2006 997S, 5000 miles

range 1: 3000
range 2: 670
range 3: 149
range 4: 17
range 5: 0
range 6:0


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i'm pretty sure i know the consensus here, but humor me...

fyi, i spoke to service techs at 4 local dealerships, i will give their (spoiler alert--DIFFERING) opinions later on tonite...

so, what do you all think of this car?

 

PASS - ranges 3 and 4 are potential problems. BTW, the techs may have differing opinions but they aren't buying the car.

 

To me that's no big deal. 17 ignitions is actually just over 5 revolutions. That means the crank spun 5 times at range 4. So just say it was 5 turns at 8000 RPM means those 5 happened in 38/1000ths of one second. 149 ignitions at range 3 is 50 revolutions - again, no big deal to me and I believe that includes the 17 ignitions that went higher to range 4 (all 149 ignitions at 7800 RPM would happen in about 1 second). It's not looking to me like engine abuse, more like "margin of error". Posted literature says the following are the ranges:

1. 7300-7500
2. 7501-7700
3. 7701-7900
4. 7901-8400
5. 8401-9500
6. 9501-11000

I also have read and been told that there's some sort of "10,500" indicator as the engines are supposedly tested to 10,500 RPM at the factory. When a tech looks for engine issues he/she might look not only at ranges, but also the 10500 field.

Bottom line is to ask the dealer if that will impact warranty...

 

Well, thank you guys for playing! Your responses are a good example of the range of opinions got from the various techs. Half said they saw no real problem, and two others were like, stay the **** away from that car.

One tech even said, no problem, range fours aren't even mechanical overrevs so no issues there. Another said, he wouldn't worry about it, someone probably missed one shift for a split second.

Everyone agreed that Porsche has no written policy so major warranty work could potentially become a headache if for some reason the regional guys wanted to make it into one--

If i discount the range 4 number, do you think the 1-3 ranges on this car indicate track use or abuse? I guess even the 3000 range 1 ignitions surprised me as a high number...

 

My opinion is that if somebody missed a shift, you'd see much more than 3 or 5 revolutions of the crank. I asked a very high level master mechanic about ranges 3 and 4 in the past and the feeling was they were not "mechanical over-revs" (read: missed / money shift), but rather just the engine spooling up (inertia). Again, I can't see how 38 one thousands of one second at range 4 could be an issue.

What I would do is have the dealership CPO the car with this information in the file. If they certify it with this DME readout, then shouldn't you be covered?

 

Only problem here is that car is from private party seller...

I haven't seen the DME report myself yet, tech just read me the highlights over the phone. I am curious to see when the level 4 event occured, if it was in the recent past or a while ago. The car has under 5k miles and 185 operating hours.

This car also has GIAC chip, so wonder if that effects rev limiter?

 

As Ron said the time spent in the hgher ranges is minimal. My response earlier had more to do about warranty concerns but now that you say it has a chip, I wouldn't worry about the warranty any longer.

 

My local shop is fine with the GIAC flash, so i guess i am not thinking that is a warranty killer. I'm sure if the **** hit the fan though, it would definately be another painful point of conversation...

 

You may never have any problems...but if there are and the dealer is not willing to eat a major repair cost then PCNA will be the ultimate decider here for warranty coverage and I imagine that a chip will give them heartburn (and maybe you) - hope it never comes to this.

 

You already have some good advice; see if you can get a written statement from the dealer about the warrantee.

I agree with the posters that say these over revs are minor, it does not look like a missed (early shift down) shift did it just a little momentum.

The total hours and miles on the car is pretty low; I would equate this to low risk.

If you want a car with no history buy a new one, I bet that you will over rev it a bit (if you are having fun) so you will probably end up in the same place.

The ECU flash may be a problem but with normally aspirated cars this risk is again low (adding Turbo boost to a Turbo will get you in trouble with PCNA). If you intend to mod the car you could have the same problem.

See if you can get an extra few grand out of the car and put $200 a month in the bank as insurance against future repairs.

These cars are expensive toys - you just have to pay to play.

 

a fraction of a second at 8,000 revs? Its just been run in....

I rarely thing twice about taking mine past 7,500rpm once its at full operating temperature...