Oil Level - Too high?

Just got the car back from my RMS job and fresh 15k service. The electronic oil level gauge shows all bars full, above the max mark in fact. The dipstick also shows just above the max full dot as well. The paperwork stated that they put 9.3 qts of mobile one in the vehicle but my manual states only 8.7 qts. is max capacity. That seems a bit odd that the dealership would overfill the oil level? Is this common practice? I dont think it should be a big deal but is this what is recommeded by Porsche? The good news is that after the RMS was fixed the level on the electronic gauge has not dropped a single bar so I think the oil usage was due to that......

Don't know if it can be a problem, but I would definitely take it back and have them drop the level by draining some out. No question that it's overfilled. BTW, not only should they NOT chrage you for correcting their mistake, they should refund you for the cost of the excess oil.

Make them put the oil level where it should be. Better yet, have them put it in the middle. I doubt very much if you have an oil usage problem, that an RMS would be the cure, unless you were leaving a trail of oil behind you while driving? How much of an oil burn were you getting? How did you measure the oil burn? The reason I ask, I recently had my oil separator replaced. Porsche claims that I was injecting oil through my intake do to a defective oil separator. I have not put enough miles on it yet to see if there is any change. My car was burning 1 quart in 500-600 miles when driven hard. About 1 quart in 1000 miles on the open road. Tom L 2002 C2

Tom, Before they replaced the oil separator, was your car smoking on start up after hard driving, or were you simply using excessive oil?

Agio, My car was not smoking on start up. At least I did not see any smoke on start up. The dealer claims they did. Never saw any smoke coming from the car. Drove it hard almost all the time. Car has 28k miles on it and runs strong. My original complaint was that I was burning to much oil. The car was in for what I expected to be a second RMS. Had a very slight oil weep that never made it to the ground. Dealer ordered new seal. Found RMS good, but replaced it with new one anyways. Also replaced the intermidiate seal. Dealer talked with Porsche about oil consumption and Porsche suggested they replace the oil separator. Will post info on the oil separator when I get enough miles on car to get an accurate oil burn. Tom L 2002 C2

Since you have about 10% more oil than what is recommeneded, there is a possibility for frothing. When this occurs, the lubricating properties of your oil are diminished. My guess would be that you are okay, but to be on the safe side, I'd call the Dealer and make an appointment to have the excess oil removed.

Are you sure it isnt 9.3 litres........ 9.3 litres = 8.8 quarts (0.9463 conversion factor). I cant believe the dealer would overfill the car by that much... Ross

Good point, I do not know as I dont have the paperwork in front of me. However, on the dipstick it shows above the black dot max(maybe 3-4 mm) mark and on the electronic gauge it shows all bars full. I was surprised to see the level so high and I thought it may have been common practice but after reading a bit here I'm not so sure.

Solid call, Ross. Very perceptive. I'll be interested to see what Alex comes back with.

1 liter = 1.06 quarts 1 quart = .946 liters I sure hope you guys don't work for NASA or the DOD. I'd hate for you to have a targeting problem with a smart bomb guided by a dumb conversion factor. Cheers,

Ah Fred, it depends on if you are using a metric gallon or a US gallon: Using the following site ( http://www.thetipsbank.com/convert.htm#CAPACITY): 1 quart = litres 1.136 1 US quart = liters 0.9463 But, Fred, you do make a good point. Alright, now I'm back to not having a clue either way. Maybe since Porsche is a German company they use the metric conversion rather than the US conversion? Anyway, I guess the best thing to do is to look at the dipstick after the engine has been running for five minutes and see what the exact measure is.

Anyway, I guess the best thing to do is to look at the dipstick after the engine has been running for five minutes and see what the exact measure is.[/QUOTE] This has been done already as stated above.......

the difference between US gallons and IMPERIAL gallons. Only the UK and some of its former colonies use IMPERIAL gallons. They are NOT used in the scientific or engineering worlds. An IMPERIAL gallon is larger than a US gallon. A liter is a liter is a liter. After 33 years as a mechanical engineer who labored through the metric conversion of scientific and industrial America, all of this confusion could be avoided if the US would simply go metric and be done with it. Apparently our government doesn't think we are smart enough for the change. Perhaps they're right! Now for our next class project, let's discuss the difference bewteen a kilogram mass and a kilogram force or weight. Cheers,

You're right...I used metric incorrectly instead of imperial. And Fred, I agree completely. Metric is easy and facilitates transformations between volume and mass. Even in Canada (where I'm originally from) they use Metric (though the change to metric almost caused a revolution). Ok, so back to oil. He probably has too much. Maybe they got the metric conversion backwards too?

oops my mistake... reverse it. quarts = litres, litres = quarts. Nonetheless, would just ask the dealer what the standard fill is.

Leave it in. Guys at the track always overfill a little to compensate for the wet sump of the M96 on hard cornering. I leave mine at the top all the time. It came in handy when I lost 1 and 1/2 quarts in 10 seconds when my supercharger line broke. Will

Or do it yourself with Lee's directions . All the tools should be easy to find. -Darren

Fred, It already happened... remember the failed Mars orbiter mission a few years back ( Link ). NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units for spacecraft navigation... duh!