davidl78

My 2012 Carrera S 991 is notifying me that I'm due for an intermediate service in 30 days/ 8900 mi. I have 2 questions.

1. I don't drive my 911 very much so it'll probably take me two years to reach the 20k mile service mark. That being said would it be okay to disregard the intermediate maintenance service until I get to 20k or would it be better served to take it in 30 days from now? How much do they typically cost?

2. If I do disregard the notification how do I stop the notification from coming up every time I start the car up?

Thanks guys. I'm sure many of you have the same dilemma if you don't put many miles on your 911.

Hammer911

I think you should always default to whichever comes first. I assume fluids can break down due to time or utilization. Chuck911 will know.

LexVan

Do you own or lease?

Yearly oil change regardless of miles, at least. Low mileage and short trips is killer on oil too.

Brake fluid flush every 2 years.

If you own, and go to sell it one day, proper and proactive maintenance on your part will help to sell your car in a sea of Porsches.

What's due at the 20,000?

Things like plugs and drive belts, years in service are more critical than mileage, on LOW mileage cars, for example.

davidl78

I own it. I've had it a little over a year and getting to know the maintenance ins and outs. Thanks for the info. Makes sense that mileage isn't a good indicator for maintenance. Not sure what is due to 20k but seems to be on the maintenance schedule. Any idea how much it'll cost for an intermediate service so I have an idea going in. Thanks

aualexa2

Pretty much just an oil change. Prices vary, but will probably run between 150 to 250.

LexVan

I'm guessing closer to $400. So, $400 in maintenance cost to drive a +$120k car about 9,000 miles, or about $0.044/mile. Really? Come on man! Get er done.

davidl78

Will do. Good point, thanks.

chuck911

Thanks for the vote of confidence. The only thing I'm aware of that should be checked over time as opposed to miles is brake fluid. This is because it is hygroscopic, i.e. loves water, and over time will absorb moisture regardless of use, resulting in a lower boiling point and, eventually if given enough time, corrosion. I know you told me about the Mobil-1 rep who was so adamant about synthetic oil not needing to be changed that he would have only the filter changed- unless it was time (not miles). So maybe he knows something. If so it would be news to me. All I can say is if I was in this situation I would not be taking my car in for service just because 'its due' - even if it was free. Checking and inspecting is fine but even then I would be reticent of anything other than visual checks. The sad fact of the matter is one of the riskier things you can do with your car is let people work on it. When its necessary then fine, and don't delay. Anything else, well sometimes maybe the most effective preventative maintenance is to prevent the maintenance in the first place.

MJBird993

I think chuck911 is a little bit too paranoid about letting people work on his car. I suspect a bad history for him in that regard, and he has my condolences. The reality is that most people are able to take their car in for service and have it returned undamaged, and sometimes even fixed properly.

He is right on the mark about the brake fluid though. However, oil also gets contaminated by water from the atmosphere as well, so an annual oil change is cheap insurance. It's kind of silly to spend $100K on a car and then cheap out of a few hundred dollars every year for an oil change.

LexVan

Then find a better mechanic. And wear a tin foil hat and jock.

mtbscott

I have 28K miles on my 2012 Carrera so I can tell you what's been done so far. At 10K, it had oil change and a small bevy of "checks," cost was around $400. At 20K, it was basically just oil service along with the exhaust recall, around $200ish. Advisor told me then that 30K will be about the same, 40K is the first "major" service with various filters/fluids changed. Although the dealer is pricey, I think having all needed maintenance done at one is important during the warranty period. After that, I'll likely find a good independent.

chuck911

While some of you guys seem to feel fine having extra work done, if you're thinking risk is zero it might do to review the past years threads right here on RL. I'm not going to do the work but I do recall quite a few comments from guys who noticed the wrong work had been done, or done incorrectly, including one recently who only discovered problems after investigating prior work history. Might want to ask him how it feels being in the tinfoil hat club. Let alone the guy who's car nearly burned to the ground right after being serviced. Nothing really bad ever happened to me. But with one exception, Squire, everyone who has ever had my car has scratched or otherwise damaged it to some degree- or would have had I not been standing right there preventing it.

Oh and incidentally MJ, the experience of the vast majority is probability, not risk. Risk is when in spite of probabilities you can never be certain of the outcome. If everyone's car was damaged every service there would be no risk of damage. The risk I'm talking about definitely exists, and for everyone.

As for motor oil and moisture, motor oil is not hygroscopic. It does not literally suck moisture out of the air and into the crankcase the way brake fluid does. And a few drops of water in the oil will harmlessly boil off the first few miles once things warm up. A few drops in brake fluid, depending on how hard one uses the brakes, may accumulate over many weeks, months or years. Then one day going down a mountain pass when you really need the brakes it boils, creating gas which unlike fluid is compressible, resulting in total brake loss.

It would be great if someone could explain why motor oil needs to be changed based on time alone. Unlike pretty much everything else sold in America today it comes with no expiration or best if used by date. If natural oil then its already been sitting around for millions of years. If synthetic then its made to remain stable under incredible ranges of heat and pressure and to tolerate chemical contamination without losing any of its desired properties. So it can sit on the shelf for years and be fine, but somehow when poured into a crankcase it goes bad in 12 months. Forgive me for suspecting this is just something the manufacturers have repeated so much and for so long that people just 'believe'. You know, like 'breaking in'. And now we're in tinfoil hat territory....

MJBird993

Well Chuck, I'm not going to get into a pissing match over the probability of Clyde scratching your car. How about considering that for every person that complains about their car bursting into flames after a service, there are thousands of people who did not post "I just had my oil changed and nothing went wrong." It's the nature of the Internet and forums like this that the bad experiences shine and the good experiences go unnoted.

As for oil, you are correct that it is not hygroscopic like brake fluid, but since oil temperature in a car engine shouldn't get much about 200 degrees F, and I think water boils above that temperature, it may not rapidly dissipate, especially in a car like the OPs that does not get driven often.

I just think it's cheap insurance to go ahead and do it annually, which I think is Porsche's recommendation as well.

As for mtbscott, doing all maintenance required during the warranty period is a good idea, but as long as you can prove that it was done, you don't need to do it at a dealer. Porsche cannot deny a warranty claim on that basis.