Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

So, I've had my car back for 5 days having had extensive and expensive engine and clutch work done (long story in another post somewhere) and she was running rather sweetly. I've spent about 40hrs in the last 5days cleaning it from top to bottom, replacing wing mirrors and wiring them up correctly so they work, fixing rear wiper, replacing gear shift ect ect. Got finished yesterday afternoon and as promised took the misses to the airport in it for her weekend trip away. On the way back BANG, instant smoke screen behind and in the car, pull over killed the engine (amazingly still running) and legged it as was convinced it was going up. Fortunately it didn't!

So, after the smoke clears I lift the bonnet to find......

I was Absolutely devastated after all the hard graft getting it to a point where I was happy and looking forward to taking it to a few events in August and joining in with the TIPEC crowd.

Fortunately, the recovery chap was felt my pain and not only got the car back to the house but helped me get it all the way into the garage.

So this morning (and for most of the day) I stripped the engine down as I really had to know the cause and extent of the damage. Having done some research on the net last night I was convinced that only a foreign object left inside the cam carrier could cause such damage. This is what I found...

Several fragments of the internals of the cam carrier had made there way into the valve spring area on the head, surprisingly there seems to be little or no damage in this area. But, I do have to assume some smaller fragments made there way into the oil drains (returns). The bolt shown in the pics is for illustration for the thread imprint found on one of the fragments, the bolt is one of the ones I removed when removing the cam carrier, I think the offending bolt was ejected externally.

I think this is proof enough that the garage have been complacent in either the removing or refitting of the cam carrier. ANy advice on how I should peruse this with the garage in question?

Apologies for the multiple posts - still getting used to the forum.

Anyway, making this post and going through the pics one of the marks / dents inside the cam carrier and on the cam made me think....

Conclusive I believe, definitely a bolt was dropped during removal or assembly and not removed!!!

That would be my conclusion as well. Something like a bolt or small tool locked up & got forced out of the cam housing.

i had a couple of the cam tower bolts work their way loose after I did a rebuild on mine. I imagine yours ones have done something similar although the internal bolts have worked loose unlike on mine.

I feel sorry for you and hope that you can get it sorted.

Thanks DarylH. Not quite the same though, none of the bolts had worked loose, all where present when i took it apart. Carrier had been removed and put back by the garage as part of headgasket replacement 10days ago. The car has only done 300miles since. I am assuming (actually convinced) that a bolt was dropped in the carrier and not removed during the process.

I'd get in touch with the garage and invite them over to see the carnage.

Thankfully you've got a series of pictures of the situation before you started taking stuff out - they won't need any excuse to try and abrogate themselves of responsibility!

Spoken to the garage after sending them an email with all the photos and they just held their hands up and are taking responsibility, no argument. They are sending someone (over 200miles) to come and trailer it back to their workshop so they can b'scope the engine and replace the damaged bits. Obviously neither of us wanted to be in this situation to start with but full credit so far for them taking it on the chin and getting on with it.

Will update after they have taken the car away and hopefully repaired it (properly).

That's good news.
Hope it's all sorted and back on the road soon

That's fair enough, glad you're getting it sorted! It's nice that the garage have taken it so well too.

Fair play to them. Mistakes happen, just a shame it had to be on your engine.

Let's hope they get it sorted OK. Keep us posted on how it goes.

That's outstanding. You would hope that all garages would do the same, but I doubt that somehow. Let's hope they're as good as their word.

Agreed! I feared for the worst especially as you had dismantled it a bit to investigate, that would have been the 'get-out' clause for a few garages I know - despite the photo record.

If all turns out well then I think we ought to know who the garage is, as despite the initial likely mistake, their attitude (so far) suggests someone I wouldn't mind dealing with

Absolutely. I have to give them a chance to resolve their mistake. When it is all done and dusted and i have the car back i will reveal all. I do genuinely believe they are honest hard grafting folk that know their stuff, i just got unlucky. Fingers crossed i will still be able to give them a good write up.

Result ...!

My similar experience involved a so-called Italian car specialist in Blandford who'd been recommended to me when my Thema's cambelt slipped... they fixed the car at a cost of over £800.00 only for the same thing to happen again 200 miles later. It turned out that the 'mechanic' had just spun the tensioning roller bearing to check it and on that basis diagnosed it as serviceable... It turned out not to be so and consequently all 16 valves and associated bits were trashed. The 'specialist' claimed they'd done the job by the book, but they'd clearly missed the page that said that the tensioning roller bearing must always be changed with the belt ..

Thankfully I was able to stop the cheque but re-did the job - properly - myself...