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I haven't been here in years but I figured I would drop by and give a few insights on my 07 turbo that I bought in 09 and still own.
Part failures: bulb in one tail light that the car was kind enough to tell me about lol. 02 sensor wire lead broken, not the sensor, just the connector lead. Yep that's it on a 12 year old car!
General Wear and Tear: batteries every 18 months or so, I have no access to a tender, my fault for not driving it much. TPMS sensors. Tires, I probably will have to buy non OEM next time as I am sure these are no longer produced, I probably got the last set in USA last time haha.
Service: All maintenance performed by Fletcher Jones in Fremont CA and fully up to date. They have never scratched my rims or damaged the car in any way even after 10 plus visits (annual maintenance). I always get a free rental even though I am way out of CPO range, several times its a porsche.
Color: I love metallic cars but will never buy another one after my meteor grey car got rear ended, see my old post. That being said Brooks in Oakland did a decent color match on the rear bumper cover. I actually think the OEM color match on a brand new Hyundia is WORSE. The stone grey interior has held up well too, it looks new inside. There has been no leather shrinkage or color through scratches like I have seen in some tan cars. I am older and hence fatter and I still prefer the standard seats to the bolstered ones. They last a long time without bolster wear. The standard seats are also very comfortable for 10 plus hour drives, better than my 4Runner by far. HOWEVER the leather will scratch from fingernails and such. Most people dont keep cars 5 years let alone ten so this may not be an issue. I kind of wish there was a leather delete option on turbo because I see no reason for it all over the car. Seats YES, dash NO.
Cleaning Products: I don't get too insane here. Meguires has been great with wax and leather care. In the end, anything is better than nothing.
Upgrades: I have put 2 Interstate batteries in now, they are about 100 bucks cheaper than Porsche OEM but don't seem to last any longer. Also when I bought the car the chin spoiler had been replaced with a new non painted one. This car came equipped with full painted valances. About 5 years ago I had the valances replaced to unpainted parts to match the chin spoiler. The only part of that option that remains is the front grills but they look fine. I don't recommend a painted chin spoiler at all, it hits everything even though the car is stock and hasn't been lowered. Lastly, and you can laugh if you want, I have been using a leatherette bra like they did in the 80's. Its colgan I think and licensed by Porsche. I don't use the whole kit, just the hood part. The whole kit is cumbersome and may require drilling, NO WAY. You also can not let it flap or put it on a dirty car ever. You also need to remove it if it gets wet. I had one on my 993 C2S too. Still works great if you can handle being called an old fart. Around town it is not needed but on the freeway heck yes, these porsches eat stones. I believe you can buy the hood part only as a SPORTS BRA. The plastic front end just doesn't chip as easily as the hood.
I don't recall seeing how many miles you have on the car? Assume you've done the plugs and possibly coils for normal service....how about all of the drive line fluids, belt and fuel filter?
Nice write-up, thanks! Mine has been equally reliable and enjoyable so far. Re. the batteries, I'd definitely invest in a trickle charger and possibly a different type of battery. I'm about to replace my Bosch AGM battery proactively - it's a 4-year warranty battery coming up on 5 years old.
30k miles. All service completed on time per owner's manual. Plugs been done twice and it was overkill lol. I didn't know you could put a glass mat battery in this car due to the regulator. I do have a trickle charger, just need a place to use it haha. I once read something about german cars that they can be very reliable as long as you follow the owner's manual as far as service. Sage advice it seems. BTW this is my 4th Porsche.
Great report, but I don't know if 30k miles is enough to really draw conclusions on their reliability. Most non-Italian cars should hit that without many issues.
Great report, but I don't know if 30k miles is enough to really draw conclusions on their reliability. Most non-Italian cars should hit that without many issues.
My two used 928 with poor maintenance history would beg to differ! Haha I just realized its parked in the same spot!
It’s hit or miss with these cars. An example, two friends, one with a 20k miles has a driver side coolant leak with a very very clean over rev report. Other basically a track car, with 40k miles. ZERO issues. Go figure! Mine 56k miles clean over rev no track time etc. coolant leaks everywhere! All replaced or repaired. Blown out return line, cracked plastic elbow, bad water pump, drivers side upper “hot” hose to radiator bad O ring. So again, it hit or miss. The only thing in common with both cars with issues, garage kept. That is why I wouldn’t buy a car like this with low miles. That’s the common denominator! They need to be driven hard and harder! The 40k mile car is a none issue but if you looked at the over rev, you wouldn’t buy it. So, the minute you stop driving them is when the gremlins come out and bite you and hard!
-12 months of ownership
-Bought with a coolant leak that I knew about, had the motor out and preventative maintenance done then
-Changed from 20" Tech art wheels (will be listing for sale soon) to 19" avant garde + new tires
-Previous owner issue(s) found in the form of a rodents nest by the passenger intake - the oil temp sensor wire was slightly chewed and caused a failure. (new wire spliced in and all is well)
-Regular oil changes (redline 0w-40)
-Flushed break fluid and replaced with ATE gold
Things on the horizon:
-Brakes (Pads and Rotors are coming due)
-Rear tire tread is getting low (my fault as I cheaped out on tires at the time)
-Purchased new coilover suspension and sent it to be revalved by fatcat motorsports (will go on the car with rotors and pads)
I know it's just a matter of time before the plastic and rubber bits start falling apart. 13 years old is quite long in the tooth for these materials. I just wanted to relay my ownership experience thus far and it has been great. Would I recommend a 13 year old one? Hmmm, not to a first time buyer of Porsche. It would be better to save up some money and get as new a car as possible. Another observation is that the Turbo is complete overkill for normal driving but hey in today's day and age it seems 400 plus HP is commonplace. I like the fact that I have owned this car so long and know all the work that has been done to it and how it has been used, it brings some peace of mind.
I know it's just a matter of time before the plastic and rubber bits start falling apart. 13 years old is quite long in the tooth for these materials. I just wanted to relay my ownership experience thus far and it has been great. Would I recommend a 13 year old one? Hmmm, not to a first time buyer of Porsche. It would be better to save up some money and get as new a car as possible. Another observation is that the Turbo is complete overkill for normal driving but hey in today's day and age it seems 400 plus HP is commonplace. I like the fact that I have owned this car so long and know all the work that has been done to it and how it has been used, it brings some peace of mind.
I was just adding to it. My 997 is my first Pcar and I was a bit wary at first but my whole life has been 10+ yr old used cars. So I'm used to having to wrench on things and that used cars require money to be spent to shore up issues if you didn't pay a premium for a clean example. I supposed its overkill feeling might depend on where you are able to drive it at. I will say even though I wouldn't change my original decision to buy a turbo, I now have a deeper appreciation for the older N/A models and what can be done to take full advantage of driving them.
I've had my 997 for about 1.5 years (1st Porsche). No issues (knocking on wood). Car has just north of 50k miles with an extensive maint history by the original owner and pretty extensive by me given the short time of ownership. With me, 2 oil changes (latest with Motul), europipe S1 exhaust and while I was in there new cooler spark plugs even though the originals were only 10k miles old. I did this on the recommendation of Kevin since I also added his tune to keep the fuel trims in line with the new freer flowing exhaust. I do lube my spoiler rams a few times a year with Boeshield T9....if it's good enough for a Boeing 747 it'll work here....so far so good. I had a paint correction and ceramic coating applied to it last fall. Regarding the interior, if you haven't used it before I highly recommend the 2 part Leathereque (spelling?) product on the leather. WOW what a difference! After applying the first part and letting it sit in the hot sun for the day you could see all the crap coming out of the seats (mostly headrests). And it gave them a real rich look too. Then the second part, which is the cleaner, really got it looking great! Multiple microfibers were used and all looked brown and dirty. I was completely shocked since I knew this car was well maintained.... No affiliation at all, and it's not cheap, but it does a great job!
On deck:
- Probably a new battery - this one is 6 years old (I have it on the CTEK all winter). With that I need to replace the bolt on the negative terminal since I stripped it hooking up my CTEK wires. Felt pretty stupid after that one....
- Tires are wearing well but are approaching 6 yrs old - so we'll see
- Fluids for front diff, transaxle, and AWD controller this Spring. I don't have the proper setup to get under it enough for me to do it, so I may bring the car + my fluid to an Indy shop. Using all OEM fluids. Maybe ask them to repair the terminal and give them the battery to install while it's there.
- I picked up a new lip spoiler and a set of rennline grill covers. I wanted to install them this winter but with no heat in my garage and a bathroom that needed renovating, I decided to tackle this in the coming spring.
I'm absolutely loving this car! I've always wanted a 911, posters all over my walls as a kid, etc. Dream come true...
Hmmm. This spoiler ram thing sounds irritating and I should add regular lubrication to my home maintenance list. If I can't find Boeing parts haha what is a good alternative that is readily available? WD 40? As far as seat cleaning I did try leatharique on my brown 928 with the tan seats. I swear the color changed about 5 shades lighter after all of the pollution was gone. I spent days getting the crud off what looked like decent seats to begin with. Once you start you can't stop because the color changes so much but the end result was excellent. After I sold the car I still saw it sometimes. The new owner was putting chocolate chip cookies on the seats I took a week to clean. Ohh well.
The feel and even smell of the leather is what amazed me. My seats darkened a bit but lightened up over time. I hit it with the cleaner monthly....which also conditions the leather. Great stuff!
The feel and even smell of the leather is what amazed me. My seats darkened a bit but lightened up over time. I hit it with the cleaner monthly....which also conditions the leather. Great stuff!
Thanks for the info. I just ordered some BOESHIELD. Anything is better than nothing, right? The thought of spending 4k to fix a wing I don't even care for makes me want to gag a little. Hopefully I can get 20 years out of it now!
03-12-2019 | 04:04 AM
07 Turbo Long Term Review
