Coils, plugs & belt
 

Posted this over on Rennlist as additional information to a thread about spark plugs. In case any of you are not on the other board and are interested, here's a picture of my plugs, coils and belt after 4yrs/39K miles. Did coolant tank, cap and coolant flush, air and pollen filters, brake fluid flush, cleaned out radiators and throttle body at the same time. Had no problems with the car at all but tend to be pretty anal about maintenance. Looks like it was time for the change!

Pretty extensive maintenance list. We all face this point in ownership eventually. I'm wondering if you noticed any improvement in seat-of-the-pants performance (hopefully you did)? Did your technician say the wear/tear looked normal for the mileage/age or was something found out of wack? Care to reveal what the service cost you in parts/labor?

Hard to say exactly what just the above items cost as I don't have the bill with me, but I also had oil & filter change, mount and balance 4 snow tires, unmount and dispose of the worn out summer tires, 4-wheel alignment and a few other minor things. The tech thought the wear was fairly normal for a car driven year-round in the Northeast. Total bill was ~$3K at a local indy. A big nut but, like you say, we all get to this point eventually. Part of the goal was to establish a good maintenance/service baseline on this new (to me) 997.

I'd like to say there was a small performance improvement afterward but probably on par with how well the car drives after a good detail session ;)

Good move on both!! ......... Plugs, once they start to get a coating on the internal ceramics just do not run well at all (in fact some of those look nasty). And the belt is just something that for the cost, why not! (not only you've got where people look at the external "flat" side for cracks and such, but, the depth of the gooves also wear down and its not realized. (They have a little tooth-pick lookin gauge for that too)

Actually on the plugs.... the left row, middle plug seems to be the only one that looks like its running decent. (although I guess if pulled when just warming up you could get some darker, but honestly those were really in need of a change like you did)......again, good move!

Maintenance is ALWAYS a good thing.I would love to see the costs separated parts/labor.

Good for you for taking care of the car!



Stacy

Thanks for the kudos guys. Will try to itemize if I get the chance. My only regret is not having more time (and warmer temps) to DIY most of it. Oh well, I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities ahead!

Well done! Preventive maintenance is the way to go. Change oil often (yearly or 6k miles, whichever is less).

Thanks adias. I've always changed the oil and filter on all my cars early fall and late spring (equates to ~4-5K miles) and never had any sort of engine problems. Oh boy, now I've jinxed it :rolleyes:

Was the belt change recommended by your shop or just something you wanted to get done? I have an '05 997S with 38k miles. Since the car is 6 years old now, I asked the dealership if I should change the drive belt (per manual). They said they'll inspect it when I come in but it may not need changing yet based on my mileage.

Your belt still looks pretty good, but I'm by no means an expert on this topic - great post and pics!

Belt change was just something I did for the peace of mind. Despite a number of visible cracks, it probably would have lasted for awhile longer but why chance it. It's very cheap and an easy DIY from what I've read.

6K miles for an oil change really? That seems to be kinda low, my Mercedes is a year or 13K miles whenever comes first. Not that it matters b/c I'll probably change it out once a year anyways. I will not get 6K in a year. I barely get 4.5K miles per year on my Benz but I do change the oil once per year.

I also put frequent oil and filter changes in the category of easy and relatively cheap maintenance/insurance. After all the threads on all the boards about RMS/IMS and the thought that frequent oil changes could be of some benefit for these issues, I figure why not spend an hour and a beer or two on a simple project that has only upside (other than to your wallet)?

advice
 

You said you changed your coils and belt, and changed the coolant flush, air & pollen filters, brake fluid flush, cleaned out radiators and throttle body at the same time.

How did you do the flush ? Did you buy a flush, run it for 15 munutes, then drain and refill ? What coolant did you go back with & refill your radiator ?

As far as brake fluid change, did you simply drain and refill ?
What brake fluid did you go back with and refill ?

New coils ? Where did you get them and how much ?

Which belt did you replace ?

Lastly, did you just spray out the throttle body to clean it ? - what spray cleaner did you use.

THKS and PLS advise - JIM in TX

Are coils required maintenance, if so at what mileage/time?
Besides seeing cracks is there a way to see that they are
on the way out?

The coils are not called out in the Porsche service intervals but for the 997 often require replacement about every 5 years. That's how long mine lasted, and a 'Total 911' author had the same experience, stating this seems to be the normal lifespan of our ignition coils given they start to crack at about this age.