denniscasey

I bought a "new" 2015 Cayman S in May 2016 (car was delivered to dealer in September 2015 and did not sell over winter) with 70 miles on it. Only drive car for day trips of at least two hours driving so oil/fluids always reach operating temperature and stays there for at least two hours (boils off moisture). So I only have 9,100 miles on car which means maintenance has been determined by time rather than miles driven (oil changes, brake fluid, even can of tire sealant, etc). Among other things owner's manual says "replace spark plugs every 40,000 miles but no later than 4 years." In my case car is nowhere near 40,000 miles and car has only been driven for 3 years. It looks like replacing plugs involves work to even access plugs so I expect dealer cost to be quite high and I am not as flexible as I once was to do work myself. It seems plug "wear" would depend more on mileage/use than time so would appreciate comments/experience on delaying plug replacement until more miles/time are on car. I don't observe any issues with car performance. Thank you for thoughts.

By the way, I do replace fluids etc on basis of time rather than miles because I expect they can pick up moisture, contamination, etc and benefit from changing.

Denny Swift

I think it would be completely nuts to change the plugs on that car. There is no way that plugs can go bad just sitting in a car. The only thing I can think of is perhaps Porsche is afraid that if they are not removed for many years, the threads could get corroded and it would be difficult to remove them, but I think even that is extremely unlikely. I’ve change plugs on “normal” cars that had not been changed for 60k miles and 8 years and haven’t had issues. I change the plugs on my 981 myself (very easy with a lift, probably tough without a lift) when my car was 6 years old. I can't Imagine why you would need to replace them now.

venom51

Bingo...that would be the single most important reason to pull them. Even if you just pull them, inspect them and put them right back in. Although ideally that would include putting new crush washers on them.

Marine Blue

The recommendation is 5 years to avoid any issues with removal at a later date. I followed this on my Spyder as well, cheap insurance.

danschy

Yep, there have been reported instances of plugs not coming out cleanly if you wait too long. The issue is exacerbated by Porsche no longer recommending the use of anit-seize on the plugs - not sure about other manufacturers. Mine came out cleanly about 10 years after manufacture (~40k miles), but I was pretty nervous when I pulled them.

User 41221

+1^. If you really feel bad about not getting your moneys worth out of your spark plugs, you can pull them out, clean the threads and lightly oil them and replace the crush washers and then reinstall them. Or you could be like the rest of us and just install new ones every four to five years.

EDIT: well, crap... did this on my phone and didn’t see that venom51 posted the exact same thing earlier. Lol

denniscasey

Frankly did not want to pay dealer costs to do something that is not necessary, but possibility of plugs seizing in place does give reason to think twice. I could see this would not be an issue with "normal" cars with plugs that now go many many miles, but possibly metal alloys Porsche uses in engine heads could cause problems with spark plug threads. Would not be first time "exotic" cars have issues not known with "normal" cars and Porsche has had some unusual problems.

bvanlieu

Yes its a bit of a waste of otherwise good plugs on many low mileage cars but time and fear of getting stuck is why you do it. Did it twice on our 07 and our new to us 15 had it done in December at 4 years of service time.

I DIY on the 987, it wasn't that bad of a job really if you want to save 2 hours of expensive labor On that job the plugs had 30K of miles on them so I didn't think of a new crush washer, just replaced.

- b

BoulderGeek

To piggyback on this thread, I have a 2006 Cayman S 3.4 which is likely on original plugs and coils. One coil was replaced under warranty at 14K.

Car now has 34K. Should I do plugs and coil packs together, this summer?

I also have a new AOS to go in, proactively, as the original is now 13 years old.

gedwin

My experience:
2013BB, Had dealer change plugs at 40K. They tell me they changed them, but I don't recall receiving/asking for the old ones. So I have to assume they were changed, at this point.

I just replaced the plugs myself 2 weeks ago, at the 4 year point from the last plug change. With 55k miles on the car now (it is no longer a daily driver), I put 15k on these plugs, presuming they were replaced at 40k as stated above. It took me 2 hours to finesse them out. They were so hard to turn, I was seriously fearing they would strip the threads in the head. There was either carbon or corrosion on the plug threads. I got them out, threads were ok, and the new ones went in ok. They say don't use anti-seize because it will cause torquing inaccuracy, and the plug threads are coated to protect from binding, at least for a period of time.

When Porsche says get the plugs out at 40k or 4 years, they mean it.

And if you reinstall the used plugs, the torque setting is lowered, which I assume is because of wear on the plug coating from removal and/or the fact that the crush washer is already crushed.

Dave in Chicago

I replaced all plugs and coil packs last year, as age and mileage certainly applied. Mind you, car seemed to be running fine and no codes or issues at the time. That said, once I changed them out, it was a noticeable difference. Mileage improved about 2 mpg, and the top end (north of 5k RPM) was more furious again. Who knew?

Plugs looked fine, but old. Each came out without a hitch (you'll need that long swivel plug socket with extensions of various lengths). 5 of the 6 coil packs were visibly cracked. They are exposed to the elements, so I guess that's no big surprise. Be patient and careful with the coil pack electrical connectors. I didn't break any, but I can see why they are listed by Suncoast as a replacement part. ;-)

I avoided the "who's parts to buy" debate and just bought coil packs, plugs, and requisite bolts from Suncoast. Hell, I'm doing this once every 4 years or so, right?

Mind the bolts... on mine, the originals had different mounting thickness of the part, hence different bolts (length and potentially head). Know which ones are required for the new coils and be sure they are either included or you acquire them with your purchase.

Ditto on knowing which bolt heads are coming out and which are going in. Originals has one style, new had another. Can't remember which, but I now have a set of both inside and outside star-point sockets (if that's what they are called), courtesy of emergency run to my local Harbor Freight Tools store.

With the right tools and close study of youtube videos, it was a reasonably straightforward and rewarding job.

Good luck!

saabin

So I just DIYed the plugs and coils on my '14 981CS with 30K miles. I pretty much replace the coils when I do plugs on my P-cars, no extra work and just a few extra $. I did notice the new coils from Sonnen (latest version) were 1 digit different than the ones I took out.

I just went with genuine parts.. it seems every other week I see stories about various OEM parts being counterfeits (Bosch, NGK, etc. etc) and being sold online on sites like Amazon.

The job wasn't too bad, I have a lift so it made it easier. I just took off the wheel well liner and just loosened the rear-most under-body panel. My hands did get a little scratched up but not bad. I was surprised on at least 2 plugs how much resistance there was when removing them.. The new ones spun in all the way by hand, so maybe there is something to the "replace by time to avoid seizing in the head"..

Overall it took about 2.5 hours, but I did take my time to clean the wheel wells and liners.

Pics of the plugs that came out.. look pretty typical for 30K miles I think.

john981

I want to replace the coils and spark plugs soon too. Wanted to buy BERU coils from pelican parts which are actually the same as the genuine porsche coils. My question is if you buy the parts from the OEM supplier brand (which are supposed to exact the same as the genuine porsche parts), what is the risk/issue? I doubt pelican parts would sell fake parts.I would argue that people who fake the OEM supplier parts can also fake the porsche parts.

saabin

Probably low risk, but I have heard stories of fakes even making it thru the normal distribution channels to Pelican, etc.

You are right, I suppose it would be "possible" for them to make it to the Porsche parts counter, but I would think the risk of that is tiny.

I posted this up a few weeks ago, I see stories like it more often these days..

https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...ark-plugs.html

I had a bad experience with some OEM Bosch O2 sensors for my turbo.. in that case, it wasn't an issue with the part itself, but it was not the "same" part as the Porsche ones.. wire was about 6" too short and it lacked the high-temp boot at the end.

So I suppose if you are getting the OEM part at a healthy discount, might want want to look into it..

saabin

One thing I noticed as well, the coils I took out were 9A1.602.104.06 were made by Beru.

The new ones (latest from Sonnen, 9A1.602.104.07) are made by BorgWarner..

Just another data point for you..