Lee Quave

Hi, maybe someone with Autofram can be the expert you must have to get a class action lawsuit going? Just a thought! Good luck and keep us posted. ;)

Yes it’s a **** shame. I called and wrote letters Porsche Cars North America to no avail. I got the standard we don’t provide “good will” support on out of warranty cars. I wasn’t looking for a hand out but, at the same time I didn’t think that Porsche should profit on replacing an engine that shouldn’t have failed in the first place. No street driven car should have it’s engine fail at only 69K miles IMHO.

I hate to say it but, your engine is toast. I feel your pain. The same thing happened to my car at 69K miles. Same as your, mine ran fine. Dealer diagnosed either blown head gasket or a cracked cylinder head. I never found out which. If I wanted to know it would have cost $102 per hour. I suggest that you use a Porsche dealership. You will get a “new remanufactured” engine with all new accessories expect AC compressor along with a two year unlimited miles warranty. I don’t think you will get that from an independent shop. Good luck.

Following is a picture of the tool used by Porsche. It’s my understanding that the tool is the only sure way of installing the RMS as it’s designed to set the seal at a precise depth that would be almost impossible to do by hand. Replacing the RMS isn’t a typical DIY project IMHO as it takes some special equipment to do the job right. Good luck.

I suggest you get your car checked by your mechanic. That’s just how my coolant looked. I had the dredged intermix problem and had to have my engine replaced. It doesn’t look IMO. I had the same issues. Started with flashing temp light, added more coolant, light started flashing again after a few miles, brow stuff floating in coolant tank and light brown substance on the dipstick. Good luck. Lee

There’s never a dumb question. I know this question has been asked many times. Use the search feature. The short answer is yes you can but, it will cost plenty and some would question why. The stock brakes work very good for street use and there are easy way to improve your braking for track use i.e. new/better fluid, change pads and upgrade to GT3 brake cooling ducts.

Hey, I have my fingers crossed and I sure hope its not but, the only time I seen light brown/orange colored oil was when my 996 had the intermix problem. When this first happen to me the Porsche dealer said it could be the oil cooler or oil/air separator. One can hope as I did. Two liters is a lot of coolant to add just for air pockets. I suggest you drain the oil and them you will know for sure. Best of luck.

It sure does sound like you have the dredged intermix problem. Two liters is a lot to add at one time. That’s how it was with mine. Check the coolant tank to see if there is oil floating on top; that’s a sure sign. Good luck.

Since you filled up lately your coolant may be low due to air in the system. It can take some time for the air to work its way out. Open the bleeder on top of the tank, bring engine up to operating temp then let it cool down enough to open coolant tank to fill to proper level and repeat as needed. I hope this is all that is wrong. The flashing light was the first indication that I had a serious engine problem. When my light started flashing I check the owner’s manual and found out this was a warning that the coolant was low. I filled the coolant to the proper level, it took almost a gallon, and figure that I had air in the system since I change a coolant hose a few week prior. The warning light started flashing the very next time a drove the car to work and back. I figure that there must be a leak since the car needed as much coolant as the day before but I found no leak. I added more coolant to the tank and notice a gray substance floating on top when I did. It looked like oil. I immediately check the dip stick and found the level very high with a brownish substance on the stick. I had an intermix problem. I still to this day don’t know what failed but according to the Porsche dealer it was either a failed head gasket or a cracked head. But since doing research I discovered early 996 such as my 99 model it could have also been porous engine or a failed cylinder sleeve. Hopefully you don’t have the same problem. It cost me about $12,000, below cast according to some sources, to have a “new/remanufactured” engine installed at my Porsche dealer along with removal of the radiators and a complete flush/cleaning of the coolant system. Porsche’s policy at the time as to replace the engine instead of rebuilding but that may be changing according to some in the know. Good luck,

Sparks plugs are listed on the Major Maintenance schedule however, Porsche has an “Additional Maintenance” schedule that list spark plugs for 996 MY01 on are to be changed every 60,000 miles or at least every 4 years. Personally I change mine every 15,000 miles. They cost $45 and it takes just an hour or so to do. Check this link http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?a...de=maint_us_add

IMO the most important part of the 60K maintenance is changing the spark plugs. Changing the plug is the most difficult and time consuming part. Other than the air filter and pollen filter, which just about anyone can do, the plugs are the only other part that is changed; the rest is inspection. And if they find anything that needs to be replace or repaired it will cost extra on top of the $800 price tag.

I really love the way my engine sounds with the GHL mufflers and K & N CAI. A BMW owner at a DE in Texas said I had the sweetest sounding car out there. I think he was right but, I could be biased. :D

I love the sound of my GHL with my CAI but the noise got me black flagged at Road Atlanta earlier this month and I also had to sit out my second run. I guest I need to improve so I can move up and not worry about running during quiet time. :cheers:

I you add a good sport exhaust, headers, 100 cell cat back, a cold air intake and remap the computer you may get 20 more horses but to get to 400 you will need to supercharge it. Good luck and welcome to the club.

It’s pretty easy. To change out the front you have to remove a front panel held on with clips and bolts, move two cross braces out of the way by disconnecting one end and loosening the other and then you have a steel brackets on each side that you need to get out of the way by removing the two end bolts and loosening the middle and pivoting the pieces so you can drop the old sway bar out once you unbolt the drop links and the mounting brackets that also hold the bushings. The rear is even easier since there are no panels in the way just unbolt it from the drop links and unbolt the mounting brackets. Check out the link below it shows the drop links that has to be removed to replace the springs and shocks and has some torque specs that you will need. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7073 I hope this helps. Lee

Thanks Loren, you da man. :notworthy:

I have 1999 996 C2 and the lower cover for the mirror on the driver side has come loose. The far side is not attached but the side closes to the door is still attached. I have a replacement part on order but I’m not sure how this part attaches and I don’t want to chance breaking something else. I would surely appreciate some help. Thanks, Lee

I did the mod this morning. Not to difficult, the clip was a pain, but other than that no real problems. Following is the link to the rennlist thread that is going on now. http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/show...ad.php?t=343297

I just did the clutch spring delete mod on my 99 996 as suggested by a Rennlist member. I do like the feel much better. The large muscles of the leg can feel the engagement better than with the way to soft feel of the clutch with the spring. I have a clutch with less than 20K miles so I know it’s not worn very much. I would like to adjust the clutch so that it engages sooner. Is there a DIY on the clutch master cylinder pushrod adjustment? Thanks, Lee

Check out link below. It's packed with information on braking. They don't recommend using power bleeders. They claim that power bleeders force air into the brake fluid. I just changed my rotors and bleed my brakes (with a power bleeder) and they work great. Improper bedding in of either the pads or rotors can affect braking performance. http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/tech_white_papers.shtml

IMO winning a class action suite against Porsche for engine failure is highly unlikely. For one thing the stats on engine failure are known only by Porsche. For another there have been more than a few causes of these failures i.e. intermix issues, IMS failures, porous engine case/heads etc… I also think that class action lawsuits don’t pay out much to anyone other than to lawyers. I was eligible for a class action lawsuit where I could have won a few dollars but the law firm received about 4 million. I had to have my engine replaced because of either a cracked cylinder head or a failed head gasket. I don’t which one and will never know. If I wanted to know for sure I would have had to pay for the breakdown and inspection. Porsche has ***** poor customer service. And I wouldn’t say Porsche is a small company when according to Porsche’s Annual Report 2005/06 their EBIT was $2,726,000,000 on sales of $9,397,000,000. That is a profit of 29%! Wow!!! Check out my post: http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/show...ad.php?t=323635 http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...engine++failure

My 1999 C2 6 speed coupe has 71,000 total miles but only 2000 on the engine. I had an intermix problem caused by either a crack cylinder head or blown head gasket and had to have the engine replaced. Very aggravating at the time but I got a new remanufactured engine with a two year unlimited mileage warranty. I agree it would be great to have a data base on the 996. It would be interesting to see how many engine failures would be reported. ;) :renntech:

Why?

I like my GHL. Direct from GHL for $995. :drive:

No one other than Porsche knows the stats on 996 engine failure but, if you do a search on this site and Rennlist.com 996 forum you will see quite a few. Do the same search on any 993 forums and it’s a different story. Porsche doesn’t attempt to repair internal failure they adopt to replace the engine instead. Mine had an intermix issue, that’s when the motor oil gets mix with the engine coolant. I don’t know what caused mine and Porsche won’t even respond to my letters. It was probably a failed head gasket or a cracked cylinder head. :cursing: For just under $12,000 I got a remanufactured engine with everything new except the air conditioner compressor along with a two year warranty. :clapping: