Porsche 911 Gt3 owners have reported 4 power train related problems since 1996. Table 1 shows the 1 most common power train problems. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's power train (4 problems). For details of each of the problem category, use the links in the table.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Power Train problems |
I was driving around a corner about 40 mph when the car suddenly spun around. I then saw steam coming from the engine. Upon further inspection there was coolant on the ground. One of the coolant fittings had come completely loose, and all the coolant had leaked out. The only real fix is to weld all the coolant fittings. There are 9 of them and the engine has to be removed to do the welding. It cost me $2500 to fix this defect. This is a safety issue as I was lucky I did not hit any one or any thing. Just pure luck. When you dump large quantities of slippery coolant on to the rear tires it is just a matter of time before someone is killed. This problem is so prevalent that most race tracks won't allow a 996 or 997 gt3, gt2 or turbo on the track until the coolant lines are fixed.
I was driving at miller motorsports in tooele utah in drivers education event when my engine temperature gauge started to increase from 180 degrees up past 200 degrees. As the temperature gauge went to 250 degrees, a coolant failure light came on. I pulled off the track and shut down the car within 2 minutes of the failure light and I had to be towed off the miller motorsports track. I had lost all of my coolant from the car. The next morning (Sunday) I took a rental car back to miller motorsports along with 9 gallons of distilled water. I poured 2 gallons of distilled water into the car, and then started it. About seven minutes later, water started spurting from an aluminum coolant line attachment that had come unglued. This aluminum attachment was in a place on the top of the engine that was readily determinable as the water was shooting straight up from where the fitting had come unglued and slipped off. I do not currently know whether I got the car stopped in time for the engine to be ok. I am afraid to drive it before I get all of the aluminum fittings reglued or welded. Because this happened on the top of the engine, the coolant did not create a situation that was a safety risk to me, but if it had been a diffferent aluminum coolant attachment that let loose, I could have crashed at 115 mph due to coolant on the tires or someone behind me could have crashed. The miller motorsport personnel said they noticed a plume of steam at the end of the front straight. At the end of the front straight, I had slowed to 115 mph. I am the original purchaser of this car and did not think I was at risk for this type of safety issue on a car that is not driven in stop and go traffic. It also only has a little over 28,000 miles.
I had pro-active repairs performed on my 2004 Porsche gt3 coolant system due to known issue of coolant pipes separating from the engine. I had the repair performed because I was afraid of losing control of my vehicle (it is my daily driver) or causing a crash behind me. The repairs cost me $3900 + CA state tax (7. 75%) for a total $4200+.
Right rear centerlock hub failed/sheared off resulting in high speed exit from road surface and 800' slide. Wheel and tire left vehicle and traveled approximately 1500' crossing active road. Centerlock nut was found about 700' from vehicle. Issue seems to be failure of the centerlock hub can result in loss of wheel and vehicle crash. Buttonwillow raceway park, CA upon exiting buttonwillow turn 12 (cw direction), loud pop heard from right rear of car (witness describe very loud pop/bang "like hand grenade going off"), vehicle immediately rotated counter clockwise and exited road surface, sliding sideways (right side in direction of slide), right side down, left side up (both occupants noted they felt the vehicle was going to roll), parallel to the road surface. After sliding possibly 600 feet, car hit intersecting road (about 6 inch rise in surface) becoming airborne for possibly 20 feet passing over the road and pivoting clockwise. Upon landing, car slid parallel with original road surface, aligned with road coming to rest after about 800 feet after the hub failed. Car did not roll, the slide sideways and likely the impact with the cross road did significant damage to the car. Details on vehicle: - wheel was installed 2 days prior to incident after changing to new dot tires. Porsche centerlock mounting and torquing procedure were followed, torquing to 444 ft lb. - torque wrench setting was verified after incident and found to be set properly to 444 ft lb. - data shows vehicle was traveling about 100 mph, with throttle on and loaded with 1. 1 - 1. 2 lateral GS (turning left, loaded on right side), brake and steering information is not available. When hub failed.