The old adage is make lemonade from lemons but imo the x51 does not add that much other than cost to the driving experience. My advise would be to let the dust settle and then discuss w dealer how to best restore your car with the least unnecessary expense. Let us know how it goes.

 

Very sorry to hear of the problem, Ian. If it can happen to you, it can happen to all of us! I, too, am interested to hear of the particulars surrounding the catastrophic failure, as well as your informed insight if the motor is disassembled. Also very interested to hear how difficult/not-too-difficult it is to switch to an X51 package, so please let us know.

Best to you and thanks again for your responsiveness in the past.

Scott
Denver, CO

 

Thanks for all the replies.

I've decided to forget the X-51 route for now. The thieves that are Porsche GB have seen to that. A standard 997S exchange engine over here is £6800 inc.taxes. Porsche GB won't do an X-51 engine on an exchange basis if you have a standard engine - you have to buy one outright. And the UK price? £20000 - yes $40000. My opinion is unprintable.

Don't know why the issues with my engine happened. I drive it very hard but they're designed for that surely? And in this day and age, the 997S motor isn't very powerful so there's no reason it should be unreliable. The engine is looked after well - oil is changed every 6000 miles or so, I never use full throttle or over 4000 rpm until the oil is up to temp. The engine started rattling when I was doing 3000rpm in 6th along the UK equivalent of a freeway!

Once I got the car home and listened to the noise, it sounded like a hydraulic lifter had collapsed but louder. A loud metallic 'clack' evey second revolution of the engine coming from the driver's side cylinder bank (passenger side for LHD cars). My independent says this is what they sound like if a piston breaks and they've had a couple of engines go this way.

For now, the engine's being stripped - I'm still unconvinced that it's piston / bearing damage - it sounds so much like a collapsed hydraulic lifter, but I agree with my independent that it's very loud to be that! Anyway, I will know soon and will report back once I have more to tell you.

Regards

 

Good luck I hope it works out.

The car must still be under warranty? Unless it was one of the first 2005 off the assembly line it should still be covered for a month or so.

 

UK has different (shorter) warranty periods so it may not be covered.

 

Ian - sound anything like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8mNVI9_G8 ? If so, here is a link re similar failure of the IMS: http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t...e290e1a47499d0 : Do a search there are others out there. If it is the IMS, it is known to Porsche and you may get somewhere by pushing the issue. Best of luck!

 

Unfortunately, that is exactly what it sounded like! (Thanks for the link).

Should know the results today

 

Well this is now becoming totally bizarre! My car quite literally mended itself!

I suggested to the guys at my Porsche independent that before starting to strip down my engine, there was an easy way to cheack if the knocking was coming from the camshaft (by way of a collapsed hydraulic lifter) or from the bottom end of the engine (broken piston or damaged bearing). The PIWIS tester allows for the fuel injectors of each cylinder to be switched off independently from one another preventing the individual cylinder from firing. This means there will be no combustion load on the piston in that cylinder whilst the injector is off. If a piston or bearing is damaged, it will usually only knock on the power stroke when it is loaded heavily by the burning mixture. The logic therefore goes that if you switch off the injector to the cylinder where the damage is, it will stop knocking. If switching off the injectors makes no difference to the knock, then it's elsewhere in the engine.

Anyway, the guys started the test with the engine knocking away merrily. They'd only got half way through when the knocking completely disappeared! All injectors back on - not a murmur! Rev the engine - not a sound out of place. Road test it - still perfectly normal. They then left it overnight, fired it up again this morning and not a thing wrong! No fault codes in the ECU. Nothing. They've even road tested the car again this morning using all the revs and full throttle (at my suggestion) and nothing at all.

I haven't the slightest clue what's going on. It obviously isn't piston/bearing damage as this can't mend itself, but then nor can a collapsed hydraulic lifter. Maybe the damned car's haunted - it's the only explanation that makes sense!!

 

Could it have been a clogged injector? or dirt somewhere on a valve that dislodged by itself?

That's good news anyway. it seems that these engines do not disintegrate as some claim.

 

This is very odd indeed.

I had a very similar sound once in my Boxster - some attributed it to my hydraulic lifter draining of fluid. Didn't sound plausible to me, though the sound disappeared, and hadn't reappeared during the next 20k miles I owned the car

 

I strongly recommend you to bring the car to the dealership to have a complete check out.

 

Thats good news, even if a bit disconcerting. Time to trade? ;-)