i had a 03 996 that i bought off lease and ended up spending 7K in repairs in only 9 months. Then the freakin gearbox/synchro start screwing up to the tune of 8-12k to repair, which i said no way to and unloaded the car.

Now i am hating riding around in a 05 BMW Z4 with dealer warranty and am pining for another Porsche.

Anyone have a 99-02 996 with high miles? Any issues? How reliable are the 996's from 99-02. I am looking to get another one.

Consumer reports said my 03 996 was horrible. And it was.

 

Problem solved - I'll sell you my 01 996 with a new engine - $36k.

 

I've had my '03 for over a year now and it's been trouble free. That doesn't mean pieces of the engine won't start falling off tomorrow though. I think it's just the luck of the draw.

 

you need to separate the '99-'01 from the mk2s or '02+. i would advise any mk1 buyer to avoid original engine mk1s and opt for reman cars on the 3.4s.

i would be less stringent on the reman requirement on the mk2s with the 3.6s, but would prefer it be a reman 3.6.

i've put on about 20k miles on my '02 c4s in the past 1.5 years and i've had no issues to date. it runs beautifully but did get the latest RMS seal replaced while i was getting a new clutch put in just for kicks at 50K miles. note that my 911 does have a reman engine performed under the original factory warranty. at the time of purchase, being a 911 newbie, i had no idea about the IMS disaster and was actually perturbed to find in the PPI results that my car has a new engine. blessing in disguise is what i call it.

keep on truckin'

 

here is the bottom line: No one knows the failure numbers on the 3.4 and the 3.6 (only Porsche knows and are not willing to share the info, cant blame them either)... just a lot of internet speculation.

 

We bought a 99 Tip a year and a half ago, we have put 30K miles since then and has been fairly trouble free other than an expansion tank, window regulator ignition, starter and just recently, a new transmission. Most under extended warranty. Lucky for me I bought the car with a warranty. I broke down and shelled out the $4K for another 2yr /24k mile warranty since I track the car 3x per month. I may dump it at the end and upgrade to a newer model that I can put n extended warranty on. I don't have the pockets to withstand big hits like engines and trannys. Most of the other silly things that go wrong still run between $500-$1000. I have 80k miles on it now and plan on running it hard until the warranty ends. What a fabulous car!!

 

I've had mine for almost a year and have had the following problems:

Seeping RMS
Leaking Engine gasket (not sure which one)

I have a CPO-style warranty (TotalCare) with zero deductible to 100K or 9/2011 so neither of these issues cost me anything except a little time driving to the shop (RUF).

I personally wouldn't own a Porsche without a warranty, it's just worth the peace of mind.

 

I can tell you this much - there were 186 3.4L engines sitting in a warehouse in Atlanta in June 08. That, to me, seems like a lot. Plus each dealer in Dallas was doing a reman swap when mine went down like a $2 hooker.

Plus getting Porsche to talk about engine failure is like getting Berlin to put up a statue to Hitler or WWII. However, stay tuned for an interesting web site. It might help qualify some of the "internet speculation"

 

Alright then, my CPO expires the end of December. Say I wanted to look into another warranty. Who are the good ones to look at?

 

You don't mean this site, do you?
http://www.porscheenginefailure.com/

 

Mine is EasyCare and have had no problem with any of the problems i encountered. That said, my frame of reference is just those two issues so take it for what it's worth.

 

not sure why, but even before i started having issues i couldn't get anyone to give me an extended warranty on the car. And that includes easy care. i figured the word was out on the gear box / synchro issues

 

true, but the m96 is notorious for its IMS blowups. just do a simple search.

there's no denying it. the internet is now facebook and myspace and youtube. the internet is top gear and a great vast number of community forums where people share their stories. it's no longer that exhibition located at the corner of the zoo that people are just starting to run into so let's not discount 6speed/rennlist parables... that these stories here are not relevant to the history of this engine because it's on the www.

the catastrophic engine failures come up too often to be not taken into consideration during the purchase process.

 

Sorry to hear about your loss........ That price for the tranny seems way out there.

Doug996InKC......yes....that is the site MCM97 and I are working on. Still tweaking it though and should be ready soon.

 

yep, Ben and I are working on bringing some of the truths to light and maybe put a bee in Porsches bonnet. Who knows - it probably won't even hit their radar but it's nice to vent!