Oil level - different every day.....

resigner · 19 May 2018

Hi all

So, I have a 997.1 2007 C2S Cabrio. Has 72k miles. well looked after, I religiously warm it up before giving it the beans, treat it well and so on. No signs of dreaded bore score, car behaving perfectly normally.

but

I topped the oil up about 270 miles ago. I zero the trip computer so I keep an eye on how many miles it's doing to a litre and so on.

Lately, it seems to give different oil readings when I get in almost every time. it can wildly differ, this morning, all was good, full to the top, not flashing because it has to much, perfect. But yesterday, it showed as 1 segment. Day before, 2 segments. A week ago, full up.

it seems to me that it changes depending on where I park in my street (don't have a drive!). The road does has a camber on it, today, I am on the left, so the left side of the car is lower. Day before, 1 segment, it was on the right hand side, so right is lower than the left.

So, question is, do we know if that sounds normal, or is whatever measures the level something that can fail, or is it really that susceptible to being parked at a slant?

cheers all.

Alex · 19 May 2018

Well to start with........the basic no. 1 rule of checking your oil is "Ensure the car is on a level surface".

It's not just how level it's sat in your sump but when on a slight angle oil is prevented from running back down all the oil ways and amounts get stuck in different chambers and cavities within the engine.

resigner · 19 May 2018

alex yates said:
Well to start with........the basic no. 1 rule of checking your oil is "Ensure the car is on a level surface".

It's not just how level it's sat in your sump but when on a slight angle oil is prevented from running back down all the oil ways and amounts get stuck in different chambers and cavities within the engine.

Yeah, but didn't really do this in the past. Only noticed it over the last month or 2.....

deMort · 19 May 2018

This might turn into a long post .. you haver been warned !

There is approx 11 ltrs of oil in the engine , well slightly less but anyways ..

Each segment of the gauge is approx 0.4 ltrs of oil so about 1.2 lts till min mark .

Lets say 1.5 ltrs and you will get a warning message saying oil lvl low .. so about 9 - 9.5 ltrs in the engine at that point .

Now the complicated part each segment is approx 0.4 ltrs but to switch from one segment to the next is actually 0.1 of a ltr so if the top segment is empty you could add anything from 0.1 to 0.7 of a ltr to fill that segment .

Each segment is basically split into 4 although you cant see it obviously .. on a 996 each segment is 0.2 but people worry about oil lvl so making it 0.4 means people dont worry as much about a very small amount missing .

Now then .. the oil lvl in the sump will increase ther longer its left .. oil will drip down so a measure after its been left will be different depending on how long its been left .

Angle of the car will also effect it .

The correct way to measure the lvl ..

Car run up to operateing temp
Car on a flat lvl surface
Ignition turned off then on and you should have a 5 min count down .. if higher then its not hot enough .

Wait 5 mins then ignition on and read out the lvl after a 5 second count down ..

This is then a true reading and if a segment down as mentioned it can be anywere from 0.1 to 0.7 down on oil .. normally as in your case you are probably very close to the mark hence it seems to be changeing from one segment to another .

Oil expands as it heats up .. on a hot day with the oil even higher than a straight forward run up it will read slighlty higher.

It is better to have a segment down than a segment over filled .. the latest cars will give a warning message if over filled and by that i mean as little as 0.5 ltr over filled .

You have a seperate message for oil pressure .

You have an oil pressure gauge

These are the Really important ones

resigner · 19 May 2018

Fabulous as always Demort!

I always keep an eye on the oil pressure, which is fine and high when it starts etc etc, certainly keeping oil pressure! I also know how far it takes to warm up the oil going away from my house in the generally 3 possible directions, so know it isn't warming up fast, which means it isn't low. That's what has me thinking it's fine. It registering as full parked in the same place, and was 3/4 when it was hot the other day. Unfortunately, the road I live on doesn't mean I can park it flat, purely because of the camber!

All seems fine, better to check though!

deMort · 19 May 2018

I did at first wonder if your oil lvl sensor might be faulty .. but that would be rare and they totally fail normally so i discounted that .

By all means keep an eye on it .. but try not to worry too much .. you would have to loose a lot of oil to have a problem and you would notice that by other means than the gauges

Oil level - different every day.....

resigner

Barcelona

Alex

Nordschleife

resigner

Barcelona

deMort

Monaco

resigner

Barcelona

deMort

Monaco

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