Maintenance Cost Check

OK, just got the bill back for my new to me 2001 C4, Triptronic. The car has 56,000 miles on her, came with all records since new. By the looks of it, she didn't see very much "in-depth" preventive maintenance by the two previous owners. When I purchased the car, we put it up on the lift and pulled the filter and cut it open. She did show metal particles in the filter, which was a known issue disclosed by the seller and noted during the previous oil change at the INDY. So, before I drove it home, I decided to do the IMSB and while the motor was out, I had everything else addressed that would require the motor to be out. IT HURT ($$$$)!! Work done was motor scoped (all good, no bore scoring), an LN replacement IMSB (got it just in time), RMS, AOS (stock, will not be tracking the car), coils (crumbled), plugs, tubes, water pump and stat, coolant reservoir, all 4 rear axle CV boots, differential output shaft seal, trans service and filter, drive belt, oil and filter change, two coolant hoses and misc seals and clamps (I am sure I am missing a small part or two). Everything was gone over and if it even looked suspect, it was replaced. Parts came to $2559.64 and labor was $5092.50 for a final bill of $7652.14. After reading several threads on here and elsewhere concerning maintenance and costs, I was wondering if the bill seems a bit lofty for an INDY shop? There was a lot of work done and this is my first Porsche, so I am not sure if this cost is tracking with the "norm" out there in the rest of the country. Also, there were some anomalies when they dropped the engine and during all the work. The last time the motor was out was at a Porsche dealer in the Boston area back in Jan of 2007. I was there when the motor was dropped this time and it appears that during that previous drop the dealers tech snapped the top bolt holding the engine and trans together. This required drilling out (carefully) and tapping the hole. It was time consuming. There were also a few other "stubborn" areas during all the maintenance that slowed things down a bit. All in all, the INDY shop was meticulous. They even cleaned all the grounds and reattached). I guess I am just suffering from a bit of sticker shock. I am picking up the car Monday and will be driving it for the first time since I bought it 6 weeks ago (except for a test drive). I think that knowing what things are costing is helpful to everyone (as many of us don't have unlimited resources), so we can all benchmark the price to purchase and keep our 996's going. Yes, costs will vary from place to place, but they should deviate much. I will start another thread on the car and start with what I went through during my purchase. At least, I am hoping, I won't have to drop the motor again for quite a while........I hope.

In 2018, I had the solution installed at an indy. Plus AOS, RMS, water pump, clutch, flywheel. Was about $8G canadian ~ $6G US. So, with an automatic, engine out more labour. i would say you are in the ballpark.

Sounds about right to me for an Indy shop.

OP - Book rate for engine r/r alone is 10 hrs for manual transmission. If your shop’s hour rate is $150, the labor number is about right for the 30-ish hours of work.

That is fair for the amount if work.

I appreciate the feedback. I guess I don't feel so bad now. It was a fair amount of work, but I am used to VW prices, so it was a bit of a shock !

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You have addressed the really true big ticket items on these cars, but I advise to either get used to big bills -or- do a lot of work yourself. If you go the latter route you can save an absolute fortune on repair bills, and and a lot of things that go wrong on these cars is a relatively easy fix, even for the basic shade tree mechanic.

Yep these cars make crappy mechanics out of all of us. (Though some people came here to begin with as very good mechanics and you need to listen to those people.) Welcome to the jungle - lots of support here. Nothing to be afraid of.

Dropping the engine definitely added to the cost but because you had much of the big stuff addressed everything else should be quite DIY friendly moving forward. Working on these cars is not as hard as some make it out to be. If you have some mechanical skill, decent tools and patience you will be just fine. Stuff like oil and transmission fluid are super easy on these cars. I've installed a set of coilovers with nothing but hand tools and few specialty tools rented for free from Auto Zone. There is a lot of potential to save a few bucks on labor if you want to. Now drive it and enjoy the car!

Welcome to the 996 Club. You will truly enjoy it. Looks like you got the big stuff done. It was a big cost and looks to be fair. Your next step is to figure out what wasn't done and develop a service rotation where you can do a few things at a time either by yourself if you have the skills, or by an Indy. I don't have the skills so I have used an Indy for nearly two decades. The key to keeping costs under control is to group projects together that are intertwined. So if your Indy has to do something for you, you can have them do a "by the way since you are already in there, can you also do this" . You get the idea. It keeps hours much lower. Takes a little thinking on your part, but very doable. Get yourself the book, the essential companion for the 996. You can find it on Amazon. It will tell you what you need to know about the 996; read the posts on Rennlist and ask questions, and watch all the PCA and revision videos you can on YuTube where FSI and LN discuss topics. Most importantly, keep your head on straight as you research issues with the car. Every issue has a well thought out solution, so no need to lose any sleep. Enjoy it!

So there was metal in the oil filter and sump but the mechanic caught it �just in time�... Did they determine where the Metal came from? Was it ferrous? Did they say? Sorry, for being skeptical but this is not how it works (just put some new parts in there and everything will be ok). BTW, the $7k for the work that was documented is not way out of line - What concerns me is whether there�s more metal (which was clearly suspended in your oil) floating around inside your engine??? Uh... yeah...

Yeah, like I said, every issue has a solution or at least some medicine. You do want to figure out what's in your oil. The Indy may have found some clues, or not. You can find out by testing your oil once or twice a year. Oil testing gets tricky because you want to have enough miles on the oil to get a viable read, as well as you want to change your oil at least 2x a year to keep it fresh. Before winter and in the spring. Fresh oil is the lifeblood of the engine. So put on 1-2k miles and then test your oil to establish a base. And then keep testing it to see what in there and any changes. Since your bores are good, you have one less issue to worry about. But it is a 19 year old engine. No need to worry, but do pay attention.

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No, it was not put new parts in and move on. Motor was scoped and pan was removed. No metal in the sump, just in the filter Not a lot, but enough to cause me some concern. Yes, it was steel. The IMSB was definitely failing and will now occupy a space on my desk as a nice paperweight.

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No metal in the sump is good. Do you have a magnetic drain plug on it? If not you should get one ASAP - this will give you some idea of what�s going on simply by doing an oil change (which you can easily do yourself without the lofty Indy prices). My rec would be to do one in 1000 miles or so and check the filter too... Good Luck

Yes, it had one in there and the amount of metal on it was minimal, same as the filter. Bearing was beat, seal was gone and was headed to failure. Car is on it's 2nd oil change in 1500 miles and I had planned on one, like you mention, in another 1000. Hopefully everything will be clear by then.

Seems reasonable for all that work. You had a lot done and usually the IMS/RMS, AOS, clutch, oil change is around 4k +/- a few bucks depending on the shop. You had a lot more than that done.