Self servicing VS Resale

[adean22]

Morning. I purchased my 997.1 C2s about 7 months ago and its done about 7k miles since its last service so id like to service it soon.

I normally do all my own work on my cars as its the only way I can trust that its been done properly. See my readers cars thread for all the work iv done on the car so far: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Every time I do anything to the car I keep all the receipts and take pictures and document the entire process of what I'm doing.

The car has full service history (mixture of main dealer, specialist and the last service was done at a non specialist garage)

The plan is to keep the car for at least the next few years but I'm wondering what would happen value/resale wise if I am to service the car myself.

Would self servicing the car be a big no no for future buyers? I know personally id rather buy a car where the previous owner was meticulous about Maintaining the car
as oppose to someone who just had it sent to their local dealer once a year for a quick checkover.

What are peoples views on this?

[adean22]

Thanks for your replys. Some very good points. Also note the car is pretty much on 100k miles so it's not a pristine immaculate low milage car that would attract the more "picky" buyer.

[adean22]

Thanks for all the thoughts and opinions.

I think the most sensible thing for me to do is to get the services done by a Porsche specialist/ OPC.

Just slightly paranoid as when the car was in a garage to change the gearbox oil for the last service with the last owner they overfilled the gearbox (as shown in my thread on the car: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... I also don't let the car out my sight and the only person who works on it is myself - its the only way I know everything has been done correctly.

I live near to Unique Porsche Specialists and Hartech which is pretty fortunate so I'll probably be using one of them. I also work near an OPC but I think I would trust a specialist more.

The service intervals are 20k miles which is ridiculous and probably a huge cause of the bad reputation these engines get.

So one idea is to get it serviced at a specialist every 20k interval to keep the service history, but then service it myself every 5-10k miles. So every 3/4th service would be done at a specialist with a stamp in the book.

I guess this way it would keep the full service history?

Any opinions on this approach would be much appreciated

NOTE: The car will do/does 10-15k miles a year so it would never go more than 2 years without a stamp in the book if i was to take this possible approach to servicing.

Edited by adean22 on Friday 27th May 13:05

[adean22]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I forgot to say that the car will do about 10-15k miles a year, so the 20k service by the garage (if I go this route) would be done every 1.5 to 2 years. My own services would be done every 6-9 months

[adean22]

esotericar said:

The 20k official interval is too long. It's only 20k to allow Porsche Europe to posture re sustainability. In the US where looking sustainable has historically been less important they only briefly moved the interval to 20k before moving back to more sensible 10k intervals.

On a relatively high reving sports car engine, 10k is the absolute maximum I'd be comfortable with. Viscosity of the oil has changed dramatically by that point. Running to 20k would be like putting oil in that's absolutely miles out of spec and running it for 10k. Probably not an issue in the short to medium term, but likely will limit long term engine life.

I think the 20k intervals are probably why bore scoring on M97 lumps seemed to become a really widespread issue here before it became quite such a big thing in the US. It's pretty bad in the US, too, now, but anecdotally, it was epidemic here before it became seen as a major worry in the US. Suspect that is down to the ridiculous 20k service intervals here.

I completely agree with you. As mentioned I wouldn't dream of going past 10k between a service. I normally change my cars oil between 5-8k miles, iv done about 6.5k in the 911 since last service so that's why this thread was started so I could discuss the possible options and get peoples opinions on it.

[adean22]

In the end I ended up doing the major service myself - I had a free weekend and I had an urge to work on the car so I ordered spark plugs, millers 10w50, brake fluid, all filters and a new exhaust system and cracked on with it. Iv got every receipt and many detailed photos.

Iv probably just devalued the car but I had a great weekend in the process, iv learnt loads about the car and I know everything was done properly.

To go with my own service records i am fetching the car to a highly regarded local specialist to have them check it over and read over revs etc - this should go with my own service records and show that i did get a professional to look over the car and the work i did - they may even find things that need doing on the car, in which case ill crack on with doing them aswell.