I couldn't agree more. 82k is nothing, my buds 04 F150 has 230k, my old F250 had 245k, Civic 150k is nothing. Yet many here find it acceptable that a $100k + car is a expected to have an engine replacement with less than 100k on the clock. With norma maint. I would "Expect" to never have to replace an engine. Maybe its time for a change? Hmmmmmm

 

1978-83 Porsche 911SC: The window on affordable classic (read air-cooled) 911s is closing fast. The early pre-safety bumper cars (1964-73) are now in the $50,000 to $350,000 range, and the dirty little secret is that while they may have more vintage charm, they’re not nearly as good as the later 1978-83 cars. With excellent rust-proofing and 300,000-mile engines, these are the last bastion of affordable classic 911s.

So with technology Porsche got worse? Come on!

 

agreed completely, i am sure that many others do as well.


i think its big company disease, but normally it should be short term non-reliability and for minor issues. but right now with the pdk stuff+997 engine-failure of-the-month posted on the forums, i am not so sure.

ignorance is bliss sometimes

 

I have two thoughts, to wit:

1) In search of more HP to continue waging the power fights, limits are being tested; and
2) Many of the drivers of "older" -- say, 5-10 year old -- cars are younger and far more aggressive than the cars can handle. Lots of time in high RPMs, tracking, showing off, and so on.

That said, I had my wife's car this weekend while she was away skiing and I slightly smoked the clutch on one start. Stupid/bad driving on my part and I just hope I didn't cause any significant damage (rev limiter came on VERY briefly, like 1 second). D'oh!

 

Well our cars just don't have that much hp, are they powerful? Yeah, more than most but certainly nothing overwhelming.

Lets face it, most don't track their cars and most just drive around like normal adults with an exhilarating occasional foot to the floor.

I don't buy it.

 

See update posts.

 

Engines shouldn't fail at 82K miles unless there is poor design, lack of maintenance or abuse. For what it's worth, Porsche just announced that they are replacing engines in 785 GT3s. So, we know that Porsche is capable of bad design once in a while.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/18/auto...html?hpt=hp_t3

 

BUT THEN THERE'S THIS: C'mon. We have NO knowledge of OP's car, it's past and maintenance history if it has one, etc. This is a huge factor when responding to this kind of thing. OP says this is not IMS but main bearing failure. That is a maintainance issue. Bottom ends are not failing afaik. Furthermore the failures on any model year other than 2005 are minimal but magnified by the nature of message board reporting. You gotta have figured that out by now if you are paying attention and not just reacting. Don't want your 911's? There is nothing out there that provides the driving experience this car does. Want an investment however, look elsewhere.

 

See update posts.

 

I couldn't agree more. We shouldn't have to try to rationalize or explain away the issues we see pop up with many of our Porsches. What I often see with Porsche owners is akin to a parent defending their poorly behaved child.
We can rationalize some of these reliability issues to the pushing of limits in the engineering or attribute it to poor maintenance ( I'm guessing that most don't drive their cars that much and also that most people spending this kind of money on a car don't ignore maintenance either ) but for the issues I seen recalled or somewhat prevalent out there are issues with quality control.


The issues with the starter/alternator cable were not related to pushing performance limits nor was the recall on some other items such as the high pressure fuel pump or exhaust brackets. The IMS issue could have been avoided with a better engineered bearing in the first place similar to the replacement ones we see out there.


If the issue comes down to a tradeoff between pushing the limits of horsepower and reliability then I think most 911 owners would gladly give up a small bit of horsepower in exchange for bulletproof reliability similar to what we see in some of the Japanese performance cars.


Don't get me wrong, I love my Porsche. It's just that I have high expectations for a car that has been "perfected" for 50 years.

 

i normally agree with this thinking but its genuinely diff with these 997.1 engines. i know 4 997 owners on their second engines, 2 of them being mint cpo vehicles (not abused). 1 car was an 05, the rest 06/07. in all cases suffered the exact same non-ims problem.

i agree with the OP that the car wasn't abused. there are cases of non-abused cars having non-ims related engine failure.

 

I feel for you. I know from first hand that buying a CPO doesn't really mean anything other than you have 2 years protection. There are errors all over my CPO reconditioning report. It's quite humorous. A CPO is a glamorized safety report imo. I am almost positive my engine had a slightly scored cylinder from the day I bought it (CPO won't tell you anything about this) and it's impossible to know how a previous owner drove it. At least i was fortunate to have the entire engine replaced and now I've put on all but maybe 10 kms on this new engine.

 

Yes. If I was not clear I was referring to the previous life of your cpo'd car. I might suggest however that had you done more "homework" and spent time on the boards before your purchase you might have been able to steer away from this model year on general principles. Or if this is indeed a bottom end failure than this is just unique to your car. I do not wish to minimize or trivialize you losses but I do have a problem with those who seem aghast that an automobile might have an engine failure at 82K miles, esp a preowned vehicle with an unknown history. There is another post circulating by a "new" owner who is in love with his new used purchase and the joy it has brought to his driving. It is sad and unfortunate that you have to report otherwise. It is not as if all Porsches grenade at 82K miles however. Some of the followers of your thread seem to be reacting as if that is the case. Bad luck my friend. I am sorry for your loss. Sometimes reading the daily news puts this sort of thing in perspective for me. I hope your solution, which seems reasonable, works for you.

 

It is unfortunate that anecdotal occurrences cause people to make such general assumptions about these cars. It makes it very difficult for anyone to sell an early 997 on these forums.

 

gpijli, what year is your car?

re the posts below, i guess im a 'young guy' mid 30s, drive the car pretty normally. won't ever track it (just dont have the time). re beating the $h!t and abusing the car, i stopped doing that after learning my lesson 10 years ago.