Blown 987 Base Boxster Engine

[NYSpeedRacer84]

6,000 miles later as I was waiting on the line at the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge, my engine started to make this tin can rattling noise. I pulled over and discovered that nothing was wrong, as I got back into my car and continue on I noticed that the noise continued and it was even louder. Furthermore, I discovered a patch of motor oil where I once was. I got out to investigate and that's when the entire engine dumped it's motor oil on the side of the road. It doesn't look like it was leaking from the bottom rather it was the top. It was dark so it was pretty hard to determine anything.

Prior to my engine blowing up the oil level was fine as was my engine temperature. There was no CEL light or any lights for that matter. Any suggestions on what may have happened to my engine? It's a 987 Base Boxster with about 33k miles. Like I said, it went through a tough 6,000 miles this past week. The car was part of the AKA Rally. Furthermore, the car went excess of 150mph at Bonneville Salt Flats, but that was over 3,000 miles ago....Any suggestions? before the dealership opens up on Monday? Would this be covered under warranty? and if not why wouldn't it be?

Anything would help as this is my second Porsche, so I'm not exactly an expert.

Edited July 21, 2007 by NYSpeedRacer84

[wvicary]

Sounds like the intermediate shaft failed..... complete engine replacement is the only repair I know of.

[NYSpeedRacer84]

Sounds like the intermediate shaft failed..... complete engine replacement is the only repair I know of.

Would this be a warranty covered issue? What would be the cause of this?

Edited July 21, 2007 by NYSpeedRacer84

[Tool Pants]

If this was a 986 I would also say the intermediate shaft. On the 986 Porsche went from a double to a single bearing that supports the end of the shaft. The bearing would fail. The intermediate shaft bearing support has a nut on the end. This would then shear off leaving a hole in the back of the engine for oil to dump on the ground. But once in a while the nut would shear off and the damage and oil dumping did not occur immediately.

This issue was supposedly resolved with the 987. I have not heard of an intermediate shaft failure on a 987. Yet....

Go to the dealer and play dumb. You were at a toll booth - forget the rest. The dealer is going to read your DME to see what the engine has been doing anyway. They may also drain your oil to see if there is metal in it. Let us know what the problem is when you find out, if your dealer will even tell you.

[ADias]

You say the engine has been driven hard. How hard? If within its operating limits it should be OK. Did you ever have a type 2 overrev?

If you did not abuse the engine you should be fine and PAG will give you a new engine. I would not play dumb, just state what happened. Ultimately the decision lies on the electronic records.

I hope this is not your case, but I read a lot of posts describing serious car abuse. One should be very careful these days about buying these cars used...

[PTEC]

If this was a 986 I would also say the intermediate shaft. On the 986 Porsche went from a double to a single bearing that supports the end of the shaft. The bearing would fail. The intermediate shaft bearing support has a nut on the end. This would then shear off leaving a hole in the back of the engine for oil to dump on the ground. But once in a while the nut would shear off and the damage and oil dumping did not occur immediately.

This issue was supposedly resolved with the 987. I have not heard of an intermediate shaft failure on a 987.

I don't know if the issue is completely resolved or not but the intermediate shaft has been redesigned. I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range but the new style is very easy to recognize as the nut on the end is now something like a 24mm instead of the old 13mm. Anyhow pretty much all of the 05 and early 06s still have the old style shaft so 9x7's are still very susceptible to failure. For what its worth I have not seen a new style intermediate shaft fail, or leak for that matter.

Edited July 22, 2007 by PTEC

[Westcoaster]

If this was a 986 I would also say the intermediate shaft. On the 986 Porsche went from a double to a single bearing that supports the end of the shaft. The bearing would fail. The intermediate shaft bearing support has a nut on the end. This would then shear off leaving a hole in the back of the engine for oil to dump on the ground. But once in a while the nut would shear off and the damage and oil dumping did not occur immediately.

This issue was supposedly resolved with the 987. I have not heard of an intermediate shaft failure on a 987.

I don't know if the issue is completely resolved or not but the intermediate shaft has been redesigned. I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range but the new style is very easy to recognize as the nut on the end is now something like a 24mm instead of the old 13mm. Anyhow pretty much all of the 05 and early 06s still have the old style shaft so 9x7's are still very susceptible to failure. For what its worth I have not seen a new style intermediate shaft fail, or leak for that matter.

I there anyway to tell if/when the 987 engine began using the 'new design'? BTW I have a base my06

[PTEC]

If this was a 986 I would also say the intermediate shaft. On the 986 Porsche went from a double to a single bearing that supports the end of the shaft. The bearing would fail. The intermediate shaft bearing support has a nut on the end. This would then shear off leaving a hole in the back of the engine for oil to dump on the ground. But once in a while the nut would shear off and the damage and oil dumping did not occur immediately.

This issue was supposedly resolved with the 987. I have not heard of an intermediate shaft failure on a 987.

I don't know if the issue is completely resolved or not but the intermediate shaft has been redesigned. I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range but the new style is very easy to recognize as the nut on the end is now something like a 24mm instead of the old 13mm. Anyhow pretty much all of the 05 and early 06s still have the old style shaft so 9x7's are still very susceptible to failure. For what its worth I have not seen a new style intermediate shaft fail, or leak for that matter.

I there anyway to tell if/when the 987 engine began using the 'new design'? BTW I have a base my06

Ill say again, I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range for the new style engines. I have never seen any information on this from Porsche or from any other source. What I can say for sure is that the reman engines from Porsche started coming with the new shaft in late 05/early 06 IIRC, and the engines they were replacing definitely did not have the new shaft. I wouldnt take the news as time to panic. There are still a ton of 9x6 cars still running around with the old design with no problems. Its not a kiss of death by any means.

Edited July 23, 2007 by PTEC

[Westcoaster]

If this was a 986 I would also say the intermediate shaft. On the 986 Porsche went from a double to a single bearing that supports the end of the shaft. The bearing would fail. The intermediate shaft bearing support has a nut on the end. This would then shear off leaving a hole in the back of the engine for oil to dump on the ground. But once in a while the nut would shear off and the damage and oil dumping did not occur immediately.

This issue was supposedly resolved with the 987. I have not heard of an intermediate shaft failure on a 987.

I don't know if the issue is completely resolved or not but the intermediate shaft has been redesigned. I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range but the new style is very easy to recognize as the nut on the end is now something like a 24mm instead of the old 13mm. Anyhow pretty much all of the 05 and early 06s still have the old style shaft so 9x7's are still very susceptible to failure. For what its worth I have not seen a new style intermediate shaft fail, or leak for that matter.

I there anyway to tell if/when the 987 engine began using the 'new design'? BTW I have a base my06

Ill say again, I cant say when exactly it was introduced or give an engine number range for the new style engines. I have never seen any information on this from Porsche or from any other source. What I can say for sure is that the reman engines from Porsche started coming with the new shaft in late 05/early 06 IIRC, and the engines they were replacing definitely did not have the new shaft. I wouldnt take the news as time to panic. There are still a ton of 9x6 cars still running around with the old design with no problems. Its not a kiss of death by any means.

Thanks, I was just wondering. I am sure Porsche would not want to 'advertise' this kind of weakness by publishing the date or manufacturing date range...

[NYSpeedRacer84]

I just dropped off the car at Pepe Porsche and it was still dumping oil! Basically it has been pissing oil since Friday night! I'm awaiting for them to take apart the car and see what PCNA says, but I already got a quote for a 3.8 X51 engine & Tranny....$12k, so I'm looking at under $16k for a 3.8L X51 Transplant....If so, I'm definitely going to do it myself! More to come as I hear back from Porsche...

[05Boxster]

What did Porsche end up doing for you?