Oil change advice

Hi, It's a long time since I've carried out an oil change myself on any car but I'm wondering if I should do it myself on my 50k mile 2003 C4. I've spent time browsing the forum & elsewhere. Plenty of people suggest changing the oil every 5/6k miles which is much more frequent than my previous cars (where I just waited for the indicator to flag it up). I want to look after my 911 properly so if oil changes are to be more regular doing it myself might be more convenient & save money. I don't need to change it for another 4/5k miles but having looked underneath I don't think there clearance to crawl under - so my question is: how do I do this properly ie. raise the car on the level. It's compounded by the problem of having a gravel/pebble drive. Do I need a set of ramps or a couple of trolley jacks (but then the car isn't level). Or am I best taking just taking time out and taking the car to a Porsche indy & getting it done properly. It'll cost more and end up being a 2-3hr job if that's the case. Thanks again in advance for advice. Paul

You will need the car to be jacked up and on stands .. there simply isn't room otherwise . You will need a drain tub that holds upto 10 ltrs .. you will get about 8 - 8.5 out after a long drain .. in other words leave it for 30 mins to drain out . refill with 7.5 ltrs after a 30 min drain then run up to temp and check / top up as needed . I would go with 5/40 mobil one . It doesn't need changing at 4-5 k miles though .. min for me would be 10 k . oil is far better these days than it used to be .. hence the longer service intervals .. your choice though .

Thanks Iain, If it's every 10k I can just run with regular servicing & save myself the cost of jack, stands, drain tub etc. Think I might go with that for now. I've driven around 1700 miles since I got the car a couple of months ago and have just put half a litre of oil in yesterday. Is that pretty normal?

I jack my cars up at the rear and drop the wheels onto 8" cinder blocks, it`s easy to get underneath and drain the oil then and completely safe with the handbrake on and in 1st gear :thumb: My drive is block paved but on an angle, so it ends up being level when on the blocks :grin: If your drive is gravel you may be better off with bits of railway sleeper as that would level out better on gravel.

What mileage and engine is it? I've had a 3.4 C2 since October which is around 65k miles and hasn't used one drop of oil and I must be approaching a 1,000 miles now.

2003, 3.6 with 51,500 miles

I've done less than 1000 miles in my 3.6 C4S and had to put in 400ml / half a litre. No smoke or any signs of burning oil - and it is due an oil change. 114k miles. It's on 0w40 Mobil 1. It's got a really small oil leak, but it's not leaving any drips under the car.

No 2 cars are the same when it comes to oil usage . An Aos can allow more oil than normal to enter the inlet manifold and thus get burnt without showing any symptoms . Oil grade also makes a difference . Above 50k miles and i would recommend 5/40 . When changing the oil filter then always look in the plastic canister .. any engine problems and the early signs are metal fragments in the bottom of this .

Drain plud Ive just done mine and at the same time changed the sump plug for a magnetic one. Mine had been lowered so needed to purchase an ultra low profile jack to get the thing of the ground.

You can do it without lifting if you have a suitable drain pan just shallow enough to slide under. Check it holds 8 litres first!

You are indeed a masochist to put yourself through pain and suffering to do an oil and filter change this way Hats off to you there though !