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Stinking Oil Level Gauge

highway

Mexico City
Joined
8 Nov 2007
Messages
1,808
Had the ballast resistors done when the PU was painted not two years-3k ago. Just back from IOW (excellent,car was ace) and the level gauge is showing nothing. Dipstick showing nothing as well but thats normal, right??? Right>???
 
Novice alert: surely the dipstick will register correctly if the engine is warm and running?!
 
Some stupid questions .. Sorry ..
Have you a handle of how much oil she uses?
Did you top up or meaure the oil level before the trip?

Also , I think that in order to get a proper feel for the current oil level , you need to drive the car in town traffic , let the cooler open , and the oil temp rise again to 8-9 o clock on the gauge.
You could easily drive 90 mins and not have the oil reach the temp of town traffic. Often the temp seems to hover just over the oil cooler thermovalve, so it cycles between open and closed.
 
What has the ballast resistor got to do with oil level :dont know: The resisitor controls the slow speed oil cooler fan - fast speed works by default if the resistor is knackered.

As ballers says you need to get the oil temp gauge reading correctly and then take the oil reading on the stick. However I would expect there to be some slight oil measure on the stick even if you haven't got the temperature up

For what its worth my dial gauge reads exactly the same as on the stick - which my 993 didn't :roll:
 
Zingari said:
For what its worth my dial gauge reads exactly the same as on the stick - which my 993 didn't :roll:

I had to replace mine in the 964 and then it worked fine, you can recalibrate them if you want to try first but they are not that expensive (c£80) so would suggest getting a new one. Fortunately the one in my 993 is still going strong. :thumb:
 
The oil on the stick is ridiculously clean. I panicked initially as I thought there was no reading. I get 5 under pressure while driving and around 2.5 to 3 at idle pressure wise. Temp wise sits in the bottom third unless is stationary traffic, which isn't often. Last services in April. Done less than 500 miles since. No leaks on garage floor. I just noticed that the level gauge didn't appear to be working.

Ill check again later. Don't want to overfill
 
I never thought I would write this....how clean is the oil on your stick? RL suggests this isn't uncommon.
 
There are a number of reasons for the gauge reading incorrectly but more critical is the fact that you have no dipstick reading.

90 mins of high speed driving will certainly have caused the engine to reach full operating temperature, indicated by the oil temp gauge reaching just above the first mark and then falling to just below same mark as the thermostat opens to allow the bulk of the oil into the system. As this new oil warms quickly the needle settles on or around the lower mark.
It's not necessary to get the temp gauge reading at 9 O'Clock to take an accurate dipstick reading.
As a benchmark, starting my car cold at -25C it takes about 20 mins to reach full operating temp at a steady 80kph in summer about 10 mins, bit less in the city.

I suggest you may need to add some oil. HTH
 
If you have only done 500 miles since your last service then the oil will probably be hard to see on the dipstick ie you are looking for shines wetness rather than colour ;-)

The car has to have the secondary oil cooler open for the dial to work when stationary.

I have had to change my habits with a 993 and check oil after a run. I usually go off the dial and when it's reading low I check manually and top up.

Because of this process of needing a warm engine you can't check before a long run unless you do it at the end of the previous run. Because of this I always carry a litre of oil in the car.

993 don't often show oil on the floor even if their are weeps as the are plenty of catchment points on the car which would burn it off first.

Ps I saw strasse running a 993 with a blanket over the engine to get the car up to temp to check the oil properly after a service. I wonder how many indies take the extra time to check it properly ?
 
:hand: I hope you're not back peddling now suggesting your oil is so clean that you cant see it as an excuse for knackering your engine because of no oil :nooo:

I did read that air quality over the IOW last week was graded as 'poor' with a blueish hue lingering :what:

Actually oil is very difficult to see on the dipstick as Jon says you look for wetness rather than colour because the oil never seems to degrade to a condition where you can actually see it change colour. well min never did.
 
Yep it's very hard to see the oil on the twisty , even after a couple of thousand miles since service , there's soooo much oil in the system it tends to stay clean looking.
When checking the stick , have a close look for 'micro' bubbles in a line , which usually indicates the oil level. Difficult to explain , but you'll see if you examine.
I agree with HP that the engine will certainly be up to temp after 90 mins , but if you wish to be careful , let the car idle for about 10 mins to get the MAXIMUM oil level , that way you won't overfill when topping up.
 
Looking at it in daylight. I added oil yesterday it's to the top of the swirly bit at the end of the dipstick. Gauge doesn't move though. Is this another 993 bit that humps itself every so often..
 
highway said:
... Is this another 993 bit that humps itself every so often..

:floor: are we having fun yet? How canit be that things work one day and dont the next? Why cant it be erratic for a bit before melting downlike the rest of us!!
 
Sometimes I really struggle to get a reading on the dipstick - again, invariably it is the sheer transparency of the oil that is the issue, not an absence of oil.

I use Titan in the car, which was previously sold under the Silkolene brand. The Silkolene was purple in colour - which for me made it both cool and visible!! :thumb:

I don't know why, but the the oil level gauge sometimes (not always) can seem to be a bit stubborn when at the normal operating temperature. I tend to let the car idle after a drive so that the temperature reading heads towards the "quarter to nine" position rather than the "twenty to eight" position. At this point, you may well find that it kick starts the oil reading on the oil gauge and it pretty much shoots towards a "quarter past three" position. When full, the gauges should read basically as horiziontal lines across the two dials.

The only problem is that the car would probably need to idle for some time in order to do this, which could be a bit annoying for the neighbours - especially if the car's exhaust is on the loudish side. :D
 

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