Edgy01

I just added this image to the oil usage poll,--for everyone's reference. The bottom line is that if you use a quart every 385 miles you are considered okay as far as Porsche is concerned.

uzj100

Guess they got you covered, huh Dan? You go thru a quart every 386 miles! IMHO, that kind of consumption is Bee Ess!

pred8or

I drive the Cayenne S 10k miles between oil changes and I dont add a drop. 86K so far and approaching the 9th oil change. Guess when the C4S comes in I better pay more attention!

dgcate

It might be interesting to see how most any judge would feel, if Porsche sold him a 100K dollar automobile, and he had to go to walmart and buy a CASE of oil, just to get the car to Florida and back. (the trunk in these cars, I'm guessing, were designed to carry luggage, not cases of oil).

Any company can generate paper work that says that it's ok to sell anything they want. That doesn't make it right, nor legal, in my mind, anyway.

abe

IMHO, I think that is toooo much oil consumption and it is one way to get the customers off their backs.
Why should one car go through a quart every 400 miles and another every 3000 miles. Something fishy if you ask me. I am one of the fortune ones..... barely one quart every 3000 miles. Porsche figures that no harm done if you consume one quart in 400 miles and they are not going to give you a new engine if it did or do a head job. BTW, maybe Porsche should pay for the xtra oil between oil changes.

abe

dgcate

It can be easy to "figure no harm done" , once you've already deposited a customers money in your bank account.

911Dave

Because high performance engines are not built the same way as a typical car engine. Porsches, especially 911s, have always consumed more oil than average cars. Racing engines, especially, consume a ridiculous amount.

With decades of superb engineering in this boxer-6 engine, you can be sure that if it consumes oil, it does so for a very good reason.

What's the big deal? You guys blew $100k or so on a car and you're complaining about having to add $5 of oil once in a while?

uzj100

I think the point is the wide variance in consumption between the listers that responded to Dan's survey. And, if you're on a trip, finding the M1 can sometimes be a challenge. Case in point, Dan and I live pretty close to one another and I've done one oil change and 10K miles in two years and have added a total of 24 oz of oil over that period. I forget exactly what Dan's added to his, but I believe it's in the neighborhood of 10 qts +/- in roughly the same amount of time. Though he does have about 20K on his car, the difference in consumption is pretty dramatic. Now if everyone here said they were consuming a qt every 400 miles, that would be a different story, but usage--again per Dan's survey--seems to be all over the place.

Edgy01

Although Joe doesn't really drive his car much (still under 10,000 miles and he's had the car longer than I have) the point remains that oil consumption is abnormal when it's anything like what a few of us (the exception) have been going through. When I picked up the car at Zuffenhausen I specifically asked the customer care representative about adding oil and his reply was that I would not have to add any oil while I was overseas. I wound up adding 3 quarts in the time I was there (3200 miles). Most of the 997s wouldn't have needed a drop, which is what Porsche had orignally indicated to me upon delivery. Now, however, it's a different story. Obviously, i've spoken to many people about this and the story seems to be that a few cars DO have a tendency to use a quart every 1000 miles while the vast majority perform correctly. I rebuilt an air-cooled 911 of mine many years ago when it got to using a quart every 400 miles. I'm halfway there,--and that was with 4 miles on t he odometer, as it is today with 21,917 miles.

avdiscolo

It is likely that the motor in my '06 C2S has used 1 quart every 450-500 miles since it was new, and it has over 16K miles on it now. It certainly has consumed this since I started keeping records after my head gasket was replaced at 7K miles (due to excessive coolant consumption, which still occurs even after the repair), and now it's officially documented with Porsche and I am awaiting their decision.

911Dave

The way our cars are broken in probably plays a part in the variation we see, but also we should remember that oil loss is caused by leaks as well as consumption. RMS leaks are common, and I'll bet a lot of Porsche owners aren't aware that they have leaks if they're not severe.

I've had my 997 almost a year now, but I was out of town most of last year so I only was able to drive it about 1,800 miles. There's no evidence of any leaks on the garage floor or under the engine that I can find, and I've only had to add 1/2 a quart to keep it at the full mark.

To contrast that, I also have an '86 Carrera that I've driven about 6,000 miles a year over the last 4 years, and I have to add about a quart every 800 miles or so. But it also has always leaked, so much of the oil I add is replacing what was lost.

kauai_diver

I'm concerned as well in the differences in oil consumption. I've got almost 18k miles with one oil change, two track events, and had to add a little more than one quart that whole time.

As someone said maybe its related to break in procedure?

avdiscolo

911Dave, would you care to share your theory about how break-in affects oil consumption?

gpk

I got the same line of BS from my service advisor about consumption being within the acceptable range. My car has about 16K miles and has used 5-6 quarts. The cost doesn't concern me as much as the usage compared to the majority. The SA tried to appease me by saying that since I had reported it and it was now "officially" documented in my file, I basically had a 100K engine warranty. That's great if it's true and if I planned to keep the car that long. However, I recently put my car up for sale and the whole complexion of that argument changed - what is a potential buyer going to think?

gpjli2

Are your #'s right? You are showing about 3000 miles/quart overall. This would make a lot of folks happy. Why would you worry about resale?