rr_981cs

2014 Cayman S with less than 25,000 miles. Due for the 4yr. service again, and the cost including plugs went from $1400 to (I'm being quoted) $1500 for the 4yr service PLUS another $1500 for plugs. They also suggest I replace the drive belt, tensioners, rollers as well as the water pump and thermostat at this point. With less than 25,000 miles? I know P-cars are more expensive to maintain (I've owned at least one other for 20+ years), but it seems a bit over the top to replace water pumps that early, for example. So, the new estimate for this years' service is close to $5,000. I'm not one to skimp on maintenance, but this borders on being ridiculous, not? It's not an 'afford it' thing, it's a 'don't like being taken' thing. Absolutely love the car, just that maintenance seems more than it should be...

ICNU

$1500 just for plugs! Its a 1-1.5hr job, and you can buy all 6 of the Bosch FGR5NQ04 OEM plugs from any auto parts store for about $40 if capable of doing it yourself. Dealer service prices for these cars is always very high considering there is nothing special about what they are doing vs any other mode car, but your source is insane! My Porsche only Indy charges $260 for a plug change, including the plugs.

Belt is recommended at 6 years if I recall, and is another off the shelf $35 part that takes no more than 1.5 hrs for the average backyard mechanic. I did mine myself at 8 years, 33K and it still looked brand new.

KBell

3 sets of plugs before 25,000 miles is over kill.
It's ok to skip the plugs. Your 981 will be fine.

Like ICNU, I did my belt, tensioner, and a pulley at 7 years mark. They still looked and felt brand new.
With that said, I would do the belt. But, Hold off on the tensioner and pulleys: mine were perfect at 70,000 miles.

St Louis Porsche has told my numerous times to leave my water pump/thermostat alone. Even at my mileage.

Thus, do an Oil change/filter, serpentine belt, and possibly toss in an alignment.
Hold on the spark plugs, spark plug wires, Water pump and thermostat.

Enjoy

Titanium5150

The water pump on the 981 is much more robust than the previous versions.

Leave the water pump alone, plugs maybe because they can seize if left in too long, do the belt, and I'd consider a coolant drain and fill based on the 10 year mark.

Most importantly, find an indy.

colnagoG60

FWIW, I also heard its not necessarily good to go 4+ years with plugs in due to potential seizing. That said, My local indy wanted $1,200 to do "plugs only" on my GT4 over a year ago. I think its gonna depend on whether or not the tech will remove the headers to get to the plugs. The (4) year service was $2,200 at my local dealer (included the plugs), without the air filters, as I did them myself prior...would have been another $250 or so.

I would do the belts if they've never been replaced. 10 year old rubber, despite the low miles, is still 10 year old rubber.

Schwinn

Agreed, I've heard to replace plugs every 4-5 years due to seizing. Is this outdated advice for some reason?

ICNU

This is another one of those "which is the best oil" type questions it seems, and you will get all sorts of different opinions. There are lots of other makes and model autos with ally heads on them that dont suggest plug changes as often as Porsche does since its a fact that actual plug wear is 100% mileage based. With that being said, I still did mine every 4 years regardless since it was cheap and easy since I did it myself.

mtregan

Like others said, the plugs aren't hard to do. Just bought my 2014 981 a couple of months ago. I'm fairly handy but have never worked on cars. I think the plugs/coils took me 1.5-2 hrs and a new belt and tensioner took about 2 hrs. That includes disassembling and reinstalling all the interior pieces. Both weren't bad at all and now I know a bit more about the car.

jwalz1

Most shops will advise against it (profit motive?) but I have been told by a couple owners to just use a thin layer of the copper anti-seize if you plan to go longer intervals with fewer miles.

Cyclman

Drop the headers / cats, plugs + coils easy peasey. Quick Jack pays for itself real fast.

subshooter

I was wondering if you disconnected the wires for the o2 sensors to just lower the headers or did you remove them altogether?
Do you reuse the same header gasket or replace it?

Ernest72

torque values are different with antisieze. I did not use it when I changed mine but honestly it was not that bad. So if I have to do it 5 years from now I will be fine. I would have no problem using antisieze and have used it on many other cars.

ElCid86

I don't believe Porsche or the plug makes advise using anti-seize.

tomekz

My belt tensioner was leaking when I looked at it at about 30k miles.

Strat_928

40k for plugs is the standard for this model, but 25k is pretty low. So probably a little leeway there to work with. My local Import service shop quoted 600 bucks. Sounds like you rolled into something crazy, get other quotes (non-dealer). I have a 2015 CS with 43k on the original plugs and this is my 8th year so time's up on both counts. Will have the local shop do them for 600 bucks in a month or two. Agree on the alignment every 2 years or so (especially if you occasionally track, maybe every year). Drive belt as someone said earlier is 6 years. I see nothing about the water pump on the maint schedule.

Notice what the Maint Schedule says about time plus mileage - "After 40,000, 80,000, 120,000, 160,000 miles etc. / 60,000, 120,000, 180,000, 240,000 km etc.
Note: If the mileage for scheduled maintenance is not reached, maintenance must be performed no later than after 4, 8, 12..... years."

You have not reached the mileage but you are on or over the time limit (8 years), which means you should do some things based on time, but I also agree that probably not all needs to be done right now. This is what I used - just search for it online -

Maintenance Checklist – Boxster/S, Cayman/S (981) (2013-on) Required Maintenance and Lubrication Service