How much is too much oil leaking?

I noticed a few drops of oil on the garage floor. The dealer said this is pretty common for Porsche engines and that you have to check oil levels and add oil pretty regularly. Is this true? How much oil leaking is normal? How often do you add more oil? Thanks for your replies.

I did the first oil change on my '02 C2 yesterday and i found there is a drop of oil from the headers heat shield coming out from the right (passenger side) front cylinder bank. Can't see if the oil drop is from the cylinder or not....I have not notice any other oil leaks or any oil drop in my garage. I found this before I proceed to do the oil change. My C2 consume about 1 qt of 0W30 Mobil 1 every 2,000 miles, is this normal? So far I have added 3 qts of oil, my car has about 6,300 miles. Does anyone has something like this too?

Don't know, guys, but that seems a lot. Have had my C4S now for 4 months, 3,000 miles. Have driven it aggressively, even hit 170 one time and crowed about it here. The oil level is almost exactly at the same spot it has been. Just my .02 and 1 car experience.

I disagree with your dealer... any oil leaking is a problem. There are at least 3 differnt TSB's for oil leaks that should be fixed by your dealer. As I recall they are main shaft seal (fairly common), intermediate shaft seal, and one from the valve/cam cover seals. When I had my car in for the main shaft seal they replaced seals on both other areas even though the intermediate shaft seal was not leaking. Porsche has designed new seals and most cars will eventually need them. Get your dealer to do their job! Loren (99 996)

I took my C2 to Buttonwillow about a month ago and it used almost 3/4 qt of oil on that day and I have driven my car up to 165mph on I40 at one time. That oil leak or that drop of oil I found is not able for me to tell if my C2 engine is leaking. I have a 2000 X5 4.4i, it consumes 1 qt of mobil 1 every 1500-2000 miles and the 2 BMW dealers and many of the BMW techs had told me that is normal with this BMW V8. They even claimed that if I rev the engine in high RPM most of the time, it can consumes up to 1 qt of oil for every 500 miles! I had 27000 miles on my X5 now and I do not notice any problem or oil leak, but the car still consumes about 1 qtr of oil every 2500-3000 miles or so, at least I can see my X5 consumes less oil now.

Despite what dealers tell you....the 996 was not designed to leak oil. My C4 may sit for up to three weeks at a time....recently saw spots about the size of a quarter on the floor....off to the dealer. Left side cam cover and flex hose to oil seperator were leaking....small warranty charge of $473.37 to Porsche. Personally I would have them fix it sooner than later.... <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" />

I have double check my engine again tonight, I found some part (very small portion anyway, about 2 square inch) on the right cylinder bank has some dirt around the valve cover gasket. Those dirt is like dust mixed with oil. However, the left cylinder bank is all dry & clean on the same spot of the cylinder bank. Does it mean anything? I might need to call the dealer tomorrow to bring my car in to check this out :-(

Have the same thing after severe tracking at a DE event at Thunderhill today but for me its on the left bank. Will check tomorrow morning if leaking any more. If it does- dealer I shall go : ). Seems still running well though driving 3 hrs back home. Mike

02_996_C2 Get your car to the dealer. Period. You've got problems. NO car should eat that much oil. Brent

thanks for the replies....guess I'll be making a trip to the dealer

I have called my dealer (Porsche of Downtown LA) and scheduled an appointment for next monday to bring my car in to check for leak. Hope everything will straighten out.....

CKL93 and 02_996_C2 This is interesting, Tell us what you find out at the end. Hope it will be ok.

Finally got my '02 C2 engine oil leak problem fixed. The service rep at Porsche of Downtown L.A. said the "VARIO CAM SOLENOID IS LEAKING OIL". They have the right side valve cover, valve cover gaskets, exhaust gaskets, vario cam cover, some o-rings, all the bolts & nuts associate with these components replaced. The whole procedure tooks a 5 days to finish including the lead time for the parts to come from PAG. I will post any updates if I found any problems. Hope the oil leak problem has been fixed.