You could also try adding the fluorescent dye to your oil and look for the leaks yourself under black light.

I'm interested in your findings seeing as I also drive that gen. GTS.

 

Quick Update - local dealer pulled the engine and has replaced the front seal, lower oil pan (the gasket is integral to the pan), valve cover gaskets, rear seal (my suggestion and cost), and some other various gaskets and seals. Appears as if they are taking the matter pretty seriously. Its been 3+ weeks and I hope to get the car back perhaps at the end of the week. A little insane if you ask me. Glad I paid up for the extended warranty when I bought the car. Not looking forward to it expiring though.

 

Did you go to your usual dealer? I am sure the are taking it seriously because all it takes is you working on spreading the work about Porsche and that particular dealer to potentially drive away business, or even better file a lawsuit against them. Glad to hear you are moving in a positive direction.

 

It's a twin turbo, OP. They get insanely hot while driving. And, seeing you live in semi-steamy Texas....the heat soak of these engines is legendary. I had a twin turbo Audi and the damn thing leaked everything(I live in purgatory - Palm Springs, CA). The car was dying, at nearly 200k. I had to cut my future losses and trade her in....

 

I hope you get a full diagnostic report and all that was done. I am still interested so if you would be able to post your results for the crowd I, and I'm sure others, would appreciate it.

 

Things arent going so well. Picked up the car wednesday night at the dealer. >$6,000 of repairs of which only a small portion was for my account. I did a once over and checked the oil level. All good. Drove to work thursday and on way back home, got the check oil level warning. Pulled over and no oil on dipstick....WTF. I had some oil which I added to get the car the couple remaining miles home. Didn't have a chance to see where all the oil went (ground or coolant/radiator) but plan on doing so this weekend. Have been in touch with local Porsche service manager who wants to pick up the car but I am reluctant until I can see what happened with my own eyes. Starting to review my options...1. New engine in Cayenne or 2. Get a new car. Any idea on how much damage is done once a Cayenne GTS (not turbo) motor reaches the level whereas the low oil level light comes on? This is quickly turning into one of those nightmares scenarios.

 

Sounds to me like you need a new vehicle. After 6 grand worth of repairs and it doesnt fix the problem I would make it the dealers problem to fix it for free no matter what their cost.

 

The low oil warning light is to warn you of.. low oil. When it comes on, unless there was a catastrophic leak, if you shut the engine down, you haven't done any damage. If you lost all the oil, you'd lose oil pressure and that would cause engine damage.


You added how much to see oil on the stick? The engine takes 9 quarts of oil (2+ gallons) so chances are you'd notice if it all leaked out. If you checked the oil level at the dipstick immediately after shutting the engine down, there might still have been oil up high in the engine that hadn't drained back to the sump yet. You should wait about 5 minutes before checking the level.


Putting a new engine in it isn't practical unless you're very rich, the warranty company isn't going to pay $16-20k for replacing an engine that still runs.


At this point - it would be worth pulling the belly pan (diaper) to see if there is oil sitting in it. Be careful dropping it - it can probably hold 3 quarts of oil before it starts leaking out. And you may want to have the problem looked at by an independent mechanic who can help you document what's happening in case you want to pursue the dealer for a remedy.

 

+1 on this man great advice same thing happend to me after a repair I added a quart, light when off no need to worry man all is well with your car....if it didnt have any oil like stated before your motor would shut off and possible seize

 

A quart of oil was able to get the level back up onto the lower third of the dipstick and turn off the warning light. I will poke around the engine / belly pan tomorrow to try to establish where the oil went. If its leaking around the seals again, I will definitely have an independent document it.

The Service Manager and Lead Mechanic called me later in day with theory about an air/oil separator malfunction. Who knows...

If the engine hasn't been damaged in any way from these various leaks, then I don't have much to worry about other than to find the problem and have it repaired correctly. If there is damage, then an engine replacement for $15k (Suncoast estimate)+ install fee may be worth it to me. Overall its been great car suiting all my needs. The cost of a replacement engine is comparable to the cost of extending the warranty for several years. Additionally, the cost of a new engine is certainly quite a bit less than a new car. I don't have any preconceived notions that the warranty company would pay for any of the replacement costs.

Thanks for everyones helpful advice. Will keep everyone updated on how the saga unfolds.

 

No damage man the mechanic didnt do a proper road test and top it off thats exactly what happend. you just topped it off there isnt a leak....there was a leak, so they drained every part imaginable bone dry so no oil in your motor after the repair they added what is "recomended" checked for leaks and thats that.....You picked it up prob romped on it a bit which you should its a porsche and it consumed some oil. Then topping it off fixed the warning light issue. These motors consume oil simple as that. you will see a spot of oil on the ground if its leaking you shouldnt have to take the belly pan off. Go over the work order and make sure they replaced every gasket and that will tell you.

 

Mine consumes NO oil between changes (10,000 miles usually.) The level doesn't change. Currently at 83,000 miles and have never added any oil between changes.


Turbos apparently do consume some oil - which is captured by the oil separator and sent to the intake to be burned with the fuel mixture. Probably due to the higher effective compression there is likely more blowby on a turbo, which will tend to pressurize the crankcase.


A GTS is a non-turbo IIRC.


The reason for dropping the belly pan is it is designed to meet EPA rules that require it to keep spilled fluids from reaching the ground. It has a capacity of several quarts before oil will overflow from it. Of course you could always drill a hole in it at the lowest spot - then any leaks will be immediately visible.

 

Fair enough about the belly pan didn't know we were getting so technical. All I meant was this was a complete drainage of the system. He put a quart in and it registered meaning the mechanic didn't top it off after a test drive. Of course drop the belly pan if you want to inspect for leaks

 

Same...Never had to add any oil between oil changes, and GTS is NA (non-turbo). Only have about 50k miles though.

 

Spent some time under the car this morning and took off the various belly pans. (The belly pans on this model are flat and not designed to contain any oil) There are traces of oil on the driver side on the A/C compressor, the lower control arm and on the belly pans. After a fair amount of time with a flashlight, it was still too difficult to see where the oil might be originating from. The amount of oil that I observed did not look like an amount which would leak 1+ quart in <100 miles. I ran the car at idle for 4-5 minutes while on the ramps but did not see any oil leak onto the driveway. Perhaps it would be different at higher rpms.

I unscrewed the coolant overflow and didn't notice any oil in the coolant.

I checked the tailpipes and noted a lot of carbon residue but not oily.

At this point I guess I will return it to the dealer and let them inspect the leak and also have them replace the Air/Oil separator (That was their new hypothesis on friday afternoon)

I am pretty certain that they did numerous test drives on the engine after they installed it as they told me there was a drift to the right and that they needed to work on the alignment. After they reinstalled the engine, they did have interference between a radiator hose and a pulley whereby they lost coolant and had to replace the hose. When I picked up the car, the oil level was midway on the stick. Also when I picked up the car, I did notice that they appeared to have wiped the ECM memory as the accelerator pedal had to re-synch and the car seemed to be relearning. Not sure whey they would wipe the ECM after changing out a radiator hose. While the car appeared to be relearning, it was pretty sluggish in normal and sport mode. It was getting better within 24 hours.