Car is going great - touch wood, but found going over 150k miles emotionally scary! I have loved the last 6 months with this - my first Porsche, have done about 4,500 miles so far - most of them with a big grin. She seems to be aging well - v quick and pulls like a train.
Is there anything that i should begin to be aware of at this kind of mileage, are there common failures lurking this far in?

 

Graham, just put a post-it note over the mileage, it doesn't matter. Just drive the thing, enjoy it and fix things as and when they go wrong.

 

My high-mileage cars get the following low cost attempts at life extension:

1) Fresh fluids in the brakes, clutch, power steering, engine, transmission.
2) Touch up all paint chips and scratches. Remove any rust, and touch up.
3) Clean-up and fresh grease in the various body hinges and latches.
4) Inspect rubber boots on the steering rack and CV joints. While you are in there, pull them back, remove some old grease, and add an equal dab of good synthetic grease on the wear surfaces.
5) Freshen up brake pads, tires, and shocks as needed. Nothing ages a car faster than a collision (ages the driver quite a bit as well).
6) Valve adjust service (includes replacing spark plugs, cleaning dist cap and rotor, clean/inspect plug wires).
7) Check torque on as many fasteners as you can get to (don't loosen them first, just a tug in the tightening direction to verify they are still tight).
8) Always wait for the oil temperature gage to register before exceeding 2500 RPM. Have one at least one full power run to the redline each drive. Always drive at low engine loads for a minute or two before shutting down.
9) Clean, polish and wax paintwork. Clean up interior. It is amazing how much better the car seems to run when it looks great.
10) Drive and enjoy!

 

I've heard this about 911s from pretty much everybody involved with them, and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why this is a good idea. It's hardly ever said to be necessary or desirable for other cars...

 

Maybe the fun factor?? Makes us feel younger

 

Darryl:

I think this applies any car. I have rebuilt water-cooled engines and found broken top rings on all the cylinders. I probably drove them harder than the previous owners, and that broke the rings.

The wear pattern needs to include the full range of operation. If you stay at conservative RPMs all the time, deposits build up in the combustion chamber, and the rings will not travel quite as high on the cylinder walls. When you finally use full performance, the deposits break loose and cause problems. Worse, the temperature and dynamic loads are higher, and the pistons will travel higher up the cylinder walls where deposits and a wear ridge can damage the top ring. You are fine driving below full potential, but only if you avoid going flat out ever again.

All this, plus the fun factor require one full power cycle per outing.

 

Thanks Springer3. It's great to hear that doing the fun thing is actually good rather than bad, for a change! Also gives me licence to drive the WRX harder. Love the scream of that little turbo.

 

Mine ... 264,000 miles and still running strong

 

Mileage is somewhat irrelevant on water cooled P engines. Mines got 155,000 and runs like a bat out of hell. I have a neighbor with an SC 3.2 that has over 365,000 on the odo, and he runs that snot out of it...track events...autox, as well as being his daily driver. That engine has only had to topend rebuilt once. Its a testament to the longevity of these engines. That being said, when things go wrong, fix them immediately so they don’t become bigger problems.

I look at the mileage as fine wine....the higher the better

 

cool!!!
this is all very interesting & encouraging! i'll be driving even more to my hearts content now! Yes!!
Al

 

Geez, mine's almost new @ 125k, and other than maintenance, engine's never been touched. Original clutch and t'stat replaced at 120k. Drips twice a week, just to keep me from getting complacent, I suppose.

 

Wow Derk - that could be the highest mileage 964 I've heard of!

 

cheers for this guys - you've made me feel a whole lot better about it!

 

Derk, that's over 420.000 km.
Sure makes us feel pretty good.
Kris

 

I should tell you that I am not the fellow who put the miles on the 964. I am the second owner... the original owner was an older Doc (over 80 yrs of age!) outside of Chicago that used it as his daily driver. Obviously, he had a fair distance to travel every day

I orginally bought the 964 as a project / parts machine in advance of buying a lower mileage 964. But after discovering that it still has a lot of life left in her I have scrapped my plans of buying another. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this car... the interior is still pristine, everything (but the ccu still works) and it drives great!