Not sure the ecu stores any history except cel codes. Anything the ecu says is just icing on the cake for blame IMO. It is pretty obvious what happened and who is responsible.

 

Richard,
I'm sorry that your situation seems to be deteriorating. A couple of questions that I don't think have been answered above:
- When you say the turbo imploded or blew, what exactly do you mean? Is the turbine/impeller shaft intact and just wobbling around on fried bearings or did it really disintegrate? Has the turbo been actually pulled and inspected?
- If the shaft/turbine/impeller is not completely intact, did an inspection reveal where the pieces went and whether it might have been a single, piece of detrius that may have (fortunately) lodged in a cat downstream or an intercooler upstream? The missing pieces had to go somewhere. If the failure was catastrophic(as in like "where Did it all go"?) you can assume that at least some of it went where you didn't want it to go.

I'm not sure what the ECU will tell you other than perhaps what (some of) the conditions were at or around the time of failure. What is most important is assessing the physical damage that has been done which means someone qualified needs to start pulling stuff apart, inspecting the pieces and seeing where the trail leads. If it isn't as straight forward as simply a wobbly turbo shaft with no signs of visible damage, this probably means disassembling exhaust, inspecting cats, pulling and inspecting intercooler(s) and air intake components, dropping the motor and doing enough of a tear-down to make sure it's solid. Also, drain and measure the oil. If you can't account for it all and it didn't leave a spill on the pavement, it may have been sucked into and through the motor, hence the white smoke. Oil is not compressible and in larger than recommended quantities bends rods, smashes bearings and creates internal havoc even without significant over revs. What you really don't want to do is ignore the motor, make repairs to the turbos and whatnot and then have the motor grenade because something was fubared in it too. Sorry, but this really is a tortuous path and whomever you take your car to should be qualified to do the diagnostics and repairs including major motor work if it comes to that. They and you should also be willing to completely follow the trail so you are assured that when your car is returned it is 100% repaired and not a potential ticking mess.

Also, if you are planning on taking your car to a different shop, I would retain legal representation. A new shop may be a completely reasonable move even if the original shop is well qualified to do the work but it undoubtedly will add another layer of complication to the situation. Good luck, I hope it goes your way.

 

No physical inspection has been done yet all we know is there was a lot of noise and smoke from the passenger side exhaust and the engine is locked, for the garage whilst they admit that they failed to reconnect N75 pipe aren't yet taking liability and not sure whether they have insurance or not but even for a small shop in Switzerland this is likely, but they seem keen for ME to accept the situation as an unfortunate incident to my car whilst they were working on it ! This is why I am in no rush to get the car taken anywhere from their garage (even though I need it as my daily driver I can use the train) as it was in perfect working order when it went there. Lets see how it pans out, I hope we can find a way forward as I really like these guys. The junior mechanic was crying on the phone on Friday when he told me....

 

Its as simple as this, they didn't make sure everything was fully assembled on the car. Someone went for a joy ride and blew it up. They are 100% at fault.

 

It is not really importand for YOU if THEY are insured or not. They have to pay for the damage or buy and install new parts. It is'nt your problem if they get back the money for the parts and the labour or if they have to pay them for their own. I was roughly in the same situation as you, liked the shop owner a lot due to their work. They made a mistake, they stand for it, and they repaired it. I used it for several years because from this mistake on, they controled everything twice. In your situation I would speak with them and would write down a few things: what they did, their mistakes, and what is to do (bring the car to porsche for physical inspection and than repair it according to a parts list written down by porsche, for example).
In which area of switzerland are you located?
sorry for my bad english
-Enrico-

 

Location Zurich and that is one point I have noticed, despite they are a very close partnership, they don't control each others work, in my office everyboy controls each others work as a simple team work principle, even mine and I am in charge

 

Talk to the head chef tomorrow. If they are insincere call the next Porsche main dealer (Zug is a nice one) to trailer the car. Than they can inspect it and maybe help you with an advice. DON'T drive it due later someone could say you made the damage because you drove it.
Maybe you can send me a pn. I'am looking for a new partnerchip to service my turbo and maybe they are on my list
thx in advance
-Enrico-

 

Tony at EPL tell us do you have an alternative Boost limiter to the 1.3 Bar ?

 

Porsche Zurich charged 7,000 USD just to install the AMS 16K Billets, so depending on the outcome I will be going to Sportec out by the airport depending on who is paying

 

Yes, all 996tt's come from the factory with a 1.3 bar throttle body shutdown feature. If the car boosts 1.3 bar, the ECU determines it's more than it likes and cuts the power and puts the car into limp mode (about .5 bar max). You then have to clear the code or disconnect the battery to resume normal boost. Tuners will move the 1.3 bar shutdown out of the way, if the intended tune is designed to run over 1.3 bar of boost. Some will move it "way out of the way", like 2 bar. I always specified that I wanted a 1.5 bar throttle body shutdown, in order to maintain some degree of safety, while still enabling me to run over 1.3 bar without shutting down.

 

Wow. That's steep. Those are bolt-on turbos... what's book-time to change the turbos, anyone know? My guess is you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000/hr of labor. Yikes.

 

And you used them? If you have that much money to blow Ill show up and make your car fly... lol
Injectors, turbo swap, 5 bar install should be no more then $2K at a dealer..
It costs approx. $6500 ( maybe a little more) to do rods - Labor only... and thats at a dealer... Even the biggest install thieves do not charge that... maybe they should go up on the list..

 

For $7k I'll I could have installed the turbos made some upgraded intercooler piping and fab up an exhaust.

 

I hope the $7k included the turbos and tune!

 

+1 to that!!