Oil guage lies?

[chitowndad]

Ok, so I took the Boxster to a local oil place and they drained it and put in 9.25 quarts of Mobil 0W40 and the dip stick say's it's at max but the electronic guage says it's over filled. It's conceivable that the oil dude didn't let it fully drain...

What's the deal and who/what do I trust?

Any insight is appreciated.

-Steve

[Lil bastard]

Very likely the drain time was insufficient, especially at a quick lube place.

If you have a mity-vac, get some tubing and extract about a half qt. from the dipstick tube, or raise the car and remove the filter cover, that'll yield about a qt. Save it in a clean container and add some back as needed over the next few days.

But, remember, Porsche revised it's recommended fill capacity but never revised the dipstick or the dash gauge.

Previously, you were to fill to the max line on the dipstick and to the bar below the top bar on the dash gauge.

With the revision, you now fill slightly over the max line on the stick (it's a guess how much, maybe 1/4") and to the top bar on the digi-gauge... there is no more overfill indicator.

[chitowndad]

Hmmm... so if that's true and the guage says over the max I'm ok???

Thanks,
-Steve

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by chitowndad

Hmmm... so if that's true and the guage says over the max I'm ok???

Thanks,
-Steve

Not necessarily, see by eliminating the overfill indicator, you have no way of knowing if you're overfilled or not, and because of this, I personally feel it's better to keep the digi-gauge at 1 bar below and the dipstick slightly over the max line as I'd said. Trust the dipstick over than the dash gauge - use the digi-gauge only for convenience at startup.

For those w/o dipsticks, 1 bar (about 8 fl. oz.) below the top is still in the OK range, and OK is OK - better than risking an overfill.

[chitowndad]

What happens if you overfill?

-SP

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by chitowndad

What happens if you overfill?

-SP

If you overfill the oil 'foams' meaning that it cannot flow to the crank and rod bearings or the the cams... VERY BAD!!