I agree - too many worried owners (not drivers) - best way to avoid over-revs is to keep the car in the garage.

 

OK. So the car I am looking at I have the DME print out now.

It says

Number of ignitions Range 1 = 1810/505h
Number of ignitions Range 2 = 354/498h
Number of ignitions Range 3 = 0/0h
Number of ignitions Range 4 = 0/0h
Number of ignitions Range 5 = 0/0h
Number of ignitions Range 6 = 0/0h

This is good, no?

 

Level 4 = Chernobyl

 

What is the best way to get a DME printout? (1) I'd rather not pay my dealer a diagnostic fee, and (2) if I have some overrevs, I'd rather not highlight that fact in case I do ever have an engine warranty repair request later.

 

I don't think you will be able to hide the facts should you have a warranty claim. The first thing they will do is look at the DME to see if the cause is a warranty cause.

 

Looks like mine did. Search for the official overrev thread that gives you the RPM details of each range. Most of the records I've seen posted had records in Range 3, which didn't seem to bother the experts. Level 4 and above is the real questionable zone. Those recordings are not hours, they are ignitions and are actually VERY brief times in those RPM zones. I'm not the real expert, but from what I've read here, those recordings shouldn't cause any long term problems.
The rev limiter doesn't stop the engine from exceeding the redline. Momentum from the engine can still carry it beyond the redline if the rate of RPM acceleration is great enough. The "money shift", going from 5th to 2nd instead of 4th will guarantee you to exceed redline!

 

Didn't read all of the replies, but that's pretty normal and not indicative of a mechanical over-rev. Yes, the car bumped the rev limiter and perhaps even had the clutch go in with the throttle on (as in when you are shifting hard), but think about this. At 1810 range 1s, that's only 600 revolutions of the engine (1 RPM is 3 ignitions in a Boxer 6 engine). At say 7500 RPM, that is 0.08 of one minute, or 4.8 seconds, the engine spent at that speed (600 / 7500).

Porsche master techs will tell you that over range 3 is an issue. Me, I don't want to see any range 3 just because I'm conservative. But Range 1 and 2 are fine in my book and in the master techs around here. The 05 CPO Boxster S I picked up for my wife came with some Range 1 and 2 and the car was certified by Porsche and I kept a copy of everything such that if I ever ended up in a warranty situation and they even tried to hint at the DME report, I would have it and the letter from the dealer's master tech reassuring me there is no warranty issue.

On the other hand if you had massive spikes in the Range 4-6 range indicating repeated mechanical over-revs, then that's a different story.

 

FWIW, I certainly hit the rev limiter hard a couple of times in the past month (1st gear in the C4S is viciously short, caught me by surprise a couple times, lol), and dealer 2 days ago, when it was in for service, told me the car had zero codes/faults of any kind. This is an 06.

 

Most dealers don't even know about the over-rev counter buried deep in the 20 page DME report. Over revs would not show up as a code or fault as it is neither.

 

The DME report is 20 pages? Cool. Maybe I will see if I can get the dealer to print one off next time.

Any ideas what one should expect to be paying for a dealer to do this? (Obviously, this is not in connection with a purcahse of a car, so I wouldn't really hold out any big hopes that the dealer would do it for free).

 

Dealer told me the same thing. The DME had readings in ranges 1 and 2. Not tragic, but the service writer didn't know what he was talking about either.

 

I just did PPI on car I am taking - service manager was not surprised to hear about DME scan at all. He was surprised I know about it but also agreed that generally level 3 and above may be indicative. On car I get level 2 has counter of 56 , level 1 - 576. All the rest was also clean.


I wonder - do they have to do paint depth scan on $260 PPI or not?

 

I have not read anything suggesting level 3 was "indicative". That scan looks very clean compared to others people have posted.
A paint scan takes 5 minutes with the meter. Ridiculous that someone wouldn't check for body work if they are charging you $260.

 

you guys think the dealer would tell me the info on the DME for free? hahah

 

Why not? It takes 10 minutes. Worst case, 1/2 hour labor. you could get it included with a service. If they are selling a car, then they should absolutely include it on request.