987 Cayman S - Oil top up

Hi all, Before I set off for a long journey this morning I got a check oil warning message. So I drove to my local garage and picked up a 1 litre top up. I added this to the car and the message went away. After I got back from my journey I added another 1 litre when the engine was cold. So, in theory I had the minimum oil level in the car before I added a further 2 litres. It now shows full bars on the gauge, but I believe that to be an inaccurate reading. When do you think the Cayman will show an accurate reading? I’m nervous about having too much oil in the car and blowing my AOS again. Your thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome.

Let's review the sequence: 1 - You got a check oil message. Did you check the oil level? 2 - You added 1 liter of oil. The message went away. 3 - You drove your long journey and when you returned you added another 1 liter of oil. 4 - You've now checked the oil level using the gauge and it's showing "full bars" - meaning right to the top. 5 - You believe the reading is inaccurate and are afraid of blowing up the AOS due to overfill? I'd be a bit concerned. Just for future reference - before adding oil to the vehicle it's always worth checking the level of the oil as the gauge displays it. If any oil is showing in the gauge and a warning message is appearing - the level must be very close to the minimum. At that point - bringing it up to the "full" segment (the top-full-size segment) will require roughly 750cc or so. Adding a full liter may have overfilled it a bit, not enough that it would greatly concern me unless it smoked on startup or hard acceleration. Adding yet another full liter does concern me - it's very likely overfilled, probably not enough to damage the engine, but enough to be concerned. And the problem is - due to the design of the oil gauge you can't tell how much overfilled it is. What to do? Well - what does the gauge show now? You said full bars - does that include the small bar above the 3 normal size ones? Here is what the Porsche Club of America had to say about checking the oil: PCA website states: "Your car needs to be on level ground. This means flat and not a hill or incline. The reason you have to read your manual is to find out whether you can check your oil when the engine is at operating temperature or cold. Again, you need to read the manual as far as whether the car must be running or turned off to check the oil. As an example, on the 2005-2008 Boxster/Cayman, the engine should be cold and checked before starting it for the shortest wait time (at operating temperature, the engine will wait five minutes before giving an oil level readout). On the 2009-2011 Boxster, it is checked with the engine warm and while it’s idling. On the 2012-2016 Boxster, it’s checked with the engine warm but only one minute after you’ve turned the engine off. " One very important thing - the first statement. "Your car needs to be on level ground" - THAT'S important. The oil will move away from the oil sensor if it's parked nose up and toward the sensor if it's parked nose down (based on the oil pans I've seen.) The sensor is not in the middle of the pan. SO any tilt in the car will change the reading. Personally - I check mine in my garage in the same spot consistently. Doing that seems to result in repeatable readings. They then mention the difference in reading techniques between the 987.1 and 987.2 series cars. You're lucky - you have a .1 car - and the reading can be done with the engine cold, meaning if you park it in the same place, and that place is flat and level - it makes sense to check it before starting the engine (while the engine is cold.) SO - if you do that - and it's still showing FULL UP - ALL the boxes filled - you are likely at least a bit overfilled. We don't know how much since we don't know what the level was after you put in the first liter of oil. (borrowed from another thread here..) What you see above is about ideal. Anywhere between the two up/down arrows is where you want it. SO - how do you get it to that level? You probably have to drain some oil out. There are two basic ways to do that - one is to open the drain plug with a clean container to catch the oil and take out say 500cc or so. It will ALL want to come out so this is sort of messy, no way to avoid getting oil all over the place putting the drain plug back in. Then you'd check your oil level with the gauge and hopefully the level would be between the 2 marks. If it's below the bottom mark, you could add back some of the oil you have in your clean container back into the engine. Then check again. The second technique is to remove the oil filter/housing, and drain the oil out of it - and reinstall. This removes perhaps 1/2 liter each time you do it. The advantage is it's a lot less messy if you're careful. You do want a drain pain under the thing just in case - but usually it can be done without oil covering the entire world. Once you've drainted that oil from the filter-housing reinstall the housing (with the filter) and briefly start the engine - just long enough for the housing to refill (less than 1 minute). Then you can check the level again and hope it's within the permitted zone. If it's still high - repeat until it isn't. Good luck with this.. I'd attend to it before anything is damaged by too high an oil level..

Many thanks for your detailed response. The chap who sold me the 1 litre top up said the car can take up to 7 litres of oil, so when I added the 2nd litre I had in my mind that it would be just over halfway (I was guessing). Clearly thats not the case, but I will check it in the morning and see where it is. I always check the oil on flat ground. Thanks again. Worst case scenario I’m going to have to drain out some oil, but unlike some I don’t have a garage which is annoying.

The chap who told you this did you a disservice. Yes - it can take in excess of 7 liters (mine is about 7.5L) but only after the engine is drained of oil. The low oil warning turns on WAY before that - I suspect perhaps if you're down just a bit over 1 liter. At this point, since you don't have a good place to work on it - it might be worth taking it to a qualified shop and having them address the oil level. Since we have no idea if, or by how much your oil is high - I'd attend to it ASAP so it doesn't get sucked up into the intake and make things go really wrong.

It’s now on my priority list for Sunday. I don’t particularly want to get under the car unless I really have to. Heres a thought, can I just syphon oil out from where it got added? How far is the sump from the back of the car? If this is not possible I might just take off the filter a few times, but I think I need a special tool for that unless I’m wrong. Thanks again 👍🏻

Sorry - no, you can't siphon it out. It's a long circuitous path from the filler hole in the trunk area to the actual sump in the engine. And yes - you need at least a big wrench for the filter housing, although I'd suggest a made to fit filter wrench/socket. It doesn't have to be from Porsche (meaning it will be 10x cheaper..)

You can't reach the oil from the entry point. You obviously have overfilled the oil reservoir which can destroy your AOS system, blow out oil seals and who knows what else. Stop guessing and/or experimenting unless you know what you are doing. These cars are complicated. Have it towed it to a qualified Porsche mechanic and ask them to fix whatever is wrong. Otherwise it will cost you a whole lot more than you think.

Don is right on all accounts here. Previous owner of my 987.2 definitely overfilled mine, and I had to keep letting oil out to get it right. I now try to repeat things at home so I know how much has drained out (and for how long), and then refill it with the exact amount each time to get it right on the money. But avoid blown seals with an overfill.

If you added two liters after that reading on July 27th, you have overfilled it. In order to remove the oil filter housing it really helps to have some tools and a safe way to jack up the car. If you don’t have this, then you should take your car somewhere for service. Depending upon how long it’s been since your last oil change, it might be easiest to simply ask for an oil change. It probably wouldn’t cost much more than the labor to do multiple filter removals and oil level checks. While having the car towed would certainly reduce the chance of overfill complications, it sounds like you’ve already driven it some. Assuming the sevice location isn’t too far away and that you have overfilled by a liter or so, you are probably ok driving at lower RPM and not taking turns too fast. The biggest risk is fouling the AOS , but that’s not a catastrophic situation.

I use a local garage to do work on my Range Rover etc and I’m going to get them to dropout some oil for me in the morning. I’ve attached a picture of the gauge which still shows it as full.

I have to ask - did you assume the level gauge displayed the level between empty (no oil at all) and 7 liters of oil? Was that the reasoning behind adding 2 liters of oil? The gauge shows the last liter roughly. Each box is somewhere between 300cc-400cc depending on the source you read if from, the year/model/engine - it varies. In general - if you assume 1 liter difference between the minimum mark and the max mark - you'll be very close to the money. Your owner's manual may give a number for each segment, be worth looking. In the case of the oil warning messages - IF you had checked the oil level at that time - before adding any oil - I suspect it would have indicated below the minimum mark on the display. Adding 1 liter at that time, then driving the car, letting it cool off, parked in the same spot you last checked the oil - the level should have been between min and max - ie - perfect. No further action would be needed on your part. Your world would have been a simpler place. Hope that's helpful.. and a bit of a diversion, but not really: Some people like to keep the oil near the full mark. That's fine - but useless. It makes no difference as long as there is enough oil that the oil-pump pickup isn't seeing air on hard corners. That is a bit of an issue with the 987.1 series (like yours) since oil can pool up in the valve cover and lower the level to a dangerous level ON THE TRACK. I have never heard of this happening while being driven on the road. It only seems to happen in long sustained high G force turns on a track - where the force keeps oil in the valve cover that should be in the pan. The 987.2 series solved this issue (and many others) by adding additional oil pumps in the valve covers to feed the oil back into the sump. NONE of these engines is lubricated by "splash" like a lawnmower engine, meaning the oil has to reach the pump intake, but as long as it is - the world (and your bearings) is OK. I personally feel my oil level is fine when it's between the min and max marks on the gauge. In the case of every Porsche I've owned so far (3) I've never had to add oil between oil changes. At the end of an oil change, I try to get the level on the gauge to the max mark and no higher. I do that by adding 200-250cc at a time, and then checking the oil level.* Sometimes I overshoot 100cc or so - but it's not enough to be concerned about. Once I have it at the max mark - I'll periodically check the level - in my case in my garage (same place - important) with the engine idling (a 987.2 thing, yours is take cold). So far the oil has never dropped enough to need any topping off. I generally do oil changes at 6,000 mile intervals... * to check the level on a change - I now usually use my Foxwell NT530, which has an oil-level readout where it tells you in CCs how much more oil is needed to MAX mark on the gauge. It's quite handy that way. Also less overshooting that way. It appears to be accurate (and uses the same info a dealer mechanic uses to tell if the oil is full.)

Don. That was an excellent post. I had the same thought about adding 2 liters of oil as a “top up” without checking the oil level in between the two liters. Topping up on any car really requires some level of precision because most cars don’t have a painless way of removing oil. Something which is especially true with Porsche . Also a great comment on the 987.2 with the 91A engine. When I bought my 987.2 , I knew I was avoiding the whole IMS issue, but the oiling improvements are substantial for anyone tracking a car. Many folks who track a 987.1 car that experiences high g forces during cornering, deal with oil starvation issues as well as AOS upgrades. The cost of a deep sump and a Motorsports AOS for a 987.1 can run several thousand dollars and go a long way toward paying the price difference between a similarly equipped 987.2 car which handles oil starvation and AOS issues much better.

Absolutely. I had no idea that it just showed 1 litre on the gauge. As someone who blew an AOS (on the road) last year due to bad advice, I have been keeping a close eye. Considering, I had a full service in March on the 987 and then the IMS/RMS replaced in May/June (both services included oil replacements) I was surprised to see the warning light for oil come up. Taking into consideration what I was told about the oil capacity in the engine, I thought adding 2 litres would have been the absolute minimum, but I was wrong. I’m taking it to a garage in the morning and I will get them to drain out a litre to see where we are.

It's highly unlikely you had the IMS replaced and also unlikely the RMS replaced. Assuming they dropped the transmission to access those items, the service would most likely include simply replacing the seals to stop leaks. To replace the IMS the entire engine must be split open and that is very expensive and typically totally unnecessary on a 2008. Same with RMS. I have never read where one went bad but they do tend to seep oil regularly. If your service location told you they replaced the bearings I would be extremely sceptical. Did they charge you to split the engine apart?

I left off the seal part. They replaced the seal because it was leaking oil, so they took out the transmission etc. I got them to send me pictures of the work and they charged me to replace the oil lost hence why I mentioned it above. Basically, the 987 has had a lot of new oil this year including the full service in March.

Update*** I took the 987 Cayman S to the garage and they removed the excess oil (pic attached). I think I would’ve liked a little bit more out tbh, but this will do. I’m relieved I must admit considering I blew an AOS last year due to over filling 🤪

Looks fine. It may even register to the top again if the car sits for a while between drives but you're close enough to not have to worry. We learn something every day. It's amazing what I've learned over the past 14 years, most from this site.

Spot on. The other members are full of helpful tips. I do like it here 👌🏻

What the he$$, happened to dip sticks ?? Never again. God bless you folks here.

The manufacturers decided the dip-sticks were used about as much as turn-signals on a BMW , so they decided to go with something that would yell at you if the oil got really too low. If you asked a millennial what a dip-stick is - bet they'd think it went with chips and dip...

Re Tesla - sounds like an urban legend. "I know a guy who knew a guy who...". Think about what all could go wrong if Tesla did that and the potential lawsuits. And how did an oil level thread get so far off topic?

Might sound like it - but it's not. I know all three guys who were in the car. And all of them have told the same version of the story.. so in this case, I know (not knew) 3 guys who got trapped in a Tesla when it decided they were stealing it. For real. And Tesla does LOTS more stuff that might prompt a lawsuit than locking down the car if it's stolen.