Porsche 911 996 - Issues with Reliability, Problems and Faults?

Porsche 911 996 -What are the Common Problems and Faults?

There are a few problems that are often mentioned for the Porsche 996 such as IMS failure, bore scoring and bore lining failure. It is very hard to find out the actual incidence of these faults and the general reliability of the Porsche 911 made between 1998 and 2004, mainly because those that suffer these faults will understandably make a lot of noise about them because of the cost of repairs.

However the class action against Porsche in the USA showed that the Porsche 996 3.4 engine was less prone to IMS failure with 1% suffering meaning 99% were not. IMS is only one item and the other serious engine faults were not listed and in general it could be reported as "engine failure" when any one of these areas could be the root cause.


Porsche 911 996 Reliability Problems Faults?

Porsche 996 Reliability - The Reality

In the year that I had my Porsche 996 I was incredibly impressed that a 12 year old car with nearly 100,000 miles had no serious faults in that time especially a car that has very high performance running up to 175mph.

During that time the only fault that developed was the driver's window regulator failed so that the electric window wouldn't go down. Fortunately it happened when the window was virtually in the fully up position so the car could still be driven.

Other than the window regulator I covered over 5,000 miles in the car without any other faults or breakdowns which is quite impressive for a 12 year old car with 100,000 miles that was still on the original clutch and gearbox. I may have been lucky and admit that every journey felt like I was dodging bullets when I reached my destination without issue but that was more from the perception of engine failure rather than reality. I guess it hangs over you because the cost of repairing such engine failure is so massive and would be beyond the value of the car. At least in my Golf GTI the cost of engine replacement is within the hundreds of pounds not thousands.