Hi All,

Went into dealer, cus saw some small fluid leak. Dealer was very nice to tell me that car had engine replaced at 15K miles. I bought it used with about 18.5K on the car. Before i bought car, I asked another dealer about the car records, but he didn't mention engine change. Oh well, i'm not sure if an engine change is a good thing or not, but when i asked the previous owner he told me it was making strange sounds.

So anyways, now apparently i have the dreaded RMS leak and dealer is fixing it.

My question is can i assume that engine replaced last time was related to RMS leak. And that now i got RMS leak again, it is likely to happen again?

And would you think having engine replaced before to be a good or bad thing?

I should really be more careful about checking on records of used cars next time :P

Thanks

 

i say you came up on this deal, that is if the engines are not refurbished. Arling brought up a good point one day concerning this RMS thing. that they might use refurbished engines at least those that could be refurbished. nevertheless i would assume that the engine would be as good as new. and as long as porsche keeps replacing there defects it's all good for you.
damn knock on wood, i have drove this car for 3 years and not a single problem with anything.

 

The previous owner said that the replacement engine supposedly was shipped in from Germany. I'm not sure what that says about whether its a reburbished one or new...

3 years without a problem, impressive :P

 

Hi Oscar

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear about the leak. However, having gone through this six times already, I can honestly say its not that big a concern as long as the dealer is taking care of you. Did you have some sort of warrany on the car, or the factory one still in place? If so great, if you are paying for it...whoa!

A couple of things you should ask your dealer.

1. Have they measured for tolerance of the crank case. They have a special tool that will measure just how out of round your crank is. There is a tolerance on just how non concentristic it can be (.30mm). If your crank is close, right on the money or more so then it would warrant an engine replacement. Definitely insist that they measure. I have seen too many cases of repeat leaks when the engine should have been replaced on the first. It's a huge inconvenience to be without our cars, it's our time, our money and it's a PIA.

2. I don't know how how new your clutch is, but depending on your driving habits, or those of the last owner, I would ask that the take a look at your clutch to see how much wear is apparent. They must drop the tranny to do the RMS repair, so this accounts for your labor. If the clutch is in need of replacement, offer to pay for parts and avoid the costly labor later on when it comes time. I personally would pay the $600 (vs. $1400) now if my clutch were 50% used or more. But, that's just me.

3. Oil change: If the RMS is leaking, they do not drain the oil. They don't have to apparently to do this repair. Again, if it's around time for a change, ask that they drain, offer to pay for fresh oil and a filter and your labor is once again covered. If they replace the ISS, they do drain your oil and then replace it with the same oil they drained. If you just had an oil change, don't bother, but if it's close...I'd have them change it.

Because this is the second engine, it's hard to say the replaced the last one because of a rear main seal leak. The Service Manager should be able to pull up the records in his computer and see why it was replaced. The car will not have a propensity for leaks, but the engine will. (As I have found) You just have bum luck, welcome to my world. As far as will this engine that is currently in your car leak after they replace the seal...a couple of things come into factor here. As long as they measure and the crank is found within tolerance, they have new seals and new tools for seating the seal that should fix you right up. If they simply put a new seal in without measuring and your crank is out of round, then yes, you could have the problem again. So insist they measure and ask them what it turned out to be. Through the various engines, the least minor out of round crank was .28 (my C2) and the worst was 1.00 on my Boxster (one of the three engines anyway). The RMS Gods do not like me...but I hope you don't have the same PIA experience I have had. The only saving grace has been that Porsche has taken care of things for me and I have an AWESOME dealer.

I know I'm probably forgetting something here, if I think of anything else, I'll post more.

 

A refurbished engine is not such a bad thing, and they completely recondition it before it is sent out. The second engine in my Boxster was refurbished and it was stronger and pulled harder then the one that came in the car orginally.

 

Robyn, thanks for all the recommendation, i'll call the dealer now :P

 

The leak itself...

Here is the engine dropped (because it was replaced). You can see the oil accumulation around the seal which is still in the crank there. It's the black circle with tiny holes.

Transmission dropped...engine behind itl.

 

Hi. I went through something similar with my car. I bought it used with about 14K miles on it. Second time I drove the car the engine died on me and I had to have it hauled back to a local dealer. Turns out that the wholesaler that I purchased the car from never checked the oil level in the car - in fact they do minimum prep work prior to delivery. When the dealer pulled they drained only about 5.5 quarts of oil. The car was under warranty and they originally thought it was a problem with the actuators and based upon that Porsche had them ship the engine back to them and they provided a replacement engine. Don't know if it was new or referubished. Is the only way to find out to ask the dealer?

Any way, I have 5K miles on the "new" engine and everything has been perfect. The downside is that if I ever sell it there will be a disconnect between the odometer miles and the engine miles.

 

u will never know if it's brand new. my point is, like Eric said, since we have so many RMS problem here that required a new engine, and the old engines have to go back to Germany.... what do porsche do with those old engines?? maybe reuse some parts??? not hard to understand... but we need a insider.

 

Robyn, Queen of the RMS

 

According to my dealer, Porsche will generally take the defective engine, rip it apart, and find out where the problem is. He says they rarely (if ever) put them back together and send it off as refurbished.

My engine was replaced at 18,000 miles, and I got a brand new one put in, which sounds better and pulls better, imo.

 

Got the car back and ended up having both RMS and IMS replaced. Car is driving much smoother, might be the oil change or some clutch touch up, or shifter cable adjustment. Dealer did a very thorough inspection of car.

Thanks Robyn for guiding me through this dreaded RMS process, sure made me more secure :P Did everything you recommended, they measured crank shaft no problem, and clutch was good.

By the way, Pacific Porsche Domenic provided awesome service, really took car of me. Thanks Arling for recommending before on posts. They really provide top notch service.

I feel like i got a new car :P

Lets hope that's my last RMS....