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Oil Level Measurement--what am I missing?

16K views 33 replies 23 participants last post by  wanderer65 
#1 ·
What's the difference between this:

Oil level measurement during refueling
The oil level is automatically measured during
refueling.
Preconditions
1. Ignition is switched off.
2. If the engine is at operating temperature, at
least 5 minutes must elapse between parking
the vehicle and starting the engine.
3. Refueling completed within 15 minutes.
When the ignition is switched on, the engine oil level
is shown on the segment display.

(Manual p. 132)

and this:

Initiating oil level measurement
Switch ignition on (do not start the engine).
The engine-oil level measurement display
appears in the on-board computer.
Allow waiting time to elapse.
Once the measurement has been completed,
you can read off the engine oil level on the
segment display.

??
 
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#2 ·
The Difference is Between a HOT Check (After Driving and Refuelling) With the Engine Up to Correct Temperature

And a COLD Check - (First Start in the Morning..............)


If You Do a COLD Check - Start the Engine for a Bit..... And Try Again (Without the Engine Being to Full Operating Temperature) - You Will have to wait about 23 Minutes to get a Reading......!
 
#3 ·
Not sure what your question is - but, in the first instance, when all those conditions are met, the computer will give you an automatic (initiated by the computer) oil level measurement while you're at the gas station, and you are finished pumping the gas into the car.

The other instance is an oil level measurement initiated by you, the driver of the car, using the on-board computer, accessed through the the bottom stalk on the left-side of the steering wheel.

The most accurate readings are received after the car as been sitting and not running for at least 40 minutes, on a level spot.

brad
 
#4 ·
I check mine first thing, cold. Turn ignition on but do not start. I take those seconds to get buckled in and settled. Usually, my 2006 Cayman S is one full display block low.

Later I often check it at running temperature after all teh oil has drained down again and it shows full. The little half block at the top still open.

I find it very sensitive to attitude, how level the car is.

At first i was concerned about being a display block low cold but now 10K miles and a year later, I just check.

I've gotten in the habit of checking it regularly, something I should do with my other cars. Ed
 
#5 ·
Do these posts explain it?

I read the manual a couple times and then started fooling with the computer with the ignition on and the engine off. You'll get the gist of it if you do that.

When you get gas, fill the tank, clean the windows, then get back in the car, turn on the ignition, DON'T START THE ENGINE, and look at the display under the tach. It will either show a row of filled in or empty blocks or it will say to wait. If the engine is hot, you won't have to wait too long. The blocks indicate oil level with the bottom block being a quart (or liter?) down and the top block being full. If they're all filled in, it's full.

If the car is pointing uphill a little, it may show a block lower than it actually is. It's not hyper-sensitive...just allow for that when you read the "gage" on a slight incline.

I wouldn't add any until half the blocks are showing unfilled in on level ground.

When the car is cold in the morning, you have to use the stalk on the left side of the steering column to get the measurement. Same deal, turn the ignition on but not the engine, then dork around with the stalk until the oil display shows on the screen below the tach.

I think that's all there is to it.

On the scenario described where the car is started, not warmed up and turned off, I'd just skip the oil-check. If you're willing to wait 20 minutes, you need to volunteer for something because you have too much time on your hands.

On a healthy, broken in CS, you probably won't have to add oil unless you're tracking the car. It holds oil pretty well during normal driving. I did a trip from Savannah, GA to Chicago with it and it moved just one block. There was a smidgen of serious high performance driving up in the Blue Ridge and Cumberland Gap areas going on, but most was pretty normal sporty mountain road driving and 75-80 mph interstate. Oh, that also includes a pretty serious exploration of the car's limits on a favorite deserted back road. :banana::banana::banana:

Six
 
#6 ·
FWIW on my '08 the display defaults to oil level if the key is just turned to on. I've never had to fool with the stalk. Cold in the morning the countdown is 5 or 6 seconds. When getting gas I've had it tell me to wait 25 minutes which I've ignored and gone on.
 
#12 ·
Les:

You are correct, sir!!! Oil is checked automatically when you first turn on the ignition before turning the engine over. I was confusing the oil check with tire pressure check.:wall:

Sorry for the misinformation. I remember sitting in the car and mucking around with the stalk with the car on and getting the TPMS stuff and being delighted at something described in the manual to actually occur on the car.

This is the most ridiculously complex automobile I've ever encountered. :beer:

'06 CS; TPMS; Bose; Sport Chrono II; PASM; PSM; PCM 2.1 (I think). Crikee! Anything ELSE?

Oh, and I just had the lining out of the front trunk to put in a stock 6 disc changer I bought from Nordin and saw the brake system electronics and then there was this mysterious black plastic pipe...found out it's for a little forced air pump to cool the navigation unit.

I just want to know where they store the dilithium crystals for the warp drive.

Later,

-Six
 
#9 ·
It is my understanding that the system will not check the oil level while the engine is running; however, I have tried it few times using the computer lever while driving and got the oil level display on the dash indicating the oil level.

What's going on here?

Another TPMS syndrom?
 
#10 ·
In dry sump cars, like the 997TT, you have to have to engine running for the check to work. I think that's really cool for some reason. LOL.
 
#13 ·
New 09 Cayman Gen II owner here. Had the car for a week now and looked to check the oil as per the Manual and ecdysiast's post. Using the user-initiated measurement, the display tells me that the oil level can only be measured with the engine idling - rather different from what I can make of the manula. Am I simply being rather silly here or is the Gen II level measurement procedure different?
 
#14 ·
That doesn't sound right to me. The Gen II motor is not a pure dry sump. Procedure should be the same as Gen I.

With cold car in the morning:

1. Turn on ignition but not engine.

2. Display comes on in center of tach showing the blocks and you have to wait a few seconds.

3. Blocks filled in mean oil, blocks not filled in mean no oil. One or two empty blocks is OK on level ground. If front of car points downhill, reading will be artificially high. If front of car points uphill, reading will be a bit lower than actual. The very top block is half a block and probably should be empty when the car is cold on level ground.


---
I have this 2000 Aprilia. It's got the wackiest oil check procedure I've ever seen. Curious? Here you go....

1. Engine must be fully warm, not just coolant temp, the whole engine...at least 20 minutes of riding.

2. Stop bike on a level surface with engine running.

3. Look down...Inside the left fairing intake vent, there is a vertical length of plastic tubing. There is a "min" line and a "max" line printed on the oil tank next to the tubing. Check the level of the oil showing in the tube at idle.

4. Run the engine up to 4,000 RPMs and hold it there with bike still stationary and level. Check the level of oil in the tube again. It will read maybe 2" higher.

5. The "real" oil level is the average of the two readings.

This is silly, er..."Italian" enough, but added to that is the fact that it's almost impossible to see the oil level with sunglasses on, so you can add "remove sunglasses" to #3 instruction. At least you can stay on the bike while you do this. It won't work on the side stand and there is no center stand to keep the bike level side to side.

You cannot check the oil with the engine cold and you can't check with engine off. Also lucky...Dry sump systems aren't really picky about oil level. Anything over half a tank of oil is OK if you're not tracking in hot weather.

Engine is Austrian built (Rotax) but the bike and the engine configuration are Italian designs. It's a 65 degree V-twin with true dry sump. This was done to push the weight of the engine as low as possible in the bike. 65 degree vee requires two balance shafts on the engine for smoothness, but allows the engine to be canted forward more in the bike to push the weight more to the front. At idle, these bikes sound a little like Harleys, but the handlebars never shake and the bike feels smooth in spite of its engine's lumpy and totally cool sound. Red-line is 10,500RPM. HP is around 135 (I have an aftermarket pipe, Evo air filter and Wolf chip). The torque curve is very fat with these mods although top speed suffers. I got 144mph out of it one afternoon and the chassis was totally planted.
 
#18 ·
"I have this 2000 Aprilia. It's got the wackiest oil check procedure I've ever seen. Curious? Here you go....

1. Engine must be fully warm, not just coolant temp, the whole engine...at least 20 minutes of riding."


If the oil is very low, the engine would be dead by then.

The Italians are doing it backwards: check your oil after the ride.
 
#20 ·
I have 2010 CS and you can not check the oil while cold; you get a message saying "engine is cold", system does not allow such measurement, so ones needs to wait until the engine warms up while idling and on a flat surface before the procedure is intiated.
:thanks:
 
#24 ·
The pisser with the Gen II cars is that one cannot put oil into the engine whilst it is running and check the level. With my 2002 Turbo that was the procedure. Gen II we have to turn off the car, put in the oil, restart it and check the level. I want to try adding oil with the engine running, however, I fear the check engine light. Anyone tried this?
 
#25 ·
I had the same confusion when I first got my Boxster. According to the manual you are taking two different readings cold and normal operating temperature when the car is warmed up. When I saw two different levels on the readout between cold and warm it threw me for a loop and I posted a similar question on another site and got so many different answers it was confusing so I called a local Porsche dealer and spoke with one of their maintenance technicians. According to him the correct reading is taken when the car is driven to normal operating temperature then shut off for 5-15 minutes then checked. This seems to coincide with the instructions in the manual for checking during refueling which should also place the car on a level surface in a station. The difference between the top level mark and the bottom level mark is almost a quart and you don't need to panic if the level reaches the bottom point just add a quart. Hope this helps.:cheers:
 
#31 ·
In a word, no.

I remember my old '01 boxster it would read the oil before you crank her up, why can't we do that in the gen 2 cars? That is weird.
Because the new '09+ cars have a completely new engine design - a much better motor, but some things are done differently.

Prior to the M96 (996 and 986) and the M97 (997.1 and 987.1) all air-cooled Porsches had be be at operating temperature and running at idle in order to check the oil level - back then it was with a dipstick.

brad

brad
 
#30 ·
lol, bro i don't thrash the car around, actually i barely drove it in the last 3 weeks due to the weather.

I do drive hard occasionally but nothing to "hurt" the engine or gearbox.

Oil consumption has been normal with me, still at normal levels.
 
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