OK Bear with me here... I love driving my 911 but I'm new to serious cars and driving, so here are a couple of dumb questions from an overprotective owner

Question 1) I've had my 997.2 S PDK for 4 months / 1500 miles now.. still love it as much as I did the 1st day off the lot :-) . I bought it used with about 7k miles (dealer driven car) so it was already broken in.

I just took it on a 900 mile round trip out of state, and 400 miles in, the "check oil level, it's low" (forget wording) message came on. I then ran the computerized oil level check, and it was below acceptable (it was at the lowest of the 5 levels... the 3 middle levels are all in the acceptable range). Also at 5k RPM the pressure was only 3 bar (the manual said it should be 3.5 bar minimum at this rev range).

The manual said only add .5 qt at a time, so I added a half quart (then checked, still low), added another half quart (still low!), and finally the third half quart put it into the lowest of the 3 "acceptable" levels. Now at 5k RPM it was above 4 bar so everything seemed OK. The drive home was fine. The car never smoked or drove funny at any point or anything.

Is it normal to need to add 1.5 qts of oil for 1500 miles? I definitely fit into the "spirited driving" driver category (lots of Sport Plus mode, shifting at 6k RPMs, etc., I even did an autocross day in Sep.). I read on another thread that 1 quart per every 1,000 miles is in the "acceptable" range of what a 911 should burn but since the car is a 2009 year model just wanted to make sure everything was normal with it burning this much oil.

Question 2) After I drive the car (anything beyond 3 or 4 miles) there's often a faint "burnt rubber" smell when I get out. Is this the brakes or clutch or tires or something else?? And is it normal ?

Thanks in advance for the knowledgeable 6speeder answers!

 

Some boxer engines use more oil than others. A quart/1k miles seems to be the average for those who use oil. Oil usage tends to decrease as the engine ages. Oil consumption is known to come down up to 50k miles.

 

I agree with adias regarding the oil consumption and don't see it as anything to be really worried about. And I'll be following this thread to find out about the faint burnt rubber smell you mentioned. I have that periodically, as well, and have no clue as to what it is.

 

The "burnt rubber smell" or "burnt clutch smell" as some have described it is this compound (someone else will have to chime in with the name) Porsche puts on their engines after completion. It is supposed to burn off after a while. However, I can still smell it from time to time and I have about 13K miles on my 997.1S.

Funny note: I have a copy of my cars full maintenance history and the original owner took the car to the dealer two times because he thought their was something wrong with the clutch due to the smell.

Jason

 

Cosmoline ?

 

guaged by the amount of "soot" on my exhaust tips... would guess my engine burns through oil at a similar rate....

 

that's probably just gas from the engine running rich.

 

Bingo! thanks Larry....

Jason

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmoline this stuff? it's the stuff I'm smelling??

 

Yep, apparently Porsche puts it all over the engine after completion. When I first purchaed my car used with about 8K miles on it I would smell it pretty much anytime I drove. I thought it was the clutch like the previous owner though. However, after readin some info on the forums about it I realized it must be the cosmoline.

I still smell it from time to but usually only after longer drives.

Jason

 

Cool -- so the 1 quart oil burnt per 1k miles , and the burnt rubber smell after driving, are both A-OK. :-)

Thanks guys!