recommended oil change is every 5,000 miles
 

took the 987 for a oil change recently and noticed the mileage they put on the sticker for the next oil change is only 5,000 miles from now.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2pq6cl2.jpg

I thought recommended oil change intervals were longer than 5,000 miles?

5,000 miles is a popular interval (I like it, easy to remember). Some even go to 3,000. It's generally agreed that much more often than the factory recommendation is a good idea.

With today's synthetic oil changing oil every 5,000 mile is unnecessary IMO. I change mine every 10,000 which is recommended by Porsche and most indy shop I have dealt with. Furthermore, its not like an oil change on a Porsche is cheap. My dealer get over $200 so why spend that every 5,000 if its not necessary.

seems the 987 is suppose to have 20,000 mile oil change intervals
http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/2713-987-oil-changes.html

but the guys over at planet-9 seem to think 10,000 is a better idea
Change in oil change interval for '08s -

I just don't feel comfortable having a shop tell me the oil change interval should be drastically different from what the manufacture recommended. If a dealer said that, i guess i'd go along with it since they should be the spokesperson of the manufacture, but a independent shop, and a quarter of the miles the manufacture suggested? That seems extreme.

mine was just over $250

Many M96 engine owners change oil every 5000 as a hedge against degradation of the IMS bearing seal due to contaminated oil.

Yup, 5,000, or about once a year for me.

5000 miles for me. purchased in 06 with 57K miles. it now has 135K miles.
01 box

If I wait to change my oil at 10K, I'll be in assisted living before the D-mobile accrues that many miles. :eek:

I believe it really depends on how you drive, and how often. Repair shops want you back in to spend money. I've loosely stuck to around 15k and haven't had any problems, yet. Since I purchased to car, I've put over 110k miles.

Factory recommendations for a 986- 15K miles (yikes, failed IMS, failed chain tensioner guides, clogged/failed lifters, worn timing chains)

Factory recommendations for a 987.2- 7.5K miles (??)

Most indy shops in the know- 5K miles

My car - 3k miles or 10 track days. As soon as the oil begins to darken in color (contaminate).

Choose wisely gentlemen. It's your car and your dough.

Do it yourself.
It's fun and cheap.

+1. Around $130 including filter and Joe Gibbs DT40 5W/40 oil. One hour or less. Cheap insurance and I know it was done right!

All of my cars get 5,000 mile changes. Always have, always will.
On the extreme side though, I also do a 600 mile change when breaking in a new engine. For customers, I throw it in as part of the rebuild.

OMG not another oil thread!!

:) I love oil threads.

Oil with high zddp content can do 5K miles.

Oil with low zddp content should do less than 5K miles.

People who rationalize by saying "I've been using a low zddp oil at the factory recommended interval for years now and have had no problems" are simply saying their engines do not YET show symptoms of engine woe. There was a letter to the editor of Excellence magazine this year where this issue was specifically addressed and the engine expert answering the question said they are seeing a lot of problems on engines that had low zinc oils like mobil1 left in for longer than ~3-4K miles. They advocated for oils with ~1350 ppm of zddp or at least 1250 ppm.
Seems to me that If your oil has this, it will typically boast about it. If it doesn't disclose it, probably a reduced zddp oil. This is probably why its getting harder and harder to find out who has how much. This is important because its not so much the zddp level going in, but how much was left when the oil came out.

so if you save on buying a reduced zddp oil at Wal-mart, inherently its a short life span oil. Not worth the savings imho.

If a person only drove his or her boxster 2k miles a year (or less), what would be the time frame that one should allow the oil to remain ?

My rule of thumb is 5000 or once a year whichever occurs first.

about $90 for me. oils and filter around $75 and pay the shop $20 to change it.

This is my schedule also. I have changed from Mobil 1 to Castrol. After much reading and speculating :D I think Castrol holds up better than Mobil 1.

I have 3 porsches and drive a lot I do all of them at 5K which translates to 2 to 4 oil changes per year per car. I buy oil and filters in quantity and can do a change for about $50. I have bought oil and I have bought engines. OIl is much cheaper so I see no reason to shimp on oil changes.