Go Back   986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners > Porsche Boxster & Cayman Forums > Boxster General Discussions

Post Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-06-2009, 03:40 PM   #1
Registered User
 
Lil bastard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Du Monde
Posts: 2,199
Oils are better, Fuels are better, and engines are better than they were in the past.

All 3 of these things allow oil change intervals to be extended. The question is: By how much?

Most Service Intervals are optimized by car mfgrs. for marketing purposes - to make the cars easier to sell.

But, most manufacturers, incl. Porsche state in their owners manuals that these intervals are for Ideal conditions, which almost no one encounters. TRhey further usually state that for Severe conditions, these intervals should be shortened. Because they cannot know everyone's driving habits, they cannot say by how much, since each one's experiences are different.

Frequent short trips (under 10 mi.), Stop&Go driving, Interstate driving, wet climates, dry climates, hot climates, driving past construction zones or projects, poor or eratic fuel quality, hard driving, heavy loads all constitute what automakers term Severe conditions.

So, it's safe to say that going 20k mi. between changes is not recommended, even by the carmakers themselves.

You need to use your own judgement. 7500-10k mi. covers the bases pretty well, you are doubling to tripling the previously accepted interval.

But, you really need to consider the interval differently for each batch of oil you use. If you have a rainy season, or hot season, or any changes during an interval, say driving hard, or your daily route is under construction, you may want to shorten the interval. Likewise if any of your normal conditions change for the better, you could extend an oil change a few thousand miles too.

Just remember the old addage: "Oil is cheaper than engines"

__________________
1990 Porsche 964 Carrera 4 Cabriolet
1976 BMW 2002
1990 BMW 325is
1999 Porsche Boxster
(gone, but not forgotten)
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/a...smiley-003.gif

Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!
Lil bastard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2009, 03:54 PM   #2
Registered User
 
Perfectlap's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 8,709
I sometimes wonder about the element of time, or how long the engine is running.
Add up all the time waiting at stop lights, intersections, drive thrus, stand still traffick where little if any mileage is racked up. Add up all that time over the course of an engines life. I'd be curious to see how many hours are actually 'driven'. That alone makes me think the oil interval is too long.

What I would really like to see is some sort of telemetry that analyzes the oil and relays to the driver when its begun its decline. But then that might put some folks who rebuild engines out of work!
Seems like it would be good for the oil industry though..
__________________
GT3 Recaro Seats - Boxster Red
GT3 Aero / Carrera 18" 5 spoke / Potenza RE-11
Fabspeed Headers & Noise Maker
BORN: March 2000 - FINLAND
IMS#1 REPLACED: April 2010 - NEW JERSEY -- LNE DUAL ROW
Perfectlap is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2009, 07:03 PM   #3
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Chicago suburbs
Posts: 1,675
No offense, but I'd like to know the dollar value exchanged between Porsche and ExxonMobil for the "exclusive" fill sticker. If you trust a Porsche engineer, then you also trust the accountant that made him trim the parts back to save a few Euros on each car.

I've read enough independent study (as well as track experience) to know that changing your oil often can be critical to engine life. The high mileage guys will tell you the same thing, with out getting into which oil is better. I know the brands I prefer and M1 is not one of them, nor would I ever recommend it to a friend.
__________________
JGM
2002 Boxster S
1973 911 Green FrankenMeanie
PCA DE Instructor circa '95
jmatta is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2009, 08:36 PM   #4
Registered User
 
Lil bastard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Du Monde
Posts: 2,199
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perfectlap
I sometimes wonder about the element of time, or how long the engine is running.
Add up all the time waiting at stop lights, intersections, drive thrus, stand still traffick where little if any mileage is racked up. Add up all that time over the course of an engines life. I'd be curious to see how many hours are actually 'driven'. That alone makes me think the oil interval is too long.

What I would really like to see is some sort of telemetry that analyzes the oil and relays to the driver when its begun its decline. But then that might put some folks who rebuild engines out of work!
Seems like it would be good for the oil industry though..
Good point! And it's idle time which is most abusive to oil because of high temps and poorer combustion.

On many other machines - aircraft, boats, heavy machinery, it's the hrs. or time interval, not distance, which are counted and the basis for most service intervals.

You could add an hour meter to the car. It's be simple enough to wire one in and there are many to choose from - Hour Meters , even Sunpro offers an analog and digital ones - SunPro ... all less than $50.

'Course then the arguement would shift to 'how many hrs.?' instead of 'how many miles?'... guess you can't win.

__________________
1990 Porsche 964 Carrera 4 Cabriolet
1976 BMW 2002
1990 BMW 325is
1999 Porsche Boxster
(gone, but not forgotten)
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/a...smiley-003.gif

Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!
Lil bastard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2009, 08:52 PM   #5
There Is No Substitute.
 
rick3000's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: West Coast
Posts: 3,253
Garage
It is interesting to see everyone's views on this, I am starting to think I should do the oil change every 5k miles, instead of 7500k miles.

Although, if you take ideal conditions of 60mph over 5,000 miles, that's 100 hours. So everyone start changing your oil every after every 100 hours of use.
__________________
1999 Ocean Blue Metallic Boxster - blueboxster.com
rick3000 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-07-2009, 04:55 AM   #6
bmussatti
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Rick3000, what did you really expect your mechanic to tell you? Business is slow. He's just trying to make a living.
  Reply With Quote
Old 05-07-2009, 06:09 AM   #7
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Illinois
Posts: 147
We've done the used oil analysis and 7500 mi is pretty much tops for a drain interval for street driving. By 10,000 mi, the oil was crap quite a few miles before that point. 5000 mi is honestly a very good point to change the oil. Sooner may be overkill, but certainly can't hurt. Take it from someone who has seen many intermediate shafts with long drain intervals and the kind of crap that fills the IMS tube (and not to mention what the bearing looks like) once the seal stops sealing (happens pretty quick once there is even the slightest play in the bearing).
__________________
Charles Navarro
President, LN Engineering and Bilt Racing Service
http://www.LNengineering.com
Home of Nickies, IMS Retrofit, and IMS Solution
cnavarro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-08-2009, 05:59 AM   #8
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: orange county, ca
Posts: 248
Quote:
Originally Posted by cnavarro
We've done the used oil analysis and 7500 mi is pretty much tops for a drain interval for street driving. By 10,000 mi, the oil was crap quite a few miles before that point. 5000 mi is honestly a very good point to change the oil. Sooner may be overkill, but certainly can't hurt. Take it from someone who has seen many intermediate shafts with long drain intervals and the kind of crap that fills the IMS tube (and not to mention what the bearing looks like) once the seal stops sealing (happens pretty quick once there is even the slightest play in the bearing).

Personally, i'd take this guy's opinion. An oil analysis is the best objective way to scientifically measure the oil's performance. I also go with 7500k oil change intervals just to be safe.
spine911 is offline   Reply With Quote
Post Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:56 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2025 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page