Service Mileage Tolerance

evoke · Dec 8, 2003

Does anyone know how far below or above the service mileage interval one can go before the warranty is invalidated?

I'm due to have my first 12K service early in January but I may go a couple of hundred miles over 12K. The OPC said there's no real threshold but you should be as close as possible to 12K.

Surely there must be a point at which the service interval is deemed to have been missed, thus invalidating the warranty?

Taz

Andy Cooke · Dec 8, 2003

Most manufacturers stipulate within 1000 miles or one month if time related.

Dapster · Dec 9, 2003

Read a story of a guy with a TT who went over the service limit stipulation on his second service (which, incidentally, wasn't made clear until after the hoo-ha developed). Garage invalidated the warranty and then refused to do warranty work for items that were clearly not affected by the late service.

The owner then claimed that they had done the first service over the limit without issue, so the net number of miles between the 2 services was actually below the interval level - say 1,000 miles over the first and 500 over the second meant he had actually done only 11,500 miles between the services.

Anyway, one protracted court case and thousands of pounds later and Audi eventually relented as the guy kept banging on about the fact that Audi were concerned as their cars are so unreliable, and if they were not, then they'd have no issue with going over the limit.

Best to drop your OPC an email so that you have the response in writing. 10% or 1200 miles seems reasonable.

evoke · Dec 9, 2003

Okay, I bit the bullet and called Porsche GB Customer Relations. They said that for the first 12K service, you can go over by 1000 miles before you will have invalidated your warranty. Hence, you can go up to 13000 miles for your first service but they obviously recommend getting it done as close to 12000 miles as possible.

Hence, to answer my own question, the service mileage tolerance is 1000 miles for the first 12K service.

Taz

Ian Gilmour · Dec 10, 2003

My mileage is relatively low (7200 on the car's first birthday) so I assumed having read the service manual that I didn't need to get it serviced until it had done at least 9000 miles.

As it is now approaching 9000 I decided to book it in with the nearest OPC only to find that it should have been serviced on or around its birthday reagrdless of mileage. (Personally, I find the service manual very unclear on this). Anyway, it will be 2 months late in having its service. OPC didn't seem to be too concerned about this but we'll see if they claim that the car hasn't been serviced in accordance with Porsche's instructions should any issues arise in the future about warranty work.

Incidentally, having parked in the open air yesterday for the first time this winter, and needing to use the heated rear screen for the first time since buying the car I found that it seems not to be working (pretty poor quality for a £40k+ car) so I suppose the service is perfectly timed for this to be fixed. OPC have agreed that I can provide my own oil (I found Mobil 1 0 w 40 for £5.50 + VAT a litre from Costco) - they use Shell Helix rather than Mobil 1.