Looking for some opinions on high mileage engines

[philhan]

I did a little searching on engine failures on this forum and was surprised to find so many of them. I have a 99 996 with almost 90,000 miles. It's my daily driver and I drive the car hard. I have a commute of 60 miles a day and enjoy every mile of it. It's been trouble free since day one. No RMS leaks, no issues whatsoever. The only thing I had to replace was a MAF and some minor cosmetic stuff with the passenger seat. Serviced at the recommended intervals but recently this weekend the Check Engine Light came on and a little piece of me died. I did the usual checks...gas and oil caps, etc. put in a bottle of techron but the light stayed on for two days and finally went out today right before I was about to drop it off at the dealership. But after reading this post and seeing the check engine light on I feel the car is running a little rough. The car starts and idles beautifully but one thing I did notice is that whenever I turn off the AC the car tends to vibrate a little as evidenced by the passenger seat...i turn the AC on and it's smooth.

So my question: Should I drop off my car at the dealer just to make sure everything is OK? Is it normal for the CEL to go off or does it cycle off automatically even if there's a problem? As I approach the 100K mark will I be experiencing significant engine problems?

[Loren]

Go to an Autozone - have the fault code(s) read for free - tell what they are.

Just a guess but any O2 sensor that makes it past about 60-80K on Porsche is living on borrowed time.

[nick49]

What search words did you use to find engine failures? You are having better luck than I! Hopefully something minor with yours.

[Orient Express]

I second Loren's analysis, if the CEL went out after a number of drive cycles, then it was a transitory fault like an O2 sensor on its last legs. The fault will be stored in the cars memory, so it will be easy to read. Once we know what the fault is, we can proceed on a remedy.

[philhan]

I second Loren's analysis, if the CEL went out after a number of drive cycles, then it was a transitory fault like an O2 sensor on its last legs. The fault will be stored in the cars memory, so it will be easy to read. Once we know what the fault is, we can proceed on a remedy.

Thanks Loren and Orient Express you guys are awesome. I will get those codes checked out.

RE: Nick 49 I just did a search using "CEL" "engine failure" "check engine" and those yielded quite a bit of results.

Anyone on here with a high mileage 996 like mine? Would love to hear from you guys since I know alot of 911 owners use their cars as daily drivers.

[911dark]

67K miles here, daily driver. (had it for the past 3K miles)

Mine runs a bit rougher at idle without the air compressor on but I assume that is because with the AC off the idle speed is a bit lower.

Not seen any check engine light thus far.

[0586slb]

...Mine runs a bit rougher at idle without the air compressor on but I assume that is because with the AC off the idle speed is a bit lower.

The AC control module lets the DME know when the compressor is running - the DME adjusts ignition timing, fueling and idle air to smoothe the idle. Incidentally, did you know that the AC compressor on later cars has a variable outlet? It doesn't just pump at 100% capacity when the AC clutch is engaged - rather it starts at about 25% to eliminate the 'clunk' and then varies the output to suit cooling demand, regardless of engine speed.

[Guest]

Sell it, if it has the 3.4l engine like mine you will be buying a new engine soon. I believe the engine is only good for 40-50k miles you are living on borrowed time. Ignore any other posts. many porsche owners and many on this site have drank the kool-aid about how great porsche is, but when that engine blows and it will you will be looking at around 20,000 dollars. Porsche paid for half of mine, but I think this is thier cover-up tactic. If you search you will find many whose engines failed and the funny thin is you can never get a good reason why. I believ thier is a major defect in the cam shaft bearing housings. If you wanted to see if that is the problem you could probably detect the slop in the flywheel.

I love my car, but don't believe you can depend on the 3.4l engine must pass 40k.

Sounds like you have had good luck and I would not push it.

[siddharth]

Sell it, if it has the 3.4l engine like mine you will be buying a new engine soon. I believe the engine is only good for 40-50k miles you are living on borrowed time. Ignore any other posts. many porsche owners and many on this site have drank the kool-aid about how great porsche is, but when that engine blows and it will you will be looking at around 20,000 dollars. Porsche paid for half of mine, but I think this is thier cover-up tactic. If you search you will find many whose engines failed and the funny thin is you can never get a good reason why. I believ thier is a major defect in the cam shaft bearing housings. If you wanted to see if that is the problem you could probably detect the slop in the flywheel.

I love my car, but don't believe you can depend on the 3.4l engine must pass 40k.

Sounds like you have had good luck and I would not push it.

Huh ? My friend has a 3.4L 996 with over 105kmiles on it. Its going fine so far. I have 55k Miles on mine. Maybe you're paranoid about the 3.4L engines ...

Anyway, I'm thinking that mostly that CEL is due to the MAF or O2 sensors. I had a CEL sometime back and cleaned the Mass Air Flow sensor and its been fine and dandy since then. An $8 fix ! But yeah ... like Loren says, drive to AutoZone and borow their OBD2 reader. The OBD2 port is near the drivers left knee.

I didn't know this autozone thingy and spent $110 by having my dealer read those codes to me. The most stupid way I've ever blown $100 ... I can buy an OBD2 reader for that cost....

Hope its nothing major,

Sid

[x5rap]

I just hit the Porsche lottery and got Warrantech to replace the engine in my '99 tip coupe (an early Feb-98 build date). The guy at Warrantech knew all the part numbers by heart and he knew the difference between the BX (tip) and CX (manual) M96 engines. He had seen this too many times.

These engines have a history by now and that's why I found a '99 with an extended warranty. I bought the car in Jan-05.

My lovely car has 42,100 and the case "went porrous": water and oil mixed probably from a weakened cylinder wall. There were no symptoms. The car ran great and the intermixing was discovered during an annual (7,000) mile oil change.

Don't take this as a jinx because your car may be a great one, but if you're at 99K miles on a '99 996 engine, by all accounts, probabilities say you're definitely on borrowed time.

[philhan]

I just hit the Porsche lottery and got Warrantech to replace the engine in my '99 tip coupe (an early Feb-98 build date). The guy at Warrantech knew all the part numbers by heart and he knew the difference between the BX (tip) and CX (manual) M96 engines. He had seen this too many times.

These engines have a history by now and that's why I found a '99 with an extended warranty. I bought the car in Jan-05.

My lovely car has 42,100 and the case "went porrous": water and oil mixed probably from a weakened cylinder wall. There were no symptoms. The car ran great and the intermixing was discovered during an annual (7,000) mile oil change.

Don't take this as a jinx because your car may be a great one, but if you're at 99K miles on a '99 996 engine, by all accounts, probabilities say you're definitely on borrowed time.

Hi Guys:

Thanks for everyone's experiences. I just wanted to give everyone an update on what happened. Had CEL light checked out. It was the Fuel Carbon Canistar. It was leaking and I had it replaced at my local dealer. It was $810 including parts and labor. I also asked my Service Advisor who was very familiar with my car to give everything a once over. He replaced the Fuel Carbon Canistar ran a diagnosis and it was clean. I was curious to see what his opinion was on high mileage 996s and I asked him if I should be planning on selling my car sooner rather than later. His opinion on my car was that my car is in great shape. Usually whenever a check engine light comes on and a fix was made they have to usually figgle with the car a couple of times since in most cases another error code will appear but on my car it came out clean the first time. He had one of his mechanics inspect and drive the car and the only thing that they recommended I get done was a brake flush when I come back for the 90K mile service. In his opinion my car, especially considering it's clean history, should experience no major problems until 200K miles. I do trust him and believe he wasn't just telling me what I wanted to hear. I must admit I have taken some sips off of the Porsche Kool aid and even after driving it on a daily basis for this amount of time I am still in love with the car and I couldn't wait to get back into after not having for a day. I do realize that this is NOT indicative of all 996s...as evidenced by the number of people having blown engines after only 30K miles but I just want to shed a positive experience on this post for future 911 owners who are hesitant about buying one due to reliablity issues. The 911 is the only car that I know that I can use as a daily driver w/o the issues of maintenance and reliablity issues that come with owing an exotic. I plan on buying a gently used Ferrari 355 within the year but that will be my weekend driver and I plan on keeping my 996, my baby, as my daily driver as long as possible. :D

Just my 2 cents.

[Izzy]

Phil,

I have a 99 cabrio, 56K miles, no issues. It is my daily driver and I track it every chance I get. I got it with 30K miles, no real issues. I try keep all the fluids fresh (since I track it) and the radiators clean. I agree with you, driving it every day is awesome.

I wonder if there are any statistics, like Consumer Reports, regarding the engines or the cars. I think my wife got a month subscription to the on-line service (for Kitchen gadgets, and it is going to cost me). I will research it and post it here. That way will be at least a siginificant population and less personal experiences. I am sure there is an error in their reportout, but has to be less than asking a few people. More to come

Izzy

[Kim]

I love my car, but don't believe you can depend on the 3.4l engine must pass 40k.

I've got 50k+ on a MY 00. I've never had it in the shop for a mechanical problem.

The only other car I have had to match this trouble free reliability (in 45 years of car ownership) is my wife's Toyota. That comparison includes several BMWs, couple of Volvos, and an assortment of domestics.

Kim

2000 Cab