Mirador

Just got a call from Porsche while my car is in for its two year service having only done 11,000 km's (6,000 miles) and they tell me that they have discovered evidence of coolant leaking which they believe indicates a porous engine block. The advice is that the engine will proably need replacing (at their cost).

How prevalent is this 'failure' ?

Any advice would be welcomed on my rights here . . .

Porsche Australia has advised they won't touch the odometer which seems a bit odd to me, what do you think ?

Am I likely to end up with non-matching VIN and engine numbers . . . ?

Resale value, better or worse ?

Love the Cayenne, but this has me disappointed. . .

Appreciate any advice whatsoever.

HD2pct

1) It is uncommon for this vehicle and vehicles in general. It certainly isn't something you hear of a lot in this forum.

2) What "rights?" Is the dealer not taking care of the problem for you? The only thing I would definitely square away is that the warranty, as it applies to the engine specifically, be adjusted so that they just don't go by vehicle mileage if something blows up down the road.

3) Why would the odo be reset to zero? Your vehicle still has 6,000 miles on it.

4 and 5) What difference does it make? Were you planning on taking this to Barrett-Jackson in 30 years? The resale value is a function of what a buyer would give you. Even if a potential buyer knew about an engine swap at 6k, some will see that as a positive, some a negative, and some won't care.

doberdog

BMW had this problem with the early V8 engines in the 1990s. They replaced the engine blocks due to pitting on the cylinder walls which lead to lack of compression. The block was changed and the odometer was not touched. I had a 740iL with this problem and the block was changed, which made it a more attractive to some buyers because there was less wear on the engine. It didn't effect the value of the car at all. make sure you keep all the paper work so you can back up the engine swap.

ltc

IIRC, there were porosity issues on the M96 blocks in Boxster/Carrera....

charlieXS

3.6L?

charlieXS

3.6L?

Mirador

Thanks for the responses, when I mentioned 'rights' I was inquiring as to what else I should be asking the Dealer to undertake. I don't understand mechanics that well so suppose was wondering if there are a number of ways or levels in which this 'repair' can be affected.

charlieXS

thanks, hope they work it out for ya...

charlieXS

hmmmm why am I double posting?

richc

happy fingers.

HD2pct

Actually I think there are some half-a$$ed ways that people have tried to "fix" these issues depending on their severity. But the only right way is to replace the block (or so it would seem), so at least you have that going for you.

Mirador

So I made the above Post in October.

Come early March I get a call from my Dealership to advise me that 'Germany' has rejected their request for a new engine as they are not convicned the problem is significant to warrant a change in engine.

The Dealership has been asked to clean the leaking coolant from the block, then run the engine so that photographic evidence of the leak can be provided to them.

Guess what, they clean the residue, run the engine, but no leak . . . . .

Is this good news or bad ?

At the least there's been some mixed messages here, from Oct to Feb I was under the impression a new block was being made and shipped

Any advice welcomed

wirunner

That sounds weird. Having recently gone through the whole porous block thing, it only took them two days to send a PCNA rep and verify. Although perhaps you should be happy you'll be spared a 9 wk dealer visit to tear the engine apart.

richc

I'd watch the coolant levels closely, and see if the thing leaks on your garage. If it leaked once and was significant enough that they noticed it, it'll probably do it again.

Mirador

I was hoping the dealership might lend me a 997 for the 9 weeks

I just can't work out what happened between Oct and Feb. Only scenario that makes sense is that they did indeed ship the block but at some stage a policy decision on these types of 'defects' was made and they decided to 'monitor' the problem as opposed to a replacement.