This is something that happened to me about 2-3 months ago. Bought a 997TT tip. Car checked out all seemed well. There was nothing over type 2 overrevs when i checked it btw. Anyways After owning for a bit the check engine light came on. I took it to the dealer who spent the first week to figure out what the problem was. Apparently there was an engineer from porsche who came out to look at it. This is what they told me.

1. The dealer tech said that egnine had NOT been taken apart before.
2. They told methat the camshaft was spinning in a way that was causing oil that drips into the camshaft to get blocked causing the Check engine light to come on. What exactly caused this.. i have no idea.

Anyways.. They took the engine apart and replaced the camshaft (it took a total of 3 full weeks to get my car back). The warranty bill was around $9,100 thank god i didn't have to pay that.

I guess I was just wondering what actually happened here? How did this happen and will there be any longterm impacts like premature failure of the engine due to this.

I really wanted to tune this baby up.. but i am kind of hesitent to after an issue like that. Can anyone offer any insight or advice on this.

 

First, what year is the car, how many miles, etc.
Second, how many miles driven since it has been repaired?

 

I don't think a camshaft replacement is all that big of a deal...I had mine replaced under warranty on my BMW years ago...and I've put nearly 200K miles on the car without one issue...maybe Porsche engines are different but I wouldn't sweat it personally.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's a 2007 997TT Tip. It had roughly 16,100 miles on it when the failure happened. Currently I have about 19,200 miles on it.

The porsche tech also said there were no metal shavings when they changed the oil in it at the time of failure. But I believe the oil had been changed shortly before I bought the car (by the selling dealership, non porsche) so no way to really know what might have been in there :/.

 

Resurrecting this post. I wanted to know if the guys who have had their camshafts replaced had any problems after? I am looking at purchasing a 997tt but the thing that scares me is the car just had both camshafts replaced and the tech noticed metal shavings in the oil filter. I am assuming that since the filter caught the shaving then they would not get to the bearings? Should I look for another or is this ok?

 

I am not sure about the metal shavings or what that might mean. I had my camshafts originally replaced, then the error code came back about a year later. The next time through I think Porsche had already seen this issue a lot more and they pinned down the piece that was causing issues in the camshaft. I haven't had any problems related to camshafts since then.

I am thinking I should buy I lotto ticket. I have hit jackpot on all three of the following issues.

1. Camshaft woes. (under warranty)
2. Tiptronic Transmission Leak. (Tip Tranny replaced under warranty)
3. Coolant leak (once under warranty, once out of warranty, engine pulled to fix both times).

If you are looking to buy those are the three major issues I am really aware of on these cars. The Coolant seems to start leaking around 50k miles. There are several threads about it on the forum.

 

Sounds odd that both camshafts were replaced...usually it is the bank 2 intake camshaft that goes. I'm not sure if anyone has had the bank 1 camshaft fail. Mine was recently replaced and the car runs great - hopefully it will stay that way, lol.

The only downside is that apparently it can happen again unless the cams are "pinned" to stop the inner sleeve from rotating. It's a design flaw in the camshafts...

 

Don't forget about the spoiler hydraulic failure, and the clutch accumulator failure (although that won't affect you) - both happened to me, in addition to the camshaft. CPO warranty saved my wallet from a spanking.

 

oh oh, jackpot on the spoiler fluid too.

 

Porsche can't be that nice for fixing expensive stuff especially for a car that's not under warranty

I am sure your car is CPO and you probably don't know it and if it is out of warranty than definitely play the power ball next time.

 

It said on the invoice "recommend bank 1 replacement." I think they probably didnt know it usually only happens to bank 2? IDK. I will have to ask the tech who performed the repair if he did the "pinning."

 

Thought Id chime in here. I just had the exact same issue...check engine light (bank 2)...followed by intake cam removal, pinning and reinstall. ATX Autosport here in Austin did the replacement and Protomotive did the pinning. All seems great so far. Also on that note the pinning looked pretty good...my quess is that they are gonna be good forever.

 

^ same.

 

Has anyone done a survey with cars that have had this failure to see what the mileage was? Maybe there is something to keep an eye out for when buying a 997tt used if the problem manifests around a particular mileage. Be interesting to do the mileage survey and see if there is a common denominator anywhere.
What's your mileage been guys?

 

From my research the median mileage is just under 20k miles. Mine was exactly that as well. 19,400k miles.