Porsche Cayman 987 Maintenance Schedule

Porsche Cayman 987 2005 – 2012
Maintenance Service Schedule

The factory recommended maintenance schedule on the Porsche Cayman 987 is shown below. At this stage however, it’s very unlikely that your Porsche Cayman 987 fits neatly into one of the planned mileage maintenance intervals. Elapsed time will now likely have exceed mileage. It’s is important, however, to understand what maintenance items should still be addressed at specific time or mileage intervals based on the factory recommendations.

Our recommendation is that maintenance on a Porsche Cayman 987 is now determined by physical inspection and elapsed time. For this type of inspection based maintenance service, you need the knowledge-based recommendations from a shop with specific Porsche expertise.

Porsche Cayman 987 Maintenance Intervals

To keep your Porsche Cayman healthy, we recommend you inspect the car and change engine oil and filter annually or every 10K miles. The original 987 maintenance schedule includes a minor service at 20K or two years and a major service at 4 year or 40K mile intervals, with additional maintenance items required at the 6 year and 12 year intervals.

Our Recommendations for 987 Cayman Maintenance

To keep your Porsche 987 Cayman healthy, you need to inspect the car and change the engine oil and filter annually or every 10K miles. In addition to the standard service intervals, we recommend a PDK clutch fluid replacement at 40K mile to avoid PDK problems.

What’s Included at the 987 Service Intervals

Many people become confused by Porsche maintenance schedules. The intervals and maintenance items are cumulative – so for clarity, a 4 year service includes all the maintenance items recommended at the 4 year interval, plus all maintenance items from the 2 year, and annual maintenance interval as well.

Safety and Maintenance Inspection

Every annual service should include a rigorous safety and maintenance inspection. It’s essential this is carried out by a skilled technician who knows the likely wear characteristics of your Porsche Cayman 987 and can identify issues of concern at an early stage. The inspection should also identify service items that are influenced by local environmental conditions.

987 Cayman Lifetime Maintenance Items

Some maintenance items are described as “lifetime,” such as coolant, for example. It’s important during the inspection to discover the health of these “lifetime” items. If you need cold weather protection from your coolant, you’ll find the “lifetime” is considerably shorter than you might expect! Identifying mechanical problems at an early stage through an inspection service allows planning and budgeting for the necessary work.

Cayman Maintenance Service Questions Answered

If you have further questions or concerns about the maintenance requirements of you Cayman 987, you may find answers that can help you further in our guide to Cayman maintenance service questions.

Annual Maintenance or Every 10K miles

• Vehicle Inspection
• Change engine oil and filter
• Clear roof drains
• Battery CCA test
• Reset maintenance service indicator
• Update or replace maintenance items based on inspection

Add the following maintenance items to the annual service, based on the time or mileage intervals shown below:

Additional Maintenance Every 20K or 2 Years

• Replace brake fluid
• Replace engine air intake filter
• Replace cabin pollen filter

Additional Maintenance Every 40K or 4 Years

• Replace spark plugs
• Replace tire sealant

Additional Maintenance Every 60K or 6 years

• Replace drive belt
• Replace PDK clutch fluid
• Clean throttle body

Additional Maintenance Every 120K or 12 years

• Replace manual transmission oil
• Replace PDK transmission oil

Early production 987 cars can be a candidate for the IMS bearing problems. Identify if your car has a serviceable bearing and plan a retrofit for a service interval.

Original 987 Factory Maintenance Schedule

If you plan to take your Porsche Cayman 987 to the track for some fun, there are different maintenance considerations to make. In general, track driving will speed up the requirements for maintenance and the replacement of service items. Most track day companies, groups and the PCA HPDE, will require a safety inspection be completed by a Porsche repair shop. However,  you should view the safety inspection as the minimum requirement for having a safe day out at the track with your Porsche.

When to Service Your Cayman for the Track

If you’re pottering around in the novice group at a track day, most of the standard maintenance service items on your Porsche are up to the job. Once you progress to more spirited driving in the advanced run groups, it’s quite easy to quickly exceed the performance of those standard service items, especially if you are running multiple track days in a season.

Maintenance Upgrade Recommendations for Race Track Driving

At this stage, it’s extremely important not only to complete a safety inspection, but also to radically speed up maintenance. For example, a brake fluid flush and oil change before each event is a sensible approach. Likewise, a spark plug change after two events will keep your engine running healthy under track conditions.

There are upgrades to standard maintenance Porsche Cayman 987  items that can help prevent over-driving. For example, Castrol SRF brake fluid will be far more durable than the standard brake fluid. There are better engine oil recommendations for the track versus the standard Mobil 1 factory refill. As your driving progresses, it’s also worth considering different brakes and tires. A specialist Porsche shop with track experience, can better help you understand the increased maintenance requirements for your car.