What's with my car's HIGH oil pressure?

'03 996 with 37K miles, and at cruising speeds the needle is around the 5 mark. At idle it can be 2 or 3. My last 996 ('99 with 70K miles)showed about 3 at speed, and dropped down to almost 0 at idle. What do your cars show, and would there be any cause for having my new car checked out?

It could be your oil pressure sending unit needs to be replaced. What you describe was one of the symptoms of my failing unit and there is an easy test to perform to see if you have more matching symptoms. Turn your key to "accessories" position (electrics on / engine off,) and look at your pressure gauge. Mine read a little above 1 bar. If it is indicating pressure with engine off then I would replace that little guy first and see if this solves the high pressure reading.

What weight oil are you using?

Turning the ignition key to Pos 1 gets the oil pressure needle to go to 1/4. It doesn't stay at 0, but doesn't move much. How does that compare with your cars? I don't know the weight of oil because the car is new to me and I'm going to drive it another 3,000 miles before a change so I can get a decent oil analysis done on it. I'd guess that oil appropriate for the Porsche was used since it was owned by a dealer at the time.

There should be quite a few threads on this. In short, you want at least 0.5 bar at 675 RPM, and at least 3.5 bar at 5000 RPM, while hot (180F or higher temp). While cold, it�s common to have 5 bar at any RPM, which is why it�s important to not exceed 3,000 RPM or 20% throttle until the engine has warmed up a bit. My car�s hot oil pressure is between 1.5-2.5 bar at hot idle with 4.5 bar at 2,500 and 5 bar at over 3,000.

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Same for mine. 62k miles.

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Your new car is fine, same as mine. Your old car might have had an issue with the sender. You want at least 0.5 bar at 675RPM idle, and at least 3.5 bar at 4,500 RPM. It�s better to have 10psi for every 1,000 RPM of engine speed. There few that argue that too high oil pressure is a bad thing on these engines, which is technically true, but practically impossible without some other issue that�s causing it, such as a bad sender or using the wrong oil, or flogging the engine under cold or very cold temps.

It seems to be moving in an OK range. It's DC offset seems to be different. If it bugs you, change the oil first to a known weight, then the sender. I had noticeably higher pressures when I ran 5W50 oil. It was frequently up at 5. Currently running 5W40. here are measurements on my engine from September: idle(800): 1.3 2000rpm: 2.6 3000rpm: 3.2 4000rpm: 3.8 5000rpm: 4.3 key switch on, engine off: 0.3 engine has 95000 miles Driven DT40 Oil Observations made after warm up driving and 5 miles at freeway speed Engine coolant temp indicates 190F Max I've seen on this gauge is 4.8 when engine is warming up

Following this thread, oil pressure on my '99 was behaving the same as bama's. Needle around 1/4 with the key, pegged above 2500rpm, didn't drop below 2 while running. Since I had gone nearly 3 weeks without any new parts, ordered a sender. Installed it over the weekend and now the gauge is behaving as I would expect -- nearly 5 at cold, around 1 1/2 at hot idle with 5w40.

Hi, I'm new to Porsches and am evaluating a 1999 996 with about 35k that has almost everything that was trouble replaced in the past 2 years (IMS, RMS, expansion tank, etc.). Was just driving it to get emissions checked and the pressure gauge was maxed out regardless of drive time, engine temp, engine speed, etc. I read this thread and checked both the electronic oil level reading as well at the dipstick - both were maxed. I also put the car in accessory mode and the pressure reading was still maxed. A bad oil sending unit? Talked to the specialist that serviced the car for the past 10 years and he said oil levels can be finnicky and that not much can put the reading at a high mark. Pressure in accessory mode. Dipstick level reading Digital level reading. Thanks!

Oil pressure is different than oil quantity and they are mostly unrelated to each other. The dash gauge measure pressure. The dipstick is only quantity. A pegged oil pressure gauge like you see on your car is probably a sender issue. As for oil quantity, I would let the car sit overnight and check it stone cold. If it still reads beyond max, you should remove some oil by taking off the filter and draining the oil in the filter. You might have to do that more than once if someone overfilled your car with oil. You could also drain some oil at the sump.

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Or you can drop a tube down the dip stick path and siphon some out.

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I have an '03. 50000 miles. 5w40 oil. Reads 0 with key in ignition, and is the same as quoted.

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I'd agree with Mike that it's likely just the sending unit. Also it looks like you're overfilled on oil. In reality you should be right in the middle. If I recall correctly, it's been mentioned that filling above full can have adverse affects on the AOS system. Quote from Raby " Having too much oil in the engine pickles the internals, and promotes oil consumption. It can also effect ring seal, and can even effect the operation of the AOS." Drop the oil filter and remove some until you get right in the middle of min and max. Then replace the sending unit as it's not too difficult and the part itself isn't expensive either. DIY link below; https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ement-diy.html

Then get a UAOS track version and you can run a quart of oil over full as a "just in case" it's overfilled again.

My needle goes to 1 with the ignition on. It also dips when turning the wheel. I'm bringing my car back to my engine builder for it's 1,000 mile check-in and will have him check it. Sounds like my sender is shot?

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Quite possible. Do you know if they used a new one when rebuilding your motor? If you need to replace it buy the OEM Porsche one from FCP for the lifetime replacement. They are known to fail. I originally purchased a non-OEM one and it lasted 9 months. The Porsche one has been fine for over a year now.

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Same for mine...

My car is pretty much at 5 if I am driving, and when sitting idle will drop to like 2-3. So I should try replacing the sending unit from what I am reading here, right?

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Yes, that is very inaccurate ....Should be about 1bar to 1.5 bar at hot idle..

Well, it depends on temp and oil type and RPM. If my ECTS shows about 180 on the dash gauge and I�m running 5/50 oil, I can get 2-2.25bar. Especially with the AC button depressed (800RPM). But if the temp is showing well past the 8 and 0, with 5/40 oil, my idle pressure is 1.25-1.5 without the AC button depressed (675RPM).