cstyles

Morning gents,

Does anyone have information on what Porsche officially gives as time out or mileage limit for street-driven centerlock cars? Looking at a car with 100,000 miles 100% street driven, no track. I can find the official Porsche service schedule for track usage, however I cannot find the same information for normal street driven cars.

For street applications only, are centerlocks typically good for the life of the car - or at least well beyond 100,000 miles?

8Lug

I'm not aware of any limits for street driven cars. The mileage based service requirements for the center locks, bearings, and hubs are for Race Track use only. Perhaps there is more recent documentation than what I have.

ngng

I don't know about any limits either, but given the race track accelerates wear items I think it is safe to assume you will need to replace all of the above *at some point*. And, at 100k, those are likely coming up soon. Good time for a 5 lug swap

Steve2k1116

this is pretty much where i was at, wish i could help further but i had my centerlocks swapped at 40k non track miles because i didnt want to deal with them. if it helps at all everything came out looking great but id say 100k is about time to replace those wear items on any car

ngng

the pro move is to get a discount on the car, take the money and swap to 5 lug!

cstyles

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback

ngng

i guess i would follow up with if I were in your position, I would not be concerned

PJP13

I started novice DE track days with my GTS that had CLs at 75k miles... after the 4th DE day I converted to 5 lug. They were coming loose after every 20 min session.... at 100k I would not want to push hard on aggressive canyon runs without a service on CLs... remember hubs go bad on all cars, CLs are just a ton more finicky...

8Lug

How did they come loose? Aren't the center bolts locked in place by the spring loaded locking mechanism?

PJP13

To be clear, I am not an engineer or scientist... The technical details are beyond my knowledge, though I am sure someone on here can explain it better.... in my research and experience as the metal ages and wears one of two things happens with the CL and hub. Now we have several parts at play here between the hub, Multiple pieces making up the CL Bolt, brake rotor, drive pins and wheels. We can all reference the TSBs on CL to know when something is really wrong, but how do you monitor basic wear before a catastrophic failure happens?? We have all seen videos of the GT3RS loosing a wheel at Nuremberg.

So my theory is: the various metals wear at different rates and then adding in the expansion and contraction at heat (obviously more extreme on track), it is safe to assume that not all the pieces expand and contract at the same rates. In my reading and personal experience with CL users develop one of two issues as CL age and wear which could prompt a complete service:

The two issues that come up are well documented on here with various users posts:

Opt 1: when you tighten the CL to the correct torque spec, then go about your normal operation... Then you go to loosen and the CL is somehow drastically tighter... Like you need an 8ft breaker bar and a buddy to get it loose... Some people call this a sticky CL. Again, to me this is just evidence of expansion or contracting at different rates...

Opt 2: again you tighten to the correct spec. Go about normal operation... then at some point something feels off, or maybe you start to here clicking of clapping at one corner under cornering or hard acceleration or braking. At inspection you see the drive pins have wear on one side. Yes there is a lock to keep everything in place but somehow the wheel is able to spin ever so slightly on the hub. Again, to me evidence of expansion and contraction at different rates.

Now the idea that track conditions wear these parts out in 4-8k miles but street miles do not just seems preposterous to me.. It is a Porsche, and a track focused mode at that... Not many people drive them like a grandma... I have driven plenty of track miles and plenty of twisty canyon miles, both put strain on the car...

CheeRS

GlenGT3

Sorry but that makes no sense. The metal is aging so much during your 20 minute DE sessions that it's causing the center locks to come loose? I have plenty of miles on my GT3 with some DE events and lots of back country spirited driving. Never have I had an issue with wheels coming loose or any abnormal wear to any center lock component. I'm not advocating for center locks for regular track use but I don't buy for a minute that short tracks sessions will cause any issues.

PJP13

perhaps I was not clear. Again, I am no
Emgineer and I only have my experience and what I have read of others. I am not saying the parts ‘age’ during a 20 min DE session. I am saying my experience was that I didn’t start tracking my car until it already had 75k miles and so they were aged simply from being on the car for 8-9 years and those miles.

What I noticed was that when I checked torque between sessions I was able to get more movement out of the CL bolt than I was comfortable with... Yet using the TSB everything visually was good. Rather than worry about it I ended up going to 5 lug. Since then I have never gotten a single mm of torque movement when checking torque between DE sessions. I also sleep better knowing I have 5 lug, which for me was worth the conversion for the piece of mind alone...