Oil Readings

[ocho]

How reliable are the gauges on the 993? The one on the far left of mine (oil can with a wavy line under it - presumably oil level, I don't have an Owner's Manual) reads in the red most of the time while I'm driving. If, however, I stop the car and leave it at tickover it seems to return to giving a satisfactory reading.

Having checked the dipstick, all appears to be fine and I would normally rely on this over the gauge. However, without the manual, I'd rather check with someone who knows both because there are no obvious max/min marks on the dipstick, just a flat section which I presume is max at the top, min at the bottom. I'm also less confident with the dipstick in this over any regular car as it seems to be about 6 feet long running all round the front of the engine!!!

Any offers of reassuring info much appreciated as usual.
Cheers
Jem

[ocho]

I have probably already made this mistake as I noticed on the road that it was reading red (without having really paid the gauge much attention since buying the car, and immediately chose to trust the reading and hence threw in a load of oil, almost certainly overfilling.

What are the likely consequences of this, if any?

[ocho]

verysideways said:

If you only overfilled a bit then don't worry

If I did overfill it by a lot (I've no idea really - just panicked when I saw it red and chucked a load in, quite a lot really...) would any consequences be apparent fairly soon, and what would they be?

[ocho]

david hype said:

clapham993 said: ocho said: [quote=verysideways]If you only overfilled a bit then don't worry - Blowing out the cam cover gaskets Regarding the above...Dont wait to see if you get pools of oil under the car as it will collect in the underbody tray first, when thats full you will know, it just happened on mine!

Sorry all - being as I am to Porsche mechanicals what Herod was to babysitting, are these three bad or do they just mean an overflow and inconveniently messy spillage of 5W40 on the drive???

[ocho]

pesty said:

how much did you add? My owners manual says on teh 964 there is 1.7ltres between the marks on the dipstick. if you put loads in. I imagine that it would be quite simple to undo the oil drain plug and let some out(use appropriate container).

It was actually about three or four thousand kilometres ago, and as these things seem to use a fair bit of oil as a matter of course it's probably at a resonable level now. I started the thread to find out if there was a chance of any long term damage that I won't already have found out about???

[ocho]

Cheers to all for the input. I've just been out for a good run and checked the dial at tickover on the level when I got back and it settles marginally above the mid-point, so I guess I've got away with it. The engine's running as well now as it ever has, so I think I'll take it that I've been lucky and learnt a lesson!

Jem