Oil Temp Gauge and DIY Oil Changes under Warranty

[Mr. D-987 S]

Hello all. I just purchased a '05 Boxster S...my first Porsche...with only 5800 miles this past June and had a couple questions. I have been reading the forums for a few weeks now but this is my first post.

First, I am looking for information on adding an oil temperature gauge to the Boxster. This is one thing I miss that my A4 has. I did a quick search but didn't come up with anything. I would prefer something hidden or stock looking. I'd like to avoid a pillar gauge pod. Any suggestions?

Second, I prefer to do my own oil changes. Paying $250 for something as simple as an oil change doesn't sound very appealing plus I enjoy doing my own maintenance. I was concerned about doing my own oil changes while under warranty. My Boxster is CPO and under warranty for another few years. From what I understand, the dealer can't force you to get service done at the dealer in order to honor the warranty? I keep all of my receipts and log all of my maintenance into a spreadsheet. Am I going to have a problem with a warranty claim if I'm doing my own oil changes? Also, I'm not sure what other maintenance is performed. Can someone point me to an on line source listing the maintenance intervals?

I look forward to your responses. Thanks a lot!

[Mr. D-987 S]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

[Westcoaster]

I can't comment on the idea of non-Porsche service invalidating the warranty, but to my mind what makes sense is to have the minor and major services done by the dealer, unless there is some extenuating circumstance they would have to stand behind their product should something go wrong during the warranty period. I just had the minor service done on my 2006 at the dealer (2 years, 24000km), they performed all of the normal checks and pronounced it all good, yes it was very expensive considering what they actually did but at least they have definitive record that there are/were no issues.

Having said that I do not wait that long to change the oil/filter, that I do myself at the 1 year interval, I use Porsche approved oil (Mobil 1 0w-40) and buy a Porsche oil filter.

[Loren]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

The checklist have been available here also (for quite some time).

Maintenance Schedules Menu

[Mr. D-987 S]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

The checklist have been available here also (for quite some time).

Maintenance Schedules Menu

Hi, thanks. Yes I saw that but when I clicked on it earlier, it said I had to be a contributing member. Which, of course, I'm not yet.

[Mr. D-987 S]

I can't comment on the idea of non-Porsche service invalidating the warranty, but to my mind what makes sense is to have the minor and major services done by the dealer, unless there is some extenuating circumstance they would have to stand behind their product should something go wrong during the warranty period. I just had the minor service done on my 2006 at the dealer (2 years, 24000km), they performed all of the normal checks and pronounced it all good, yes it was very expensive considering what they actually did but at least they have definitive record that there are/were no issues.

Having said that I do not wait that long to change the oil/filter, that I do myself at the 1 year interval, I use Porsche approved oil (Mobil 1 0w-40) and buy a Porsche oil filter.

Thanks for the comments. I think that's a good idea, to have the minor and major services done at the dealer. I need to call them and find out when the last one was done. I'm not sure if the dealer did that before I bought it, although they did change the oil. I'll probably stick with the once a year oil changes, too.

Thanks, again...

[Loren]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

The checklist have been available here also (for quite some time).

Maintenance Schedules Menu

Hi, thanks. Yes I saw that but when I clicked on it earlier, it said I had to be a contributing member. Which, of course, I'm not yet.

That was an error and has been changed - all members can download maintenance schedules.

[Mr. D-987 S]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

The checklist have been available here also (for quite some time).

Maintenance Schedules Menu

Hi, thanks. Yes I saw that but when I clicked on it earlier, it said I had to be a contributing member. Which, of course, I'm not yet.

That was an error and has been changed - all members can download maintenance schedules.

Thanks, Loren

[paulv]

I found PDF's with the Maintenance intervals on Porsche's website, which is nice.

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/defa...iletype=default

20,000 mile oil change? I had heard 15k prior to purchasing it. I get an oil analysis done every oil change. We'll see how it holds up. I change my Audi every 8-9k which ends up being about once a year or 11 months. It holds up fine, with 3-4 make-up quarts. :-p

Glad to hear of another Porsche owner that does used oil analyses. I drained my factory fill at ~7500 miles and the next oil change was at ~17000 miles (was supposed to be at 15000 miles, but I was busy). The oil at 17000 miles (with ~9400 miles on it) had a 2.58% fuel dilution measurement on it (should be <2%), so I won't be going past 7500 oil change intervals regardless of what the factory recommends. I did this back in mid-August and posted the analysis here so you can do a quick search for it.

It will be interesting to see how much fuel dilution the new models have with their direct fuel injection systems!

BTW, the only thing I don't like about the Boxster is the lack of an oil temp/pressure gauge. You may be able to rig up something to read the oil temp because the DME has oil temp as an input (I can read it with the Durametric tool).

Regards,

paul...

Edited October 29, 2008 by paulv

[Mr. D-987 S]

Glad to hear of another Porsche owner that does used oil analyses. I drained my factory fill at ~7500 miles and the next oil change was at ~17000 miles (was supposed to be at 15000 miles, but I was busy). The oil at 17000 miles (with ~9400 miles on it) had a 2.58% fuel dilution measurement on it (should be <2%), so I won't be going past 7500 oil change intervals regardless of what the factory recommends. I did this back in mid-August and posted the analysis here so you can do a quick search for it.

It will be interesting to see how much fuel dilution the new models have with their direct fuel injection systems!

BTW, the only thing I don't like about the Boxster is the lack of an oil temp/pressure gauge. You may be able to rig up something to read the oil temp because the DME has oil temp as an input (I can read it with the Durametric tool).

Regards,

paul...

Thanks for the comments. One thing about fuel dilution...and you probably already know this...but they recommend you get your sample when your oil is hot after a drive. Your fuel dilution numbers will be higher if you take a cold sample.

I think it might be a good idea to utilize the area in front of the shifter (the "cubby hole") for a couple of small analog gauges, if I can find any that small. I don't use that anyway. I am going to search some more to see what I can find. I was hoping to get some advice from some other Porsche owners that have done this already. I especially miss the oil temp for auto-x.

When I get my first oil change...which won't be until sometime next year...I'll post up the results.

Thanks, again,

-Michael

[paulv]

Glad to hear of another Porsche owner that does used oil analyses. I drained my factory fill at ~7500 miles and the next oil change was at ~17000 miles (was supposed to be at 15000 miles, but I was busy). The oil at 17000 miles (with ~9400 miles on it) had a 2.58% fuel dilution measurement on it (should be <2%), so I won't be going past 7500 oil change intervals regardless of what the factory recommends. I did this back in mid-August and posted the analysis here so you can do a quick search for it.

It will be interesting to see how much fuel dilution the new models have with their direct fuel injection systems!

BTW, the only thing I don't like about the Boxster is the lack of an oil temp/pressure gauge. You may be able to rig up something to read the oil temp because the DME has oil temp as an input (I can read it with the Durametric tool).

Regards,

paul...

Thanks for the comments. One thing about fuel dilution...and you probably already know this...but they recommend you get your sample when your oil is hot after a drive. Your fuel dilution numbers will be higher if you take a cold sample.

I think it might be a good idea to utilize the area in front of the shifter (the "cubby hole") for a couple of small analog gauges, if I can find any that small. I don't use that anyway. I am going to search some more to see what I can find. I was hoping to get some advice from some other Porsche owners that have done this already. I especially miss the oil temp for auto-x.

When I get my first oil change...which won't be until sometime next year...I'll post up the results.

Thanks, again,

-Michael

Yes, I always take the car out on the highway and give it a good run -- gets rid of the fuel and water in the oil so I don't get inaccurate analyses. If enough people did UOA's, we could probably talk Loren into setting up a dedicated section on the forum.

I have read elsewhere that some Boxster owners buy used Carrera instrument clusters off eBay and install them to gain the oil gauges.

Regards,

paul...

[Loren]

Glad to hear of another Porsche owner that does used oil analyses. I drained my factory fill at ~7500 miles and the next oil change was at ~17000 miles (was supposed to be at 15000 miles, but I was busy). The oil at 17000 miles (with ~9400 miles on it) had a 2.58% fuel dilution measurement on it (should be <2%), so I won't be going past 7500 oil change intervals regardless of what the factory recommends. I did this back in mid-August and posted the analysis here so you can do a quick search for it.

It will be interesting to see how much fuel dilution the new models have with their direct fuel injection systems!

BTW, the only thing I don't like about the Boxster is the lack of an oil temp/pressure gauge. You may be able to rig up something to read the oil temp because the DME has oil temp as an input (I can read it with the Durametric tool).

Regards,

paul...

Thanks for the comments. One thing about fuel dilution...and you probably already know this...but they recommend you get your sample when your oil is hot after a drive. Your fuel dilution numbers will be higher if you take a cold sample.

I think it might be a good idea to utilize the area in front of the shifter (the "cubby hole") for a couple of small analog gauges, if I can find any that small. I don't use that anyway. I am going to search some more to see what I can find. I was hoping to get some advice from some other Porsche owners that have done this already. I especially miss the oil temp for auto-x.

When I get my first oil change...which won't be until sometime next year...I'll post up the results.

Thanks, again,

-Michael

Yes, I always take the car out on the highway and give it a good run -- gets rid of the fuel and water in the oil so I don't get inaccurate analyses. If enough people did UOA's, we could probably talk Loren into setting up a dedicated section on the forum.

I have read elsewhere that some Boxster owners buy used Carrera instrument clusters off eBay and install them to gain the oil gauges.

Regards,

paul...

Carrera Instrument Cluster Transplant To Boxster

[Mr. D-987 S]

Glad to hear of another Porsche owner that does used oil analyses. I drained my factory fill at ~7500 miles and the next oil change was at ~17000 miles (was supposed to be at 15000 miles, but I was busy). The oil at 17000 miles (with ~9400 miles on it) had a 2.58% fuel dilution measurement on it (should be <2%), so I won't be going past 7500 oil change intervals regardless of what the factory recommends. I did this back in mid-August and posted the analysis here so you can do a quick search for it.

It will be interesting to see how much fuel dilution the new models have with their direct fuel injection systems!

BTW, the only thing I don't like about the Boxster is the lack of an oil temp/pressure gauge. You may be able to rig up something to read the oil temp because the DME has oil temp as an input (I can read it with the Durametric tool).

Regards,

paul...

Thanks for the comments. One thing about fuel dilution...and you probably already know this...but they recommend you get your sample when your oil is hot after a drive. Your fuel dilution numbers will be higher if you take a cold sample.

I think it might be a good idea to utilize the area in front of the shifter (the "cubby hole") for a couple of small analog gauges, if I can find any that small. I don't use that anyway. I am going to search some more to see what I can find. I was hoping to get some advice from some other Porsche owners that have done this already. I especially miss the oil temp for auto-x.

When I get my first oil change...which won't be until sometime next year...I'll post up the results.

Thanks, again,

-Michael

Yes, I always take the car out on the highway and give it a good run -- gets rid of the fuel and water in the oil so I don't get inaccurate analyses. If enough people did UOA's, we could probably talk Loren into setting up a dedicated section on the forum.

I have read elsewhere that some Boxster owners buy used Carrera instrument clusters off eBay and install them to gain the oil gauges.

Regards,

paul...

Carrera Instrument Cluster Transplant To Boxster

Thanks for the link, Loren. Most of the post deals with the 986 Boxster but someone did ask about a 987. Unfortunatley, it looks like it is not possible to install a 997 cluster into a 987. I'm going to continue looking around for ideas.

Thanks, guys.

[Loren]

Unfortunatley, it looks like it is not possible to install a 997 cluster into a 987.

Sorry, my point was that folks didn't know it could be done a 986 until they tried.