Well, I knew that with this title, the thread would get a lot of looks But I'm not interested in being flamed. This concerns repair costs. I was talking to the Porsche Service Manager today and he mentioned that they were starting to get a few Carerra GTs in for oil changes and scrapped front ends- that car is LOW. An oil change is easily over a grand. It turns out that to get to the oil pan you need to unscrew 128 screws of different sizes, so each one needs to be color coded by the Service Tech. To replace the front underside clip will cost an owner a cool 40K-when the part comes, which will be in about 18-24 months. Dont know if these stories are true but this is a major dealer whose Service Manager usually is a straight on guy. If so, I would say that Porsche has out-Ferrarid Ferrari when it comes to maintenance.
Please explain why a highly trained Porsche mechanic needs to have colour coded screws, just because they are different sizes. Come on ... are you saying that they are so unskilled that for example, they will try and use the wheels nuts to bolt on a wing mirror?? Everything else is believable in your post but that is rediculous ... and makes out mechanics to be stupid, which they are not. Pete ps: Finding 128 different colours will be a challenge ...
No way does it take 128 screws to get to the oil pan. How many screws are on the entire car? I'm guessing that if you took 128 screws out of that car it would fall apart, like on a cartoon.
Wow, I hope that is not true. That would be a really bad design. Changing the trans fluid on an F40 required a bit of work to get the bottom panel off. Easily done yourself though.
I'd believe it about the oil change, as an Enzo change runs what - $700+? Something makes me think that that is a horrible design flaw to need to remove 128 screws to get to the most basic maintenence... should have been a small tube system to vaccuum it out.
My 360Modena's oil change cost $900 at the dealer and all they have to do is to lift it and open up a couple of plugs and replace the filter insert from the top of the engine. I don't see an issue with over a grand oil change for a CGT. It will take a lot more data and convincing to show Porsche out do Ferraris in maintenance cost...
A 128 screws does sound like a lot of screws for an oil pan. Although just like the Enzo the Carrera GT has a true dry sump oil system. Maybe it is located in sucha way that you have to remove a lot of other things to get to it. But even with that, sounds like a bad design flaw on Porsche's part - assuming it's true, which I highly doubt.
I'll call the techie at Scottsdale Porsche and find out their story. If someone told me a Yugo had a 128 screw oil pan I might believe it, but a German car...nah! I'll also post this question on the P car forums and see what they say
Someone in a separate thread asked me why I favored 959 over CGT. Well consider this among the 1500 or so other reasons.
Oh come on guys....there's a way around these costly oil changes!!!! I learned a tip from one of my buddy's ex-girlfriends best friend. Ya see, if you need to change your oil every time the odometer turns 3,000 miles...then just disconnect your odometer!!!! Problem solved! At first this approach sounded quite reasonable...ya know, getting in touch with our feminine side and all, but then you have to account for the cost of disconnecting your odometer...wonder how much a dealer charges for that??????
Guys it is not the oil pan (and you do not have to remove the oil pan to change the oil anyway), he is referring to the fact that you have to remove 128 screws to get to the oil pan, and thus the oil drain plug. Thus probably the fancy underbody aero panels. If it was my car I would drill a nice big hole in the underbody ... in line with the oil drain plug and make a removable panel that covers the hole! This does not sound right. Pete
I meant a smaller panel (removable panel that covers the acces hole) with say 4 screws that can be removed to gain access to the oil drain plug. OR even better still connect a hose up to the oil drain plug and fix it to the rear of the car and have the oil drain plug there ... then you can drop oil on the road behind you as well Pete btw: Panels always cover holes ... ps1: When I said 'this does not sound right', I meant surely Porsche would not design a car that requires 128 screws removed to get to the oil drain plug and oil filter. ... Edit: Or were you making some sort of reference to chastity belts/methods ...
Yada yada yada, when ever it's time to figure out the access hole the whole thing just gets discombobulated or something. 128 screws is a bit much? I mean to get there??? HUh ???
No surprise there. Porsche has been out doing Ferrari since Porsche was first founded in all areas but one....PASSION!
Why don't they just stick a syphon down the dipstick tube? See: http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_2000&L2=L2_2050&SKU=10186 Phil
Well then, how are the metal chunky bits supposed to plunk out into the drain pan? I mean really, those momentary panic attacks will be gone forever if we adopt your method.