about the RMS issue and post that poll online and email every single boxster owner we know to get them to go and take it.

This would stand up in court if the polling party would be willing to supply their name, address and VIN number as well as other stuff mentioned earlier in this thread.

Randall:
 

I asked a friend that has some experience in surveys which are statistically valid about this and the numbers he threw out were in the .5-1% sample range. So, if we figure there have been at least 100K Boxsters built from 1997-2005 model years, our valid survey would need a min. of 500-1000 respondents--a pretty tall task.

As i see it, this little poll will just add a bit of qualified information to our normal posts on this topic. It will hopefully provide an indication, rather than proof positive, one way or the other. I'll suppliment these results with that from our PCA club.

Loren's survey should have a much bigger sample with results that, while not statistically valid, give a reasonably accurate picture of what other owners are experiencing.

I believe that there are many more than 100K Boxsters on the road but I have to do more digging to verify that.

I don't see any way to get a valid poll done in this venue and frankly, this OUGHT to be the purveiw of the PCA. THEY could easily do a valid poll.

But as you can see, that would kinda of strain their relationship with the mother ship!

poll results
 

Now that we're getting a number of responses, I'd like to cobble together an excel spread sheet of particulars, similar to what Jim mentioned earlier, so that we might be able to figure out some co-relation between a cause and effect, if possible.

What I'm thinking is, again:
RMS-Yes/No/ yes how many
Year, model, tranny, bought new or used, mileage currently, mileage when RMS occurred, driving habits (DE/auto-x), folowed scheduled maintenace, etc....

Basically, anything pertinent to what we're talking about here.

If you email me with he particulars--send me your email address also--I'll send everyone who participated in the breakout of the particulars. Just to keep it straight, use your handle when you send me the info so I can keep it straight.

Great Topic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Nightmare week,

i like to repeat myself sorry, wrote a simillar post last week, sorry to those that have to read it again......so in october 2005 had the RMS replaced with a so called
"updated seal". the warranty was up in november 2005. this past sunday i took the car out of the garage ( car is in storage, dam snow). i found a little oil leak, i fliped, wrote a letter to porsche germany / porsche canada / porsche america / whoever's email addresses that i could find really. really didnt want to take any chances, with someone telling me that i owe $900.00 for an RMS leak, right after having it replaced. so tammy in atlanta called me from porsche the other day and told me that a warranty exists that covers the new updated seal that they put in the car in october of 2005 thank god.

sooo i took the car in today to get it checked, and they tell me that the leak is "residue". so i have a nice inch by an inch oil spot on my garage floor, a piece of newspaper that i placed yesterday on the floor, with a a nice little oil spot. when they lifted the car on a hoist, they said that it was "residue" . that much residue, what the bloody hell....

2002 porsche boxster, no replaced engine, 1 rms leak, on going residue leak, 19646 miles / 300000 km. no mods to engine. lowered but that shouldnt make a difference. drive hard oh yeah. no tracking the car. what else............

shoot me

Let's not re-invent the wheel here. I'll post to the PPBB board and see if Loren has finished the survey from last year. From what he had stated he's a stats guy. Works with numbers, stats, surveys, etc., for a living. Maybe we can ADD to his ongoing survey???? :cheers:

Hi,

Granted, we're not currently at a Sample Size which is meaningful, but as I have previously mentioned, about 2 weeks ago, informal surveys, done at various Forums, including PistonHeads in the UK seemed to indicate a 20%-30% Failure rate of RMS, not qualified for Design defficiency or Owner Caused. It's been interesting that so far, we're hovering in that range, although it seems a little higher thanthat figure so far, but more respondants might lower the Stat...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Hi, I voted "no".


I have a 98, 5 speed, bought the car used with 24k on it 2 years ago. Has nearly 40k on it now.

The only thing that has gone wrong with it is the stupid air bag warning light, which I really should get taken care of.

Attention: 986 forum members that have posted on the RMS poll,
 

We've gotten over 30 replies and only 4-5 repsonses I can reference to particular members with their particular details.

In order to organize the details, could you send me a PM with your particulars--model/year/mileage--all the stuff we've discussed before, so i can start putting this on a spreadsheet?

Thanks for any help with this.

NO - RMS
YES - Replaced engine 13,800 miles
YES - Replaced MAF 14,200 miles (probably related to new engine)
NO - I don't "track"
YES - I have appropriate maintenance performed as scheduled.

1999, non-S, approx 16k miles, purchased "used", manual tranny, driven everyday. As to "driving style" - that's tough. I've always thought I was pretty stylish. No drags or racing but with the rare "need for speed" on wide open empty roads.

Hope this helps your data!

Boxster / 2001 / 45k total miles / RMS fixed - found at 24,750miles.