Boxster in my Future?

I've done a search and haven't really satisfied my issue yet... and maybe I can't right here. But here it is:

In February, I bought a 2009 (never titled) base Boxster that had 800 miles on it. The sales manager claims it was driven by the owner and himself, etc. But I suspect it may have been used some as a demo. When I bought the car, it was only 6 months old, but I arranged for them to change the oil. About 3,000 miles later the electronic oil indicator showed that I was down - it was about 1.4 quarts. So, I topped it off with Mobile One 0-40. About 700 miles later, it is now telling me it's down about a pint. There are no leaks - ground is clean under the engine where I park. Truth be told, I never confirmed that the dealer actually changed the oil, but I trusted that they did.

My question is, Does this level of oil use seem higher than average? I've read some posts that claim their Boxsters use more oil during the first several thousand miles, but then slows down the consumption. The car is now in winter storage, and I intend to have a complete oil/filter change in the spring when the car will be 1.5 years old, but with only 4K average use (some spirited, but no hard or tracking use) miles on it. Also, I rarely drive the car when it hasn't warmed up... drives are not short, start - drive - stop. This is my first Porsche, so I'm unsure if an oil change would really make any difference in consumption. I am getting a little concerned for obvious reasons. Thoughts?

Doug

No HTwo O

Doug, in the future, make sure you change the oil prior to winter hibernation.

drcollie

I've owned several Porsches and BMW motorcycles and the one thing they all have in common with those boxer engines (cylinders laying horizontal) is they blow a little oil when cold. Because of the nature of the engine design, boxer engines use a little oil. A pint every 1,000 miles or so certainly seems within the norm, especially if you're doing a lot of cold starts.

racer

Somewhere around 1qt/600 miles it can be sited as an issue at the dealer. IMHO, you've hardly broken out of the "break-in" phase. I would expect the car to continue to burn some oil but for the rate to decrease with time. 4K miles in nearly 2 years since built? go drive it more - who ya saving it for?

Also, it would be better to change the oil in the fall and again the the spring than to wait. I also believe that the modern Porsche's can be subjected to more "daily use" start stop use than the old aircooled cars that DID take a long time for the 10-12 qts of oil to heat up sufficiently. Plus, modern oils are much better than the older ones.

Boxster in my Future?

Thanks. I actually intended to do that, but our winter snows hit with little warning this year and I got stuck while in the garage - not likely to move out until March or April. I plan on changing it out of the box next year - and then will do every late fall before storage thereafter.

Doug

Boxster in my Future?

Thanks, Racer. That does help me feel better about this. And it's low miles 'cause I've only had the car for 8 driveable months! Next year? Road trip!

Doug

equ

Some oil use during the first several thousand miles has happened to almost all cars that I have purchased new. See if it still consumes with more than 10k on the clock.

BostonDuce

Change it to a 5W-40 or 5W-50.

Many oil 'discussion' threads in the turbo forums.

BD

No HTwo O

I agree with this.

Macster

There is a wide range of oil usage. Based on the owners manual (from memory) it can range from the high consumption of 1 quart per 600 miles to well no real measureable oil usage.

In the case of 1 quart per 600 miles as long as the engine is not exhibiting any problems my second hand info is Porsche will do nothing about this.

The oil consumption of your car's engine is not severe. And the engine probably is still not quite broken in. Lab and field tests have found that break-in can continue for thousands of miles (up to and even past 10K miles) for gasoline engines.

Also, how the car is driven plays a role. Lots of idling and of course high rpm driving and hitting high (above 4K) rpms then letting the car slow down on closed throttle all work to increase oil consumption.

I say stay on top of the oil level and note when and how much you have to add to see if the oil consumption stays the same (unlikely), gets worse (unlikely) or gets better (more likely).

If the oil consumption gets worse you stand a better chance of getting some help if you have accurately and in a disciplined manner documented the car's oil consumption.

Might add that I bought a used 03 Turbo with around 10K miles on it over a year ago and its engine's oil consumption was about a quart per 5K miles. Switching from Mobil 1 0w-40 to Mobil 1 5w-50 (not a typo: 5w-50) to Castrol Syntec 5w-50 didn't have any noticable effect on the engine's oil consumption.

Putting more miles on the engine not only driving it back and forth to work but taking it out on long (thousands of miles) road trips with some (ahem) spirited driving up mountain road grades and other situations has dropped the engine's oil consumption down to about a half a quart of oil in 5K miles.

And when the bulk of that 5K miles between oil changes consists of mainly highway driving (such as occured a week or so back when I drove nearly 5K miles over the span of a bit over a week's time) oil consumption is nil.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Boxster in my Future?

Thank you, Macster,

I went to my dealer to talk about this and was told pretty much the same thing you just said. They did tell me to expect consumption to decline, and also mentioned that if it drops a quart or so to just stop in and they would top it off. They seem pretty good about customer care, which is a nice breath of fresh air. Btw - - they also told me that the new Audi's are having similar issues as well.

Doug