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YOUR RESEARCH996 owners with 30,000+ miles - come in!
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custom order color
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3) change myself, one of the easiest cars I have every changed oil on.
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In the past, at my annual mileage, I've changed oil annually.
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I was thinking the same thing--heck, I've never even changed my oil yet, but when I finally do, I'll be doing the following:
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Rennlist: 1 discussions
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A few questions for you guys:
1. How often do you get your oil change? Mileage/length of time.
2. What kind of oil do you use? Brand / Viscousity (<--spell?)
3. Do you do it yourself or do you take it to the dealership?
I don't drive my car enough to justify getting it done more than once per year...but I think I should do it once a year regardless of the mileage...right?
Mileage: dealer service every 15k, which is about every 8 months. If I feel like I've been mistreating the car, I get a change between services at an independent.
39K
1. Once a year or roughly every 9K
2. 0-40 Mobil 1
3. Dealer for everything so far. But since the warranty is over now, I'll be taking it to an indy.
1. 10,000 miles/ every 6 months but change filter everytime. (have over 100,000 miles and oil is a dark brown, never burnt black at change, light brown when new)
2. Mobil 0W-40, 15W-50 in hot summers
(been thinking of Royal Purple or Amsoil)
3. Myself, low rise ramps from Autozone make it a breeze
104,000 miles
1. ~5000 miles
2. Mobile 1
3. Local Shop (All German Auto in Escondido)
I believe you are right - you should get it changed once a year even if it's not being driven a lot. I'm pretty sure the oil starts to "go bad" after a period of time.
35K on car.
1. Just got the car and haven't done it yet, but expect it will be 7.5k intervals or whenever I have it on jacks.
2. Mobil 1 0-40.
3. DIY, see 1 above.
2,488 (yeah, stop laughing)
1. Annually or every 600 miles (whichever comes first)
2. Mobil 1 (0-40)
3. Dealer (they need a laugh every now and then, too!)
1. Every 5k
2. 0-40 Mobil 1
3. Do it myself... Except for major work I do pretty much all the work myself. Savings in not paying a technician $100+ an hour ends up paying for upgrades, tools, etc. In fact this weekend will be installing a new clutch and lightweight flywheel. Savings on labor paid for almost all the cost of the flywheel
41K miles (bought the car in June with 35K)
changed at 40k miles (5K into ownership...but may extend that based upon posts here)
0W-40
DIY with lift in the garage and a nice large oil basin with 5 foot extended neck and large base on top
J
43,000 miles (purchased w/ 32,000 miles)
Changed annually (~6,000 miles)
Tried German Castrol 5W30 for 5,000 miles, now trying Renewable Lubricants Inc. 5W40 HD
DIY
Phil, stop it! JUST STOP IT!!! You're killing me!
I have been sitting here for the last three minutes laughing so hard that tears were welling up in my eyes and I couldn't see the keyboard or screen clearly enough to type the response. OK, now I'm ready.
Of all the threads ever started on Rennlist this is probably the last thread you should participate in. 2,488 total miles driven and you are commenting on the frequency of oil changes? That's like the Pope telling us how many times per month that he has sex! It's guys like you and the Pope that distort the averages!
(OK, guys, the reference to the Pope was just an analogy, nothing more)
Let's see here, on a 15,000 mile oil change completed by the dealer for $180, the average Porsche enthusiast spends 1.2� per mile on oil. Your 600 mile oil change costs you 30� per mile. Or stated another way, you get 67 miles per quart of oil while the rest of us get 1,667 miles per quart of oil.
Phil, I've gotta hand it to ya, if nothing else, you are relentless in your unwillingness to drive your C4S. Now go out to the garage and say hi to your car!
Yeah, I don't understand why in the world someone would buy a Porsche and be afraid to drive it, or never have the urge to drive it. If buying a car for the purpose of staring at it and telling people that you own it, then I would think a Ferrari would be a better choice. I think it's really wierd, especially since he seems to be proud of it.
Thought you'd get a kick out of my last post! You know, when I do drive it
I really appreciate how damn fun it really is, what a great car it is, and I remember why I bought it in the first place. I realize that driving it like I do is a sickness that medicine may find a cure for - hopefully in my lifetime.
BTW, I'm not going near the Pope analogy.
Yeah, he backs it out of the garage, then truns off the car and for the next 45 minutes sits in the car and makes vroooomm noises. Then he starts up the car and pulls it back into the garage. The only time it gets on a public street is when he needs to get it instected, and for his annual 600 mile oil change.
Not really, it shouldn't make a difference how many track events that you do.
It's a synthetic oil, it's designed and tested to withstand the stresses of high performance use. It will not degrade because you do a few track events. Synthetic oil is very durable.
I know you've got an S4 on order (didn't you get it already?), but I have a dumb question: since you do put so few miles on your weekend P-car, wouldn't it make more sense to spend the money on say, an RS4 for your daily driver and trade the 911 for a cheaper/older model, like a MY99 or MY00?
I only ask because it would drive me nuts to know that I could have the "same" Porsche in my garage for a lot less money than what yours probably cost, while I'm [presumably] driving around in less car than I could be for from Monday to Friday.
Not a slam on you or anything, just curious. I can't say that you're "wrong" to do what you're doing, but I'd probably make the S4 my weekend/family car and drive the 911 during the week.
I was thinking the same thing--heck, I've never even changed my oil yet, but when I finally do, I'll be doing the following:
1) Every 15k miles or 2 years
2) Whatever oil Porsche recommends
3) Who cares? It's not like changing oil is rocket surgery...
Maybe I'll even do it myself...who knows?
The S4 is now due in on 12/3 - finally got a VIN. Delay was due to custom order color. I had a B6 S4 which I tried to use as a weekend car, but decided that the Porsche made more sense for that role. The S4 will get the day-to-day duties - an RS4 for me anyway, is just not worth the extra $15K - $18K. I still really do enjoy both owning a pristine Porsche, and using it for limited weekend fun driving. I know you're not making judgments here, and having a brother with 2 vintage Ferraris sitting in his garage, I'm still the "sane" one in my family
Oil Analysis shows differently.
On the 996 I sent my last 5000 mile oil sample to Blackstone labs and they did suggest that I could stretch my oil change interval if I wanted...but suggested going up in only 500-1000 mile increments and then re-evaluating because I do track my car some.
In my research most mobile 1 users that are using it purely in track cars are getting around 15 hours out of their oil before it degrades. Again, this is based off of oil analysis.
Knowing this...it's cheap insurance and peace of mind for me to change at 5000 miles with the way that I use the car.
However, I do believe that in a street-only car that modern oils can go 7500+??? miles without a concern on quality oil. The best way to know is to pick an interval that you're comfortable with, send the oil off to Blackstone and pay them a small fee for peace of mind and their suggestion on oil change interval based on actual analysis.
Andy
I cannot argue with data on a car that is tracked, but I can say that if my car is good on the street with 15K between changes, then that's good enough for me.
hey audi, i wouldn't buy a car where the oil's been changed every 15K miles whether it's tracked or not - in fact i switch it up every 5K for PEACE OF MIND (i admit it).
so stated, i really wouldn't lean on "blackstone" labs "analysis" of oil as some sort of credible benchmark to determine whether oil is good or bad based on their results.
i've seen their results and it's good bathroom reading. what they don't provide are the actual consequences and real life results from running oil "too long" - no real world experiments. too costly. no one has the time and they're already able to pull in the $$$ from people who like numbers and data.
i'm sure they do good work and all and they should cuz they're making mad dough.
The reason Americans change oil so often is that they pay 5 times less for a quart of Mobil 1 than you do. The reason they want their tires to last so long is that they only get them about 25% less than you so to equal out the cost they have to last longer.
Speak for yourself! I don't regard an oil change as inexpensive compared to my other cars. The oil and car have a spec of 15K, so you change them at 15K. The tires have a spec and I expect them to live up to it.
Put me in the 'fool' category.
I change mine twice yearly, spring and fall, which is about four times as often as Porsche recommends for the mileage I do. Why? Because the normal intervals are for 'normal' use, as opposed to 'severe use'. The latter includes heavy traffic, dusty urban air, and short trips. Guess what three quarters of my driving is like? Every contaminant an engine takes in ends up in the oil. On lightly driven cars, so does water. It's cheap insurance.
I also do not do my own maintenance. I'm one of those guys who uses his money to buy back his time (I seem to recall this was offensive to some, but whatev'...). Frequent oil changes means someone who knows what they're doing is frequently under my car, keeping an eye on things. Peace of mind for me. Cheaper than a coke habit.
I change mine early because the oil isn't exactly at it's "best" at 15,000miles. So what happens at 15,001? Is the oil suddenly bad at that point, but all miles before than it's perfect? The oil is going to slowly degrade with mileage, as we all know, so why not keep it nice and fresh?
