I'd like to know too. Must be a good reason, but being able to check when cold would be more conveneient.

 

Because the 997.1 cars utilize an integrated dry sump system, the oil must be checked when the engine is not running. The 997.2 cars are tested much like the 911s from the past (including all GT3 engines and Turbos)--when running and stable. It's how they placed their pickup points.

 

I wait for an entire quart because I know that it will need it at some point and it's easier to keep track of oil consumption. There is no negative impact by allowing the oil to be down a quart--there's plenty of oil in the system.

 

Clueless question but: How many of the bars is a quart? When I check mine it is to the top of the bars. Sometimes it is down a bar. Rarely it is down two bars. When should I add oil and how much?

I too miss the dipstick.

 

The manual says each bar = approx .42 quarts. The difference between the minimum mark and maximum mark = 1.3 quarts. I know, it doesn't add up exactly. Rounding I guess....

 

Dan: was that also the case for the classics of the 70s and 80s? You had to check the dipstick at idle?

 

Yes--in the 1970s and 1980s those cars had what are clearly known as dry sump lubrication systems and engine oil was always checked, warm, level parking surface, and engine at idle.

 

Except then you could not top of your oil 'on the road' as needed without letting the car cool down a whole lot... so avoiding a 1-2 hr wait for cooldown is ok in my book.

 

Could someone please tell Porsche (and other manufacturers) to put a !@#$%$ regular dipstick back on their engines!!!!! Just another example of an electronic answer to a question no one asked.

Sorry about that, I feel better now.....

Cheers,
Joe

 

OK Guys.

Good news, I think, the "electronic dipstick" does malfunction (although rare apparently) and was the issue with my car. By stopping at 2 quarts I did the right thing and no other damage was found. I did an oil change and everything else on the car has checked out. Going to pick it up today. Curious to see how much of the bill Porsche picks up on warranty.

 

How can 'stopping at 2 quarts' be the right thing. If the oil level was fine, and the sensor failed and shows its low (without an oil sensor failure fault code)... then adding 1/2 a quart or 1 quart could have put the level over the top.

When the electronic sensor fails, you have no idea that it has failed in most cases, unless you know you had a good and full oil level when you parked the car and you start it to find the oil level way low but there isn't a big puddle of oil under the car. Otherwise, how would you know its a bad sensor?

A mechanical dipstick that at least shows when the oil level is near full or not would be handy... so that way you can physically verify what the electronic sensor is saying when it indicates the oil level is way low.

 

I would think that everyone would know their engines well enough to know roughly where their oil sits at any given time. For example, if your car takes little to no oil, then when you get a failure of the oil level sensor you will know immediately that it failed--and not when you are down 2 quarts. For example, my engine likes to use a quart every 1000 miles, I would immediately suspect something was wrong with the sensor if it told me that it was using either significantly more or less than that amount (barring any oil leak beneath the engine). In the back of everyone's mind, they should know roughly where their oil level is.

 

It only makes sense.

 

hi dan, dont the 997.2 also use integrated dry sump system too?

 

Yes, but an advanced one that makes sure the engine is never oil-starved. It just works!