987 Oil Changes

[PAH]

Originally Posted by eslai

(Hmm, does it bother you guys to have 987 owners on 986forum.com? I just now thought of that...)

Not at all. Most (although not all, I'm sure) 986 owners here would love a 987 instead, so we are really interested (well, I am anyway) to hear about your new car!

[Brucelee]

The Forum is open to ALL Porsche owners, past, present and future (or just thinking about it!),

RE: Oil changes, if it were me, I would cut the fact rec in half and settle at 10K or one year, whichever comes first.

Be sure to use a quality syn and change the filter each time.

You DON"T need a manual to figure out how to do the oil change.

And BTW-when is someone going to bring out an aftermarket dipstick for the 987?

Welcome aboard and best of luck!

[RandallNeighbour]

How ya gonna install it? Drill a hole through the cap they've installed where the old one was and put a tube in there down to the sump? Sounds like a very expensive procedure that isn't going to hit the aftermarket guys at all.

Toolpants (Jeff) says he doesn't use his physical dip stick any longer and always goes by the dash display. I can't believe this though. Here's why:

The other night, a buddy asked me to run him to the pharmacy so we took off in my boxster. While waiting for him in the parking lot, engine hot and up to temp, I turned it off and then back on to the acc. for the dash lights to see what the oil level was. It registered very low, just one bar above the bottom line.

Took my buddy home and went to my house and into the garage and repeated the process. Second time it showed the level at one bar below the top line! So I went to the dip stick and it read full.

I truly have no idea which one to believe or use these days. I just keep watching it considering I have a small oil leak on the driver's side cam cover gasket.

[Brucelee]

I really don't know what would be involved in adding a dipstick but think it would be quite involved.

On the flip side, I would NOT trust German electronics on something as critical as oil level. Call me old fashioned.

Now, if it were Japanese electronics, I might be more comforted.

Shoot, I don't like drive by wire either.

Man, do I feel old!

[YellowJacket]

Haha, I hate drive-by-wire, too! And I hate the idea of solely electronic monitoring of oil level as mine is quite finicky as it is.

Regarding the factory-suggested oil change interval, I will continue to do 15k oil changes on my car. Porsche does not stand to benefit from hundreds of thousands of engine failures, so they would not come up with a policy that wasn't beneficial. Besides, they're one of MANY companies who is extending oil change intervals.

Additionally, synthetic does not break down like oil did in the past. I have heard stories of experiments where cars were run 200k miles with no oil change, and the synthetic was tested afterward, demonstrating NO thermal breakdown or reduced lubricating capacity. Not to mention it was as clean as new.

[xavier405]

Its basically a leap of faith that the entire automotive industry is asking us to take. So much more electronics is coming in to play, and it is governing critical systems. But hasn't it always? Fuel injection, variable timing, active suspension... we take these for granted. Maybe some of these electronics were unreliable back in the 70s, but eventually they improve to the point that we don' t notice them.

An oil level sensor? I would imagine that is a pretty simple component. There could even be several redundant oil level sensors without much cost.

I admit this is speculation and as an engineer I would really love to see some test data and reliability numbers. A rocket engine has hundreds of critical components, each with a known failure mode, and an estimated mean time between failures (MTBF). But the auto industry doesn't share this data with the public, in fact I'm not sure it even exists. But there is much improvement in the overall quality of electronics in the past 30 years, it seems to me!

I suppose the cautious of us could take a digital photo of the oil level indicator, with a time stamp, and then use that as evidence to the dealer in case of a future failure! Fight technology with technology!

[Brucelee]

"Additionally, synthetic does not break down like oil did in the past. I have heard stories of experiments where cars were run 200k miles with no oil change, and the synthetic was tested afterward, demonstrating NO thermal breakdown or reduced lubricating capacity. Not to mention it was as clean as new."

I think you have a few facts wrong here. The 200K stories are when using synthetics at regular oil change intervals. The data is clear that synthetics are superior to DINO in everyway. However, even AMSOIL recommends a MAX of 25K on their oil. I use Mobil 1 in my Buell and even at 2500 mile changes, I can tell you that the oil is NOT clean as new. That is a myth.

Ditto-Red Line and AMSOIL. The DOES get dirty, however, their is no disputing that SYN is good stuff.



RE: the 7500, I simply don't feel OK on the 20K but it is my personal preference more than anything. However, you should know that Porsche replaces more than their fair share of engines. And if you are out of warranty, why chance the engine going south over the cost of an oil change?