PV997

Respect the opinions on this board but as someone who recently went through this it truly is overkill. The key is that the car was stored in a climate controlled garage, not a pole barn out back. Aside from the battery being toast, nothing listed above happened for us. The tires were fine as were the brakes. Exercise good judgment and don't head straight to the track but otherwise safely test drive the car and things like the tires and brakes should bounce back quickly. We changed oil and brake fluid but only after starting car and putting a few miles on it. There's a good argument to not change the oil before starting it (provided the level is full and reasonably clean) as the pressure will come up more quickly. Change it soon afterwards once it's been established things are in good order. Pulling the spark plugs twice? It may bring peace of mind but it's a difficult (or expensive) task on these cars and the need is dubious. Draining fuel is not always simple, can be dangerous, and you won't get all of it out. The car we started ran great on four year old fuel and started instantly. We simply diluted the remaining fuel by soon filling the tank and burned it off. No problems whatsoever.

These cars are expensive so it's easy to what-if the doomsday scenario. If spending the money makes one sleep easier at night then go for it but our experience shows it isn't required.

Petza914

I've had unstabilized Top Tier fuel go bad in my 997 twice over the past 5 years over a 2.5-3 month period where the car would die when you tried to accelerate since the fuel wouldn't combust properly. The only problem was the fuel as running out that tank and refilling with new made the problem go away completely. If you've ever tried to clean up a carburetor that had stale fuel run though it, you'll never gamble on running old fuel through an expensive car's fuel system ever again. I understand these cars are fuel injected and not carbureted but there are still plenty of components that can be messed up by pumping varnished fuel through them, and 6 years is way too long to think that fuel isn't compromised - components like the fuel pump, filters, injectors, especially the injectors. When I did my Cayenne widebody build the car was off the road for 18 months at the body shop. First thing I had done when getting it back was to tow it straight from the body shop to the dealership, have them push it into the service bay, and drain all the fuel before it was ever restarted. That was 18 months and this one is 6 years.

OP, you can take as few or as many precautions as you'd like. What I provided is what I'd do if it was my $75k 997 Turbo that had been stored for 6 years. You and others may be more willing to roll the dice but the headaches and associated costs aren't worth it to me when I could do what was on my list in a weekend.

larrysb

Were it me, and I wanted to keep it and own it, I'd pull the plugs, mist the cylinders with oil, run it up with the starter until there was oil pressure. Change all the fluids, fresh gas, fresh oil, etc, then start it.

The main thing you want to make sure of is that the turbo bearing is well filled with oil before starting it. As soon as exhaust hits it, it spins, fast.


If I was going to flip it, I'd do as little as possible, get it fired up, drive it a few blocks and list it.

Wish I had some money, I'd make an offer on it.

user 72902

I don't think that Pete was disrespectful. Gasoline just cannot be stored and that is why on every generator I've owned I've either converted or purchased them to run on a dry fuel (propane). Just do some research and you'll see that gasoline is unsuitable to use after a very short period of time and you can only extend the shelf life to 12 months or so with additives. Also there are two types of flat spots that occur on tires: temporary and permanent. I use TireCradles on my lift and drive my car at least monthly. Temporary flat spots can be driven out but permanent flat spots are structural changes to tires that result in your tire being out of round for good. Any tire parked for six years is toast. Don't take Pete's word or mine but research will substantiate this. In the end I respect the decisions for each to do whatever they choose with their property.

MexicoBlueTurboS

Petza's advice is solid too. No way I'd drive a turbo or any car with out of date tires. but of course the crappy gas will prevent you from even going around the block. You should take as much caution as possible or risk trashing an engine that costs more to fix than the car is worth. Your friend was silly not to sell the car sooner. I used to hold on to old RAM chips thinking they would have more value in the future (why not I paid so much for them) Car probably lost 40% of its value becoming this 'story'.