AndyK

Sorry for hijacking the thread..

Does this apply to any car, or just high performance engines?

BruceP

All cars, to varying degrees.

AndyK

There are always times when I move the car from the driveway, to the garrage. Turn it on, move it, turn it off. That goes for every car I've owned. I guess added up, these quick drives are why you change the oil on a Honda every 3k miles!

DEW

I am new to Porsche and love driving my car "spirited" but afterwards, I always wonder if I am mistreating my car. I've bounced if off the red line a couple of times in the past 6 weeks but if I want to play a bit, I will shift at around 6,000 RPM. Is this bad. The service guy at Porsche told me that this was what the car was designed to do. Still can't help but think I could be hurting my baby. By the way, I have a 2004 40th Anniversary 911.

ElTorrente

I take mine to 7000-7200 all the time and I have 103k on it. Runs great, burns zero oil between fillups. 6000rpm is when it's just getting going, heh. Heck, it doesn't even make it's maximum horsepower until 6800rpms - so don't you wanna get what you can out of the engine? You gotta stretch its legs.

sat40th911

Just got back from the dealership to get a shot of oil on the clutch pedal spring (it was creaking). Confirmed that these cars run much better when driven. Told me to keep on driving it.

I can tell with my car that it is a lot faster and more responsive now that I drive it everyday.

Troy R

In my old Mazda RX-7 I had a job for six months where I drove the car about two miles each way every day. Not even time to warm up. I started having significant mechinical problems with it. I won't do that again.

Troy R

On my Honda Accord, I drove that thing for 176,000 miles with zero problems. Abused the hell out of it. Of course, got the Porsche and drive it all the time, so the Honda sat, and sat, and sat. Overall it sat for 6-7 months probably with very little usage. Then winter came along (and I don't like driving Porsche in the rain - gets too dirty) and I had all sorts of problems with the Honda. I don't recall everything done, but it was this belt and that belt.

So, I think it's safe to extrapolate this to all cars - they are meant to be driven and will last much longer if they are.

Benjamin Choi

Totally and I find it funny how guys think the ultra low annual mileage cars should somehow be preferred. And they willingly pay for it. We're talking like 3000 miles a year. That's a lot of time twiddling its thumbs doing nothing.

My car averaged 500 miles a month with the previous owner - I'll bump that up to 800-1000miles per month.

Einstein

w/150k miles I would worry about everything, but why? you never know when something is going to fail. just do good maintenance.

Mike Murphy

If there is any incline to your driveway, consider rolling the car with the engine off. I'm serious. It's not that your car will just fall apart (and I don't want you to worry too much about it if you have no other choice, because it's just a car), but 50% of all engine wear occurs on startup. So starting your car for 30 seconds is equivalent to starting and driving it for 500 miles.

But it's not just the engine. It's also hard on the battery, it's hard on the spark plugs, catalytic converter, and especially, the muffler. For example, your engine will give off about 1 gallon of water for every 1 gallon of gas you burn. If you don't get the muffler and exhaust system hot enough, that water will sit in your metal exhaust system and rust and rust and rust...

Mike Murphy

Think of it this way:

When you are exercising your body, you are doing it a favor. If you get your heart rate up and lungs pumping, blood flows and you are pushing your body to perform. Push it a little harder, and it's even better for you, provided you don't have medical condition. But push it past your limits, and you can overheat or do some damage to yourself.

Same with the Porsche. Get it warmed up properly, put the good quality gas & clean oil it in, and push it and get engine moving quickly and pumping fast. It is fine to run it up to 100%. But do not go above 100% by crossing the line. Things such as over revving it or holding it at redline for an extended period of time (10 minutes) is bad. Also, do not shift too quickly, and do not drive your car over large potholes, bumps or gravel. Another thing, don't lug the engine (under 1500 RPM).

Otherwise, full throttle and full brake, once you are in gear on smooth, flat surface, run the car up to 100% as many times as you like.

Benjamin Choi

murphy i'm thinking you take care of your 911 better than yourself

Mike Murphy

Probably . I exercise plenty, don't smoke, drink occasionally, have little stress, but I eat like crap! Oh, well, I'm still working on it

washington dc porsche

No one from the board has mileage that high, there should be no responses..lol!