Some 80k mile maintenance notes

[the head]

Just wanted to post a few observations after doing my own 80k maintenance.

I posted on another thread the small gray o-rings that sat down in the spark plug access holes. I didn't replace them, but did make sure all the little pieces were out of there (once I knew they existed). I managed to save two. They are some kind of additional seal but most broke when I pulled the coils out. Seeing that the coils seal quite well at the top, I didn't worry about it. I did replace the coil sticks as well, but this may not have been needed.

The top engine mount or torque arm had a bad bushing on the chassis side. I found that when moving it out of the way of the valve cover to get to the spark plug. I had to order it after the fact, but I will mention that replacement of that part considerably helped with engine vibration at idle. Significantly more than replacing the plugs and coils did. The vibration was one of the reasons I replaced the coils this time around, but it was really this mount.

My front diff whine went away with an oil change. I went with a synthetic Motul since I've used their products with great success racing motorcycles. I know it was the diff since I managed to change the oil in the transfer case (Royal Purple here) a week earlier. Interesting to note is that the front diff oil was black and worn. The rear diff oil actually looked pretty good. It wasn't black and didn't feel like water. I think this is earlier than recommended by Porsche to do it now, but I think it helped.

Check your belt like it states to. I took a flashlight and looked from both the top and bottom while changing the oil and it is very cracked. I don't know if this is the original belt but I've had the thing for roughly 40k miles and I never changed it. So with a new one coming in, I'll do what I usually do with the old one - put it somewhere in the vehicle as a spare.

Other than this, things went as expected. No issues changing the HVAC filter and I swapped my EVOMS intakes out to the stock air boxes for the time being. My stock air filters are almost new. And the Durametric reset the service light.

[fluellen]

How did you find that the torque arm bushing was bad? Was it visibly cracked?

[the head]

Yes - basically the inner part was torn from the outer rubber ring. It's really only solid in two places - the rubber is not a complete donut. I'll try to snap a pic.