I'm looking to buy a '06-'07 C2S (eventually C4S) and running lots of Carfax reports at the moment.
While my sample is still very small (about 30 cars so far) I found at least 5-6 cars with a record of 'engine removed for repair' of which one car had the engine repaired twice withing 6 months. WTH?!?

I think I'm getting paranoid because I'll be taking my car to Europe and I'm not sure CPO warranty is recognized there.

I also know plenty of you are running the car without a single issue.

I should contact the owners of those cars in questions but first few I just dismissed thinking it was a fluke. As I found more it got me thinking.
Now I'm not sure which cars were affected and I'm not about to go back one by one to find them.

Here are the VIN numbers for couple cars:
WP0AB29916S743968
WP0AB29966S741892

One does not remove the engine for something minor.
Ideas, guesses?

 

This one has engine removed for repair 3 times between 07/2006 and 07/2007
VIN: WP0AB29906S740768

 

Never heard any other brand who has have so many engine problems like Porsche did in the last 11 years. The change to water cooled engine did have a huge cost regarding warranty claims for sure.
If I were you, I would prefer to have a car with engine replacement, the risk of having a failure on one that havenīt been replaced will be there always

The M96 is the decades flop regarding engines.

 

These could be RMS/transmission related. The engine has to be removed in order to get to them.

 

JSeven: There have been problems before (of different kinds) with every 911 series. The last few years these issues have been magnified by the Internet loud horn...

These are high performance engines (100HP/liter) and they cannot be as reliable as more conservatively designed engines (50HP/liter). However, the great majority of 911 engines last a long time, if not abused. And have no doubt, many people abuse their cars and either do not realize it or hide it. A simple harmful practice is to push an engine before its oil is hot, which it takes some time. How many times have you seen someone start cold and a mile later start shifting at 6kRPM+? The answer is, many times.

 

The problems these engines had, didnīt have to do with being abused, it was a build defect not related to the way you would use the engine. Porous bloc and IMS were the most comun. And believe me , itīs not internet loud horn, itīs real, and itīs there for everyone to see. Just make a search on any online used cars for sale site, and see the number of 996 and 997 that had their engine replaced. These engines are weak, for some itīs hard to accepted, but itīs the true, I had one, so Iīm talking with first hand experience, didnīt you ever wonder why Porsche didnīt choose the M96 for their Turbo engine or GT3 ...that says it all.

 

True, RMS could be the thing and it is pretty minor.

 

I accept what you're saying to a point but....

In absolute percentage terms, the number of real failures (not oil leaks) amongst these engines is small. In early engines it tended to be cylinder walls cracking and failing and latterly, some engines have failed due to break-up of the rear bearing on the Intermediate shaft. The great majority of these engines are relaible however and it would seem (anecdotally, admittedly) from the Indy community here in the UK that it is 'garage queens' that are more prone to failure than cars that are driven as Porsche's are meant to be.

I'm on my third M96/7-powered car now, have put big miles on all 3 (daily drivers) and whilst the rest of the car has gradually fallen to bits and cost me a fortune (in all 3 cases - mostly electrics/suspension/cooling system but 2 out of 3 cars have had also terminally failed gearboxes) the engines have so far been fantastic - and all 3 have beeen modded too!

I think the Internet does amplify a relatively small number of failures into something that looks a lot more serious - such failures are a nightmare for anyone experiencing them and tend to be shouted about. The truth is however, that for the majority of owners, it just isn't an issue.