Annual oil change or at recommended interval?
 

I only drive my Boxster about 3000K miles summer. Should get the oil changed yearly when I take it out or at the 15K recommended interval?

Change the oil and filter once a year regardless of your mileage unless it's very high between intervals.

Very few owners on this board actually believe Porsche's marketing crap about 15k intervals. I change mine every 7-8k or once a year. It's cheap compared to a new motor.

As usual, Randal is so right! :D

Oh let's not go that far, Richard... if you think I'm right most of the time you haven't visited with my wife!

"If a man states his opinion alone in the forest and his wife is not present, is he still dead wrong?"

I just changed my oil. It had only been about 5,000 miles but almost two years. I just don't drive my car enough!!! Any way, the oil was nasty - pretty ugly looking. I'm definitely going to stick with changing it every year and would recommend the same for you.

If you do it yourself it's not so god-awful expensive. Plus check around, when I got my oil a month ago Autozone had a deal on Mobil 1, where if you bought 5 quarts you got them at a discount and got a FREE Mobil 1 oil filter. Now they don't make a Mobil 1 oil filter for the Boxster, but maybe they make one for another car you own. So I got 10 quarts of Mobil 1 for like $60 and then two free oil filters for my SUV.

Kirk

Thanks to all. How often do you guys change your brake fluid? My dealer suggests every two years?

Your dealer is correct.

RE the brake fluid change every 2 years, what does the dealer typically charge for the fluid change? I just had my car in for the 2 year service and they did not push it on me or even mention it.

I love your quote. May I use it?

:D

Flush the brakes every two years unless your are autocrossing / racing. If so, then more often.
I also concur on the oil change annually, even with low mileage. The oil deteriorates [my scientific explanation] and should be replaced. :)

I had it done last year, just a little early, and I think I was charged about $135 at the dealership.

Thanks again. My dealer charges about $150 for the brake fluid flush.

On the brake flush... I bought a little hand vacuum device that makes bleeding a one-man job and relatively easy. I think it was less than $50. You might want to consider this a DIY job if you have the time. I flush all of my vehicles every two years.

Several years ago Sport Compact Car did a test on several aftermarket braking systems on a specific test car. After they were done with swapping calipers several times they put the stock calipers and rotors back on and got a significant improvement in stopping distance, I believe it may have even been better than the aftermarket systems! The conclusion of the article was that braking power had increased because of several flushes of the brake fluid when they were changing calipers. Before the testing the brake fluid had not been flushed for several years. Thus they recommended forgoing any of the aftermarket systems and just flushing your brake fluid, at least it's a good and cheap start!!!

Kirk

I would like to expand on Kirk's recommendation to consider DIY on your oil change and brake flush.

I posted a most excellent :) Brake Flush DIY here on this forum. I wrote it from the perspective of someone with no clue [me]. There are other excellent Boxster flush DIYs on the internet. [I am proud of mine, however] and I concluded that while the oil drains during my oil change, I can flush the brakes, all in about an hour or so [getting the car on stands and the wheels on/off is half the time] at a savings of about $300. Its easy work if you are interested.

Nice writeup FTD. The clutch master cylinder is part of the brake fluid hydraulic system and can be flushed after the rear calipers. The first time is a little tricky to find the clutch bleed valve; blinkwatt's photo helps a lot. http://986forum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=96781&postcount=14

I stopped in at a Mobil station and had my oil changed because it was such a low price $80 for 0-40 Mobil 1 (although I provided the filter). I pulled in at 5:30 and they closed at 6pm. So no they didn't allow enough time to drain out all the old oil. Probably half a quart of the old stuff still in there. Looks like I'll be changing the oil again in six months.

Holy crap, I change my oil every 4,000 miles or 4 months, that $85 of parts and DIY was getting to me. Guess I can lessen up some on my OCD-ness on my vehicle maintenance then.

On a side note I also DIY my brake fluid flush with the above linked directions, it's very quick with that MOTIV oil bleeder, you can find it at amazon.com for fairly cheap. I'd recommend ATE Super Blue brake fluid, even if you don't track the car.

I think universally nobody (even independent garages) actually follows the 15k interval. Even 15k Km sounds high.

I do mine 10k Km (~6200 Miles), or twice a year as recommended by my mechanic since it'll be driven all year long.

Also ditched Mobil1 and now use Agip oil. :) :) :)

Thanks for the starting this post, I found it very helpful, I will point out though that 3 million miles (3000k miles) every summer is quite a lot of driving. ;)


My question is, if doing an annual oil change should it be done at the end of the year when putting it away for the winter or in the spring when getting it back out?


Thanks all.

Change it before storage.