2014 911 GT3 recall

[kplackmeyer]

Ouch...

Apparently the connecting rod fastener has failed in 2 cars causing fires. They will replace the engines in all 2014 GT3s.

I would be happy to take a "bad" one off their hands.

Porsche to replace recalled 911 GT3's engine

[Augustus]

This is so funny. Only two fires and they're doing a recall. Safety issue??? What about all those poor bastards with 6gt3's and 6tt's with failing coolant lines?? And how about the unlucky owners of 997.1S's with scored p/c's. ===Dchunk...
Why doesn't Porsche help these guys??
Pretty fkd up if you ask me.

[911nut]

Fires (or anything that could cause fatalities) generally get a manufacturer a lot of unwelcome attention from governments so I'd expect Porsche would be all over it. As for all the other warranty issues, Porsche has d1cked a lot of owners. Yet, there doesn't seem to be any shortage of people willing to part with their money for a Porsche. That's what I call Brand Power....

[McLaren-TAG]

It's easier to do that when to date they've sold just 164 991 GT3s globally.

[redridge]

there you go, 164 isnt all that bad.... compared to what GM and Toyota had to deal with lately.

[JohnJL]

Its all about context...GM is being raked over the coals for lackidaisical handling of recalls, so Porsche can easily differentiate themselves with an announcement like this for relatively low cost.

[Jerome74911S]

Porsche will take those 164 'bad' engines and fix them. Then install them into new GT3s after a complete check-over. Cost is minimal, but PR is significant.

[petevb]

A bad batch of bolts on con rods allowed the pistons to separate from the rods. This in turn let the rods to punch through the side of the block, causing fires in two cases, simply eating motors in others. Failures were very rapid, within hundreds of miles in some cases.

The early failures made headlines- Richard Hammond of top gear owns one, and they made it a running joke, giving him oven mitts a Porsche emblem, etc. Top Gear goes out to 750 million viewers a week, so the publicity has been far less than ideal. Exactly how many fewer Cayannes, Panameras, etc were sold as a result is difficult to calculate.

Porsche will replace the motors in the ~750 GT3s built so far, and seems likely to extend the warranty on at least the 2014 cars. As the GT3s warranty covers track use (with some caveats) this could end up being very valuable.

Exactly how Porsche's extensive test program missed the issue isn't yet clear, and a few other failures (cam sensors, etc) have also been noted. Long term durability of this new motor is TBD, we'll see. Reports so far are that motorsports has been unable to make it as durable as the Mezger, which is why the Cup cars haven't switched over yet.

[Synchro Joe]

Don't imagine the optional factory fire extinguishers would suffice in these cases.