996 Turbo S ownership

Hello Guys I take my first ownership of a Porsche tomorrow. A nice clean 2005 996 Turbo S. I've been reading over these forums and the internet to try and find out all the do's and don'ts and what to keep an eye on. Does anyone have any advice in this area?

As a start change fluids, i don't believe the lifetime coolant claim and some dealers use low quality oils. Rad problems seem to crop up in these cars and no coolant manufacturer i know of would back a lifetime change interval. Tim '03 996 Tip

[ ][ ][ ] well done. Excellent choice! Hope you enjoy your ownership as much as I have. I took my car for an inspection/gold service at Hartech when I got it (7h drive from me) but they do the most thorough inspection I know of. It gave me a great peace of mind to then enjoy the car freely.

The car is due a minor service: so I would be looking to have a similar inspection carried out!! always good idea! I guess Hartech are well credited! Does anyone know if theres a similar specialist with a good reputation in and around central Scotland?

Keep a close eye on the carpet below the door speakers as the linings are prone to leaks Not a expensive fix but annoying

Great choice McB, I've had mine for 2 years now and its been trouble free. I've recently taken of the front bumper and installed diy mesh grilles to stop the leaves and other debris collecting between the front radiators. Its amazing what collects in there in such a short space of time. Enjoy it they're great cars

Great choice and I am sure you will have many a fun time and copious smiles driving it around. The main advice I would give you, if you haven't owned a turbo engined car before, is always ensure the car is fully warmed up before unleashing all the horses and give it a few minutes to cool down before switching off after a spirited run.

+1 VERY good advice!! Try to give it extra time after the water guage gets up to temp to allow the oil and components to be warmed through before giving it a thrashing. Also the best way to warm up/cool down the car is not to leave it idling. It's much better to hold the gears slightly and let it do 3-4k rpm before changing so that it gets up to temperature faster than leaving it idling for 10mins, just don't be aggressive with the throttle/boost. When cooling the same thing applies, try to drive off boost for the last 5 mins of every journey rather than thrashing it and then leaving it idling in a carpark for 5 mins. Your car will be most grateful for these habbits. They are more than happy to take anything you can throw at them the rest of the time but thrash one cold and it will soon damage something.

[quote The cylinders are tolleranced so tight that when warming up it will send most regular compression testing kit off the scale! I am not sure I quite agree with that,Turbo engines per se usually run looser tolerances because of the heat involved when on boost,so when cold they are not in optimum condition as the warm up the tolerances decrease.If you ran a turbo engine with the same tolerance of a NA engine the engine would seize.That was certainly my understanding of the engineering principles.That said modern turbo engines run higher compression ratios than years ago principally down to engine management and indeed closer tolerances than old though other factors like better metals and oils etc play a part.this is principally why turbos use more oil there is more oil passing the rings when they are cold. My own advice consists of an oil change every 5000 miles there is no cheaper insurance for the engine although lots is written about which oil i use the porsche recommended one and from costco is cheap the oil is even more important in the turbo as it lubricates the bearing. A post from pistonheads suggested the engine oil was fully to temperature when the oil pressure was stable this is usually just under 2 bar,and quite often takes a full 10-15 mins of driving to get there.to me this does make sense and i use this as my benchmark.As stated elsewhere i would wait until the engine is fully warmed up before giving it the beans Otherwise usual turbo maintenance issues,however and this is just personal with the S as it has the brakes get the suspension sorted i saw Chris and got the x73,speak nicely to the boys at fearnsport( as they used to be ) the S was sort of set up for this thing you will never regret it it really makes sense and economy doesnt suffer ,and I also had a chat with Gert at Carneval for one of his cost efficient exhausts. Then get out and drive it, I admit it isnt my daily driver when i use it as such ,and you can, it feels less special.This is all said having just done 1100 v enjoyable miles cross continent at high speed cruising fully loaded up with baby and wife the economy was 22.5 mpg.Enjoy.And judging by the reaction In Budapest you'd think you where driving a Zonda

Thanks for the advice guys. I got the car yesterday and it seems to burn a bit of oil, I put in half a litre and after doing a few hundred miles the oil check guage has dropped a few bars again. Is this normal? I will certainly have a look at the X73 idea!

it tends to vary with use I am sure Richard will correct me but Porsche i think quote as much as a 1/2 litre every thousand miles which to me sounds very excessive I noticed when i went on a hoon to scotland and did 1600 v fast miles i used between the full mark and the bottom mark. lots of short trips use more re comments about the increased clearances around the rings when cold ,if you are worried re the useage you could get a leakdown test which will give you a very good idea of the engine condition however it means the rear PU off out unless the problem is really critical i would leave however a good indy will help you make a balanced decision.there is no doubt if you drive it hard it uses more oil

You know I always say how tight the tollerances are in the engine because they come out so high on compression tests but I've never thought the comment through before. Embarrassing. You are quite right! Post ammended. McBruce that consumption seems pretty high to me. Mine moves 1 block on the digital guage about every 750-1000miles and that is with a LOT of hard driving. I would recommend getting that check sooner rather than later. It's unlikely to be anthing really serious but you may have an oil leak of one of your turbos might be allowing oil through the bearings. How many miles has it done? Congratulations though, how are you enjoying it so far besides this little quibble? Regards, Ben

Divine, I think I was being a doughball. I re-done the test again on my first outing after I posted about the consumption and it had went back up. So perhaps I wasn't on a level surface etc, so its not as bad as I first thought. Its only dropped one bar with a couple hundred miles which seems to be normal. What do you guys recommend service wise? I booked it into a porsche specialist for inspection/service/fluid changes but should I go for dealer service and maintain a OPC service history?

back form the east final oil consumption 2800 miles mostly autobahns speeds average 110 mph varying to 150 bursts and roughly 500 miles town style driving it used only one bar! considering that was driving at a ton plus in 30-40 degree heat for 200 plus mile intervals I am truely impressed with Porsche engineering even had some R8 baiting though the missus did intervene [ ] muttering about my son in the baby seat