In their SAE technical paper (2001-01-0245) Porsche says "No customer-relevant wear was noted in any stage of the development". They go on to say "The specified 2.5 million switchings were exceeded many times without any failure".

What has been the real-world experience among the forum members? Any problems with the Vario-Cam?

 

know of a couple people who had issues not wide spread that ive heard of

 

It is like anything else in the car forum world. You have to consider that this forum is a large collective of porsche 996tt owners from everywhere. So that is a large number of porsche owners. People will read these threads about a couple of engine failures or a couple of variocam failures and all the sudden it spreads and is perceived as a "common" weak point. If you talk to an engine builder they will tell you about dozens of IMS failures and variocam failures on 996tt's, but you have to remember that fewer people crack open $20k engines for mods or upgrades than do people who open them up for issues. That means if the engine is being opened up, it is most likely for an issue. That means the engine builder is speaking from the perspective of someone who mostly fixes engine issues. Long story short, you have to always consider the source and remember the rule of #s when sampling stats from a large number of people.


Think about it this way, if 20 out of 2000 cars had variocam failures and posted here about it here that would equal to 1% of the whole inventory. But you better believe that those 20 cars would cause a panic and spread words of poor reliability. In reality 1% isn't bad at all. Got to love the Internet.

 

Knock on wood... as long as I'm not a part of that 1% Variocams, rear spoiler, clutch accumulator, whatever it may be...

 

The most common part that fail on the vario cam is the solenoid bracket. (see pictures). If this bracket fail the solenoid is getting out of position and the oil pressure is not supplied anymore to the system. Item #27 on the parts cat picture.... This bracket is located on the solenoid that is used for the valve opening ( 3mm or 11mm) only, not for the cam advance..... One on each bank.

 

JPFLIP undrstand well how those engines work,always has right answers.

 

I am trying to learn as much as possible about the TT to keep it away from the dealership

 

Youare doing realy well then

 

It's funny how sometimes the most elegant engineering development (as described in the technical paper) can be undone by a simple bracket that a first year engineer should be able to design. It happens more often than we like to admit.

 

(In Yoda's voice) Hmmm, impressive you are, to understand this. The force is strong in you. (End Yoda's voice)


Very sharp, indeed, brother. This is what makes this site valuable! Thank you for renewing my faith in the site members, here. Mostly it's a bunch of garbage on this site . . . especially the crap I post!

 

Frankster strike again!!!! I like you Frankster and I am not the only one. You seems to always found the good word to ...... to express your opinion. Since I have learn (from one of your post) that you are a big , strong and muscular person I will agree with everything you are saying.... . Thanks for the good word Also good luck for the Texas mile!!!!

 

I saw a thread a ways back about lifter pins backing out. Is it the general consensus that this was largely from elevated rev limits? O r just bad luck? Seemed to be pretty rare.

 

If I remember correctly what Scott (Divexxtreme) reported, both high revs and design flaws are the most probable causes.
997 lifters should be better.

I discussed this issue with my P-mechanic and he told me he saw this sort of failure two times on 996tt's.

 

Don't forget that I'm also a 15th degree black belt in at least 5 martial arts, can speak 10 languages, and shoot laser beams from my eyeballs at will! . . . I just hope that makes me faster in the mile!

 

Are the 997 lifters interchangeable?