figure1a

So we all know that the Cayenne Turbo consumes a good amount of oil. I myself add about a quart every 3000 miles. My question is is the engine burning this oil or is the Turbo doing something with it? I think I've seen some posts where people attributed the actual Turbo being the culprit (of course I can't find those posts now). And then I even saw one post where a newby was asking about all the oil his Turbo was burning and someone responded that it was normal and "happy cleaning". Does oil leak or get expelled by the turbo? I looked under my chassis and I do have light oil residue under it—is that normal?

deilenberger

Actually - we ALL don't know that. Mine made it from NJ to California, then back to NJ - and used less than 250cc's of oil. That was about a 7,500 mile trip with LOTS of high-speed driving (cruising at 100 wasn't unusual in a few states..)

If you have excessive oil use - chances are excellent that your crankcase-breather/oil-separator hasn't been replaced by Porsche. It's used to return oil to the crankcase as the fumes from the crankcase are fed into the intake and burned. The original ones had a design defect that made them pass a lot of oil vapor to the engine's intake.

I have all the service records on my '11 CTT - and the first owner regularly took it to the dealer because they had an "oil low" warning light coming on. The dealer faithfully topped it up - typically about 1 quart. This happened every 500-600 miles for the first 2 years the first owner owned the CTT. In the 3rd year - there was a service campaign by Porsche to replace the oil separator. The car never went to the dealer for oil after that.

I have owned it for 2 years - and about 20,000 miles. I've added less than 1 quart to it in that time.

The answer to your question is - the engine IS burning it - via the intake. That isn't really a good thing since with direct injection no fuel reaches the back of the intake valves and they will get badly carboned up due to the oil vapor.

Since you didn't mention the year of your CTT - I can only guess that it falls under the range that the workshop campaign addressed. Sometimes a manufacturer will perform the campaign even on vehicles out of warranty for free - other times - you may end up paying to have it done.

I'll also ask the moderator to move this to the 958 subforum where it belongs..

figure1a

Thanks for the info. It's a 2013. It actually went in today for tires and the dealer said there were no active recalls on my car so I'm thinking the crankcase-breather/oil-separator has been replaced if the 13s didn't already come with the new setup.

Still trying to figure out what the other guy meant about "happy cleaning".

CarGuyNVA

Sorry, just not buying that as a blanket statement. I've had two CTTs, a 957 and now my 958. 957 didn't have any issues with oil consumption, no matter how it was driven or the conditions.

My 958 CTT had the campaign completed early on for the oil separator thingie and hasn't had any oil consumption issues either.

I know the 958 owner's manual makes some mention of oil consumption stating that some amount of oil consumption is normal depending on various factors, and can be more significant during the new vehicle break-in period (I seem to recall the 957 owner's manual was even more detailed about this).

If you have one exhibiting really significant consumption, something's up and it may be that the campaign mentioned in deilenberger's post (and the one I also mentioned above) has not been performed. Or some other issue perhaps?

figure1a

Good to know. It's funny because on most other posts everyone always says "Oh yeah the Turbos burn oil. Get used to it." Sounds like that is not so. But it also sounds/looks like I have a small leak/seep somewhere on mine.

deilenberger

2013 would be right about when the revised breather was released. I'd check with Porsche. Recalls and Workshop Campaigns are not the same thing, and aren't even in the same database. If he looked in the recall database - the workshop campaigns won't show up. Ask them to check WB-29 against your VIN#.

I did dig though my records - the notation on changing the oil separator was done as a warranty issue on 4/13. The reason given was "Defective, causing high oil consumption.."

Good luck!

CarGuyNVA

And the recall was performed on mine 4 March 2013, ticket states... 'Perform Open Recall WC55" "Performed Recall: Replace Air/Oil Separator", hope this info helps you.

deilenberger

http://www.carproblemzoo.com/tsb/por...yenneturbo.php

Tell the dealer to provide proof that WC-55 was performed. Note that it is a workshop-campaign, so it doesn't have the mandatory quality that a NHTSA Recall Notice does. It should be covered under the emissions warranty provided the vehicle has less than 70,000 miles on it (80,000 in some states.)

figure1a

Porsche San Diego ran my VIN today and said my car was not part of that campaign. Thanks for all the info.

deilenberger

I'd call Porsche in Atlanta and ask them, specifically referencing WC-55. It's possible if the dealer uses the recall database that a workshop-campaign may not show up. I know in WC-22 (Variocam problem), they have to search a database specific to that WC.

GVA-SFO

Very interesting !
I did not know about the campaign WC-55 !
What I know is that our 2011 CTT, that we had for long time, up to 105'000 miles was drinking about a quart every 8 or 10 k miles.
Since some time, we have a 2016 CTT, (got it at 21k miles) that get one quart for 1'000 miles or less !
I'm very curious about the path of this oil ? This should be quite bad for the catalytic converters !
Is this clear sign that air/oil sep. is not in good shape ?
Can a 2016 be in the WC-55 campaign ?

DrBillyD

Have a 2014 CTTS with almost 50K miles. I'm the second owner, and acquired it almost new (under 2K miles).

When I first got it, I was pretty obsessive about keeping the oil level completely topped up. Noticed that oil level slowly decreased, as in maybe 1 "bar" on the gauge every 2K miles, and I'd top it off. One "bar" on the gauge was less than half a quart.

Anyway, after a year or two of doing this, a combination of laziness and fatigue at doing the top off kicked in and I just decided to let it go and see how long it took to get to zero "bars" on the oil gauge. N.B. I wasn't planning to let the crankcase oil run completely out as even zero "bars" is about a quart below maximum fill level. So as usual, the oil level drops a bar about about 2K miles, then drops another bar after another 2K miles or so, then.... it stops dropping. This is a consistent pattern on my vehicle as ever since then, after an oil change (when it's topped up), I let it go down and it seems to stabilize at 2 "bars" down on the gauge. Not saying *all* Cayennes are like this; just thought it was an interesting observation. So now I just leave it and focus my obsessive tendencies elsewhere.

Another thing I've noticed is that if I haven't stomped on the accelerator in a while, there's usually a brief puff of grey-white smoke out the exhaust when I do. I've heard that oil will collect in the low point of the turbo inlet plumbing so I assume this smoke is that oil being vaporized and burned when there's a WOT after not having done it for a while. No performance issues otherwise, and it doesn't routinely spew grey-white smoke.

PCinDC

My '14 CTTS consumes about a quart of oil every 2500-3000 miles. Seemed excessive to me, but when I looked it up, it sounded like it was a common issue on these vehicles. Is there a way for a home mechanic to visually confirm whether or not the AOS has been replaced? I am planning to change the oil on it next weekend.

deilenberger

Paul,

Your 2014 has the new AOS - it was introduced late 2011 or early 2012.

RAudi Driver

My 2011 Turbo burns no oil. Never has. Motul