?? Lifetime fuel filter? How can this be?

[Lil bastard]

The fuel system on your car uses an on-demand fuel supply rather than the more common recirculating type where the fuel flows in a constant circuit through the fuel rail, pressurized and ready to supply the injectors, then back to the fuel tank.

It is thought that not constantly recirculating this fuel eliminates the need to change the filter in the expected lifetime of the pump (not the car), and there do not seem to be many problems with this system. If you plan on keeping the car indefinitely, it's probably smart at some point to buy and shelve a spare fuel pump/filter as insurance against inavailability in the future, but I'm talking a couple hundred thousand miles.

Not so with the coolant. It's more like 5yr./150k mi. Not so much that the cooling abilities fail, but the anti-corrosive and lubricating properties lose effectiveness after this. Do a search for the correct type of coolant to use, there's been lots of discussion about it.

Porsche's claims of 'lifetime' are more a marketing tool than reality. It is thought that at some point, future maintenance such as a thermostat or water pump change will necessitate changing the fluid and these will almost certainly occur during a 5 yr./150k mi. period.

Same thing goes for their 'lifetime' tiptronic fluid. The maker of the tranny (ZF Getrieb AG) recommends a fluid/filter change at 45k mi. in direct opposition to Porsche's claims. This same tranny is used by Jaguar, BMW and Audi who also used to claim a 'lifetime' fluid, but at least BMW and Jaguar have since revised their maintenance schedules calling for a change at 45k mi.

FYI, for future reference, spark plugs can be had for $6 each , polyrib belts for $25, and cabin filters for $15 through NAPA or a number of other aftermarket suppliers (including several of this boards sponsors), in other words about $175-$190 less than you paid the dealership.