Hi guys, I'm back after a long winter.

I'm coming up to the one-year anniversary of the purchase of my 2001 C4. As some of you may recall, the car had amazingly low mileage of 21,000 km when I bought her, and I'm now up to about 31,000 km.

I was told back at the time of purchase that I would need an annual service involving an oil change and a basic check-up once a year or every 12,000 km. So I'm just about due for that.

I called Downtown this morning and it was "recommended" to me by the service guy that I get a "Major Service" -- which I'm told would cost $1400+ as opposed to the $400+ for the oil change and check-up.

The Major Service sounds like a walk down a garden path to me, but I'd be interested in the views of others. Let me know. Thanks.

 

If you got a full PPI done when you bought the car and had the major components checked out at this time, a "major" service with that kind of mileage might be excessive. Sure, you might need to check belts and hoses, pads and rotors, and a few other things on top of the basic stuff. But an extra $1k does sound excessive. I'd get a second opinion. Try Courtney at Autowerks. 905-580-7600.

 

major service is at 48k
recommended oil change every 24k or every year (I do it every 12k)
funny enough they do not recommend changing the oil filter every oil change but I would do it (they say every 2 years.

major service includes everything a minor maintenance does plus
change sparc plugs, oil filter, air filter and particle filter.

Every 2 years you should change your brake fluid.

Quite honesty they don't do much, they check hoses, belts, print out codes and visually look for leaks. This is something that I am sure that anyone can do and they probably don't have a seasoned mechanic doing.
I would wait to the 48k and for now just do the oil and filter change and have them check for codes. Unless you really feel you need to have new sparc plugs and change your brake fluid. I would choose to wait till 48k so you’re on the regular routine. You can do the other things now but then you will have to start your own routine and remember the km you had it done and then schedule it accordingly for the next time.

The air filter and particle filter can be changed easily in about 10-15 min

Your brake sensors will go off when they need to be changed and considering I have 92k on my original rotors I wouldn’t worry about them. These are very easy to visually inspect anyways u don't need a mechanic do to it.


That $1400 also includes a new battery ($ 15) for your key and new wipers ($90) and windshield washer fluid. Again the over charge for all these things and they say they spend some ridicules amount of time doing all these things that would take the rest of us 10-20 min to do.

 

Hi Mark,
I second what Jumper said. Unless you notice that it's running rough, you don't need to change your plugs. Air and Pollen filters cost about $80 total and take 15 mins to replace. Wipers are $60 and take 2 mins to change. Key battery is $5 at Shoppers Drugmart and it's a 2 min job. Oil, filter, washer cost $120 and took my tech 20min (most of it waiting for the oil to drain). Brake flush cost me about $130 at Mantis last time.
There is a complete database of service schedules on renntech.org : http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...maint_menu_car
The one thing to look at is whether or not your cross-drilled rotors are getting clogged up with pad residue. Dealers like to charge $100+ to clean them out with a drill bit, but you can usually blast them with a pressure washer to get them cleared or failing that, with a drill bit yourself.
FYI: my car has 78,000kms with the original rotors and pads (50% remaining) and I track my car!...okay so I'm slow, but you get the point.

 

Sounds like a total rip off to me .. All looks like very basic stuff.... "major service " to be sounds like a revenue generator and is put in the minds of consumers without any real added preventative maintanance or value added services.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. Your collective advice pretty much accords with what I was hoping I'd hear!

I'm going to book the regular annual service, and let the rest of the stuff take care of itself over time.

 

I would find another shop if I were you. I have learned to stay away from dealerships as much as possible for exactly the reason discussed here. Find a really good small shop with good recommendations and stay with them. I am really happy with Brent Hunter at Hunter Motorsport. Brent has 30 years experience, is always fair and reasonable, knows everyone in the business and is just a great guy. (905) 272-5137 - Glenn

 

You make a good point. If I had any actual work that needed to be done, I would probably go the route you've suggested.

But for now I think I'm going to stick with the dealer for regular maintenance. I bought the car as the second owner from the same dealership that sold it to the first owner, and it has this pristine maintenance book with all of the official Porsche maintenance written in. I'm probably going to upgrade to a later-model C4S or Turbo in a year or two and I'm thinking that continuous dealer maintenance will be good for me at resale or trade-in time.

 

Porsche guys know that when you go to a dealership, you are paying a premium. The beautiful showroom on an expensive piece of land. All the staff and everything that goes along with supporting them. This goes for all dealerships. The independents are the way to go and we are lucky to have so many amazing ones in Toronto.

Don't be fooled out of your money my friend unless you have tons to burn. The extra amount you get when selling the car because it was dealer serviced will be far less than the thousands you will pay in extra fees by dealer servicing it.

A car under warranty is a different story and I say dealer service all the way. Many of the independents were service managers at Porsche dealers anyway.

Just my $.02

 

Good point. I no doubt should have mentioned that I bought the car as a Porsche Certified vehicle with a warranty from Porsche that covers it for another year-and-a-bit.