slivel

I bought my 14 CS new and it now has 17k miles. First oil change done my indy shop at 1000 miles. Subsequent changes done by me. The 10,000 miles or one year recommended Porsche oil change service interval is always one year because my car is not a daily driver and I would never go 10 k miles between changes. 5k is sort of my personal max between changes. I usually use my Quick Jack to do changes, the car sits nice and level and I drain after a run with the oil normal operating temperature. Leave the plug off to drain for about 30 minutes, then replace the plug with new aluminum seal ring and remove and change the filter, reinstalling with a new o-ring. Normal process...right? Having done this four times now, I refill with 6 quarts and then go through the process of adding about 4 ounces multiple times until the level is where it should be on the display. PITA!!! From the factory workshop manual the fill amount for oil change with new filter is 7.5 liters. The difference between minimum and maximum on the dash display is 1.7 liters. New, dry engine capacity is 10.1 liters so we are leaving about 30% of the old oil in the system.

So now for the rant. Because of the Porsche capacity data and the fact that I always had to do the multiple 4 ounce additions to get it properly full, I decided that I would put in 7 quarts. Well, its supposed to be 7.5 liters on a change with filter, right? And 7.5 liters converts to 7.92 quarts so no problem, right? WRONG! No warnings on start-up so I go for a drive and when the oil warms up and expands - Overfull warning. Crap. Now I know that others have advised that the best thing to do in this circumstance is to remove the oil filter and dump the excess, I but that makes a mess too, so I thought that I could just pull the plug for a few seconds, get a little out, replace and good to go. With gloved hand and hot oil, forget it. It's HOT! Burned my hand, dropped the plug because I could not get it back in before it was too hot to handle. So now I get to buy more oil and do it the old way - 6 quarts plus, plus, plus.

Latest oil change: decided to not use my Quick Jack and instead just back up my car onto hard rubber ramps. They raise the car probably about 8 inches but it is then certainly in a nose down attitude. The drain plug is at the rear of the pan so I knew that less oil would be drained. Here is what I found: with the car tail up this way 4 quarts came out into my drain pan. I know this because I measured the drained oil so as not to repeat the overfull fiasco from before. Added 4 quarts and it was perfect. Before the oil change the oil level was one line down on the display and after the oil change it was at that same level, only makes sense because I measured and knew exactly how much came out. So I wonder if this is repeatable. Here is my thinking, a regular oil/filter change is 1 year or whatever miles you are comfortable with (up to 10k miles). And you will still leave almost 30% of the old oil in the system. Suppose that I just use my ramps and do the quick change more often. Maybe do the filter every other time. By using the ramps, I could do just the oil (not filter) in about 10-15 minutes. So I could get 40% fresh oil in every 4-6 months or 2000 miles with the use that I get on my car.

I really miss having a dipstick.

ICNU

Agreed. Classic German over engineering to make a simple process harder than it needs to be but it is what it is. I guess I have been lucky as I just did my 4th oil change on my 2014 CS a couple days ago and its always the exact same fill every time. I also use a Quick Jack and get the oil warm before doing a 1 hour drain.

I buy my oil in 5 litre jugs and it has taken exactly 8 litres for the oil/filter change for the last four years that I have been doing it and the digital gauge reads perfect at 1 segment down where it is supposed to be for full. There has been one new pain lately and that is my gauge telling me "no oil information available" for sometimes days and over 100 miles of driving after having the hatch open for more than 45 seconds which resets the oil reading every time you do this. In the past I would under fill a bit and check again after getting the fresh oil up to normal temp with a 20 minute drive and slowly add until full.

That has not been possible the last two yearly changes though as I have been getting that no info message for days even if the car has been running for hours and clearly up to operating temp. It eventually gives me a reading at some random point and so far 8L does it every time perfectly for me but yeah, just give me a simple dipstick!

Geowar

Oil change last Saturday. 14 cayman base. Quickjack, 1/2 hour drain. Filled with 7 quarts. Drove the car to operating temp. Gauge read oil at Minimum level. Per manual: 1.8 qts from minimum line to max line. 4 sectors between minimum and maximum, which means 14.4 ounces per sector. Added more oil without measuring. Gauge now reads half full. two sectors left, which means 28.8 ounces until full. Going to add 20 ounces and call it a day.

patdonahue

I see your point especially for a DIY. BUT you are still leaving 1/3 of the oil in the engine. probably not all THAT dirty but still used oil. . For the extra time it will take to do these "quickie" changes where you are changing the filter every other time , etc. might you be better off just sticking to the one oil change a year, bite the bullet and just pencil in a half-day for the regular procedure? Finger aching-yes but you have lost one day and have all new oil in the motor as opposed to backing up the ramps twice a year for 2/3 of a oil change
BTW I love Porsches but the electronic dip stick, auto-start/stop, cylinder deactivation and electric hand brake are IMO backward steps to let technology do what by complexity what does not really need to be there at all. or can simply be done by a quick movement of the hand...

oachs83

Have you thought about running an extra quart through with the drain plug still out after it drains about a half hour? I change on ramps every 4K miles with Mobil1 and the extra quart flush is a good piece of mind.

gedwin

I do it almost exactly like this, Quickjack and all, but I drain for an hour, then add 7.5QT between filter housing and main fill. Puts me 1 bar under full every time. 981BB.

Spokes

I haven't checked the user manual, but the other day I went to check my oil level, and it read 'no information..'. I noticed I had sport plus selected. I turned that off. returned to the oil information selection, and I had a reading of the level.

garfunkle

Oil change today..... FYI Walmart has 12 quart units for 50$!

If you also take the filler cap off while draining then more oil will come out. Added 8.5 quarts and I'm smack dab in the middle of the oil gauge.

scootr

Not sure I'm comfortable letting a Walmart garage monkey wrench on my best car. Also intrigued by the idea that only 8.5 qts drain of a total 10.5 ?
This is not an oil change - it's 80% of an oil change, YUK!

SeanPatrick31

I’m pretty sure that he means that the oil was on sale. Not that he let Walmart actually change the oil.

scootr

oh - my bad.

Geowar

Oh yes. I also filled the filter housing before adding the seven quarts.

garfunkle

I bought the oil and am the garage monkey in my garage at home

TMc993

FWIW, I've taken my 981 Cayman to the same highly respected indy shop throughout my 4+ years of ownership. Every oil/filter service had been done by the same technician. I just checked my records and each time, it took 8 quarts of oil. Each time, when I got the car back home and went through the Porsche-prescribed procedure for checking oil level (Hot engine, level surface, key off, engine sits for one minute, key back on but don't start engine, toggle to "Oil Level" ) the "gauge" reads 7/8th full, which I understand is the "target"...Full, but not overfilled.

I believe there is a tendency to "overthink" the whole oil deal (along with tires and brake pads). If you use a high quality oil, change it on a regular basis somewhere between 5K and 10K mile intervals depending on how hard you use the car, change the filters at the same time and use common sense about warming the oil before stressing the engine, you're not likely to have oil-related problems that aren't traceable to pre-existing design/manufacturing issues.

Also, I think we need to keep in mind that, while they can be a good source of general information, forums like this are nowhere near a representative sample of Porsche owners' experiences with their cars. If you don't believe me, consider that a grand total of ten (10) people (including me) have posted on this thread...Just not a very good sample...

garfunkle

Sorry to break it to you but more than likely he's listing and charging you for 8 quarts because that's what his book/software says. It takes a good hour for everything to completely drain. No shop is letting a car sit on the lift for that long for just an oil change.