Another Blown Engine

[pjslowik]

I bought an 03 Boxster just about three years ago. I took particular steps to break it in easily for the first thousand miles. At three thousand miles the engine had a "catastrophic failure." Dealer wanted to replace the engine with a reman. I fought with them and Porsche to get a new engine which Porsche agreed to fly in from Germany.

I took the car to New York last Friday. It was a beautiful weekend there. We saw the Blue Angles at Jones Beach perform an air show on Saturday. Sunday, we went to a bbq. Monday, we took the car to Manhattan to see the Navy ships there for Fleet Week. I returned to Long Island Monday afternoon and gassed up for a return trip home tuesday (today.) One block from where I was going to stay for the night, the second engine in my car blew at 25,000 miles. I literally coasted to where I wanted to park.

This morning, Porsche had someone tow the car to South Shore Porsche in Freeport, NY. The service department treated me great. They got me a rental and I used it to return my son home for school. They checked out the car and ordered an engine (this one won't be new.) There my car sits, waiting for yet another engine, 300 miles away from home.

Owning several VW's, one with over 250K and all with the original engines, I'm begining to wonder if the Porsche is worth the trouble.

[geza]

Let's hope the third time is a charm for you............since 1997, some 360,000 flat 6 engines have been made using the new block casting methods..........so the percentage of bad engines must be small - even though this is no consolation when you are on the bad end of the stick............

Have faith in the 3rd one - after that if you get to number 4, buy a Corvette.

[vfxbox]

You might want to check your local lemon law.

Each state has different lemon law and I believe california has after 3rd time with same problem, you have right to ask for full refund.

Goodluck.

[pjslowik]

Picked up the car this past Friday (June 2.) Replacement motor feels good. The dealer took good care of the car, but the dipstick tube is not fitted properly and looks disconnected at the access point. Haven't had a chance to check it yet.

Porsche Technical Rep called me and said I had an intermediate shaft bearing failure. He said they had been redesigned, and it was a good design, but that they gone back to the old design. He went on to explain the difference. I told Porsche I no longer had confidence enough to drive the vehicle and wanted them to buy it back. He assured me that I have a good motor now. I'm delaying my decision.

Worm-bag service manager at the dealer I bought it from tried to blame it on my maintenance. Luckily the dealer that looked at the car, and the Technical Rep, could tell it was pampered - inside and out. Also, apparently, they can look in the DME and tell how the car has been driven.

I love everything about this vehicle, except the reliability issues I have had. I would expect a well mintained engine, especially a premium one, to last 150Kmiles or more without breaking, especially on 9 qts of synthetic oil. Porsche is going to have to do something to reassure me.

We'll see.

[atmorris]

I bought an 03 Boxster just about three years ago. I took particular steps to break it in easily for the first thousand miles. At three thousand miles the engine had a "catastrophic failure." Dealer wanted to replace the engine with a reman. I fought with them and Porsche to get a new engine which Porsche agreed to fly in from Germany.

I took the car to New York last Friday. It was a beautiful weekend there. We saw the Blue Angles at Jones Beach perform an air show on Saturday. Sunday, we went to a bbq. Monday, we took the car to Manhattan to see the Navy ships there for Fleet Week. I returned to Long Island Monday afternoon and gassed up for a return trip home tuesday (today.) One block from where I was going to stay for the night, the second engine in my car blew at 25,000 miles. I literally coasted to where I wanted to park.

This morning, Porsche had someone tow the car to South Shore Porsche in Freeport, NY. The service department treated me great. They got me a rental and I used it to return my son home for school. They checked out the car and ordered an engine (this one won't be new.) There my car sits, waiting for yet another engine, 300 miles away from home.

Owning several VW's, one with over 250K and all with the original engines, I'm begining to wonder if the Porsche is worth the trouble.

Is this typical of MY03's ? I am a little concerned. I was aware of the 98/99 MY problems, but have not heard of this with 03's. I have an '03 with 20k miles on it currently. It had 16k on it when I bought it , and it is a Porsche Certified ride. It appears to have been pampered, but I can't be sure. I put my foot in it on a pretty regular basis, but do not over rev, nor beat it - just spirited driving in short stints. So how about it, is this a known issue with '03's ?

[pjslowik]

From what I understand, there was a design change to the 2.7 for '03. I think they added variocam. The intermediate shaft bearing is what failed on both my engines. The design had been changed from a double roller bearing to a single one. Porsche knew they had a problem when they installed a second NEW engine in my car at 3000 miles. The rebuilt replacement engines have reverted to the older style shaft mountings - so I have been told.

I pampered my car. It failed after an easy day of touring, at about 20 mph, without any warning. I can't tell you what yours will do for sure, but I have no confidence whatsoever in driving mine and I have told Porsche so. One engine might be bad luck, but two is telling me there is something wrong with the design.

Good luck with yours.

[djantlive]

maybe you can get porsche to extend the warranty on the engine after your 4 yr warranty expires. bmw m3 has a 10yr/100k ext warranty when a tsb/recall came out for some of the model years.

[atmorris]

I have a MY03 car, so after reading this thread I talked to the CT dealer I bought the car from - both the salesman (who I found to be a VERY stand up guy) and the service manager. Since I bought a Porsche Certified Pre-Owned car, my warranty would cover such a thing if it happened to me in full (thank god,) so there is little need to sugar coat anything to me. Both the salesman and the service manager were not aware of any such problem with Boxster engines on a widespread basis. The service manager eluded to the 98/99 MY issue, but said that even that incident was not very widespread, and that the overall percentage of engine failures was very small. I am not a naive individual, and 25 years of business experience has schooled me in the art of reading body language and eyes - I believe these guys were being honest.

I also checked this out with a local NJ Porsche dealer while buying some new plugs and found the same type of response. I don't get the impression that this problem is very widespread or of significant magnitude, but only time will tell I guess.

I am not disputing anyone's unfortunate experiences, just thought I should share this.

[pjslowik]

I wouldn't expect anyone at Porsche to admit to a widespread problem. They would then be susceptible to a class action.

When I picked up the car a couple weeks ago, I told the service manager that maybe I should have not insisted on a NEW engine the first time, being how the rebuilds supposedly have updates. He said it doesn't matter...he's seen both types fail. Go figure.

I don't mean to alarm anyone. Guess I'm kinda down about Porsche and the life expectancy of my engine. Good luck with yours!

[pjslowik]

I bought an 03 Boxster just about three years ago. I took particular steps to break it in easily for the first thousand miles.

...couple thousand miles. I don't want anyone thinking only one thousand is recommended for break-in.

Anyway, between the three engines, 6,000 of the 27,000 miles has been break-in driving on my car.

Come to find upon installing the last engine, the dipstick tube was bent to where it could not be properly installed. I took it to a local dealer and he CHARGED me to check it out. Said it would cost another $175 to fix. He said he had to charge me because it was a workmanship problem, not warranty.

So I leave the dealer that morning and later the car died. Had to be towed again. Supposedly, the dipstick left my intake disconnected after checking my dipstick.

This carz gotta go.

[atmorris]

I bought an 03 Boxster just about three years ago. I took particular steps to break it in easily for the first thousand miles.

...couple thousand miles. I don't want anyone thinking only one thousand is recommended for break-in.

Anyway, between the three engines, 6,000 of the 27,000 miles has been break-in driving on my car.

Come to find upon installing the last engine, the dipstick tube was bent to where it could not be properly installed. I took it to a local dealer and he CHARGED me to check it out. Said it would cost another $175 to fix. He said he had to charge me because it was a workmanship problem, not warranty.

So I leave the dealer that morning and later the car died. Had to be towed again. Supposedly, the dipstick left my intake disconnected after checking my dipstick.

This carz gotta go.

Sure can't blame you by the sound of it. I have to say though, pjslowik, that since your original post I have been scouring every Porsche board that I can find, and I have found very, very, few who have had the kind of problems you have been unfortuante enough to have soooooo persistantly. Sounds like you got tangled up with a real lemon and a crap dealer on top of it all (which might explain the lemon too....)

It is an awful shame that your Porsche experience was so terrible. I truely feel bad for you.

[mdetrick]

Is this typical of MY03's ? I am a little concerned. I was aware of the 98/99 MY problems, but have not heard of this with 03's. I have an '03 with 20k miles on it currently. It had 16k on it when I bought it , and it is a Porsche Certified ride. It appears to have been pampered, but I can't be sure. I put my foot in it on a pretty regular basis, but do not over rev, nor beat it - just spirited driving in short stints. So how about it, is this a known issue with '03's ?

Yes it is a known issue, so I'm told by my Porsche dealer. I have an 03 Boxster with an Intermediate Shaft failure. 29K miles. Not driven hard by any means. In fact, Porsche told me that driving habits have little to do with the failure. For me, I left one stop light and by the time I got to the next light a block later the engine was spewing smoke and oil. It had to be towed away. It was under warranty and Porsche is replacing the engine. In fact, Porsche has been very good about it. No double talk, no questions, acknowledged it and took care of it quickly. Whatever the engineering defect is, it was not resolved in the version of engine in my 03 Boxster. I'm hoping that the new engine is actually new and that it is a modified version with less chance of another failure.

[pjslowik]

Thanks Guys for reminding me about my experiences!

Since the third engine, I now have put another 10K miles on it. I change the oil and filter every 5K. This motor has quite a bit of vibration that I didn't have on the other two. Might be something wrong with the rotating mass between the engine and tranny that was screwed up on last install. Then there's the "ping" issue. Just installed a new set of Pilot Sports in back. I love the way it looks and drives. I have six more months on factory warranty and can't decide what to do.

Andy - thanks for the good thought. I have seen 911's that have had multiple motor replacements too. Don't mean to alarm you. That doesn't mean it will happen to you.

Mdetrick - Sorry to hear about your episode.

[Topless]

Sometimes you just get a lemon. Something just doesn't mate up right, something out of balance, something off center. If this is you, just get rid of it. No one will ever get it right. I have owned over 80 cars in my lifetime and a few have been lemons (1 Ford, 1 Chevy, 1 Volkswagen). Life is too short and a quality Porsche experience is too grand to be missed while your car is languishing in the service bay. If I were in your shoes I would insist on another car or $$ refund. Be fair and reasonable but get out of that one.

[David N.]

I have a question, I recently found out that my CPO 2000 Boxster S engine had been replaced at 30k miles (I bought it at 45k). My CPO warranty was running out, I asked about the engine coverage, since they certainly aren't bulletproof. Jason at Beverly Hills Porsche told me that once Porsche replaces the engine, they don't warranty the new one, they've essentially covered the car thru one engine and that's all the warranty does.

Sounds like in your case they covered more than onet, although it was also under the factory warranty too I'm guessing. Still, does anyone want to chime in on this? Right now my car engine is apparently not covered. It is a nagging thought...

-David

[Topless]

As I understand it your warranty is based time and on mileage. Once you have exceeded your warranty period or mileage the party is over. It doesn't matter if the motor was replaced during the warranty period. If you are within the warranty period you are covered.

[pjslowik]

Jason at Beverly Hills Porsche told me that once Porsche replaces the engine, they don't warranty the new one, they've essentially covered the car thru one engine and that's all the warranty does.

Jason is misinformed.

I purchased my car new. It came with a 4 year/ 50K mile warranty. Unless Porsche proves mistreatment by me, they have to cover as many engines as it takes to fulfill the warranty. Search the forums and you'll find others with multiple engine replacements under warranty.

I'm getting ready to tighten the thumb screws over this car. My warranty expires in July and I have to act before then. Good luck with yours. If you plan to keep it, you may want to investigate extended warranties.