Parts for Porsche

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Parts for Porsche cars aren’t expensive and aren’t difficult to fit, especially the routine service items. Routine servicing and filter changing is no different to any other car. But when was the last time you changed the oil on your Stuttgart express? Do you have any idea what sort of long term damage you could be causing to the most expensive part of your car, the Porsche engine?

It goes without saying that all vehicles should always be regularly serviced. The Porsche recommended service interval for your 944/924S is 12,000 miles (20,000 km) or once every 12 months (which ever comes soonest). A more modern Boxster or 997 has a recommended service interval of 20,000 miles or every 24 months. But why do Porsche insist on these services regardless of mileage?

Well, the answer to that is simple. Repeatedly starting the engine (any engine – this isn’t specific to Porsche) from cold for a short journey can be very detrimental to the engine, particularly the oil. The reasons being are as follows.

To start an engine from cold requires large quantities of fuel when compared to normal warm engine running conditions. Because the engine is cold, not all of it gets vapourised and combusted. The surplus fuel puddles and collects on the back of the valves or simply lines the bores. The liquid fuel can then migrate down the cylinder bores, washing away any oil that the piston rings have put there eventually ending up in the crank case and sump mixing with the oil. This dilutes all of the oil’s performance qualities including the most important lubrication and cooling properties.

Once the oil warms up, the fuel evapourates out of the oil and via the network of breather hoses, gets reintroduced into the combustion chamber where it is burnt normally. If the oil never warms up properly and the short journey has come to its end, the fuel remains suspended in the oil. Multiple cold starts later and the oil still continues to be diluted and in ever larger proportions. It becomes a vicious circle. Have you ever done an oil change on your Porsche in the past and wondered why there was a strong smell of petrol when you drained the oil? Well this is why. It smells of petrol because there is petrol present in the oil!

All you need are basic tools and some time. An oil and filter change can be easily be done on a Saturday morning before any of the other weekend chores that have been assigned. You’ll need a little longer if you’re also changing the spark plugs or the fuel filter.

If you really want to bring a smile to your face, just compare how much you have saved. £40-£50 worth of parts fitted yourself compared to say £150 the cheapest independent Porsche service specialist would charge for parts and loabour. It would be even more even more if you go to the main dealer. This leaves you with a minimum £100 saving and that equates to almost two tanks of fuel and miles of motoring pleasure. I know where I’d be spending my money!

We’ve always found the mail order service that FrazerPart offer outstanding. They stock parts for Porsche cars and this includes service kits. They offer a very a reliable global delivery service too. From our experience, if you order form them today, you’ll get your kit within a few working days, you can complete the service next Saturday and then when you go out for a blast on Sunday morning you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ve got fresh oil in your Porsche engine.

Get on to FrazerPart and get the service organised.

Technorati Tags: Parts for Porsche, Porsche engine, Porsche spares

I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to attend a Porsche only dynamometer testing day at the weekend. It was an open invite to all Porsche enthusiasts published on some of the Porsche forums, but the emphasis was towards the 944.

A dynamometer or dyno for short, is basically a machine that measures the power output of the engine. There are generally two types. An engine dyno, which measures power directly from the engine. The second is a chassis dynamometer, which measures the power generated by the engine at the wheels. A chassis dyno is often referred to as a rolling road. (Whenever there are any kind of improvements or developments to be made with vehicle performance, the vehicle manufacturers and performance tuning specialists will always use a dynamometer to test and validate their results before releasing them. The advantages and disdadvantages of each of the different types of dynos are beyond the scope of this document, so, we’ll put another post together in the future about that subject.)

It was a well attended day in the north-west of England. The organiser had even arranged for the sun to shine and eight 944 Porsches and a 964 had turned up from various locations around the country. Some had even had to stop for fuel twice on the way up giving you an idea of how far they had travelled, or, an indication of how heavy their right foot was!  The format was very informal, friendly and relaxed too and each vehicle had it’s turn on the rolling road.

Pre-testing preparation required that temperature sensors were fitted to the car to monitor oil, water and air intake temperatures. These are primarily there for engine safety. If at any point the temperatures go too high, the test can be immediately aborted. An exhaust gas analyser probe was pushed up the exhaust to allow air fuel ratios to be monitored. Unlike real life driving, the vehicle isn’t physically moving forward so there isn’t stream of cool air flowing into the radiator to keep the engine cool. So to help with cooling, a huge fan was wheeled in front of the car. Finally, to prevent it from moving, the cars were also strapped down to the the test rig. Once everything was set up, each test then took a few minutes and the car was “power curved”. Whilst the car is in gear, this test basically runs the engine up from idle up to a high engine speed, say 6000-6500rpm whilst all the instrumentation logs their respective data. To improve the reliability of the results, the power curve test were repeated 2 more times to provide an average of three results. All of the above sounds like a long and arduous task. In reality, reversing the Porsche on to the rolling road before the start of the test to driving it off the dyno afterwards, was really nothing more than a very well rehearsed and practised proceedure. Each car took nothing more than 10 minutes to prepare and test. After each test, each of the owners received a full debriefing of the results that had been recorded and paper prints of their test data.

Every Porsche exhibit was gleaming and having witnessed the testing, a testament, to how well these cars were originally put together. Those that were standard, were still making plenty of power, and those that had been modified, were making a load more. These were meant to 2+2 coupes, but the some of the 944 owners had manged to find room for 280 horses too!

Technorati Tags: Parts for Porsche, porsche dyno testing

There is a lot of “here say” associated with the running costs for a Porsche. Many people will say that the parts for Porsche aren’t affordable and that you’ll never find spares. We hope that we have successfully dismissed the latter in one of our previous posts, but parts for Porsche cars expensive? We are not in agreement.

The way that Porsche charge for their spares and parts is exactly the same as other mainstream vehicle manufacturer. Supply and demand for the spares will dictate the selling price. There are certain spares that the manufacturers are forced to stock, even after the vehicle has gone out of production. Certain parts must be stocked for longer than others, but none of them have to be stocked indefinitely. If these stocked parts are low volume, low turn over parts, then there’ll be no surprise if then Porsche retails these at an exorbitant price. Ford, Chrysler, GM, Mercedes Benz, BMW, VW, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda etc all do it. It’s not a trait unique to Porsche.

Conversely, the genuine Porsche spares that are high volume and high turn over can be very reasonably priced. Porsche engine filters and gaskets are an example and other service items for the Porsche suspension or the Porsche gearbox.

If you were to consider fitting original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM) parts, then further savings can be made. “OEM parts” is the motor trade term for automotive parts that are made by the same manufacturer that originally made the parts when the vehicle was assembled. The advantage with OEM parts are that they will have been manufactured using the same tools and processes that Porsche will have insisted upon. They will have been tested using the same Porsche test procedures and they will have been inspected using the same Porsche quality test procedures. So what is the difference between a genuine Porsche dealer part and an OEM equivalent spare? The answer is simple. The cardboard box that the part comes in and the part number stamped on the part. That’s all. The genuine Porsche part will come in a Porsche box with a Porsche part number stamped on it, the OEM spare, will come in it’s manufacturer’s box with the manufacturer’s part number reference on it.

The Porsche dealer will try and tell you something else, he or she will be adamant that there is a difference but it really is down to packaging materials. The Porsche clutch is a really good example of this. Sachs manufacture the majority of all the clutches for Porsche. The ones they supply to Porsche and their network of Porsche spares dealers, are mechanically identical to the ones that they supply the independent Porsche parts specialists. Cosmetically they will be different. The Porsche one will be supplied to the customer in a Porsche box, the other will be in a blue and white Sachs box.

In summary, there are parts that can be expensive for your Porsche, but buying parts for Porsche cars is no different to other vehicle brands. If you can determine who the OEMs are for the various serviceable items around the vehicle, then there are substantial savings to be made on Porsche spares. This in turn keeps your maintenance costs down and fuel in the tank! A well established independent Porsche parts specialist should be able to help you identify and source OEM parts for your Porsche. Go and make friends with them.

Technorati Tags: Parts for Porsche, Porsche clutch, Porsche engine, Porsche gearbox, Porsche spares, Porsche suspension