So I'm reading more into buying a 987 something and was looking at Porsche's website like always. Just stumbled upon their service intervals and found that the Cayman 06 oil, oil filter, and air filter changes were all 20k service intervals. But in 07-08 the intervals changed to 12,000 miles. Anyone know why? Was there a difference in the engines internally that wouldn't allow such spacious intervals?

 

No, Porsche realized that it was just too long an interval - it should be changed at 12k miles or once a year, whichever comes first.

 

Probably the service depts are complaining that they dont make enough $$. So Porsche shorten the service interval

 

They change that figure every 6-12 months just for fun.

Do it every 6000 miles, oil is cheap if you do it away from stealers.

 

They changed the interval because of the amount of ethanol that was being added to fuel. or at least that is what the factory said.

 

Ethanol had only a small part in the decision. Customers would often forget to have their car serviced. Most customers were/are confused about when to bring the car in, so to simplify the system they made it an anual service or every 12,000 miles. The dealers also asked for this since they were seeing their customers less often. Many consumers buy cars while servicing their current Porsche.

O.P. Service should be done every 1 year or 12,000 miles.

 

I read somewhere that they discovered the fuel in North America contained more contaimanents than previously believed. Not sure if its true but maybe check to see if the service intervals in the other models were altered.

 

$220 for my oil change at the stealer. Never again.

 

Let's look at the big picture. Porsche is genius in the way they handle new vehicle introduction. They came out with the Cayman S before the Cayman? Why? Because they knew all eyes would be on the new model, so it made sense to show them the big deal Cayman first. Look at all of the positive press the car received. Brilliant.

It's also important to note that when you introduce a new model you are introducing the whole package, and cost of ownership and environmental impact of the car is a component of that package. So when you introduce a new car, you don't inflate the service recommendation or your car will appear to have a larger environmental impact and higher cost of ownership. So when everyone has their eye on the ball, you show them the 20K mile service interval. Once the excitement has weaned, and no one is watching, you drop the service interval to 12K miles to satisfy your dealer network who's service departments want to see their customers more frequently.

This has been a real issue for me. There are no mechanical difference between the 2006, 2007, or 2008. So which service interval is most accurate? Which should I follow?

My car has seen some hard use. In just my first two weeks of ownership my car had already been on the Nurburgring and the Autobahn, and I was romping it. I dip into the power ever chance I get, and I am not afraid to rev the thing. I've had the car on the track several times and done many long (5-10 hour) trips. I logged 15,000 miles in my first year, and this car is not my daily driver. My use can easily be called severe when compared to the many garage queens that are out there, so I decided to change my oil at 10,000 miles.

To answer the burning question, I took a sample or my oil and sent it to Blackstone labs for analysis. As it turns out, though my oil was rich with new engine assembly contaminants, the health of the oil was outstanding. Viscosity, TBN, flash point and petroleum contaminant levels all indicated that I could have kept on going with that oil for quite some time.

My car just passed 20,000 miles, and I've cracked the drain plug for the second time. Once again, I took a sample. I'm still waiting for the results (just sent it out last week). I suspect it will once again tell me that I pulled the oil out before I needed to.

I suspect that any Cayman that's not seeing severe use can easily go 20,000 miles on the oil. If that were not the case, I'm sure Porsche would send us all a letter telling us to get into the dealer sooner than they had thought. After all, they are footing the warranty on these things. They don't want to pay for any engines they don't need to.