My Turbo S just turned 2000 miles....I called my dealer to do an oil change and he told me it was a complete waste of money.He said just wait until the advised 10,000 mile service.He is a great guy and I believe him but do I still do the oil change or is it really just overkill?...Thanks in advance.

 

New engines shed a lot of trash. Normal. New engines suffer some additional blowby which causes new engines to contaminate their initial fill oil with higher levels of water and unburned fuel very quickly. Normal.

Leaving this dirty, contaminated oil in the engine for 10K miles is not normal. And I note 2K miles is the end of 'break-in'. I cringe thinking about some unsuspecting owner opening up the engine, using more of its rpm range and its power band, using that beautiful piece of machinery, with that old nasty initial fill oil still in the engine.

When I get the response you received I thank the person for the info but go ahead and ask the service be done. My money. I'll spend it the way I want. If the service department balks I am prepared to ask to where would the dealer have me take my car for the kind of servicing I want to give it?

Too bad you can't have the tech dump the oil from the filter housing out into a clean drain pan and observe what is in the oil. Do that once and I don't think you'd think you wasted any money. Chances are the dealer even the tech would be a bit surprised.

If you want PM with your email address and I'll send a pic of what the filter housing oil looked like that I dumped from my 08 Cayman S after just 750 miles.

No writer in any of the Porsche mags pushes for early or often services like Mike Miller does in Bimmer Mag. for BMWs. He rails against what he calls BMW's global war on maintanence and believes what BMW is advocating is at the expense of its customers and their cars' longevity.

Porches are no different than BMWs in this regard. Why then not give them at least similar preventative maintenance at least one person on the BMW side advocates to help ensure a long and trouble free engine life for these fine automobiles?

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

I would change it. Max I would go is 6500 miles or 1 year. All Porsche cares about is getting you through the warranty, once its over, your on your own. BMW use to have 15k oil change intervals but lots of sludge buildup caused warranty issues so they lowered it. I believe its 10k now?

 

Oil changes are not covered under warranty, so I don't get this dealer encouraging long oil change intervals.

 

There is an environmental aspect to longer oil change intervals, less waste oil for disposal and recycling.

 

I would have dumped the oil and filter at 500 miles..

I you own the car I wouldn't go past 5K..

Go over to the 996TT forum and look at some of the oil threads..

 

Dealers I don't think are encouraging longer oil change intervals, they're just following the Porsche company line as set forth in the owners manual and in factory to dealer service department TSBs/bulletins.

Extended oil change intervals are in some cases marketing driven as a way to tout the car's quality in that it can go longer between oil changes that Brand X.

Also, with the cost of cars going up the company is seeking to lessen the servicing costs. This is why some automakers are offering free scheduled servicing during the warranty period, but guess what? These scheduled services are themselves extended even longer.

And some owners bring this on themselves by railing against any early service requirements. Some owners believe any recommendation by a service department for an early oil/filter service, or any vital fluid service is just a crude attempt to prop up the service department's bottom line.

The amount of profit the dealer makes on this probably doesn't cover the cost and this is one reason why some dealers discourage shorter or early LOF (lube/oil filter) services.

But an early LOF service is in fact it is a valid service that helps prolong the car's service life.

As for the waste oil issue, my dealer collects the oil and disposes of it in an environmentally acceptable way. For God's sake, I live in CA and one can't fart without filing an evironmental impact study here, so I don't worry about the waste oil or filter element. I'm sure if there was anything remotely unacceptable regarding these LOF services there would be a law...

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

I would also think that Porsche cares for long-term customer loyalty as well. In this electronic age, the proverbial poo will hit the fan faster than a fleas heartbeat.

Nope, BMW has used a formula to determine OCI for many years. The E36 chassis had a mileage counter that started at 7500 miles, and based on various inputs, the counter would go down. The E46 chassis (the successor to the E36) included fuel consumption into the formula and the counter started at 15k miles.

My E46 M3 started from 15k, but when all was said and done, my OCI were around 10-12k miles.

Same deal for my E60 and my fiancee's E70. She'll be going in for her first oil change at around 10k miles although the counter started at 15k. 66% of the mileage she drives is highway miles.

Michael.

 

the BMW change intervals are total bunk. the are becoming disposable automotive jewelry that will have near zero value out of warranty, like old 928's. The current 3 series can't even have the battery replaced without a trip to the stealer.

they extended the intervals and went to lifetime fill for tranny/diff when they started paying for the maintenance during the warranty period

ANY car guy should join the BMW CCA, just the tech talk article mentioned above are worth the price.

other than excellence, the BMWCCA mag is the best car mag out there!

if your turbo S is only gonna be around a few years, who cares, let it go to 10K, but if you are keeping it, service it.

 

Oil changes are not money makers for dealers typically (in comparison to other services). One of the major aspects of a tech doing an oil change is to try and find anything possibly wrong with the car that they can charge for....needs wiper blades....needs brakes.....needs air filters....etc. If there is really no chance of something that has failed or needing replacement on a brand new car that is still in warranty (say on a car less than 10k miles), what is the motivation for bringing in the car and tying up the tech that could be on a larger job that brings in more money.............Also....service writers (and I am going to make a broad generalization here, there are no doubt some writers out there that this doesn't apply to)....typically don't know how to do anything beyond read the basic requirements out of a book. If the book says every 10k miles, then by god it is every 10k miles. They have no mechanical apptitude to think anything different. Talk to a tech at the dealer, and they might recommend something different.

 

To me that's a good thing. If I own a car under warranty having its oil/filter service done early (and more often) gives the techs a chance to look the car over and perhaps spot anything that needs attention. (When I took my Turbo in for an early transmission fluid change the tech found a leaking seal and the car was fitted with a new transmission under CPO warranty.)

Even if my car is not under warranty, I like to have the car given a 'road worthiness' check while on the lift. Sometimes I arrange to be there when the car is in the air and give it a check out myself, with the tech next to me and me listening to what he has to say about the car.

As for the tech finding things that need attention, I'm not going to replace the brakes until the brake wear light comes on, and sometimes I've driven the car several thousand miles with the light on. (Now if the brakes are showing signs of trouble then I'll listen to the tech.) I can tell when it is time to replace the wipers and I keep track of the filter services and know when the car is due for one.

I mean just because a tech says this or that needs doing does not always mean it needs doing *right* now.

But I always listen, and note the tech's recommendation and sometimes I'll discuss the situation with him before I make up my mind.

Sometimes I take the tech's advice. Sometimes I do not. Regardless, I always thank the tech for pointing something out to me. I want to encourage that behavior cause I might miss something.

And sometimes I do not take the tech's advice and regret it, like when a tech noted the rear tires were worn and should be replaced, and I thought I could get another 5K miles out of them. I got maybe 200 miles (from Livermore to Fresno) before the right rear picked up a nail. Worn tires are notorious for picking up stuff. I spent the rest of the that day in Fresno trying to find tires -- the Fresno dealer doesn't do tires... -- and then when I was unsuccessful in finding any tires in Fresno I drove all the way back to Livermore to find the Livermore dealer unable to help me -- it was closed (this the Friday after Thanksgiving) -- but found the Walnut Creek dealer open on the next day (Saturday). I left Livermore and drove to Walnut Creek and spent the night in a hotel near the dealer only to find out when it opened it didn't have the tires in stock I was told it had. I then called the Sacramento dealer which was open and had a set of tires. Drove up there from Walnut Creek (in the rain, on worn tires, with a nail in one rear tire) and had new tires fitted. Ended up driving maybe 700 or more miles, losing a day and a half of my vacation, simply because I ignored the tech's advice to replace the tires *before* I left on a long road trip.

Anyhow, some service writers/managers are pretty good about intelligent servicing and some are not. I try to do business with the dealers where these service writers/managers work and those that are not I try to share my thoughts regarding servicing. I find most service writers are willing to listen and are thankful when something that is not obvious is pointed out to them. I don't try to tell them their business, but I try to share with them my experiences and my thinking regarding what I want done and when and why.

The service writers get some help from the techs, but sometimes there's some friction between the techs and the service writers and the service writers do not get as good as info as they should. Or to be fair to the techs, some service writers are well, not as willing to listen/learn.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

GREAT advice. Thanks to all for the information.

 

I agree...great information and a Thank You for the advice!