I just got my 2006 911 S and the dealer said that I needed to change the oil every 20k miles. Is this correct? He said I should do it every year of I used regular unleaded gas, which I didn't think I should ever do. Can someone help confirm the correct oil change schedule for me? Also, is everyone using premium gas in their 997?

 

Most use 91 Octane or higher.

Lots of info on the oil change info here use search.

Porsche changed the interval in 08 (same car) to once per year or 15,000 miles whichever comes sooner. Many including myself change oil more frequently, I do a change about every 6 months and run about 5,000 miles per year.

 

Sure. If you are also the type of guy who gets his wife an birthday present only every 2 years and have survived, maybe your car will too.

Wait no longer than 10,000 miles and more frequently if you live in dusty areas such as farm country or drive your car harder than average, or the majority of driving consists of short trips.

 

++ on that. You'd be suprised how much wear the oil takes even at 3000miles! I do 5000 maximum miles per change.

 

If you plan on tracking your car you may end up changing oil 3-5 times a year..maybe more depending on how many events you do!

 

That's just too long. I wouldn't gamble for the overall low cost of an oil change. Learn to do it yourself and its even cheaper.

 

This subject gets lots of attention on these forums and you're going to get a lot of different answers even from the experts as it really depends on how you drive the car. But for me, I have the dealer change the oil once a year which in my case is about 7 K miles. The car is used around town and on the highway for mostly short hauls. Regardless of how you drive the car, 20 K miles is twice as long as you should go between oil changes based on everything I've read and Porsche's own change of heart to 12 K miles. I'd say 7 to 10 K would be about right but at least once a year.

As for gas, your car is designed to run on premium gas and while it will run on regular gas, the engine will not run at full power as the engine management system will retard the timing to guard against detonation in higher compression engines like ours.(Means the same as when it's used to describe when a bomb explodes, it detonates, and is not a good thing for an automobile engine.) And while in modern engines you don't really have to worry about detonation, I would suggest you stick with 91 Oct or higher to get the full bang for your buck from your engine and to keep it running the way it was designed to run.

 

Just to say that your dealer didn't lie - the Porsche recommended service interval is 20k for an oil change or every year, whichever comes first. Never heard of anyone recommending running regular gas, regardless.

 

The manual for my '06 Carrera S states 20k miles or 2 years, whichever comes first.

 

Must be that X51 package that gives you the extra year . I knew the intervals were 20k, I was only guessing about every year...

 

It was 2 years or 20K miles. Porsche changed the frequency on the 08 cars to 1 yr. or 15K miles, whichever comes first. That would be the recommendation for your car also.

 

on all my cars when new I would do oil change at spring time and when it`s time to get snow tires on.
if you don`t drive your p-car in winter months then most logical time would be to do that oil change before it will rest for the winter. and I would never let car without oil change for more than a year.

 

There is no finite answer that sounds like, 'if you don't change it every x miles, your car will fail in y miles'. People all ask the question as if there is such an answer, but it's a range of probabilities governed by many factors.
In general, most agree that 20K miles seems like a very long time and that something between 5K-8K seems about right - for normal driving conditions and frequencies. No tracking, no city-only, etc.
It is true that with large amounts of synthetic oil such as the configuration in the 997 motor, there is a lot of slack in oil change interval. But most important of all, it is a pricey and high performance car. I don't see the value of finding out the extreme range of the oil change interval. Keep the car topped off with fresh fluids and other wear items (oil/filters/brake fluid/brake pads) and chances are you'll have a better experience with your car. It's a small incremental payment in the context of a pricey experience.

 

I plan on changing the oil twice per year. Not sure if that is overkill or not.

 

oil hould be changed every 5k to be conservative