Some Porsche maintenance today.

**Brad B** · 09-01-2011, 04:29 PM

Finally got to a bunch of to-do`s I have been putting of on the Carrera. Pulled the car on the lift, cranked up the A/C (it was 102 degrees in St. Louis today) and bonded with my child from Stuttgart.

My first task was to replace some shifter bushings. This is just a preventative measure to keep the shifter tight. The bushings have a tendency to harden and get sloppy creating more movement in the stick shift. To get to the shifter I had to go underneath the car and remove several panels that enclose all the mechanicals on the Carrera. It`s pretty cool, IMHO, to see how aero the underneath of the car is. Virtually everything is hidden from the nose to just in front of the exhaust at the rear. (My Cayman S or even new Carreras are not covered this completely.) The panels are a mix of aluminum, steel and plastic. All assembled they are very strong and tight. The tolerances are far more precise than say the plastic engine undertray found on most cars. Must have undone 50 nuts and bolts.

Front looking back. Note the scratches under the chin of the car. The car is LOW and stuff happens. These are in the clear bra covering only and I plan to replace this soon to make it perfect again.

Looking forward, from just behind of the engine.

Finally! There is the shifter.

Some of the panels after clean up. (Of course I cleaned them!)

Engine cover.

Even moveable suspension parts have aero fairings on them to reduce turbulance. Cool.

All buttoned up and clean.

I also changed the oil which is a pretty big deal on the air-cooled Carrera`s. The engine is a dry sump system and has no oil pan. There are two oil filters, one at the engine and one in an oil tank housed in the rear wheel well area. The engine oil filter is easy. The oil tank holds oil that runs in large stainless steel tubes between the dual oil coolers located in the nose of the car and the engine. This tank, and the draining of the lines is where you get out most of the 12.5 quarts of Mobil1 this car uses. Cha-ching!

It`s a pain to do the side oil tank because you have to remove the wheel well liner, etc. The filter is at the bottom.

I also took this opportunity to lay on my back and clean the undersides of the body.

And finally I cleaned up the engine bay a bit and called it an afternoon. (Note: the oil dipstick is that yellow handle on the far right. It`s about 3 feet long and travels all the way up to that tank in front of the wheel. There is also an oil level gauge inside the car.

**Bill D** · 09-01-2011, 04:44 PM

Wow! That`s a very involved oil change but to be expected with that type of sophisticated German masterpiece

Thanks for the great write-up!

:xyxthumbs

Yeah, you got to have a lift for that sort of work.Even oil changes on more pedestrian cars are so much easier and I can relate very much to pulling splash guards and underbody panels and cleaning them.

But that`s about all I can do. You`re way more mechanically inclined than me.

Any plans to do a full undercarriage/exhaust polish and detail? I`d like to do one on my A4 this fall.

My neighbor has a similar Porsche. Might be the same year. I`ll show this thread to him!

**Brad B** · 09-01-2011, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Bill D

Any plans to do a full undercarriage/exhaust polish and detail?

I was thinking about that as I looked things over today. I have seen others do it and all with the aluminum parts and structure underneath it can look fantastic. But everything underneath is so well coated with cosmoline for corrosion protection that I hate to remove it. It`s ugly but effective.

I did clean up my wheel wells and inner body before, but haven`t gone beyond this.

**Bill D** · 09-01-2011, 05:04 PM

Yep, as you know, the undercarriage of an A4 is kinda similar. All that aluminum and exhaust is all I`m going to do. Where needed, I`m going to dress the splash guards and plastic.

Any clean up you want to do will finish in two seconds flat-- it`s already so clean to begin with! :xyxthumbs

**Ben@3D** · 09-01-2011, 05:16 PM

Wow, that is one Clean car with a capital C. :brushteeth:

**shirtman** · 09-01-2011, 05:18 PM

All I can say Brad is WOW... if you ever sell one of your stable, the next owner has quite a standard to maintain. Even the new baby is all dressed up after being what I would have called a true beater in its prior life. Love the work and attention to every detail. I try my best with my 12 year old daily driver and would love to have the opportunity to lavish the attention on my 1 car the way you do all your cars. It is easy to see you love your cars!

Jeff

**C. Charles Hahn** · 09-01-2011, 08:10 PM

Brad, I don`t even think I can fully express how jealous I (still) am of your garage!

As for the car, that just goes to show what German engineering is really about, back before even Porsche started cost-cutting. I am curious though, why is that short oil filter so mangled?

**Brad B** · 09-01-2011, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by Shiny Lil Detlr

I am curious though, why is that short oil filter so mangled?

The idiot mechanic (me) who changed the oil last time (me) must have overtightened the filter. And it is really hard to reach so I had to resort to the stab-with-a-screwdriver-and-muscle-it-off method. Let`s just say there was cussing involved.

**Bill D** · 09-01-2011, 09:09 PM

I know that feeling. I spray the base of the filter with Kroil. (souped up WD 40) about a week before I`m going to do the oil change; makes the filter a lot easier to finally remove. Audi filters must be put on with an air gun at the factory!

**Accumulator** · 09-02-2011, 11:17 AM

[Accumulator patiently waits for Brad B. to get the pix to come up as opposed to "fototime maintenance" messages...]

Brad B.- Good on you for doing the bushings before then needed it.

Heh heh, hasn`t your recent 4Runner work convinced you that you can do the undercarriages better than the factory`s undercoat/etc.?

**Bill D** · 09-02-2011, 11:46 AM

Wow, those photos are AWOL; they`re really great and I hope fototime kicks back to life soon!

**Brad B** · 09-03-2011, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by Bill D

Wow, those photos are AWOL; they`re really great and I hope fototime kicks back to life soon!

Back up! FotoTime server went down and lost my uploads. I had to reload everything. What a pain.

**Brad B** · 09-03-2011, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Heh heh, hasn`t your recent 4Runner work convinced you that you can do the undercarriages better than the factory`s undercoat/etc.?

Dunno? The German Teutonic Wonder may not take kindly to being treated like a Toyota!

**Accumulator** · 09-03-2011, 11:11 AM

Brad B.-Ah, the pix are showing up now

I think I`d be all about doing that undercarriage! I always like sprucing up stuff like that that when it`s so wonderfully designed.

**Ch96067** · 09-05-2011, 01:30 PM

Very refreshing reading Brad!

I am nowhere near mechanicaly inclined as you and I just wanted to ask if you get the feeling that after everything is put back together again things dont feel so `factory tight`. I cannot put it in better wording, apologies.

Perhaps it gets better with experience