Weird Oil Reading: Part II - 6SpeedOnline - Porsche Forum and Luxury Car Resource

Aug 31, 2010 | 01:51 PM

PTParks

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Weird Oil Reading: Part II

I posted earlier about a unusal (at the time) "check engine oil level" warning that turned up last week. I had the oil changed by a recommended independent Porache shop a couple of months ago and everything seems fine after everything was buttoned up. Oil level readout was right at the top mark. What adds to the mystery is I had driven the car on several occasions since the oil change with no warnings prior to this one. Now suddenly it was reading completely (over) full.

Since I now didn't trust the readout I had no real way to know exactly how much oil I had in the car (oil temp and pressure were always good), so I took it to the dealer. They confirmed with their diagnosic "black box" that the oil level sensor reading was correct and I was probably a quart or so over. The technician drained out the excess via the oil filter housing and then topped it off to the top line on the readout. Reads fine now.

Seems that the DFI engines are very easy to overfill as they are very particular about being level while the oil is draining. The shop changed the oil with the car on a lift and let it drain for quite a while, but didn't think it was necessary to break out the laser levels. Live and learn.

So, what exactly is the correct procedure to change the oil on a DFI engine without overfilling it?

Sep 8, 2010 | 06:09 PM

putput6

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1234

Last edited by putput6; May 28, 2012 at 04:19 PM.

Sep 9, 2010 | 09:34 AM

Gpjli

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Quote:

Originally Posted by putput6

While the oil capacities are nearly the same, less oil drains from the new DFI 911 engines during an oil change. Porsche states that about 7.5L of oil is changed during an oil change for the DFI engines. Earlier 997 and 996 cars on the other hand generally require about 8.5L of oil. This has caught a lot of techs off guard. If you're changing your own oil, your best bet is to start with say 6qts, start the engine and let it warm up, then add oil little by little, rechecking the oil level each time until you're reading good on the indicator.

Interesting. So now we have sludge buildup and the inability to do a complete oil change. Leaving 1.5 qts of dirty oil behind can't be a good thing if that is indeed the case. I have yet to hear of an engine failure. That certainly is good news. Long term reliability remains to be seen.