As I drive my 966TT daily and expect to ride it about 20000 miles/ year (I just can’t imagine leaving it parked in the garage as I drive a lesser car!), I have been looking around for local maintenance outlets that I can trust and that won’t require a second mortgage to keep this car properly serviced and in tip-top shape (I have no CPO or aftermarket warranty). Needing to have the “big” 30000-mile service done, I have spent several weeks researching my area for a trusted shop. In short, my findings have highlighted that there are primarily three ways to have this car serviced:

1) DIY: get the parts at Pelicanparts.com or similar, and just do it yourself: relatively inexpensive and high on the scale of self-satisfaction/ bonding with the car. The parts and oil for a 30000-mile service run about $250 (+$250 if you also want to replace the ignition coils) But in my case this doesn’t work well as I am just not mechanically inclined – nor do I have the time to devote those projects.

2) Dealer service: not necessarily the most trusted alternative, but they do have access to all parts, TSBs, schematics, know-how, etc. The problem is that they are both expensive and not always inclined to do the most thorough job – as after all their objective is, in general, to get the car in and out as fast as possible. Also, the average quote I got from them for a $30000-mile service was $1500 (without ignition coils).

3) Local specialized shops: somehow (at least where I live) when it comes to independent Porsche service there is more of these to choose from than one would expect. But even in this case quotes for a 30000-mile service span a wide range: they went from $2500 (!) to $1500, to $750 – in all cases without the replacement of the ignition coils. Given the variety of quotes, I set out to investigate each shop’s reputation, and even tried them out (in case of multi-brand German specialist shops) with other cars I own just to see their level of service and trustworthiness. Briefly: more expensive isn’t always better. The shop that quoted $750 ended up doing a super job, while the $2500 shop was manned by a single owner/mechanic with an ego too big to fit inside the small warehouse that housed it.

So, this is what I did for my 30000-mile service: I bought the parts at Pelicanparts.com ($500 including coils) and had the independent shop do the work ($450 for labor including a brake flush). At the same time I had four new Sumitomos installed, balanced and aligned ($900 for parts and labor). Lastly, I had them replace a leaking spoiler lift with one I provided ($370 for labor).

Moral of the story: for less then $2000 I had a major service done, new tires, new alignment, fixed the leaking spoiler mechanism, and other small things for which the shop didn’t even charge me. Ah, and they even gave me a free loaner while the car was in service! I really don’t think that servicing with the same items any upper-market car like Acura or such would have cost any less.

So, if you are on the fence about owning a spectacular piece of machinery like the TT because of potential maintenance costs fret no more: if you research the options in your area you are quite likely to find a solution that won’t cost you more than servicing any other vehicle on the market.

 

whats needed to be done in a 30,000 mile service?

 

Spark plugs (rear bumper and intercoolers need to come off – fairly labor intensive), air filter, cabin filter, oil + filter change, and usual checks.

Usually TT owners find this to be a good time to have ignition coils replaced as well even though they aren’t on the maintenance list.

 

A good tech with small hands can replace plugs without taking off the bumper or intercoolers. I know because I watched them do it on my car.

 

REALLY small hands...

 

If it's possible to do the plugs without taking off the bumper or intercoolers, could you do the coils also?

 

Yup. gotta take coils off the get plugs out...

 

Just changed my plugs and coils - easy to do, just lots of stuff to take off and put back on. Took me about 4.5 hours and as a bonus found a boost leak !

The driver side hose to the I/C input had come partly disconnected and there was gunk on it where it'd been venting. Hadn't noticed any boost issues though.

Did a full oil change at the same time, including draining the turbo's.

All told just over 5 hours plus parts - great sense of job satisfaction and an opportunity to work with and admire some good engineering.

Did the rotors and pads all round about 6 months ago.

This stuff is not hard to do if you have the right tools and don't rush :-)

Gave me the confidence to maybe at some point switch out the turbos.