What are peoples' opinion on preventative maintenance? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

landrovered · 02-25-2010, 04:11 AM

I am a strong believer in preventative maintanance to a certain point. Wear items need to be replaced. It is my opinion that parts usually do not fail without warning IF you know what to look for. That being said I don't know that I would replace a water pump if it was not giving signs of failure. Belts, sure, bushings, yes, coil packs and plugs, certainly. Combining jobs to ease installation "while you are in there" makes sense from an economic sense as well to reduce labor in some cases. Like an IMS when you do the clutch.

When I off road I usually have several hundred pounds of spare parts with me, hell I even bring parts along for trucks I don't even own but this is a different situation. If you break down way way off in the booneys then it can cost you thousands to get your truck out of there and back to the pavement. So in this case it makes economic sense to carry lots of tools and parts that reduce economy and fill up a lot of space.

Of course this is different than driving a car that does not even have a real spare tire. With Porsche I carry no spares and only a minimal tool kit consisting of a few screwdrivers, spare light bulbs, fuses, a socket set and a crescent wrench. It weighs maybe three pounds. The most important tool you can carry in a Porsche is a cell phone.

The other thing I do even in the Porsche after years of driving British cars is play my favorite game of "guess that noise". I am always listening to the sounds the car in operation. If you know what to listen for and can discern whether it is consistant with speed, revs or increases with turning left or right then you can do a pretty good job of finding out what "the next thing to go" is and head it off at the pass.

Brucelee · 02-25-2010, 04:50 AM

I generally replace items before there is evidence of impending doom. Like batteries. On the issue of the other things, like water pumps etc. the suggestion above makes total sense. Combining.

I don't see a perfect solution but it seems to me that if you are "going in there" you might as well attend to the usual suspects.

Good luck.

Jake Raby · 02-25-2010, 05:32 AM

Fixing something before it breaks is key...

Imagine if the FAA didn't require specialized PMs on aircraft and people treated them like their Porsches... I'd say we'd be losing planes on a daily basis.

It never ceases to amaze me how much people neglect these later Porsches, I never saw that with the aircooled cars.

We are doing an IMS Retrofit downstairs right now.. Two days ago when the owner dropped the car off and waited to see the "before" dyno evaluations I heard some horrible sounding chain tensioners and lifters when I fired the engine up. That prompted me to ask him how often he serviced the car, he said every 15K miles...

Those extended oil service intervals will cost him 7,000.00 in worn parts and labor, the bill is due tomorrow.

landrovered · 02-25-2010, 05:41 AM

IMHO...

Proactive owners with dirt under their fingernails do not service their cars every X number of miles. They never stop servicing their vehicles.

mikefocke · 02-25-2010, 06:15 AM

Sometime in 2007, they issued a recommended service interval chart that now recommends 12k oil changes.

I wonder how many of us knew that? I didn't until yesterday.

Boxtaboy · 02-25-2010, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikefocke

Sometime in 2007, they issued a recommended service interval chart that now recommends 12k oil changes.

I wonder how many of us knew that? I didn't until yesterday.

I did, because I posted that link on PPBB.

It is kinda interesting that they originally suggested 15k intervals between oil changes on the early models, and then later retroactively recommended that interval go down to 12k (they did the same kind of back peddling on other items for the car too, if you look at the chart). Same car, but all of a sudden, they tell you it needs more servicing than they originally thought.

landrovered · 02-25-2010, 06:27 AM

It is not just Porsche doing this. Many other makes are reducing their service intervals as well.

Jake Raby · 02-25-2010, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by landrovered

It is not just Porsche doing this. Many other makes are reducing their service intervals as well.

Because the people buying the cars are too damn lazy to service them... The manufacturers are now in a battle to brag about service intervals and who can go the longest, all while they are using crappy parts to comprise their engines..

The more it appears to cost to maintain these cars the fewer people will buy them... Since no one cares about the 2nd, 3rd or 4th owner it all comes out in the wash later..

Boxtaboy · 02-25-2010, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by landrovered

It is not just Porsche doing this. Many other makes are reducing their service intervals as well.

I can understand them reducing service intervals as they introduce new cars, but retroactively recommend shorter intervals on their older cars? I wonder what prompted them to do that? My car hasn't changed since 2001...why is it that at first my owner's manual said I could wait till 15k before I change my oil, but now, I should do it at 12k intervals? Or fuel filter and plugs changed they say I should change at 60k miles, but now they say it should be done at 48k intervals.