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Checking the oil guage when your car space isn't level...

The return of Marty Wild

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My parking space dips down lower at the front of the car. This means whenever I start the car, it is not level and shows under the optimum level.

I have checked it in other spots and got bang on the money. But it is all a bit worrying, if the small slant of my parking space is enough to throw it. How do I know that when I check it somewhere else, that it isn't bias the other way?

How do people get round this? Is it best to measure it when cold or hot? Read different things on PH.

And how comes sometimes its a 5 or 6s wait, other times its 30mins?

Cheers folks!
 
err ... get it correct on level ground hot engine , no need for a spirit level :grin:... then immediately drive to your parking space and note where the gauge is showing .. then you can fill every time in your own parking space to that level knowing its right :dont know:... if its down by half a litre or so it wont hurt till you get home .
 
Can you get at the dipstick in a Cayman? Best practice generally is to use that rather than the dash gauge- I've found they can vary quite alot, as you say.

I prefer to check mine when its warm, after allowing 10 mins or so for the oil to drain back.

Garage forecourts are a good place, usually pretty flat.
 
I was told there is no dip stick, is that correct?!

The reading I get outside my house isn't even constant. Just checked and it was (for the first time) on as high as it can go. When usually it reads under when parked outside my house.

Car has not been used since Monday and is frozen solid. Have managed to get a optimum reading at my local shell, when warm in the past.
 
The key here is consistency, not absolute levelness or temperature.

In the OP's case, I would first take the proverbial 'perfect' reading on a flat surface somewhere with the oil warmed up (you'll have to wait 15mins after shutting the car down, the dash will count down until giving you a reading). Then very carefully top up until the top bar is activated (ie the top full-size bar between the lines, not the smaller bar above that which indicates overfill).

If possible, do this as near home as possible. Then drive directly home and carefully park in the precise position the car the car will normally live. You could even put some kind of markers down at this point so that you can repeat the position accurately. Then leave the car overnight.

In the morning in the cold, take the oil level. You now know what the gauge will read parked in that position when the oil is at the correct level. You have in effect recalibrated for any lean / slope where the car is parked.

You may need to repeat this for summer ambient temps.
 
Sorry, just seen somebody else suggested this above, in effect.
 
Cheers Gents, will look into it this weekend.
 
Engine oil must be 90 degrees , if colder it takes longer to check but i personnely dont think its totally accurate at anything less than full temp .

On a slope then it would be inaccurate but still close ish .

To be honest theres 11 litres of oil in the car .. the gauge from max to min records 1.5 liters .. if the oil gets much lower than this you get a message saying that .. theres still an awfull lot of oil in it at that point for safety reasons .

Its far better to be a segment or 2 down than over filled.

Certainly dont worry about it HAS to be always at the max level , fair enough on a car with 4-5 liters .. but not Porsches .
 
Demort said:
Engine oil must be 90 degrees , if colder it takes longer to check but i personnely dont think its totally accurate at anything less than full temp .

Not correct for a gen 1 9x7. The quickest reading is from stone cold - you get a 5 second countdown from stone cold if you don't turn the engine over first. If the engine is hot I think it's about 1:30 from shutdown or thereabouts.

I think the gen 2 9x7 is different and will only give a reading when hot, IIRC.
 
So if I was to drain the oil myself, how do you ever know how much to put back in?! Measure what you take out?

Why did I think it was more like 8l in the Cayman.

Interesting re. the measurement, will try at running temp at a petrol station. Swear I've seen it offer me a 30 min wait for a reading. And once a 3 min at a Shell garage.
 
On the gen 1, it's easy, you just twist the key all the way round without pressing the clutch. If the car hasn't been run for at least 45 mins, it will give you a reading immediately (well after five seconds).

So no problem at all except the slight complication after first turn over. Basically, when you change the oil, you dump the old oil, change the filer, plug back in and then fill. I usually put about 6.5 liters straight in and then start checking the level on the dash (an overfill would be too much ballache to remedy).

Once it's full, you crank the engine briefly to fill the filter+housing. Then you have to wait a while as if you try to check the level after ranking gthe engine but not bringing it to temp, there will be a 45 min (IIRC) countdown. Once that countdown is done, it will give you a reading after five seconds any time you check thereafter without cranking the engine. So you just top up to the right level and you are done.

With a gen 2 I think it will only give a reading when hot, so I have no idea how you do the fill. I assume you put in a known quantity of oil.
 
The return of Marty Wild said:
Why did I think it was more like 8l in the Cayman.

Because it is eight litres and not the 11 quoted above. I do the oil in my car. It's not 11 litres in the gen 1 Cayman (or a gen 1 997). Pretty sure it's not 11 for a gen 2, either.

Don't think it's 11 for any of the water-cooled flat-six moderns apart from the Mezger cars like the GT3 and (I assume) the Turbo.
 
You get 8 liters of oil out on a change .. 9 if left over night , theres actually 11 liters of oil in the engine but you wont get the rest out unless doing an engine strip .

I could only find a 997 and its 10.3 litres ..
 

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Official figures are 7.5 and 7.75 for gen 1 987CS oil change quantities, which going by that 997 doc, puts the factory fill for a new engine at under 10 litres.

Have to admit, I only drain mine for about 30 mins. But then I do oil changes at 6-8k rather than the crazy 20k official intervals and usegood oil, not the Mobil 1 marketing tie-in gunk! ;)

So think I'm probably OK!
 

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