Madridcab

Have had the car 3 years, made 6K kms (4K miles, yes, I know I need to drive it more..), and made 2 oil changes in that time, one just after getting it, and 1 about 1 year ago.., if I stay at this milage will probably do every 18 to 24 months - car is garaged, and rarely sees big temperature swings..

Flying Finn

So he changes filters without changing oil? Weird.

dbf73

I put roughly 7-8K miles per year and the car is stored during the salt season. I change twice - once midsummer and once before putting it up in the fall.

95 C4 993

Every 5k or 1x a year--which ever comes first.

shamrock

Interesting this , as I'd change every 4-5k miles which equates to every 12 months , but I wouldn't go any longer without putting fresh oil in ..
It's not that I don't think the car could take more miles between changes but I feel it's less to do with distance and more to do with hours/heat soak that affects the oil .. So if I do 4k miles , I'll probably average 25mph (Dublin suburb traffic) ,my commute to work entails 60% of the time driving quiet country roads , remainder stuck on ring road chaos .. And it's the traffic jam stuff that decides the life span of my oil ............ Am I wrong!?

rome

I drive less than 3,000 miles a year (summer/nice weather only).

BUT, I still change the oil twice a year-- once in the Fall before it goes to bed for the winter, and then again in the Spring when the season starts.

Ed Burdell

I change mine every 7,500 miles. I put 10,000 miles a year on in year-round driving. I consume about a quart every 3,000 miles, I'd say (despite a leaking valve cover), so I suppose that freshens it up a bit.

Adrienne

Every 3-5k miles. I drive about 13k a year with 3-4 track events. I'm just under 160k miles now.

tbil

Once a year for me which is around 3k miles. Don't think I would go more than 5k. Too many contaminates, by product of combustion, and break down of additives. Oil & filters are pretty cheep and it's an easy DIY.

billatlanta

Great feedback all and thanks for your time. As I am currently using it as a daily driver (no track events yet) I may go to 7500 miles which should equate to twice a year based upon the miles I have put on so far.

The 993 is great car and I simply love driving it. More user friendly then the GT3 it shares time with for commuting even with the new PSS9's at ROW height. Simply a great car.

vern1

Sorry but still not sure why Porsche recommends every 15k and lots of people change it as frequently as every 3-5k for no other reason than because thats what they do and will always do? I can understand doing it at the end of the season before you store it but otherwise dont see the point....

Rome, why would you change the oil in the fall and then change it again in the spring? Arent you just throwing out the fresh oil you put in in the fall?

Thanks

race911

Well, go back to Steve's comment. Sure, if the car is driven regularly and warmed up fully each time you drive it in a non-stop-and-go enviroment, maybe 15K will get you a full life before you rebuild it and junk all the consumables (say, 150K). But look how everyone is driving their cars. 3K/yr. 5K/yr.

I picked up a 3.2 engine awhile back that got rebuilt at 175K. Surprisingly, they didn't replace the p&c set. Car was bought new, tracked regularly (and hard), and maintained meticulously by one shop for 15 years.

I've taken apart maybe 200 911 engines, from 15K original to 300K+ multiple rebuilds. Some of the most neglected pieces of crap have had serviceable cranks in spite of 15K+ oil change intervals. Just never know.

Ultimately, it's your money. But the downside risk is huge compared to the small upfront maintenance cost.

Bull

This is usually done for cars that have been stored for months due to the condensation that can cause the oil to be not so "new" after sitting for several months or more.

tbil

An additional point on the manual recommendations, keep in mind who writes the manual, may not be the engineers. In my industry it's marketing and sales with different objectives....

vern1

"Bull", then why not just leave the old oil in (ie dont change it in the fall) and put new oil in in the spring > The car wont be driven while its stored so dont see the point of changing it in the fall and again in the spring

And i cant really see how this would be a marketing issue. What would porsche gain by recommending overly long oil change periods? I would expect they would go the other way to protect their ***

Regardless, i get the sense that once something gets done by a number people (ie change the oil every 3-5k) then that becomes the "norm" even though porsche recommends something else.

but as they say whatever makes you happy!!

thanks for the info