I recently realized my dream of owning a Porsche (08 C4S 15k). However I'm reading horror stories about 997 engine reliability. Intermediate shaft and cylinder failures. It's exciting and a bit unnerving to own this car right now for me.

Please help me understand the issues and tell me, do I have a real problem with my 997 engine reliability and if yes what preemptive measures can be taken to avoid them?

Thanks

 

Same here. 2006 C2S with 44,000 miles without a hitch. Engine as tight and as strong as the day it rolled off the assembly line.

The car is my daily driver and I am a 'spirited driver' with the speeding tickets (and the insurance rate) to prove it.

But I change my oil every 3,000-4,000 miles and I let the car warm up before driving it hard.

These cars are exceptionally strong and reliable. Don't forget that for every horror story, there are 10,000 happy owners who never post a single line of text to say how happy they are.

In fact, I am driving down to Vivid in AZ today to have a turbocharger installed, along with new 'lungs'. I would not do this on my dail driver if I had any concerns.

 

There has been a lot of talk about this issue in the major Porsche mags like GTPorsche and Excellence. Excellence and LN have done a lot of research into the matter. Porsche has all the data but most of the articles I have read report extremely low failure rates. Something like 5% or less, and that is pre 2006. MY06 and later should be even less. Just about any engine on any car has failure rates in that area so do not be discouraged.

Jason

 

Blown out of proportion, there is a poll over at rennlist, there are a couple of people with this problem but the majority doesn't have it. Buy a CPO one if you are afraid.

 

29,000 miles 06 C2S no problems i warm the car up and drive hard rarley shift below 4k rpms change the oil every 5k only issue a rattle here rattle there

 

Welcome to 6speedonline. With all due respect, this issue has been discussed numerous times in the past here and at Rennlist. If you have a couple of hours, do a search for "IMS" on the 997 subforums. That may answer your questions.

 

Sorry to bring up a covered subject. I will look into these posts. I'm also new to the forum.

Thanks for the replys. Iw I'll endeavor to follow the example of experience.

 

If you research, you will find these cars are extremely reliable overall.

 

Of course on the way home something broke on my transmission -- I can't find any gear. Maybe we need a transmission reliabity thread

 

Sorry to hear that. What year/model?
Keep us posted on the details.
All the best.

 

Sounds like shift link cable, common issue.

 

2006 c2 6 speed. I will definitley update.

 

Thanks for the reply, my mechanic thinks so too. That said, I gotta give props to Lucent Motors, for being open long after the gates of my local dealer has closed.

 

It's most likely a shifter cable. They will break long before the transmission does.

 

Yep, this was the case. (whew)