Where the heck is my oil going? (No RMS)

Hi All, I probably add about 1/2 to 3/4 of a quart of M1 0W-40 every 400-600 miles, mostly city driving. No leaks anywhere.....yet. Knocking on wood. I was told by dealer to only go by the digital oil level indicator and NOT by the dipstick, do you all agree? Thanks

As long as you measure your oil when parked in the same location each time, the dipstick is perfectly accurate and viable. I don't own a porsche *yet* so can't comment on specifics about the engines, but it could mean your burning some, maybe thru the piston rings (if it isn't leaking anywhere). That seems like a fairly high amount of oil usage- hopefully it is easy to fix.

Mine used 1qt every 1500 miles, no RMS, no smoke, no oil on the ground. Recently slowed to almost nothing. The harder I drive it, the more it uses. At the track I can count on needing a qt every time.

I park on an absolutely perfect flat spot, no signs of burning or smoke, no black build up around tail pipes, not tracked,...Hmmm

I think some of these motors just use oil, others will disagree but I'm yet to figure out where mine goes.

Very interesting C4S, We both have 2003's and if I remember correctly I saw a few others with '03's that noticed greater than normal oil consumption.

Interesting, I've brought that up to my dealer several times, I actually made them put it in the service record that' customer complains of oil usage', just in case.

I will do the same, in the mean time I am going to buy a few shares of Mobil stock and see if I can't get my money back

In twenty plus years of driving Porsches I've had some that used a lot of oil, when identical cars used little or none. And others that used none ever. Though I worried about it from time to time, nothing ever came of any of those using oil. My 00 996 doesn't use a drop, change every 5k, but I doubt if that means anything compared to someone else's that uses oil regulalry, as long as you don't allow it to get low. Porsche engineers could probably explain that and maybe some mechanics, but bottom line is if it's not leaking, smoking, and runs well, you're probably in good shape. Since the owners manuals always say to expect oil usage and check the level with every fill up, Porsche expects them to use oil. I suppose it's ony unusual when they don't.

A quart every 400-600 miles? That's VERY high. If it's not leaking anywhere and it's not in the coolant, you gotta be burning it. Any way you cut it, it's abnormal. Curious about the dealer's remark, though. It shouldn't matter whether you use the dipstick or electronic gauge so long as you do either one right. Is he saying you're overfilling it?

I thought he said 1/2 a qt every 4-600mi, that's still considered 'normal' by porsche.

Hi Palting, There is a HUGE descrepancy between the dip stick and the electronic gauge. The dip stick always shows more oil than the gauge does. Because of this I have asked maybe 3 or 4 dealers in my travels which one I trust to determine if I need oil. They ALL said trust the electronic gauge only, in fact my current local dealer told me that Porsche insists on this. There is no oil in my coolant, it is perfect. Also I have never seen any smoke. Oil pressure is right on the money. Car seems to run fine. I'm at a serious loss here. Thanks

I added exactly 1/2 a quart of oil on 12/14/04 and have driven 430 miles. Tonight I am 4 bars down on the electronic gauge, have not checked dip stick but will tomorrow and report here. Would check it now but have a nice crisp white polo oxford on...

What grade of oil (synthtics) is best for these cars?

I think you are in normal range my dear. Nothing to fret about indeed. My consumption is about the same. 15w050 for extreme temps (heat that is) and 0w-40 for everything else. I will start to use 15w-50 in another month or so. I've also got a lifter tick which is getting a little louder than I am willing to tolerate. PS Syma...call me!

I have this unsubstantiated and loosely held theory that if you break 'em in on the hard side of using reasonable restraint, they burn less oil. My 03 burned 2 litres in approx 10K miles. My BMW on the other hand was an oil user and there is no place I like to be seen having to add oil to a nearly new $100K automotive icon.

I also have a 2003 C2 and am using about the same amount of oil as posted (I recently posted a thread called "excessive oil consumption"). I now have 10,500 miles on the car and I had my local, very experienced Porsche mechanic change the oil at 8,000 miles when he put the snows on in November. I told him about the excessive oil consumption and although he said it was unusual, he said that my car shows no signs whatsoever of any leakage. No oil on the garage floor and no smoke on startup. After the oil change I started recording the consumption. The on board read out went from all bars to one bar in about 1700 miles. The I added a quart at around 9700 miles and it went to 4 bars. Just three days ago it was down again to one bar. I added about half a quart and the on board computer showed three bars. The car runs incredibly well and I am now of the view that maybe my car just eats a bunch of oil. As a result, I bought a case of Mobil One at the Costco on Saturday and will just use it as needed. After a while I've decided to stop worrying so much about this stupid oil issue and just enjoy the ride. By the way, Excellence magazine this month has a question/answer about this oil consumption issue. Check it out.

When I had problems with the 02 C2 that I bought used (replaced oil separator, other things and the engine finally blew -- replaced on warranty), one of the things I learned from the Porsche Service Manager was that in '02 and I think '03 there were some faulty oil measurement issues. I think I remember him saying that actually there were some cars (not all) that had bad measurement electronics...you might ask if your car is one of them.

The first thing I would do is to fill the car up so the oil level reads full then drain all oil and measure the volume. If in fact you have more oil in the engine than specified, you will notice a loss of performance after the engine gets warm. I had a boat years ago that had a dipstick that was incorrect and when it read full, I had 2 quarts of oil more than I should have.

Hmm perhaps the dipstick is actually just inaccurate, and is actually prompting you to fill it a half of a quart too much.. Maybe a good test would be to not put in the extra half quart, and wait and see if it continues to lose oil at the same rate after that first half quart. Maybe it is indeed a half of a quart too much and you are simply burning that excess off every time. If it is the correct level, I would be nervous about burning oil at that rate. I would be interested to see a compression test on the engine to see if the rings are sealed properlly.

Not to gloat, but my '04 C4S uses practically no oil. After break-in (when it needed 1 quart/1500 miles), I have not added any oil between 2500 and 7500 miles. This weekend I got down to 2 bars, so I added 1/2 quart of Mobil 1 (0 W 40). BTW, I was quite diligent about breaking the car in by following the guidelines for maximum revs and waiting for the engine to warm up etc. By contrast my '01 M5 used about 1 quart per 1200 miles.

You can check the oil level within 1/2 quart by simply monitoring your oil pressure. Memorize the pressure readings when at proper oil levels and you never even need to check the dipstick to see the oil level. The oil pressure reacts immediately to any change in level and pressure is all that matters in the oil system. (Besides the obvious importance of clean oil). It is safer to run 1 quart low in oil than it is 1 quart over.

I've been lucky so far. My car has 2k miles on it and has used a total of 1 qt. I get the occasional puff of smoke on starting from one side, but can't correlate it to anything.

There was a post about a TSB regarding dipsticks. Too long or too short or something like that . Seriously, though, I know there was one. Can't quite find it now. Haven't heard anything about the electronic.

I would be very careful following the above. When the pressure starts to drop it can be as a result of starvation which is lethal under high loads.

Unless you blow an oil line or have a hole in the engine, ANY loss of oil level will be immediatlly reflected in the oil pressure and far enough in advance to make adjustmemts. For example: My low idle reading with a warm engine at idle is slightly above 1.5 bar. A reading where the needle just hits the 1.5 mark translates into 1/3 of a quart of oil. Knowing your oil pressure's normal reading is by far the best indication of the trouble with the oil system. By the way...I always run about 1/2 a quart lower than full in my engine and never have to add oil between changes. I am not suggesting that the average driver not check the dipstick for proper oil level, but it will only reflect what your oil pressure gauge already told you.

My ultimate problem is.......Which do I believe??? the stick or the electronic gauge??? I don't want to overfill it, nor do I want it running too low. I really have no idea how much oil is in the engine. I'm glad this thread is getting good response, maybe we can figure out together what to do. Thanks

The eleconic guage should be accurate as well as the dip stick. Like I said above, if you are unsure that both are inaccurate, next time you change your il, measure the amount of oil drained from the engine, If it is the amount that should be in the engine when the oil is full, then you can assume that the guage and dip stick are giving you an accurate reading. It really is not something to be concerned about as long as your pressure guage reads as follows Upon initial cold startup: 5 bar at all engine speeds including idle imediately upon engine start. At idle, the guage will gradually trend lower until you reach full engine temperature at which time the guage will read between 1.5 and 2. This is wheather it's 0 degrees outside or 100 degrees. Readings less than the above and you have too little oil in the engine. Oh...and by the way...it is not dangerous or in any way bad for the engine to run as much as a quart low in oil level. It can be, however, extremely damaging to run more oil that specified. On a fully warmed engine, the reading will increase with engine speed, and display above 4.5 with RPM's above 3,000. Above 4,000 rpm's it will be 5. It doesn't matter whether your guage shows what mine does, but it does accurately relfect the volume of oil in the engine. Whatever your guage reads (higher or lower than normal) memorize it's readings when the crankcase is propely topped off and you will quickly learned to know the level of oil in the engine simply by reading the guage.

The manual specifically states to ONLY go by the guage. If the guage is malfunctioning, only then go to the dipstick....

Hmmm... interesting. Well I'm not so sure about the electronic gauge. It is convenient and practical, but there have been a few times when the measurement counter in my car said "Measuring level -- will be complete in 58:00 min" --- Yes 58 minutes.... Nuts! The car was leveled and the engine had cooled down for at least 5 min. I just had the oil separator replaced, and not sure this had something to do with that. I had added 1 qt by 1500 miles. I personally feel better using the dipstick... IMHO old school dipstick beats techno measuring gadgets, in terms of mental comfort...

I posted this link in the 997 board concerning break-in methods on new cars. I bet the cars that don't burn any oil and run healthy were run hard early and often, and those that kept the rpms low likely burn oil. The reason is all about the piston rings, and this gives an excellent explanation of how the rings work, how they seal properly, and why taking it easy on the engine in the beginning is actually worse for the engine then using its fulll rpm band. It's very informative. http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm