Thinking about doing an oil change on Saturday. How many darin points are there?

Thanks,
Jesse

 

i believe there are 4. from what i understand somewhat easy DIY project. pretty sure there is plenty out there in the archives about this DIY.

 

Both turbos have drain plugs, crankcase has one, and the oil tank has 1, that makes 4. You need crush washers for all 4 drain plugs, plus the small "o" ring that goes on the stem of the oil filter cartridge housing that inserts into the oil filter housing. You also need the filter and large "O" ring for the filter housing itself. The most expensive part excluding the filter is the little "o" ring for the stem of the filter housing. The oil tank when loosening the drain plug has to be biased in the counter direction. There is a hecx nut welded to the bottom of the tank that the hex drain plug screws into. The same goes when replacing the drain plug. This keeps one from torquing the the bottom of the oil tank. The washer for the oil tank is copper, the other three washers are aluminum.
when draining the oil tank, which is where the majority of the oil is, be sure your drain pan is close. Once you loosen the drain plug, it comes out super fast.

 

4. Look in the DIY thread at the top of this 996 Turbo section. There is a link to a really good DIY thread with pictures.

 

Does the dealer drain 4 point?

 

jesse - Ive heard mixed reviews on whether or not the dealer drains the turbos. On one hand, not all that much comes out - maybe a 1/3rd to 1/2 of a quart between the two of them. On the other hand, the plugs are there and very easy to access so why not use them.

Last, you may want to look at the filter housing as one more "drain" point. When you take the filter out, there is a decent amount of oil sitting in there. I use a Pela to vacuum it out - def worth doing IMO.

While Im no virtuoso w a wrench, I have to say this is a very easy and rewarding job to do yourself. You also have the satisfaction that its done right. Also, you know the extra precautions like pouring oil down the new filter was done.

 

An old turkey baster is also handy for getting oil out of the filter housing. Just be sure your wife has a newer turkey baster.

Some might wonder why I have a turkey baster in the tool box. Now you know.

 

You don't have to drain the turbos, but why put clean oil in and leave dirty oil behind. The crush washers are cheap. As it is the Gt1 engine does not drain 100%. So from my perspective, I get out as much as I can, and for the price of two aluminun crush washers it's a no brainer.

 

About draining the Turbos of oil: I asked about this at several Porsche dealer service departments and learned some drain the Turbos and some do not. My WAG is the majority of service departments do not drain the Turbos.

I asked a couple of techs why the drain was necessary in the first place since so little oil comes out and was told the idea was to verify oil came out and nearly equal amounts from each Turbo drain. My WAG is this was Porsche being overly cautious early in the car's life and as Porsche learned more about these cars it backed on this requirement to drain the Turbos.

BTW, I learned the other day when a Porsche is taken in for any warranty claim the SOP is to suck a huge amount of data out of the car's DME and send this off to Porsche. The tech told me that in some cases the data fills pages and pages of data. He said '20' when I asked how many pages of data. For the techs, for most of their diagnostics work just a page (or less) of data is all that is necessary. But the DME collects/reports a huge amount of other data besides the basic ODB2 data.

(FWIW, this came up because I had my Boxster in for a brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed the other day and for grins I requested a DME overrev readout and a query for the engine oil temp and pressure among other things. I wanted to see what the oil pressure was at say hot idle and at 3K rpms hot. No can do: The '02 Boxster does not support an oil pressure reading. But I saw oil temp, coolant temp, engine compartment temp, intake air temp, ambient air temp, converter temp (happened to remember this one: 405C), barometric pressure, camshaft angles, and some other stuff. Oh the tech didn't print out the DME overrev readout -- my mistake: that I wanted this printed out I didn't make clear to the service manager when I dropped the car off -- but from memory the tech told me there were no range 2 overrevs and not very many range 1 overrevs with the engine runtime in the 8400 hour range.)

Anyhow, when I do my Turbo's oil I drain both Turbos, the crankcase and oil tank and replace the filter. Messy. And really messy when draining the oil from the tank.

So while I've done my Turbo's oil/filter servicing I don't like to do it and most of the time let the dealer do it. I supply the oil. The dealer/service department gets to deal wtih the mess.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

When you drain the crankcase and oil tank are there also crush washers to replace? Also whats the total quarts used?

 

There are sealing washers (not crush washers) at the crankcase drain, the oil tank drain and the 2 Turbo drains. The sealing washers should not be reused.

The oil change instructions in the factory manual require the engine temp be 80C or at least hot enough to check the oil level using the instrument cluster oil level display.

The car must be level.

Allow the oil to drain for 20 minutes.

Always clean the drain plugs. Always replace the sealing rings. Be sure the sealing ring on the oil container is 2mm thick. Be sure to counter with a wrench when tightening the drain plug on the oil tank.

I trust you have the tightening torque values for the various drain plugs?

Slowly pour 7.8l (8.25 quarts) of oil into the oil container. Fill the engine slowly to allow the oil sufficient time to flow from the oil container to the crankcase.

Check the oil level using the instrument cluster oil level display. Seven segments must be displayed [lit] on the instrument cluster. The engine oil level must not exceed the seventh segment on the instrument cluster display.

The oil change quantity (without oil filter change) is approx. 7.8l (8.25 quarts) after a dripping time of 20 minutes.

With filter change the oil change quantity is 8.75 quarts so after putting in 7.8l (8.25 quarts) you may have to add a bit of oil to 'top off' the oil level to get the 7 segments.

When I change the oil I have the Turbo backed upon a Rhino Ramps and this doesn't seem to affect the amount of oil that drains out to any significant degree. I dump in 8.25 quarts slowly and wait a while then start the engine and move the car off the ramps and let the engine idle while I clean up, put tools away, etc.

Once the engine's hot enough to check the oil level I add more oil -- in small amounts -- until the 7 lower segments are lit.

Be sure you pay attention to the amount of oil you add as you sneak up on that 7 segment target. If you have to add more than 8.75 quarts the oil level sensor may be bad (though a tech told me he's only seen one bad one and it didn't give a reading at all).

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

I measured the amount of oil in both of my turbos when I did my first change and made the decision to never drain them again. The amount was negligable, especially given my oil change intervals and the amount of oil the 996TT holds... We're talking very minimal amounts of oil in those lines.

Mike

 

Mike:

You're right, there isn't much oil that comes out of the bottom of the turbos, but I would want to drain it just to get rid of any sludge or particulates that are holding in that small puddle. I have also gotten magnetic drain plugs for the turbos as well. It will be interesting to see if they catch any iron particles when I change the oil next time.

For the cost of the crush washers, $0.85 each, it's hard to come up with a reason to NOT drain the turbos as well, especially since that is the way that Porsche does the oil changes.

larry

 

On the volume. I added 8 quarts. Made sure I had pressure. Drove the car around the neighborhood to get up to temp. Checked the level, which was 1 bar above the min indicator, then added about 1/2 quart which got me to 1 bar below the max indicator.

 

Yep, that's basically what happened when I change my oil. I'm wondering how everyone fares with having to add more oil between changes. The indicator is now at about the midpoint on the measurement. That's after 3,000 miles of driving. So, I don't have to add oil in between changes. The car has 30,000 miles on it.

larry