terryb

I'm considering a 2015 991.1 GT3 and doing some research. Is there any data that suggests if the engine's going to fail, it happens prior to a certain mileage range? For example, do we know if most have failed before 20k miles? Or conversely, none have failed after 30k? I realize that many aren't driven enough to reach that and the info might not be shared by Porsche but maybe someone's informally keeping track? The Concerned Owners Group perhaps?

Another interesting item that I discovered, two of the three GT3s I've looked at both had engine replacements at ~16k miles and shortly thereafter both developed transmission problems that ultimately required replacements. Just a weird coincidence or have others run into this?

For 2015s, we're past the halfway point on the 10 year warranty, but for a low mileage car that hasn't seen any big track, a concern is that if the failure isn't generally exhibited before xx miles, getting to that mileage by the end of 2024 might be a problem. (Of course the solution to that would be to just drive it everywhere, right?!)

SmokinGTS

What Porsche found was the cars that failed first were those used as daily drivers : ie. In traffic low RPM. This may be due to low oil circulation as well as the design of the head and valve train components. I just sold my GT3 with 31K and the motor ran great. I tracked the car a fair amount and always ran the car in the mid to upper RPMs after proper warm up. My thoughts on these cars is there in an inherent design flaw in the upper valve train and until this is properly fixed we will continue to see failures. Now the good news is Porsche has made improvements in the heads and when your engine does tank you will get a complete new engine with all the improvements. My advise is drive it like you stole it and have as much fun in the car as you can. When the day comes you can rest assured your engine will be replaced. It doesn't get any better than that.

m3bs

A friend of mine is getting his ‘14 motor replaced due to FF issue at 24K. Is the updated design a real fix?

tstafford

Feels like there is only anecdotal evidence out there. Maybe Porsche knows. They probably do.

My two cents - the folks I know who got new motors were all using the cars on the track. Just saying. . .

terryb

@m3bs, do you know if the car was mostly tracked or mostly street-driven?

@tstafford, are you saying that all of the motors failed at the track, or just that they tracked their cars? Do you happen to recall any mileages?

RDCR

I don't believe track time is the root cause of the failure. What happens during high RPM track sessions is the motor is more sensitive to timing variations caused by finger follower wear so that's where the first engine fault codes initially show up.

ipse dixit

I really don't think there's any correlation between track/non-track and engine failures du to the finger follower issue.

Just anecdotally, I know of two owners who had the engines replaced and both tracked their GT3s extensively (like over 6k track miles during their ownership). And, of course, you always hear (again anecdotally) of owners who never track their cars and have had engine failures due to the finger follower issue.

At the end of the day, I just think it's a design defect. If the engine has it, it'll manifest itself eventually.

tstafford

I was simply saying that in the cases I know of (anecdotal obviously) the track was involved.

Very interesting.

My POV (and just that) - I wouldn't think that a low miles car is a low risk car. Too many unknowns. I owned a 2014 GT3 (no issues). But I'm glad it's in the rear view mirror.

m3bs

Turns out it was 37K, not 24K. Current owner has done about 4 track days. No evidence of track use for the first 35K.

terryb

That's my concern too and the reason I'm wondering if there's any rough pattern of mileage with failed motors. I completely understand there are no guarantees, especially when we track them, but this is a known, potential issue so I'm trying to do my homework. Is there an informal registry or even a forum poll of those who've had their engine replaced?

SmokinGTS

Here is my advise, buy the car and hope the motor doesn't fail until 4 years and 1 month. Drive the hell out of the car and pray you hit the lottery. Every car made with this motor will eventually get a new motor unless a permanent fix is found.

itrsteve

Agreed. If you read through the threads on here, track time is the common denominator. It’s more than anecdotal now.

I call nothing but bs on the low rpm claim.

My engine got kicked on high rpm as well, the damn thing is eating itself. Doesn’t seem like a bold claim to think sustained time at high RPM leads to it.

Harry Da Hamster

I wonder how many engines actually failed due to the cam finger followers. Seems like that topic has disappeared since the series of engine recalls

itrsteve

Big thread on it. Outside of one user who had some bottom end problem that was clearly a one-off. The other failures have all been because of this.

flyjets

I'm not sure your aware that Porsche is giving 991.1 GT3 owners a 10 year engine warranty.
So what's it matter if it fails. Should you be buying a GT3 if it's your only means of Transportation? Probably not!

Ian