Bronston

I believe that oil analysis services will do transmission oil as well as engine oil. It there is a bearing or gear failing the wear products will show up in the oil. The last time I had an oil analysis done (aircraft engine) it was under $30 with a turnaround of about a week. Pretty cheap for peace of mind.

Follow up on my post above about the blown engine. It was determined that the intermediate shaft had failed as suspected. My previous research indicated that the usual fix for this was just to replace the engine. Apparently Porsche no longer does this, so my engine was removed and completely disassembled to replace the failed shaft/bearing. I am less than pleased. This is my first Porsche, well treated and with low mileage, and I had catastrophic engine failure. Sorry, but all of the talk about Porsche quality and engineering rings a bit hollow with me. I have turned over in my mind selling it and forgetting Porsche, but the financial loss of that course of action would pay for another engine replacement in the future, so I am stuck. Two weeks ago I had a low mileage pristine Porshe. It is still pristine cosmetically but it now has an engine that has experienced major failure and been repaired (when I get it back): not the same car . My cousin is a career pilot with Delta. I met him in Portland last summer and we took the car for a long ride along the Oregon coast. He was very impressed, and had begun to think about getting a Porsche for himself, until he heard about what happened with mine. Now, not so much. I have admired/lusted after Porsches since the late fifties when I was around them working in a imported car shop near my home. After all of those years I buy one and I only get six months before it has a major failure. I could have gotten a brand new BMW Z4 M with all options and still had thousands left over. I was really proud to show off my Porsche to my friends, now I'm embarassedd by it.

If it is within your budget I would recommend getting a newer car with some warranty remaining or at minimum a Porshce Certified Pre-owned. I purchased a 2004 40th Anniversary( with 10 months of new car warranty and and additional 2 years CPO beyond that) in August of this year with 10,000 miles, to which I have added an additonal 5,000. The car was in great shape and showed no signs of hard usage, even still smelling a bit like a new car. Last week while waiting at the dealer's courtesy car wash the engine started making terrible sounds. I drove about a half/mile to the service department. When I shut if off in the service bay the engine oil began streaming out and when I left there was a large pile of absorent pads under it with the oil still flowing. The best guess is the intermeniate shaft and/or bearings has failed. See this link http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/show...ad.php?t=402656. This is my first Porsche and although it is still under warranty I am concerned by the fact that this and the RMS issue have persisted throughout the 996 series without a final solution. Porsches are great cars but it almost seems that they leave the engineering of the ancillary components, like seals and the intermediate shaft system to the apprentice engineers. After all, internal combustion engines have always used crankshaft seals and the intermeniate shaft is not directly involved in the stresses of making power, it just drives the **** cam chains, bicycle level technology! Why is it so difficult to make these reliable? Neither of these components involve new technology. Both of these problems should have been resolved fully years ago rather than persisting throughout the entire 996 series. Up until last week my Porsche was like a new girlfriend, I just couldn't keep away from it. Now, thinking about it makes me wince. My dealer is Barrier and I am so far very favorably impressed with them and I am sure they will do right by me, probably with a new engine, which seems to be the usual fix for this type of failure. I suspect when I get the car back I will remain a bit worried by it. This series engines seem to have a hand grenade built in as standard equipment and one never knows if or when it will pull its own pin. These problems were academinc with me until my engine spilled its guts.

With another vehicle I was having two electrical problems, slow window action and the radio sound quality was poor and cutting in and out. This was just before the car quit. I had a slowly failing alternator. I never got a warning light and I hadn't noticed the system voltage was low. I guess I was an "idiot" for depending upon "idiot lights"

Just curious, why do you ask?? Have you found a CPO that has been?