Service time?

After some help please I have a 996 turbo garage queen to put it bluntly can I ask do you all get your cars serviced every year or on mileage ?? And spark plugs how often do you change trying to find you thoughts ? Cheers Ste

My view is that a car should be serviced per the book. I think there is scope for an 'annual inspection' for cars with low annual mileage, and personally, I hate seeing big gaps in a car's history. An annual oil change and inspection costs buttons in the scheme of the overall running costs of these cars. I know the MOT would hopefully highlight any safety failings, but I would want a marque expert to look over it annually for potential problems and pre-empt issues. At the very least, come resale time, it shows a caring owner. I was told by Northways that plugs should be done every 4 years or you risk them getting stuck.

Getting a car that does low mileage on high days and holidays (which generally means longer runs) serviced every year is unnecessary in my view. Oil doesn't degrade at such a rate that it stops working in that time. I do a maximum of 3k miles a year so I'm doing an oil service every second year. For me this is more an exercise in getting a stamp in the book to not completely deter any possible future sale. The major service items like water pump, thermostat, coolant refresh, brake flush, spark plugs, coils etc I did myself last year (in between services).

Porsche are happy to offer a 15 year/125k mile warranty on cars serviced according to what it says in the service book so I can't see why anyone would consider getting it done more ... or less .....often.

It's a bit like the endless arguments on changing suspension from OE. These things are created based on average usage. If your usage isn't the same as the average then why follow that guidance? That cuts both ways. If you do 12k miles a year and 10k of those are spent on track wringing the things neck do you follow the book servicing? I think most would say no. Yet if you do less and nurse the thing everyone says you should follow it to the letter.

The term that Porsche uses is 'under normal driving conditions' and the service schedule indicates the relevant mileage or time interval for this. From that one should conclude that cars that are tracked should be serviced - or at least have oil changed - more regularly. Ste's question was with regard to his car doing low mileage and is therefore covered by the first paragraph.

It's tempting to skimp on low mileage stuff but really you need to keep it right. It's what we sign upto really when buying half decent cars. My 996 GT3 is on 2 year intervals by Porsche I think but I wouldn't dream of doing that. Oil change every year is a given. What's £100 compared to the value of the car. I'll probably do a major then 2 or 3 minors depending on mileage and that's annually of course. It's daft throwing away spark plugs if they've only done 5000 miles or something. Brake fluid change every 2 years to keep that right too. I only just found out last year that a brake fluid change according to Porsche is only 1 litre. 250ml from each caliper. I've always flushed the lot through. :dont know:

As has already been said.. why wouldn't you.. an annual inspection and oil change on a high performance car is a no brainier.. if you what to save pennies then don't own the car.. simple :dont know: