This is my first Porsche and I've had it around 3 months and put a little over 1k miles on it. Just had the 120k mile service performed at an indy. While they were replacing the spark plugs I had them borescope the cylinders - I didn't have it done at the PPI and I've been wondering about it since then. When I asked verbally after the service was done whether there was any bore scoring, I was told there was wear that was probably in line with this number of miles, but no scoring or anything they saw they considered worrisome. Anyway, I'd just like the share the photos here to get more sets of eyes on them. I know there are plenty of folks on here who have seen this type of thing before, but I don't really turn a wrench myself, I have no idea which photos are from which cylinders, nor how to interpret anything I'm looking it. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

eehhh your good for another 80k miles.....

 

Good idea getting the Bore Scope Inspection!
I'm familiar with Bore Scope Inspections/Photos - I've had 3 Bore Scope Inspections over the past year on 3 different 997's I was interested in purchasing including a BS Inspection on my current 06 C4 I purchased this past November.
The photos you uploaded don't really show the complete side of cylinder walls and show a lot of the head of piston.
Did the indy mechanic provide you with 3 photos of each cylinder showing the cylinder walls with a wider perspective/pulled back so photos are not so close and shot from higher angle you can see more cylinder surface area in each photo??
I don't see very bad scoring in the photos you posted but perspective seems very low in photos that's all.

In comparison, here are some of the Bore Scope photos from my car when it was Bore Scoped Nov '21 and what I'm referring to

 

I was hoping you would weigh in - thank you.
I didn't make any special requests when I dropped off - other than to please take photos that could be provided to me. I received 11 photos, all of which I attached. If they were taken not as well as they should have been, there's not much I can do about it. Unless you think they are not useful enough to identify whether there is a problem.

If you don't think there's any clear evidence of a problem here and you'd be satisfied to buy it (if this were your PPI), would you have it scoped again in the future at the next spark plug change or the one after that? Or never again, unless some "symptom" crops up in the future?

 

I think you are good and cylinders look fine however next time you do the plugs, why not have them scope it again with some photos that show more of the cylinder surface area in each photo like the ones I had done. This way you have them for your records.
I'm sure it wouldn't cost you much since plugs are already out and maybe save my photos and show to them so they can see what you are trying to explain.

From my reading on forums and in general, the very cold weather cars are most likely to suffer Bore Scoring and it happens in the 40K-80K mile range. Also the 3.8L "S" engine is more prone, again from what I have read on the various Forums.

**I am curious what they charged you for the Bore Scope Inspection photos since you were already having the plugs replaced and the heat shields, coils were already being removed and replaced as part of the spark plugs replacement? I'm going to guess about 1/2 hour labor? Maybe they just did it on the house if u are regular customer which would have been nice
To have my 3 Bore Scope Inspections done it averaged about $350-$375 which was about 2.5 hours to removed heat shields/coils and plugs do the inspection photos and to replace plugs/coils & heat shields after BS inspection

And good for you for being smart and getting the BS Inspection done. You'll have peace of mind and will be great for resale in future. These cars drive close to new with 120-180K miles on them when properly cared for/serviced.
Some owners get pissy when you discuss Bore Scope Inspection on this forum and understandable because owners don't want upsetting news and rather avoid it I guess.
Similar to a DNA test and checking box if you want info on future disease you may encounter.

 

Sounds good, thank you for the recommendation. They charged $155. I don't know how many labor hours as I haven't asked their general rate. This was my first time bringing a vehicle there (aside from the PPI of this vehicle, which they also did). But it was a lower labor amount than if I wasn't also having plugs done. The line item was called "Borescoping (if changing spark plugs)"

I know its history is not a perfect predicter, but according to the Carfax report, the first two owners (12 years and 113k miles between them) were in NJ, so let's call that borderline cold weather. And the third and fourth (that's me) are in NC. No idea how it's been treated in general, but when they ran the DME report during the PPI they were very impressed. And noted that it had new rear shocks, front axles have had new boots installed, and engine mounts are new. So in their opinion this was all evidence that 1) it's been actually driven a decent number of miles per year (rather than a garage queen) which they said was a positive for this car/engine, and 2) the owners who had it seemed to have taken good care of it.

 

I've owned (2) 997 C4S's, (2) "S" and (2) C4's.
Love the widebody and my current 2006 C4 has 106K miles and is the tightest best kept & looking example of all 6 - The others had between 58K-89K miles.

My C4 was completely repainted by original owner - Was keyed on passengers side and owner spent $14K on repaint in 2016. Looks amazing. Got lucky.
Next & Previous to me owner was Boeing Engineer and crazy **** about garage storage, oil changes/etc. He didn't let his kids or wife go near it
PPI & Bore Scope looked great

What color is your C4S??
I'm silver nut but also like grey.

Any photos??

 

Definitely sounds like you've had a good share of 997 examples! This one is a silver cab with the sand beige full leather inside. Unfortunately I've been pretty lazy trying to take my own photos of it. It always seems to either be poor weather, or it's too dirty for a photo and I'm too busy working to clean it. But, here are a few low res ones taken a couple months back when I bought it.

Regarding exterior color, I've had a few silver vehicles and I generally like them, and there's no doubt in my mind it's handsome. I am interested, however, in getting something a little bit bolder but not red or yellow. I am thinking maybe a green (irish green or python green) or a blue (shark blue). Maybe this will be on a future purchase. Maybe I would get this current one changed. I assume a wrap is favored by a lot of folks these days, but I have no idea how much it costs for a job like that, as I've never had a vehicle repainted or wrapped.

 

The first set of pics are carbon buildup. It's tough to determine how much can accumulate after 120K miles. The other set of pictures look like beginning stages of bore scoring. Keep an eye on your oil consumption. It's up to you if you want to still drive the car but keep in mind that it'' only get worse over time.

 

Thanks, I have been and will continue to keep an eye on oil consumption, looking for any changes. I guess I'll get it scoped again sometime in the future to see how much (if at all) it changes. I'm also going to start getting oil analysis done at each OCI (at least for now) to look for trends there. "Still want to drive it" ? Which alternative to that do you mean?

 

Have you had to add any oil in the 1000 miles you've driven? Has indicator level remained the same?

*This is what bad scoring looks like on cylinder photos
This is a bad score and crack in cylinder on a 2007 997S I had PPI'd and passed on - You'll notice the white area is heavily scored and toward the top of the cylinder
This is usually what bad scored area looks like.:



And here is the 2006 997S Bore Scope photo showing bad scoring which is the 2nd car I passed on:

 

Thank you, it is very helpful to see what bad scoring looks like! Hope I never have to see it (other than maybe on here, for anyone with that misfortune).
To answer your question, in the roughly 1500 miles I put on it, I didn't have to add any oil. I followed advice on this forum for how to properly measure it (flat surface, before first drive after it's sat cold overnight or a day). Let's say there are 5 boxes in the indicator, I'll number them 1 through 5 from the bottom to the top. When I got it it, the reading was 3 with an occasional 4. It mostly measured 3. For the past few weeks there was an occasional 2 in there. I've only seen it show 1 once, and that was the morning I was dropping it off for service. I've read on here that even healthy engines with far fewer miles and no signs of scoring can sometimes need a quart of oil every 500-1000 miles. Though I recognize that's not always the case. But if that's not uncommon, it seems like this engine isn't burning through oil at a rate to cause alarm.

 

My oil indicator sits at the same #4 mark all the time and so have my past 997's. It has been suggested not to fill oil to the top #5 bar because indicator may not be totally accurate and if oil is filled higher than #5, it can possibly damage the AOS.
Your oil consumption sounds very good/normal. I believe each indicator box is .4 quarts 2 boxes would be .8 quarts and 2.5 boxes would be 1 quart.

Btw your car looks nice and thanks for posting photos. I love Silver and it is the original German Racing color from the 1950's. Aluminum
I had a 2006 C4 Cabriolet last summer and sold it when I bought my current C4 coupe. I really liked the cabriolet but I've always liked a coupe.
Do you have the optional windscreen? Mine had it and was a great way to keep the wind down and I liked that I could raise and lower top with it in place.

 

Thank you for the continued good feedback! So I guess If it ever gets down to a point where it starts showing #2 and at some point creeps down to #1, I could safely add a full quart. BTW, I am not sure what the POs used, but as of this service I am using Driven DT40 after reading these forums.

This is my first convertible ever to own. My first time even driving a convertible was when I test drove a Boxster S (986) just before this purchase. I wasn't specifically shopping for a cab, I would have taken either one. I preferred a coupe but to be honest I've always been curious if I'd enjoy owning one, so I guess this is my finding out. To answer your question, I just purchased that windscreen. I could not find the Porsche one... no one seemed to have a new or good condition used one when I was in the market. So I purchased the Aperta one after reading a couple reviews and watching a video. I just got it 2 days ago and put it in. I can also raise and lower the top with it in place. But I haven't even driven it yet with the top down since it's brand new and I just got it back from service. Hopefully in the next few days I'll take it for a top-down spin to see what kind of difference it makes.

 

If you've gone 120k miles and that's all that's there, I think you're good to go for a while longer. All of these engines have some scoring. If you've gone this far, I'd say you have a good motor in the scheme of things. Drive that sucker and change the oil.