991 reliability issues #1

Dear Sir,

Having read Paul Helps’ letter on reliability of the 991 (Total 911 issue 208) I thought I’d share my experience of my 991.2. At two years old and with 14,000 miles and a Porsche service just completed, I drove to the south of France with friends in their own 911s of various vintages. After an enthusiastic drive through a mountainous area we stopped for coffee. 20 minutes later when I started the engine it blew two litres of oil in a huge cloud of smoke out of its exhaust. We all thought the engine had blown but being in the middle of nowhere I decided that as it seemed to be running I’d risk a gentle drive down the hill to the nearest town. The smoke cleared and the gauge showed a low oil level. I added a litre and then at the next stop another litre and all was well. Makes you wonder though why a fairly new car recently serviced would behave that way. I sold it shortly afterwards and swore I’d never buy a threelitre turbo-engined Porsche again. I have a number of classic Porsches but my new replacement is a four-litre naturally aspirated manual Spyder!

Trevor Cartner

Thanks for sharing your tales, Trevor. The 991.2’s 9A2 engine appears fairly reliable by all accounts, save for water pump failures which aren’t uncommon. Your story is the first time that we’ve heard about losing significant amounts of oil.