sandwedge

That's one of my questions for the service manager next week. Like Carrera Mike said, maybe my gage needs to be recalibrated but I still don't get all the alarm over the light coming on. At a minimum, it seems like there's still 6 quarts left by the time the check oil level light is triggered. I put 2 quarts in after the light came on and although the first quart did nothing to the reading, the second quart brought it to between full and one bar low readings over the past two days. If the light is supposed to come on when 1.3 quarts low, then my light must be about a quart late. Again, if that's the case it still leaves a 6 to 7 quart cushion. Assuming that a gage indicating full really means full.

simsgw

That isn't what the message means though. See earlier.

G

sandwedge

I hope you're misguided about this but if you're not then Porsche screwed up too imo since the "check oil" message needs to be accompanied by an "engine damage in progress" message. Please help me understand how the engine can be starved for oil with - no matter how we slice this up - at least 5 or 6 quarts left onboard.

Oil pressure stayed strong while driving home with the check oil light on and 2 quarts brought it to near full suggesting I had at least 6 and probably close to 7 quarts in the sump despite the warning light. Unless of course....full on the gage really doesn't mean full just like almost empty doesn't mean almost empty....or, who knows. As someone suggested earlier, the only way to find out what's actually in there is to drain and measure. My $300 lawn mower came with a better system.

Mike in CA

5 or 6 quarts seems like a lot especially since many cars only require 4 or 5 quarts total. However, it depends on the design of the engine and it's lubrication system. Obviously all that oil is not just sitting in the sump; a significant volume is being circulated throughout the engine, the oil coolers, filter, pumps etc. Plus there needs to be enough oil remaining for the oil pickups to be able to ingest oil during all type of driving situations including hard cornering. At some point, there will be an inadequate amount of oil to meet all of these criteria. No doubt there is a margin of safety built into the design but in an engine that's designed to hold 8 or 9 quarts of oil, being 2-4 quarts low is eventually going to be a significant problem, especially if the car is driven hard.

simsgw

As Mike said. Just so.

Gary

sandwedge

You've made your points and I've made mine. The arbitrator here will be the techs at Suncoast in Sarasota where I'm taking the car this week for the fuel pump recall and maybe an engine rebuild going by some of the comments here. I'll get their take on this and will report back.

Mike in CA

Not trying to make any "points" Sandwedge; you asked how there could be a problem while still having 5 or 6 quarts in the engine and I tried to explain. Like I said, there is no doubt a margin of safety built into the oil capacity of these engines, and I'm not suggesting you will require a rebuild. OTOH, I wouldn't recommend taking your car to the track down 2-3 quarts of oil and I doubt Porsche would either. Good luck at Suncoast.

simsgw

Well, we get that you're upset, Sandwedge. This conveyed that feeling:

But I honestly think you won't find us misguided. Mike and I are just quoting the owner's manual and some maintenance docs that describe the reasons the manual says what it says. Nor is the system design defective. It's probably the most sophisticated system of its kind I've ever seen on a consumer product.

You do need to read the instructions though. Waiting until the light comes on is a tempting approach, but I can't recommend it. As I mentioned once before, I destroyed a German engine that way myself. It was 48 years and the car was an even older VW, but still. It wasn't a lesson you forget. Come to think of it, Zuffenhausen probably never forgot those early years either. Maybe that's why the current system is triply redundant. But they still rely on the owner reading the instructions. Sorry.

Gary

jhbrennan

I don’t have any experience with the DFI engines but a couple of comments:

1) I think Porsche now says usage of a quart every 600 miles is OK so something must be wrong (obviously) with the engine or the measuring devices for your car to use so much oil in a short period of time. I’m sure you didn’t go 600 miles without checking the oil.

2) Since each bar is about 0.4l, when my oil is low I always add in 0.4l increments. Even with the bottom bar showing you should only need to add a quart to get back to normal + maybe another 0.4l. In fact with such a large oil capacity, I don’t recommend topping off to just add a bar. On my M5 it often took 100 miles of driving before its electronic measuring system registered any added oil. Adding two quarts with this electronic measuring system is asking for an overfill situation.

Will be interested to hear the results of the service diagnostics. Hope it’s not a real problem.

sandwedge

If expressing the preference of a dipstick over an electronic system that displays bars on the dash makes me "upset" then there's a fair amount of upset people around here. I'm hardly the first one to make that comment.

I never said either you or Mike were misguided. This is what I said: I hope you're misguided about this but if you're not.....
https://rennlist.com/forums/8894673-post18.html

In other words, I didn't call you misguided. I hoped you were misguided for obvious reasons but left the door open. Can we stay on point please?

simsgw

No, I understood. I didn't think you were calling us anything, just hoping we were wrong. We aren't, but I don't think you need to worry about it either. As Mike said, and I agreed, the system will have a margin of safety built in. It's very unlikely you damaged the engine and I certainly hope that isn't the case.

Gary

rijowysock

what i always did was come home, park in level garage, turn engine off... wait 5 mins and go out crank up and check... that was always most accurate.

i had the light come on twice and the first time i added oil all weird and was checking at diff temps and so forth and i was confused...

the second time i added .5L, drove 5 mins... parked... waited the 5 mins... checked and then added another .5L... and so forth... i could see it register and then added up to the top as it should be.

problem is the reading means totally diff things depending when it is checked and so forth.... so u gotta check it the same way to make sure your getting accurate readings..

the .2 oil level is very bizarre, but once you learn the kinks, it makes more sense.

Zeus993

Hmmmm... I had the Check Oil light come on, freaked out, put some oil in, and never had a problem. I now checked it about once a week, when I can remember. Yawn. Don't worry about it Sandwedege. I agree with you on the dipstick being a better, more analog, option. Let us know what the dealer says. I suspect it will be a rather vanilla explaination despite some of the peppery opinions here.

Minok

But a garage floor isn't level.. it is pitched toward the garage doors slightly.

What that does to the readings I don't know. The important part is to have a repeatable situation.

I check my oil in my garage as well... when I'm refilling. I check it every few months.

jhbrennan

How many miles do you drive in those few months?