2004 Cayenne S (V8) Blown Engine at 82,000 miles, need help!

[ventuje]

A few weeks back, my 2004 C4S with 82,000 engine failed. Always dealer maintained at proper intervals. About 8 months out of extended warranty. Was coming home one night, started to stutter, then just quit like the engine fell out ! No idiot lights or anything. Stealer wants 30k to replace engine! Bore-scope revealed missing piston in cylinder 3 (yea, gone!) and visible crack in cylinder, coolant and metal in oil. Any ideas on best approach to get Porsche NA to own up and do the right thing? If not, any idea where/how to get rebuilt short or long block or iron-sleeved? Anyone know of a good indy shop? I'm located in Southern New Jersey.

Thanks for the advice

[clarksongli]

Not sure how to get Porsche to own up to that, but if it was truely Dealer maintained, then i would definitely go after that.

But on a side note. That is an unusual failure....not too often do you see a major failure like that so long into it's life cycle so suddenly. Normally you hear signs of it first (rod knock or something).

The bad news is that your block is toast. I wouldn't even bother trying to sleeve it if there is a visible crack in the wall.The cheapest option is to pull the motor, and break it down completely. Chances are eveything is useable still except for items related to that cylinder. You can save big bucks by reusing heads, crank, pistons and rods.

Rebuilt anything from Porsche is VERY expensive, and generally why it is never worth the cost. If you check out the salvage yards, they are generally around 7k for a same mileage motor. Certainly a little risky since you won't know the condition until starting it up. you can get a block for about 1000 bucks from a yard.

Check out Car-Parts.com

[ventuje]

Yea, it seemed pretty odd to have such a failure with absolutely NO warning signs & no idiot lights came on either. Car always ran real strong and smooth! If you dig around on the internet you can find quite a few similar issues with cracks in cylinder walls (alusil). I spoke with a 928 guy who can fix scores in the walls but if they weld a crack, it usually will re-crack near the weld (the weld holds just fine). So I suppose I need to find a salvage motor or see what I can get at wholesale.

Thanks for the info!