Oil smell driving

I Jane a 01 996 C2 w/96k miles. I have a oil smell when I drive. I do not have any oil leaks and the bottom of my engine is dry. What could it be?

Porsche Perfume. Normal. Probably...

Normal could also mean a small oil leak. Most of these Porsche's and other German cars smell like oil. Which means they can leak. Many times that means that there could be a small leak - the leak could be small enough just to drop on hot engine parts and burn away fast.

I have mainly been monitoring my oil level with the dash gauge. I do not see any decrease in the reading. It's always full or 1 bar below full, depending on incline or recent driving. I don't see any oil loss. Should I be checking the oil stick regularly as well or is the in-car gauge accurate enough? I am mechanically inclined, so I don't mind. I am just a tad older than my younger days when my life revolved around my car.

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My experience with another car is what can happen is there is an oil leak only when the engine is hot, the oil is hot, and the exhaust is hot. The oil drips on the hot exhaust and you smell this. There will not be any oil spots on the garage/driveway. The oil probably doesn't run along any engine surfaces but drips directly down on the hot exhaust where it turns to vapor and this is what you smell. In my experience the oil leak was from a valve cover and dripped right down on the hot exhaust. There was just the hint of a "stain" on the exhaust manifold where the oil was hitting the exhaust. My experience was there was no real measurable oil consumption. The oil drips did not fall very fast and after just a short time after the engine was shut down the oil leak stopped. In the case of your car my WAG is the oil leak is from a camshaft cover or possibly a spark plug tube. A round of spark plug tube renewal is one thing. A camshaft cover reseal is something else. My experience with my cars is the electronic oil level system is very accurate, dependable and a feature I appreciate every time I check the oil level which is often. In the Boxster I use it to check the oil level every cold start and every hot start if the count time timer starts out at "5 seconds". (While the Boxster has a dipstick I never use the dipstick.) With the Turbo I can only check the oil level with the engine hot, idling, on very level ground, but I can check it at a stop light or before I shut off the engine when I reach my destination or stop for gasoline. Since your engine has a dipstick if you want you can use it to check the oil level. If you work the dipstick right it will allow you to keep track of the oil level. Whether you use the dipstick or the electronic oil level system the important thing is you check the oil level often and keep the oil level topped up but avoid overfilling the engine. You have to take into account if you check the oil level with the engine cold the level will read lower than if you check the level with the engine hot and after it has sat a while (a few minutes). Also, be aware the car being out of level affects the oil level reading too. If you want an idea of how long Porsche believes it should take for the hot oil to drain back right after you turn off the hot engine turn the key back on and note the count down timer. With my Boxster this reads 50 seconds, but it almost never works out I manage to return to the car in just 50 seconds.

Mine does this too. From reading on here, it does not seem something to worry about, but it does smell like a leak to me, especially on the driver's side. I carefully monitor the car's oil level (dipstick and electronically) and it does not burn oil in significant amounts (I haven't had to add any oil in the thousand miles since the last oil change). This in spite of the fact that the owner's manual explicitly states the engine will eat oil. I haven't had time to investigate fully, but I have a hunch that since it is on the driver's side it has something to do with the AOS, but its just a hunch. My opinion, but if you don't notice the oil missing its probably not the biggest deal. I plan on finding out what it is, but I'm not losing sleep.

Brings back memories of my 996. Smelled that way the day I bought it home. Smelled that way the day I traded it in 3 years later.

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What does oil smell like when you drive? How does that get in the cabin? Just wondering how you came to that conclusion.

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Driving backwards

Leaky valve cover. Very slow leak burns off most of the leak on the manifold.

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Really LOL! Good one....

The smell of a 911. It was way more pungent on my '82 SC than it is on my 996 but true to form it's still there!

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Eau de la Porsche parfume! Yep, a vast array of olfactory pleasures after driving and parking in the garage. Just the way it is. Get the same in the garages at the Rolex 24...lovely lovely wonderful smells...and the ticking of a flat 6 engine cooling down.

People typically pay extra for that smell. At least the air cooled guys do...

Is this suddenly a new smell, or has it been that way since you got it?

I was alarmed by the smells of my C2 the first time I parked in my garage. No oil leaks on mine. I do notice that it smells stronger after a spirited drive. I have equated that to rubber from the tires sticking to a hot muffler located just behind the rear wheels. I wash the mufflers when washing the car. Seems to help. Until the next spirited drive.

Mine has a slight smell and my mechanic thinks it's a cracked oil fill tube.

I will bet it's a spark plug tube. Just did them on our Boxster, two were leaking really badly.

+1 on spark plug tubes, those O-rings don't last long esp. the larger ones; with ages they fatten-out & will sip/leak oil. I think they are hard to detect if your engine is dirty. Best is to clean both sides below the spark plugs and start monitoring after each drive for trace of oil. Cheers,