I'm relatively new to the Porsche Indie scene, my experience with OPC dealerships is fairly long standing. And having had numerous other none Porsche toys I'm fairly ofay with none franchised dealers.
Having recently acquired the 997 and after approaching two dealerships both OPC, neither recognised the model as a classic so I decided to save some money and throw my hat in to the ring of fire which is independent Porsche servicing. I'd noticed a few old invoices in the newly acquired folder that came with the car so without doing too much digging on the internet I opted for the old fashioned telephone call to try and sus out these potential robbing highwaymen to see if they ticked any of my criteria, sure enough by the time I'd put the phone down I was fairly confident that I'd entrust these to tackle the major service which I'd had knocked off the price of the car !? All I had to do was wait two weeks for the slot to fit me in.
Bonus !
A few days passed and after a local drive in the sunshine the car revealed that its air con system was actually a dyson hand dryer ! The inside of the car was stifling, not a problem though as it would be going in soon for a service and they could sort it. At this point I did venture on line to try and diagnose the fault myself, as you can imagine....... the outcome was horrific !
At this point and because of the work involved I crumbled and picked up the phone to the OPC where I knew I could trust them to fix all associated gremlins and bill me accordingly !
The wait for a slot there was a further two weeks or wait anweek for the original Cavendish booking. At this point I googled a local mobile air con specialist who assured me he was able to buy two cheap rads off eBay and fix them, £30 call out fee, £75 for gas, one rad was X amount two was so much less discount ? If he had to add a dye that was a further cost as was the gas dependant upon which one ?
I rang cavendish, the guy there told me they all do that, he asked if I wanted them to have a look at it which to be fair I didn't know what option was best and besides, who needs air con. I'd also noticed that the brake fluid needed changing as it had just gone over 2 years same as the service.
So the day of reckoning came, in it went..... all very relaxed, there's a downstairs waiting room, or the bay next door where you can stand and annoy the guy working on your car by asking loads of stupid questions whilst checking they're using genuine parts !
Wheels off, studs all treated to a coat of primer and a few top coats of silver between jobs as each coat hardened, at this point I noticed the bell, hub had been treated to a finish of grey primer. Very neat and having noticed they were corroding slightly the other day I was happy to see a little attention to detail.
Oil drained, Mobil filled, Bosch spark plugs lined up, when the you need to come and have a look at this sounded ominous, the heat shield on bank 1 was rotten and there was nothing holding it on at one end, the other fixings were about to rot thro so I guess it needed one, more drama as there were visible cracks to 3 of the coils, the plastic where the studs located had cracked and fallen away and they were probably the original ones. You could see there were 2 types in there next to each other the newer ones same as what was about to fitted and the cracked ones which looked old and in poor condition. The guy basically said the whole lots got to come off and we have to remove the heat shield to get the spark plugs changed so if you want the coil packs changing there's no additional charge for Labour so it's basically up to me, same with the heat shield. And for the price of the heat shield less than £20 it was daft not to, it was an Original shield as were the coils (beru)
All the service completed, brake fluid changed, time to look for the air con leak...... I couldn't watch this bit, phone call, call of nature plus I knew it was leaking, it certainly wasn't working ! And the thought of new condensers, front end off filled me with dread, I'd already decided bid leave it till next year and hopefully get it sorted in time for the two weeks of summer next year.
I kept popping to the workshop door over about half an hour while the machine went thro a lengthy check of the system, then..... finished, It's detected NO leaks, let's fill it with gas and add this dye so that if it is or does leak we can see it ? Great..... that's saved some money and will prob need re gassing next year just in time for summer. The previous owner had used the cafe sparingly and covered less than 2.5K in almost 4 years, it had been serviced at an OPC. but there was nothing in the service pack from his time regards air con, going back almost 6 years there was something from the previous with a service for air con re gas £295 !
All in all I would recommend these guys, the service was spot on and the mechanic was diligent and methodical in his work, he clearly knew his way round a Porsche and I felt confident he was treating the car how I'd treat it.
Not once did he have his mobile phone in his hand as I'd encountered at a main dealers some months back for a separate vehicle I own where the bloke managed the whole service one handed whilst betting on line while Cheltenham was on ! When I got the bill I told them I was only paying half as he'd done half a job, I'd filmed him on my phone so when I showed them I didn't pay a thing. So that was a result for me at least ?
Anyway, with regards to other bits required like coils and heat shield, the choice was mine, the coils were working ? But not sure for how long ? Or even how long they would stay in situ as the collet had broken that held one on? The heat shield he said was pretty much necessary as that help protect the coils ? The option was there tho for me to reject their offer and fit these myself now I knew they were damaged ? But as he was in there any way it was a no brained, plus the shield was all shiny and new and although you can't see it you just know it's doing it's job.
As for the air con....... which was also disinfected, works a treat and not only smells nice but actually works. That could have been a different story, one which will no doubt rear its ugly head in the not too distant future.
The fixed price servicing remained the same as quoted as did the brake fluid change, so the only bits I paid for were the air con re gas, not the diagnosing, 3 coils and a heat shield.
I'll be returning for an MOT in the spring and hopefully not before !
Thanks,
Having recently acquired the 997 and after approaching two dealerships both OPC, neither recognised the model as a classic so I decided to save some money and throw my hat in to the ring of fire which is independent Porsche servicing. I'd noticed a few old invoices in the newly acquired folder that came with the car so without doing too much digging on the internet I opted for the old fashioned telephone call to try and sus out these potential robbing highwaymen to see if they ticked any of my criteria, sure enough by the time I'd put the phone down I was fairly confident that I'd entrust these to tackle the major service which I'd had knocked off the price of the car !? All I had to do was wait two weeks for the slot to fit me in.
Bonus !
A few days passed and after a local drive in the sunshine the car revealed that its air con system was actually a dyson hand dryer ! The inside of the car was stifling, not a problem though as it would be going in soon for a service and they could sort it. At this point I did venture on line to try and diagnose the fault myself, as you can imagine....... the outcome was horrific !
At this point and because of the work involved I crumbled and picked up the phone to the OPC where I knew I could trust them to fix all associated gremlins and bill me accordingly !
The wait for a slot there was a further two weeks or wait anweek for the original Cavendish booking. At this point I googled a local mobile air con specialist who assured me he was able to buy two cheap rads off eBay and fix them, £30 call out fee, £75 for gas, one rad was X amount two was so much less discount ? If he had to add a dye that was a further cost as was the gas dependant upon which one ?
I rang cavendish, the guy there told me they all do that, he asked if I wanted them to have a look at it which to be fair I didn't know what option was best and besides, who needs air con. I'd also noticed that the brake fluid needed changing as it had just gone over 2 years same as the service.
So the day of reckoning came, in it went..... all very relaxed, there's a downstairs waiting room, or the bay next door where you can stand and annoy the guy working on your car by asking loads of stupid questions whilst checking they're using genuine parts !
Wheels off, studs all treated to a coat of primer and a few top coats of silver between jobs as each coat hardened, at this point I noticed the bell, hub had been treated to a finish of grey primer. Very neat and having noticed they were corroding slightly the other day I was happy to see a little attention to detail.
Oil drained, Mobil filled, Bosch spark plugs lined up, when the you need to come and have a look at this sounded ominous, the heat shield on bank 1 was rotten and there was nothing holding it on at one end, the other fixings were about to rot thro so I guess it needed one, more drama as there were visible cracks to 3 of the coils, the plastic where the studs located had cracked and fallen away and they were probably the original ones. You could see there were 2 types in there next to each other the newer ones same as what was about to fitted and the cracked ones which looked old and in poor condition. The guy basically said the whole lots got to come off and we have to remove the heat shield to get the spark plugs changed so if you want the coil packs changing there's no additional charge for Labour so it's basically up to me, same with the heat shield. And for the price of the heat shield less than £20 it was daft not to, it was an Original shield as were the coils (beru)
All the service completed, brake fluid changed, time to look for the air con leak...... I couldn't watch this bit, phone call, call of nature plus I knew it was leaking, it certainly wasn't working ! And the thought of new condensers, front end off filled me with dread, I'd already decided bid leave it till next year and hopefully get it sorted in time for the two weeks of summer next year.
I kept popping to the workshop door over about half an hour while the machine went thro a lengthy check of the system, then..... finished, It's detected NO leaks, let's fill it with gas and add this dye so that if it is or does leak we can see it ? Great..... that's saved some money and will prob need re gassing next year just in time for summer. The previous owner had used the cafe sparingly and covered less than 2.5K in almost 4 years, it had been serviced at an OPC. but there was nothing in the service pack from his time regards air con, going back almost 6 years there was something from the previous with a service for air con re gas £295 !
All in all I would recommend these guys, the service was spot on and the mechanic was diligent and methodical in his work, he clearly knew his way round a Porsche and I felt confident he was treating the car how I'd treat it.
Not once did he have his mobile phone in his hand as I'd encountered at a main dealers some months back for a separate vehicle I own where the bloke managed the whole service one handed whilst betting on line while Cheltenham was on ! When I got the bill I told them I was only paying half as he'd done half a job, I'd filmed him on my phone so when I showed them I didn't pay a thing. So that was a result for me at least ?
Anyway, with regards to other bits required like coils and heat shield, the choice was mine, the coils were working ? But not sure for how long ? Or even how long they would stay in situ as the collet had broken that held one on? The heat shield he said was pretty much necessary as that help protect the coils ? The option was there tho for me to reject their offer and fit these myself now I knew they were damaged ? But as he was in there any way it was a no brained, plus the shield was all shiny and new and although you can't see it you just know it's doing it's job.
As for the air con....... which was also disinfected, works a treat and not only smells nice but actually works. That could have been a different story, one which will no doubt rear its ugly head in the not too distant future.
The fixed price servicing remained the same as quoted as did the brake fluid change, so the only bits I paid for were the air con re gas, not the diagnosing, 3 coils and a heat shield.
I'll be returning for an MOT in the spring and hopefully not before !
Thanks,
