Magdaddy

I've gotten conflicting reccomendations from the two mechanics I use. The closest to me, is a former Pcar dealer wrench. He goes by Porsche's advice, and says early changes, no more than 10K miles.

My far away wrench(PCA tech advisor Joel Reiser) says no more than 6K,3-5K if you like. I did my first after about 6K, with BOTH filters just for peace of mind.

It looks like I'll be a twice a year oil changer here, since I'll hopefully hit 10K miles this year-currently 7K+. I imagine I'll be well above 10K next year, since I didn't get the car until the end of May this year.

I'll probably stick with 5K intervals.

Bruce SEA 993

If I exceeded my usual 3k per year mileage on the 993 I would do 5k intervals on the oil change. The Merc and BMW get 5k and the old trooper gets 3k...just cause it is old with 220k on the clock.

ginch

Ok so now I don't know what to do. I drive the car maybe 3-4 miles per year. Usually change the oil in the spring after the car has been sleeping from Oct-Mar. Should I be changing the oil in the fall prior to storage or in the spring after firing up the car for the first time of the year?

Derek

NightFlyer

Derek,
Did you mean, 3K to 4K per year?

ginch

yeah sorry! 3,000-4,000 miles per year!

Kevin Weidlich

Since my car is only driven from April to October I change oil once a year before storage.

You should change the oil and do any other maintenance prior to storage. Byproducts of combustion produce acids in the oil which can harm the inner metal surfaces.

dmwallace

Twice per year for me. I can drive year round in NC; also a case of Swepco comes conveniently packaged to cover 2 changes.

IXLR8

Before winter lay-away, just as with my motorcycles, and during the season, if the mileage warrants an oil and filter change.

slider172

You have to change the oil in these things?
I add a quart every now and then.
Hmmm. I need to look into this!

matt777

Changing it a quart at a time doesn't count as an oil change

Mike J

Gee, cannot participate, 12 months is not on the choices :-) ....will use mileage instead.

skywachr

Gotta say that the responses surprise me. Maybe it's just a random sampling and responses from many of the hard core fanatics of this list are not reflected at all in the poll results. Given all the devotion and detail concern about all kinds of other issues for 993s shown here how is it possible that the overwhelming majority do not err on the side of possibly overdoing it and do changes at 3000 at a minimum (or once a year whichever comes sooner)?

We are talking about the heart and soul of these cars as far as maintenance is concerned after all. Just so you know it's not just me, Steve Weiner and I had a long phone discussion about this very issue well over a year ago. The poll results reflect exactly what he imagined. At the time I didn't think he could be right.

Mike J

I am not sure what suprises you...the poll shows changes from 3-5k miles is most common...that is 68% of the contributors? This mileage is way below factory recommendations, and given the 10 + liters dropped on an oil change, this interval seems to be quite frequent.

There was an oil analysis report posted a while ago that shows fresh oil is actually not as good as slightly used oil, and in fact oil has to be used for a while to be in the "sweet" spot of lubrication vs. additives. I have to dig that up sometimes. It also depends a lot on the type ; 3000 miles on the highway is very light use for that 10+ liters, while 5000miles in the city is heavier use.

Cheers,

Mike

Canyon56

I'm curious as to those who do the 3k OCIs. Are you using dino or syn oil?

I did an analysis (Mobil 1 syn oil at 4.5k) and the results were basically that I could have refilled some empty quart bottles with it and re-used it. The TBN was almost as if it were virgin oil. Plus the oil filters on these motors are pretty substantial.

I'm guessing (although not necessarily advocating) that extended OCIs with syn oil are probably fine. And as Mike says, fresh oil maybe not even be as 'healthy' as slightly used oil. I know that Charles Navarro also claims this to be the case: http://www.lnengineering.com/oil.html (see paragraph #9)

This discussion usually appears once every few months or so. And everybody seems to be doing fine with their OCIs. It's actually probably the least of anybody's worries.

I imagine everybody here is pretty conscious of the importance of oil as with any motor, and will adjust their OCIs to their own environment (weather, street/track, rural back roads, stop and go urban traffic, etc..)

NP993

With all this talk of oil changes I was just wondering -- what's the best oil to use for our 993's?

(Someone had to...)