[Sniff]

I was just on the phone with one of the independents here in the DC area to discuss getting some service done on my 997.1 C4S. He recommended as a precautionary measure that they download my oil sump pan and inspect the underside of the engine (cost = $240). I asked what for? After all, my engine is running fine (17K miles on a 2006 model) and this task is completely unrelated to the service we were discussing. He said there were too many things to get into over the phone, but he did say quite a few people could have averted costly engine repairs by doing this inspection early on. It also didn't matter if the car was running fine.

Anyone know what he is talking about? Have any of you been told something similar? I haven't heard of such a thing in all my time on these forums (could it be IMS and/or RMS related?). I've never used this shop before (been in DC for only 10 months), so there is no long-standing relationship here.