Mister Quickie

I am looking at buying used and right now since $ is tight I'm looking at a higher mileage car. 20 yrs ago I'd bought a VW new and drove it to nearly 300k miles so a car with 100k miles or even more wouldn't scare me if I knew how it was driven.

Problem is an inspection can only tell what looks worn, how the drive feels, etc. from the outside. Is there any way to tell how worn the engine is on the inside (i.e. how much life it has left)?

I could buy a "never tracked" but how do you know this is accurate? The other extreme is the little old lady across the street's weekend car, was the oil changed every 3/5k or every 25k miles?

Is this just part of the gamble of buying a used car?

Pnug

Before buying any Porsche get a print out of the over revs. Much more so with a manual but still a good indicator on how the car was driving. I just viewed mine last night, 1 ignition in the range 3 and 67 in 2 and 348 in range 1. I'm the original owner and my 07's has 23k miles on it and I don't track my car but drive it harder than average. It's a Porsche. These numbers can be deleted but by reviewing the overall hours the car had been operated and the overall mileage you can usually tell if someone has done that; if you divide those two numbers and the average miles per hour are not between 30-50mph. If it's below 30 something is up. Run away from the deal. Also, if it has ignitions in the 4-6 range. Those can only happen from miss shifting which cause damage and excessive wear to internal parts reducing engine life and increasing the chance of engine failure.

LexVan

Buy the seller.

Be careful about buying a Porsche on a budget. Delay your purchase, and save-up a little more. No rush. Always lots of cars for sale.

extanker

imho the odds will be more in your favor if you get an 09 up gen2. budget. porsche. never in the same sentence

Frank 993 C4S

1) Check the over-revs
2) Compression and leak down test
3) Oil analysis?
4) Good karma

Fact is, you never really really know

Macster

There's a gamble but the odds are in your favor the engine has lots more miles. Still, you should strive to improve your odds.

Barring the mistreated engine, the neglected engine, generally these engines, most modern engines, are good for many many thousands of miles.

My info is in order to qualify for sale in USA cars engines have to go through a test in which the engine (in a suitable vehicle) is run for 100K miles (though I've read at least one source that now puts this to 120K miles) on a test track. There is no race against the clock though the car is run as fast as is reasonable to cut down on the amount of time the test takes.

The rules as best I have learned is the engine is allowed only oil/filter changes. (I can't find anything about engine air filters.) No other servicing, from plugs to the replacement of rubber timing belts, is allowed.

Other sources put the engine life at 10,000 hours which with an average speed of 30mph works out to 300,000 miles of operation.

How close a specific engine will come to the above miles and time depends a large part upon how it is treated and serviced.

So the advice of Lexvan to buy the seller is pretty smart advice.

You want to learn how the car was treated under the previous owner's time with the vehicle. Now after a certain point what servicing a car had early on counts for less than the more recent servicing. But it is nicest to see a consistent stream of reasonable servicing. You want to see the car was loved by its previous owner and real love is shown by having the car serviced properly.

Also, you want to experience the used car as both a passenger and a driver. All the service records in the world won't tell you if the engine is noisy, runs rough, misfires, smokes under way, knocks, or exhibits or manifests any other of the countless number of signs of an engine you want to avoid.

Jim in St.Louis

Okay, having spent the last 15+ years on the track, I am convinced that cars that are tracked get much better care than garage queens. (for example, tech inspections before every event, wheels torqued regularly, lot's of attention to brake pads and tire condition [no 6+ year old tires used]) Cars that are not tracked typically get less attention than those that are. Plus if you do your homework, you will find that cars that are driven agressively (ie: track rats) have much less chance of IMS problems than those that are driven like an everyday Toyota. That's my two cents, sorry if I confused the easy riders.

Macster

Been a while since I was around any tracked cars but I bet it hasn't changed much. Some get better care some get worse care.

They all get used harder which means regardless of the servicing a track car is one to avoid unless one is looking for a track car.

Mister Quickie

This is good info, any similar tests to check the health of the transmission?

extanker

if i were the seller i might agree to #1 but you pay. as for the rest of the checks i would laugh.in your case try and have the seller take the car to a porsche dealer and you pay for the prebuy. but that is going to cost so check with the dealer how much. if money is tight maybe a porsche is not for you at this time.imho