I was changing oil today. added 7 qt, waited for it to rest, looked up meter - lowest segment blinks as expected, keeping in mind engine capacity is 8.5qt I add one more quart so total is 8, look up t meter - it lights up all bars, like overfilled. I ran engine a bit, let it rest for 30min, measure again - it shows all bars again. I do not get it. It cannot be overfilled, as if lowest bar blinks it cannot just take 1qt to light up all other bars, one bar is half qt and there are 4 bars there. WTF?

 

The measurement has finite precision and the display rounds off.

 

i am trying to find to what 1 bar should be equal to exactly but cannot find it...

well, at least 8qt poured in cannot overfill whole system, realistically. I do not want to drain it out as I already dumped old oil and cleaned up everything. imho the meter is wrong.

 

this happned to me.. i drained the car completly and added 8 quarts.. it had full bars.. dealership said it was fine. i drove it for 6000 miles and it finally dropped a bar.

 

odd stuff. well, if all 4 bars on a meter scale are in real just 1qt i will keep that in mind. i was almost positive it was supposed to be more than that. odd.
new oil in my car almost does not burn out at all. oil level starts dropping at events when oil gets quite old, that is when essentially i see if it about time to change it...

 

You are seeing the round-off display error and you are fine. Your true level is less than full but the display rounds it off. It may even drop one bar and would still be fine. Leave it as is.

 

whoever at Porsche who decided to depricate good old oil stick was an idiot. life would be much easier if we could always check real level with our own eyes and also see how oil looks like.

 

+1

 

I believe my owner's manual indicates that each bar is 0.4L. You may want to double check your manual.

 

The sensor has been known to either lose calibration or go bad.
A dealer or indy can reset it.

 

that`s what i said - about of half qt per bar. 0.422 qt to be exact.
anyway, obviously meter is less than perfect. i`ll just take it for granted.

 

"Overfill" can be as little as .25 qt or less with digital intervals. Also remember it is impossible to drain the system w/o there being a residual amount of oil left behind. Trust your instincts here and drive it off.

 

utkinpol, i notice this too when i am changing oil - i only get out about a little less than 8qts out, then 8 back in, but the meter will then indicate full. so if capacity if 8.5, is 0.5 qt "stuck" somewhere in the engine and does not drain out? (i'm assuming this is normal and it's impossible to get every single drop out, but just thought i'd ask.)