Hi all.
Quick question/comment. In my past I had a BMW, that had a published maintenance schedule similar to what I see with my recent 997.2.
In the BMW universe however, it seems that the various clubs thought that the published schedule was 'weak' as BMW includes maintenance as part of the warranty package. The theory from seasoned BMW mechanics was that it was geared to keep BMW's cost down vs. longevity of the vehicle.


To that end, there were a variety of maintenance schedules published that were focused on those of us that planned on keeping the vehicles for a longer time, and had quite a few more items than the official recommendation.


I do not see a similar situation with Porsche, and specifically on my 997.2. From all accounts all sources (well minus the stealerships) are saying to stick to oil at 10K, brake fluid at 24 months, etc--or basically the published Porsche schedule.


Am I missing it? If this is really all we need then great. Just scratching my head around when do change out antifreeze as example?. I would like to keep the car for a long time, and while I could go crazy and change oil every 3K miles, if there is no point to that, than I would rather not.


Thoughts? Sorry for the long post.


Thanks

 

2009 C2S 100K miles

1 - The only deviance from book I follow is oil changes at 6-7K miles, mostly because I can. I can hear a change in engine sound when I changed at 10K, so I figured do it earlier.
2 - I started getting a jam going into first gear at around 85K miles and found replacing the manual transmission fluid with what is spec'd in the manual, Mobilube PTX, stopped the problem. Others have had this issue and cured it with PTX (search Rennlist for PTX). The owner's manual states this fluid is due for change at 120K miles. For me, it was simply wrong.
3 - Engine air filters - I replace these about twice a year as I take my car into unpaved roads to do photography and when you kick up dust, the engine sucks it in in shocking volumes. A few weeks of this, and I can run my finger across the filter and have a huge puff of dust fly out.

Other than this, I have found no reason to deviate for the 997.2. The .1 has issues with ignition packs and water pumps, but I have not experienced this stuff nor read much about these items for the 997.2.

Enjoy the low maintenance but keep an eye out for problems shifting.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

It's a dealership practice to recommend more frequent servicing on some other brands in order to keep their revenues up. It comes from the days of 6K oil changes - as oils got better intervals extended and dealerships see their revenues go down.


With fully synthetic oils there really is no need for more frequent changes, with smaller (less stressed) engines in Europe you can see 15K mile intervals or more.


Having said that on my car, which is winter stored (snowbelt) and oil change at the end of the season happens in order to take any old oil with contaminants out before sitting for a few months regardless of mileage.


enjoy!

 

As an alternative point of view, it's also possible that service intervals are influenced by marketing, not just engineering. Same as fitting huge wheels which negatively affect handling/ride.

 

Well to your point that was part of the theory presented in the BMW forums. Since the maintenance was changing from the standard 'change plugs at 30K' to the don't need them until 100K.

Additionally, as I recall, a large part of the new car business with BMW at least, was in the leasing space. So the 'marketing' angle was no expenses outside of lease payment/insurance/gas during the lease. Good I would guess for the original owner, not so great maybe for 2nd/3rd owners. From BMW/Dealer perspective that also helped for CPO.

If the maintenance items are 'free' than the owners were more likely to have them done, and therefore easier to get CPO'd.

Grand conspiracy theory...

 

Interesting that on this Porsche forum, the Porsche engineers "thought of everything". They "are the world's best". They "over engineered the entire car". We should only use OEM replacement parts. etc, etc etc.

Except .....They don't know when to change oil. They are wrong in using a lot of cheap plastic and buttons with a covering that comes off on your hands! The wheels are too large! the PCM is crap! The electronics overall are outdated and cheap! They engineered in the launch control, but we shouldn't use it as it will destroy the car.

If you keep reading long enough you will probably find an answer you like.

 

Ummmm I think I missed it somewhere. So just curious, and I am a new P owner-whom would you think does it better?

 

What the.....?

I follow the maintenance schedule. The 997.2 is pretty low maintenance. However I change Oil and Brake Fluid more often becuase of track duty.

If not for that, I'd change Oil once a year if you are doing less than 12k miles a year and brake fluid 2-3yrs.

 

Makes that don't include maintenance to any great extent also have longer service intervals than there used to be. Thing is, materials and designs have gotten better - so longer intervals between services is perfectly reasonable. Otherwise we would hear about all these vehicles failing some few years after coming off of warranty. But to others, the hyper-short schedules of yesteryear are just a fine thing to spend money on for piece of mind. Like unicorn-fart-infused-motor-oil.

 

Yes you are absolutely correct. It is amazing how much progress has been made. I can't recall the last time i heard of an engine failure for general purpose cars. Back in the 1980's it seemed to be luck of the draw on certain brands (Oldsmobile as example).

More importantly....this magical motor oil that you speak of...where could I get some of that? I just ordered some halogen fluid....should be perfect time to make that a project..

 

My 2008 BMW recommended 15k mile oil changes. Later BMW changed that to 10k. Approaching 200k miles and no problems so far.

That being said I changed my oil on my 997.2 at 5-6k. Why? Because it was fun.

Oil discussions here baffle me. If an engine is so fragile it can only run on one oil, I would be terrified to own it.

New oils last 10k. Easily. There is nothing out there to say otherwise.