Servicing Question

Hi All, I am interested in a 996 and have a question.... If one of the service stamps are from an OPC in France, would you be deterred in any way? or would it effect resale value?...it has full OPC history at 36,000 miles but one stamp is from a French OPC. (They say the previous owner had a holiday home there)... Thanks in advance, Hasan

Shouldn't be an issue. Servicing is reputed to be cheaper in France. However, irrespective of where a car has been serviced, it's the invoices, which show the detail, that are more important.

Judging by the OPC UK standards I would think the French couldn't possibly be any inferior I have a friend who keeps his Boxster in France and the servicing is under half the UK costs and he has never had a single issue with his French OPC

FRENCH OPC Prior to buying my 996, I, too, had a 911 (a 964) which had several French OPC service stamps in the book. It also had all of the bills from the OPC as well. My car's owner had a villa in Menton. Do you have any documentation from the French OPC apart from the stamp in the book ? I also took the 964 into that French OPC ( they were in Cannes) and they remembered the car and showed me it's in house service records. I am driving to France next week in my 996 for a few weeks and have printed out the current list of French OPC's. I also have the same list for previous years. If you let me have the full details of the French OPC I can, at least, confirm their existence etc. Steve Lyden-Brown,

SACRE BLEU[ ] ...but the French know nothing about Porsches and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a 996. I would have it thoroughly checked over, ....check under the seats for Onions and a garlic smell coming out of the exhaust[ ]

My familiy does the same with a UK regestered car kept at there holiday place there. The parts are the same the servicing schedule should be the same so no problem. At least they got it done better than going over on the millage to get back to the UK. phil

I drove my 996 C2 down to the south of France a couple of years ago. On the way one of the wheels lost a balancing weight resulting in lots of steering vibration. So I took it to an OPC near Frejus. They dont get many tourists in there, so it took a lot of franglais and sign language to get the message across, but they could not have been more helpful. Despite turning up out of the blue and with a garage full of Porsches, they helped this strange English bloke there and then and balanced all 4 wheels. The servicing manager then insisted on coming out on a test drive with me to confirm the problem with the vibration was due to balancing (which it was). Now I thought OPCs cost a fortune in the UK, how much is one in the south of France going to be I thought?. They charged me £45 which I didnt think was half bad at all. I dont think I've ever had such service from my UK OPC (except on the sale and pickup of the car). So I think a French stamp in a service book is a very positive thing (although it hurts me to say it) Rgds Mark

Re French OPC Hasan, I didn't mention this yesterday since I didn't want to depress you, but having thought about it, I believe you should now know. At an autojumble recently I found a guy who had a biscuit tin full of OPC stamps. He openly admitted that they had been used to forge many service records. In the 1990's many dealers either lost or gave up their Porsche agencies, so it was very easy for him to buy these stamps from ex employees, or as in many cases, just get the dealers details from the internet or telephone directories and have stamps made up. Several of these stamps showed details of French dealers, who, he maintained, we useful since they were harder to be checked up on. In order to keep these stamps out of the hands of people less upright and honest than me, I agreed to swap some Porsche material I had for them. These stamps make it imperative to also have the invoices and bills to support them..............mind you, if you have a PC and the right bit of software, plus a decent laser printer, even these can be made up, I suppose !? SGLB

Steve, You're a Saint! [ ]

Thanks for all your feedback guys, I'm finding it invaluable in my search [ ] but it turns out that after a more detailed conversation with the dealer selling the car (who know nothing about Porsches by the way) that it hasn't got a full OPC history. It turns out that before the most recent service which was at Porsche in Antibes, it was serviced many times by a so-called specialist in Surrey which I've never heard of....MCN or something??! (The only thing I got off the internet about MCN is Motor Cycle News!!) Anyway, I've found another car with 43k miles and full OPC history from OPC Swindon and OPC Bristol, which I'm seeing on Sunday so fingers crossed.

Hasan, I bet the dealer doesn't know much about Porsches, or else I am sure he'd have probably knocked up a service history on it, given that it is so easy to do one ! But maybe you can turn his ignorance to your advantage ! Assuming the car checks out alright ( and in this instance you'd need to spend a few hundred quid on a qualified engineer's inspection ), than you could surely use the lack of a history on it as a bloody good bargaining counter to get maybe a grand or two off the price. I know that it is said that you should walk away from a Porsche with no history, but if the car checks out alright and you can negotiate a bit of a warranty on it, then I'd be tempted. Insofar as selling it on with no service history, well I still have the stamps and I am sure we can arrange a meet, but bring plenty of cash in used notes ! Nah. I am joking- I'd do it quite cheaply for another Porsche pal ! I am, after all, a Saint !! Steve.

Stamps don't really mean anything. I went into Porsche Reading and they have every minute of data on my 996 logged, audited and documented across the country. And if i were buying an OPC Porsche i would ask for a full print-out irrespective of what the book says. Simon 996 C4

Well if I like the car, I'll be doing the 111 point check at the OPC he uses in Bristol. So I'll ask for that printout too, thanks Simon. Steve, not too sure if you're half serious or whether it's your sense of humour! Wouldn't even entertain buying a car without full OPC history. Apparently this specialist is called 'MCM'. I'm not going to spend £30k on a car thats not got a properly documented history....

Hasan, Sure, there is a lot behind the advice of not buying a Porsche without a service history, but it needn't be cast in stone, and flexibility is a sensible thing to at least have, especially when it comes to buying with a small budget. For example, a pal of mine wanted for donkey's years to buy a Ferrari ( a car where a service history could be said to be even more important ! ) for , but never had much money. We eventually found a 348 offered for sale privately, but with virtually no service history . This was because the present owner had bought it from a self employed lorry driver who put all of his bills/receipts etc. thru' his business expenses and hadn't retained the paperwork . It had very high mileage but ran like a dream and looked bloody good. We bought it without a professional inspection and were able to get nearly 40% knocked off the sale price. Nearly ten years later my pal still has that 348 and it has cost him buggerall to run apart from normal servicing and a respray (which wasn't really necessary ! ). I think it is also worth more now than what he paid for it ! So it can sometimes be smart to buy a car without a service history, although as I said before, it may be tougher to sell it later. Cheers, Steve.

48,000 is a big one - all the normal oil & filter changes + new plugs & belts. The brake fluid should be changed every 2 years also.

So whats the cost of a major service? [ ]

You'll be due a major service. the routine goes minor, major, minor, major unless you do less than 9K per annum in which case it is minor, check, major, check, minor, check, major etc. Its about 550 for the major PLUS 167 for spark plugs, 114 for fuel filter, 27 for polyrib belt and 111 for brake fluid. Less, of course, your 10% (or more) PCGB discount. See http://opc.cmwinteractive.com/servicepricing911996.asp?opc=23

Can you tell OPC not to do the brake fluid or will they insist? I am booked in for new discs, pads and fluid change (all genuine porsche parts) on the Tuesday next week with 911 Sport then the service on the Friday at OPC? Thanks

So does a major service mean Spark plugs too even if they were done 23000 miles ago (it says 36000 on the web link)??

Hi, Sorry to go off topic slightly here but I was told the Porsche Club GB 10% discount was only valid when purchasing parts direct from Reading. I was told this when I took my car in for a service last month and also had a replacement battery fitted. Is this not the case? Gavin

Depends on the OPC - there are no hard and fast rules: http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/fb.asp?m=294912

Thanks Richard, interesting thread. This was OPC Guildford, looks like I might have to travel slighter further away when I get the PSE fitted next month.

Yes, of course, the spark plugs, brake fluid etc are all extras and not part of the major service. As you'll see in the link I sent, the actual mileage for those items depends also on year of manufacture. At my 48,000 mile service I didn't have the brake fluid done as it was done last year at an indi. My polyrib belt had also been done at about 33,000, so that was omitted. I did have an airbag check done, though which was about 22 GBP, which wasn't on any of the lists - seemed a sensible precaution, not that I'm intending to ding it

It's on the Maintenance Schedules in the Technical Artices section (page 2) under Additional Maintenance> Maintenance after 4, 8, 10 then every 2 years O/T - Martin - would you like to join our band of Running Reporters? If so, send an email to Rodney or myself.

The only 'problem' is that in the back of the service book there is a section where the OPC should stamp the Brake fluid change/Date etc. So you will have one missing stamp, unless you got the indi to stamp it...but if you have FPSH it will be a 'flaw' If you go on to sell the car, some people may care ... is it worth the money saved.?...No idea.

Now I am wondering if I should let OPC do the brake fluid on Friday instead of 911 sport on Tuesday so I get the stamp???? But as I am having new discs & pads shouldn't the fluid be done at the same time i.e Tuesday??

If I were you, I would get 911 Sport to change the brake fluid while they are doing the disks and pads. There isn't any reason why they can't stamp the book. I can't see that it would make any difference to a prospective purchaser that it isn't an OPC stamp - not on a 7 year old car, anyway.

I'd ditto Richard. Get the indi to do the brake fluid and stamp the book. Also keep the physical paper invoices to actually prove what work was done, rather than rely on a stamp to the next buyer.

Another quick question - should the Wheels be taken off for a major service???

Yes. The workshop manual says "To check the brake pads, remove the wheels". The Maintenance Schedules are in the 996 Technical Articles section.

Conflicting answer then, Porsche Sheffield have just rung me back and told me no they did not take the wheels off it is a visual inspection and they could see the discs and pads were new. I ask the question as there was a noise from the front drivers side wheel on my car on Saturday morning. I daren't drive it, so this morning I took it round the corner to a local garage who promptly informed me all the nuts were loose on the drivers side front wheel and simply tightened them up by hand in front of my eyes [ ]. So the wheel had been wobbling on the hub thats what the noise was. I am pi$$ed off to say the least.

It makes you wonder where they get their "technicians" trained. They obviously don't go by the book, and to leave the wheel bolts loose is incompetant.

I guess if they could see they were new, then they would not need to measure them. However they obviously have had the wheels off or this wouldn't have happened [ ]

Probably trained at Williams ... remember the time Mansells wheel fell off before he got the end of the pit lane (or am I showing my age) !