zordinary

Brand new car. 2100 mile point, engine oil warning came on. I went to the dealership, they topped it off for me. They tell me its natural to have 3 oils before 10,000 mile mark, but my friend tells me his horror story of his Panamera's engines eating itself inside out (i know this is flat 6, but still gets me sometimes), and one of the signs was that it kept consuming engine oil like crazy.

Dealer told me they don't often see someone get oil this quick on a brand new car, but its still very possible according to guidelines. Is this true?

extanker

how much oil did they add ? are you checking it ? is this the same car you said it another post it does not have enough power /so i guess you are pushing the car a lot . i bought mine brands new and it used no oil between changes every year. did you check the oil when you first got the car ?

Macster

Engine oil consumption can vary. While I don't think it is "natural" for an engine to require topping up of its engine oil 3 times in 10K miles it is not unheard of. That's one quart (well, assuming oil is added when it is down one quart) every 3333 miles. One quart every 3333 miles ain't that bad.

How you use the car/run the engine plays a role in how much oil the engine uses. My info is lots of idling or at the other end lots of high RPMs can up oil consumption.

The maximum oil consumption numbers may be different for the newer cars but IIRC around 1 quart every 600 miles is still "ok". Granted more than one might be happy with.

If it is any consolation the engine is probably not burning oil because of excessive clearances but due to a less than efficient (as in it sucks) AOS (air oil separator). These don't work well under the best of circumstances and when they don't work well allow a lot of oil vapor to flow through and this of course gets directed to the intake manifold. High RPMs create a lot of oil vapor and well, there you are. Heavy oil consumption.

My advice is do an early oil/filter service. A new engine sheds lots of trash which is caught by the filter but I still feel better removing the oil and the filter and replacing both. Also, a new engine really experiences a lot of blowby and this contaminates the heck out of the oil, loads it with water and other combustion byproducts. No amount of filtering can remove these and draining and replacing is the only recourse.

With fresh oil then carefully in a very repeatable way note the oil level. Do not rely upon your memory but take notes, pics, do something so you have more than your memory to go on.

Check the oil level regularly and see just how much oil is being used and note too how you are using the car.

Also, relax. The car/engine has a 4 year, 50K mile warranty. If the engine is truly sick and I don't for a minute think this is the case it almost certainly will manifest symptoms and thus be addressed under warranty.

zordinary

Thank you for the informative insight! I feel much better after reading it. However scarily, just today the oil warning came on...AGAIN. And it's only been 1 thousand miles.

as for my driving habit, I only drive the car 3 to 5 times a week all of which are short city distance and RARELY even rev past 4 thousand RPM or even turn on sports mode. Maybe I'll have 30 seconds worth of engine going past 4 k rpm, and 20 minute of sports mode (not sports plus) in a week or two.
Theres no way this is abusive driving right? I'm pretty sure I'm barely even using the car. Yet it's telling me to get oil again in only 1 thousand mile since the last top off...

mjj0000

You are not abusing that engine. A typical track car sees more action in a single lap. My track car has turned 1000's of laps ... with the engine rarely below 4000 RPM for 20-30 minutes at a stretch.

zordinary

Read everyone's response and your own scenarios!
My car is now 8900km (last top up was at 6000) and it's at the minimum point for oil again, seems to be almost every 3000km on the dot.
My car is still under warranty, but im afraid that if there really is a problem, and it doesn't show up within warranty then I'll have a big bill on my hands later.

im brining it in this time to have a work order created and track the actual consumption. My deal tells me this is within the grey area of "nothing is wrong" and "ok maybe something is wrong".

problem is, I barely drive that hard, maybe AT MOST driving it hard for barely minutes at a time. The car has seen no track time either and I only rev it to higher end rpm if oils temperatures are up. So the "nothing is wrong to top it every 3000km if you drive it very hard" doesn't seem to apply to me which obviously makes me worry more.

althought I have to admit I did not bother breaking in the car and just drive it as I am right now. Regardless that is STILL under the condition that oils temps aren't cold and maybe only a minute or two at a time so I really really doubt that caused the issue either (can't be THAT fragile can it??)

Macster

Oil consumption appears to be high, at least a quart (maybe more if you wait to add oil when the oil level is down to the min line) every approx. 1800 miles. While not excessively high -- 1 quart every 600 miles I think is what Porsche considers "excessive" oil consumption, still oil consumption is a bit elevated and more of a concern possibly getting worse.

Also, the way you drive the doesn't appear to be the type that is condusive to high oil consumption.

Bring the car in and get something down on paper (work order) about your concerns about the oil consumption.

Even if the oil consumption is not yet excessive it doesn't hurt to in a disciplined manner chart the oil consumption and establish some kind of baseline then continue to monitor oil consumption.

Push for this with the dealer/service department. Be sure what is required of you is spelled out -- make notes -- and follow this to the letter.

If you slack off on this the dealer/service department will take this as a sign you aren't really as concerned as you let on to be and it makes it harder to get the dealer/service department to take you seriously the 2nd or subsequent times.

rusnak

In my opinion, you need to have the oil consumption documented by a Porsche authorized dealer. It would be foolish to assume there is no problem.

IMO, that is very high oil consumption and you should have a work order that states it.

Not trying to scare you, but for a brand new motor, that's high.