Eman_9582

So it's been a while since I last checked the oil level in my car, mostly because by the time I've parked it i forget to take a look. And when I remember to check, its not ready.
Anyway today I checked it after it sat about 4 hours, temperature was about 120F but it still gave me a reading, except it was showing about 1.5qt below minimum. I thought maybe it was due to the low temperature so I took a 10min drive and then parked, waited a couple minutes and checked, it still said low. I started looking up the procedure and I read that it resets when the hood is opened, so I popped the hood and then checked again after a minute or two and the level had gone back up to the green.

Initial check after my drive, it says 1.5qt low

About 1min later, after popping hood

This level is still lower than what I had measured a while back though - compared to a photo from Dec 5 when I thought there was an oil leak (turned out to be a messy oil change)

This was about 1.5k miles after oil change

Right now I'm confused because I don't know if the engine is burning oil or if I'm just reading at the wrong time. I noticed it went up a bit more after I took the second photo from today so maybe I just need to wait longer? But it didn't take this long before so I'm suspecting oil consumption.

What do you guys think? If it's consumption, is this a normal rate for the VR6?

Eman_9582

Update: 20min after the last check


Looks like it's gone up a bit more. Still not at the max like before though.

KBell

What is the mileage of your Cayenne?
If you have a couple hundred thousand miles; than, yes. This will be expected.
Engines wear out.
Oil level sensor?
Wore out engine?

Eman_9582

its only about 87k miles, not even 100k yet. History also shows good oil changes and no issues other than the transfer case.

mdistel

Make sure your PCV isn't torn, that leads to oil in the intake. Listen at the back of the engine for a noise, there is a square box on the valve cover with a hole. Covee the hole and see if the noise changes. These engines are not know to consume oil. Also make sure the valve cover gasket isn't leaking at the back.

Mark

Eman_9582

Thanks for the suggestions, I just checked both this morning. The engine idle didn't change when I blocked the pinhole. I also don't see any signs of oil leaking and there's nothing on the garage floor.

Other thing I looked at was the exhaust, apparently it's supposed to be blueish if it's burning oil, it didn't look that way, actually I didn't see much coming out except for the a little bit at cold start. There was a hint of gasoline then but after that it smells like water burning off of metal - it's a familiar odor from my Navy days working in the steam room.

I'm at the shop right now for an oil change and I'll see what they say after their inspection. Figured I might as well reset everything and start monitoring. This may be wishful thinking, but all signs point to the oil level sensor or something electrical right now. I ordered a dipstick so I'll have something to compare.