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Have you or others suffered a major 997 Engine Failure?

My engine has been replaced - am I out the woods?

I had my engine replaced on my 2005 C2S in 2007, does anyone know if I am out the woods with my replacement engine or could it potentially happen again (I am in the same place as most of you on if I should do the warranty or not!!)
Cheers
 
I was part of a number of people who orchestrated firstly a poll, then a draft letter for all contributors to send off when many B7 RS4s came down with the dreaded DRC pandemic. We constructed a reasonable letter to Audi saying that this is what went wrong and when, enclosed a copy of a forum poll and asked Audi for an extented warranty. The result was that Audi extended the warranty on all cars that had reported the issue to 5 years from the date of registration. Audi responded to everyone who wrote in and no threats were made regarding contacting watchdog or papers.
Rocket science it aint but posting page after page of do we dont we aint going to get people a free engine when it goes pop. Sorry to be blunt but if there are enough of you it should work. The only problem you may have is that the numbers of 997 cars produced is massively more than RS4s so the numbers complaing may be seen to be a drop in the ocean for Porsche, good luck.
 
You raise a very good point here. As I'm sure any owner of a 997 (with or without a warranty) whose engine has gone 'bang' must be driving around wondering if the replacement engine will go the same way. Judging from these post it happens somewhere between 20,000 to 50,000 so that 2 year factory warranty just may not be long enough.

You may argue that it's your choice to extend the warranty in the first place but why, because you know there is a likelihood of your engine going 'bang'? That sure doesn't sound right to me. Maybe Porsche should stand by their engine and extend their factory warrant to 5 years :dont know:
 
This raises yet another question, why did Porsche feel it necessary to almost double the cost of the extended warranty. Is it possible there is a direct link between that and the failiure of the 997 Gen 1 engine? Maybe there is a storm brewing :?:
 
apw2007 said:
This raises yet another question, why did Porsche feel it necessary to almost double the cost of the extended warranty. Is it possible there is a direct link between that and the failiure of the 997 Gen 1 engine? Maybe there is a storm brewing :?:

Personally I think Porsche had to raise the warranty cost due to OPCs taking the p*** with RMS warranty claims: It is totally unproveable (because the seal is effectively destroyed on removal), but I would not be at all surprised if less than 10% of them actually needed to be changed. :eek:

In fact I am going to start a poll on this... :thumb:
 
With regard to the warranty going from £895 to £1,350, I would have thought the following factors affect the quoted premium.

1 - Greed (ie expected profit margin)
2 - Losses (ie claims trends actual engineering based or service dept invented)
3 - New risks (ie increased cover or services or simply risk rebalance)
4 - Inflation (or other external costs or taxes)

Now, (1) is understandable when you are under pressure to bolster bottom line in our current economic climate when car sales have dried up. Particularly when a fearful or wealthly demographic exists to squeeze. It may also be to increase margin per contract to compensate for decrease in contracts written (ie less warranties sold) due to economic effects.

(2) may be related to either a genuine need to claw back payouts on engineering failures, or to cover the over zealous Service Team Managers seeking to RMS their way to budget every month. We can't tell (ie infer) if this price rise indicates a genuine loss of reliability in the product.

(3) in this case must be considered as the NEW warranty exceeds the OLD in a number of ways in terms of total items covered. It is effectively "bumper to bumper" including many items which were previously excluded and/or deemed wear and tear. The new items specifically include PCM, Computer and Stereo for example. The new premium may also reflect the fact that there will be a forced re-profiling of customers (cars) and therefore income stream as the NEW warranty excludes cover (and hence depresses warranty sales) on cars with what are relatively small modifications from OEM spec. Finally, the NEW warranty price includes the price of the 111 point check. Previously this was a 2 hour labour charge of approx £200.

In this case (4) may well represent a step change in inflation (ie warranty price has been held static for a number of years and now jumps) or more likely, due to our currency depreciation all those lovely EURO denominated German parts are more expensive than a year ago even if labour rates are fixed locally in GBP. As for taxes, I note the new warranty prices have not moved with the new 15% VAT (the new price was published prior to Budget). I don't mind - I probably would have put a 2.1% donation in the Porsche Benevolent Fund on the way out any way. :floor:
 
Good analysis GT4. I wonder how much of 2) has been impacted by 997 Gen 1 Engine Replacements?
Regards Big Bob :bye:
 
Wattie said:
Personally I think Porsche had to raise the warranty cost due to OPCs taking the p*** with RMS warranty claims: It is totally unproveable (because the seal is effectively destroyed on removal), but I would not be at all surprised if less than 10% of them actually needed to be changed. :eek:

A not very nice picture of Porsche is starting to emerge on this thread, real or perceived!

If they being ripped off by their OPC's, passing the cost onto their customers through the warranty is not what I would call a great business plan. And if all this talk of failed engines is true and it is an inherent fault, is makes it look like they got their eyes glued to the profit margins and have lost track of the bigger picture - a decision they may come to regret which is a pity because I would hate to see the brand spoiled.

:sad:
 
Consider it's an Insurance policy. Is it actually Porsche footing the bill? I mean Porsche is likely to have paid a premium, then the Insurance company takes it over...

For a company who turns into a hedge funder for a few weeks and makes billions I doubt this one has slipped under the carpet.
 
ResB said:
For a company who turns into a hedge funder for a few weeks and makes billions I doubt this one has slipped under the carpet.

Don't be so sure, maybe they bought a lot of carpets with the billions
 
apw2007 said:
A not very nice picture of Porsche is starting to emerge on this thread, real or perceived!

If they being ripped off by their OPC's, passing the cost onto their customers through the warranty is not what I would call a great business plan.

The warranty is an Insurance product from a separate organisation: they will merely assess the risk and price their policy accordingly (adding in sufficient profit for Porsche GB and the OPC that sells it.) Dealers earn so little out of selling new cars, and since Block Exemption Regulations changed in 2003, the ONLY thing that they can do that no-one else can is warranty work. So it is inevitable that some will exploit the warranty to its full extent - thereby increasing the risk for the insurers - thereby increasing the premiums... and so on.
 
Wattie said:
apw2007 said:
A not very nice picture of Porsche is starting to emerge on this thread, real or perceived!

If they being ripped off by their OPC's, passing the cost onto their customers through the warranty is not what I would call a great business plan.

The warranty is an Insurance product from a separate organisation: they will merely assess the risk and price their policy accordingly (adding in sufficient profit for Porsche GB and the OPC that sells it.) So it is inevitable that some will exploit the warranty to its full extent - thereby increasing the risk for the insurers - thereby increasing the premiums... and so on.

Which might explain why the cost of the extented warranty have gone up signifigantly over the last 4-6 years. Does anybody see a reason for that ??? :?:
 
This thread has gone off track, funny how it does that. IMO the engine failure is the more likely of the 2 and time will tell as the clock is ticking over on all those 997 Gen 1 engines out there
 
PAH GmbH (Porsche Automobile Holdings) has officially been a hedge fund (in the sense it has made more money on the markets than making and selling cars) every year since 2001.

It has made the majority of it's profits in FX (currency) trading every year until FY 2008, when equity (VW shares) trading overtook FX.

In their best automotive profit year (2007) they still made FIVE times as much money on the markets!
 
My old :eek:ld: Dad, God rest his soul. always commented that that the division between Insurance and a "Protection Racket :bandit: " was always a fine one :roll: .
In the end RMS leaks are and were annoying, but in the greater scheme of things relatively cheap and easy to replace compared to a complete Engine replacement on a 997 Gen 1 standard car. Now that will really push up the cost of the "Protection Racket :bandit:" sorry Insurance for peace of mind ( which is doubtful as the reason, [while the effect is clearly known however] for 997 Engine Failures is not defined ).
So the real issue still remains, which is what this thread started as "Have you or others suffered a major 997 Engine Failure?
Regards Big Bob :bye:
 

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