My first Porsche - and it's turning out to be a lemon - HELP

996

My first Porsche - and it's turning out to be a lemon - HELP

Postby joelakuhl » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:00 pm

The beginning of Janaury, I became a first time Porsche owner when I bought my 2003 Carrera from a used car dealership in Salem, Oregon. It has been in the shop 5 times since then. The 'check engine' keeps coming on (solid, not blinking)- and the problem is always with the 5th cylinder. The first time I took it in, they replaced the coil as the old one was improperly installed and had broken in half. The car ran well for a few days, and the check engine light came on again. (They tested for compression, etc. and all measurements were normal.) This time they replaced the fuel injector. Ran well for a few days until the check engine light came on again. Sitting at a stop light, rather than the smooth pur of the engine, the car was shaking pretty well, and the response out of the light was pretty choppy. So, back to the shop I went. Unfortunately, other than gas in the tank and air in the tires, I am only starting to learn about cars. For the first month of ownership, having my car in the shop for most of that time was frustrating to say the least.

My car has been in the shop for the last 2 months now (in 3 months of ownership, I have physically had possession of it for less than three weeks!!!). Here are the notes from the shop: Found misfire on cylinder 5. Swapped coil, plug and wire, misfire did not move. Checked fuel trim, found abnormal readings on bank 2. Injected smoke into intake to test for vacuum leaks, found no leaks. Replaced crank vent valve and elbow due to internal leak. Vehicle still misfires. Scoped injector and coil primary circuit and found no abnormalities. Checked fuel pressure foud it with normal fuiel pressure reading. I just picked the car back up on Friday (3/14/14) as the service manager wanted me to run a few tanks of premium fuel through the vehicle. Drove the car 50 miles home....no problems. Next morning, drove the car 40 miles round trip for errands, no problems. Later on, running short errands around town, check engine light would come on solid while sitting at the stop light and car would shake.....sometimes CEL would start flashing. Once got car up to road speed, CEL would maintain steady, or shut off altogether. Uggg. Coming in to work this morning, CEL came on flashing, went steady, shut off, then came on steady again. Car was fine at speed. Idled very hard at stoplights, and ran very rough accelerating out of stoplights. Before running errands over lunch, I checked the codes....P0305 - Misfire on 5th cylinder detected. Erased the code. Car ran fine while running errands. This morning, car had a easily audible and constant misfire.....5th cylinder of course. Ran very choppy out of stoplights and/or getting up to driving speed.....cruising seemed ok.

What to do here? Car was purchased "as is," and the 'dealer' is not standing behind the vehicle. Ideally, I do not want to sell or trade the car so that some other individual has to deal with what was once my problem. However, I do not have a leprachaun with pockets full of gold to keep trying to experiment with things until the problem is ultimately fixed at untold expense. Any suggestions?

Via carfax, I have located past places of service and have obtained quite a few past service records. The most recent records indicate that the previous owner was having the same problem I am (could kill myself for not calling before purchasing the car :evil: ), and that the service center recommended replacing the lifters on the 5th cylinder - although they couldn't guarantee that would fix the problem.

I am at a loss. Any ideas, suggestions, recommendations or well wishes would help!

Thanks in advance,
Joel
joelakuhl
 
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Re: My first Porsche - and it's turning out to be a lemon -

Postby Steve » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:47 pm

Hi Joel,

Sorry to hear of your 996 troubles; unfortunately, these have not been perfect cars.

Did you get a PPI from an independent shop or Porsche dealer before you bought the car?

I'm sure you've done some research by now and know these things have some issues; some of which are both expensive and challenging to resolve. Hopefully, you have a competent shop working on this for you.

Marque Motors in Portland is one of these, if you need assistance.

Good luck!
Steve
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