pierre

Ok, got some fresh news today. Things aren't too bad. A loose screw got into the way of the right-side timing chain and broke it. Because of that, the valves are bent. There are other damages, but the good news is that the pistons and cylinders haven't been touched. Quite a few parts to replace, but it seems to be worth it. Otherwise, the engine's internals are like new. So I'm going to Sportec tomorrow to discuss what we do exactly.

What bugs me is that this whole issue happened because of one single silly loose screw! Incidentally, a friend of mine had the very same issue a while ago. He had also found out that this is a quite common problem. Ok, the word 'common' might be slightly to strong, but it's at least not a one-time problem. I doubt Porsche would do anything on goodwill, but I'll let them know anyway. Anybody heard of that too?

More news to come soon!...

No news yet. Andreas (from Sportec) wasn't available, and he seems to be the only one who can give me a real answer. He's supposed to call me tomorrow... :?

Not yet. The car is now at Sportec. Will know more by the end of the week...

fuel pump(s)?

My condolences as well - interested to see what the mechanics find when they dive into it. Personally I would replace/repair with built internals and move on with the same car!!

I talked to Sportec today. They're quite surprised about the whole stuff. According to them, they have customers with bigger power upgrades (580-650 hp) who are driving their cars very hard and quite a lot. One guy seems to be doing like 70-80'000 km / year! So their recommendation would be to analyze the failure carefully before taking any decision. Will probably have them do that, and if possible and not too expensive, rebuild the engine. And while we're at it, maybe they could replace the broken parts with better ones?... ;)

Yeah, bingo.

Last Friday, my 'new' engine gave up. 2nd gear, full throttle... all good until... boink! Sudden loss of power. I managed to drive up to a parking lot in 2nd and 1st gear, then the engine blocked completely.

The engine itself now has exactly 100'000 km, with the last 75'000 with the Sportec stage 3 upgrade (540 hp, 780 Nm). It's of course out of warranty, and the upgrade would have voided it anyway. Yes, 540 hp is a lot more than the stock output, but still... total failure already? Sob... The mechanics don't know exactly what the problem is, but they say the engine is just completely blocked. So it's the internals. No good.

Opening it, checking it, rebuilding it would cost a lot. Probably even more than getting (yet another) new one from Porsche as a standard-exchange. Now, would I put a 3rd engine into a car that already has over 317'000 km? Not sure...

Stinking thinking time!... Any ideas welcome...

--Pierre

PS: the whole story with the first engine swap is here.

[...] I suppose you were just going to the shops to get some milk? :lol:

Yeah, you know how it is with these fast cars... You don't pay attention for a few seconds and suddenly you're slightly above the speed limit. :D

Sorry to slide off-topic, but you might like this one too:

(no, the car wasn't stock anymore...)

0.9 bar with a stock 996TT:

1.2 bar? Seems quite high for a stock 996 TT. I think the max I had before I upgraded mine was 0.9. Now, with the Sportec stage 3 upgrade, I'm getting 1.2.

Is your car really stock?

Got my car back today. The leaking hose was looking exactly like yours on the above pic. All good now. B)

Special thanks to Röbi from Carlifting in Zurich for his friendliness, competence and flexibility! I highly recommend this guys...

@Chuck Jones: yes, I've been driving in all possible conditions: dry, wet, snowy, icy, from 40°C down to -20°C, etc... All good! Besides, we've seen quite a few track days, most of them on the Nordschleife. B)

Yes, passenger side. Will have the car flatbedded today or tomorrow morning to a Porsche specialist not too far from here. Since my car has "some" mileage, I stopped caring about warranty quite a while ago... ;) BTW, it's the first time in over 314'000 km that this happens, so I can't really talk about "common occurrence". ;)

I have a 2001 996TT with 29K miles. Last night in 50 degree weather during highway driving I noticed a huge smoke cloud being illuminated by the headlights behind me. Moments later the instrument cluster flashed a "low coolant level" mesage and the temp guage warning light began blinking. [...]

The very same thing happened to me yesterday evening, just 1km before arriving home. Now going to check how much coolant I lost and if I can make it to my mechanics...

Problem fixed! Sportec had a look at it, and it was the wiring. Quick fix, big effect. The needle is useful again! :-)

In my case, it's the sender that's been replaced, and I think the wiring has been checked too. That would mean replacing the whole cluster???... wow... :(

I've been having the same issue for quite some time now. We changed the presure sensor (or whatever it's called), but it didn't help. The gauge works kind of randomly: it's absolutely ok for a certain time, then the needle falls down like dead for some time, comes back to life, dies again, etc. No clue. :o

But the engine is perfectly healthy.

160mm??? Where on the car did you measure that? Sure it wasn't a Cayenne?... :lol:

Porsche's internal document 'Technik Kompendium' about the CGT says following:

ground clearance:

- CGT: 86 mm (3.38 in)

- 996 GT2: 70 mm (2.75 in)

- 996 Turbo: 90 mm (3.54 in)

'Böschungswinkel' (angle of attack?...):

front/rear:

- CGT: 5.7°/16.2° (yes, sixteen point two, that's no typo)

- 996 GT2: 8.0°/12.5°

- 996 Turbo: 10°/13.5°

Hope that'll help a little bit.

Try Techart (www.techart.de), they have one. I have the 370mm version and it's fantastic. The 340mm is similar, but a bit too small for my taste (hides too much of the dash).

Well... Ok. Will ask the Sportec guys to check that out at the next service.

Thanks for your super-quick answer! :clapping:

No new alarm control box, but a new engine. The window controls probably got reset at the same time. So I guess the only way to reprogram this is to go to the shop, right?

When unlocking the car with the remote key, keeping the button pressed makes the windows go down.

When locking the car, keeping the button pressed makes the windows go up.

This has been working for me until a few months ago. Now, I can remote-open the windows, but they won't go up when I lock the car. Any idea how this could be fixed? My mechanics were clueless... :(

Thanks in advance!

Your PET is very old -- mine is from September 2006 ;)

That's what I feared, yeah... :oops:

:renntech:

Front is correct. For the rear, isn't it ...02 instead of ...03 (GT2) ?

Very easy indeed. Did it some time ago, and I think it saved exactly 10kg.

Ok, after a bit more than 256'000km, including 16'000 of them with the Sportec stage 3 setup (542 HP, 788Nm), my gearbox is finally giving up. It's been sounding a bit weird for a long time (before the stage 3 conversion), but my last trip to the Nürburgring gave it the last shot.

So should I replace it with an original one? Or rather go for a X50 (it's different, right?) or a GT2 one?

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!