It does, but don't take it out in front of other cars, they'll get dipstick evny *NM*

Stupid question, and I'm embarrassed to ask, but I am trying to troubleshoot from Afghanistan, and haven't driven mine in over a year. My wife drove it home from the shop today, and twice, while the engine was at normal temp, she turned the key and saw the flashing oil indicator. Assuming it was low, she put a quart in each time.
When I said it was probably overfilled, she said the dipstick showed it was low.
It wasn't low last time I ran it, and I see no reason for it to be two quarts low now. Any suggestions?

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

Thanks Marc,
She did check the dipstick, and confirmed it was low. I just had this nagging thought that there wasn't a dipstick, and wanted to ease my mind. Things always seem worse when you're not there to confirm them, I remembered all the posts about doing away with dipsticks, and wanted to make sure.

Quote
IFlyLow
Stupid question, and I'm embarrassed to ask, but I am trying to troubleshoot from Afghanistan, and haven't driven mine in over a year. My wife drove it home from the shop today, and twice, while the engine was at normal temp, she turned the key and saw the flashing oil indicator. Assuming it was low, she put a quart in each time.
When I said it was probably overfilled, she said the dipstick showed it was low.
It wasn't low last time I ran it, and I see no reason for it to be two quarts low now. Any suggestions?

under some conditions when I turn on the key to start the Boxster's engine and the engine is hot enough but has been off long enough the oil level check count down is just 5 seconds, the oil level can read low enough to flash the warning light.

The cause of this is a low oil level, but not that low, the real culprit is the car is parked on a cambered road with the right side of the car down. And I'm not talking about some cow trail of a road either but the one in front the Livermore main post office has such a camber in front it.

It may be possible the e-level system is hosed. The techs tell me these fail very very seldom and only one tech has found a bad one and there was no reading at all.

But there may be other failure modes and just because these fail rarely doesn't mean the one in the car in question hasn't failed.

If there is a dipstick then your wife must use it to check the oil level is ok, or call upon a trusted friend or neighbor -- one who knows how to properly check the oil level using a dipstick -- and make sure the level is ok.

The car might be to taken to a place where the oil is drained and the right amount of oil added back to the engine and the dipstick level and the e-level reading confirmed to agree with the known amount of oil in the engine.

If the level is truly low and if engine is misbehaving then this needs attention and right now.

If the level is truly low and if the engine is *not* misbehaving then the car probably should be inspected/checked for any signs of an oil leak.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Hate to think of this as a possibility - but is she possibly putting oil in the coolant reservoir - hence it not showing the oil level going up? The coolant and oil caps are next to each other. I would be surprised if she could get 2 qts of oil added to the coolant tank without it overflowing , so hope this is not the case.

See my other pastime at www.gothamcityracing.net

... the issue correctly.
"My wife drove it home from the shop today"
Could the shop have not put enough oil in?
Is this a Porsche shop? Porsches take almost double the oil other cars.

"It wasn't low last time I ran it, and I see no reason for it to be two quarts low now"
You said she drove back from the shop. Did they do an oil change?

"twice, while the engine was at normal temp, she turned the key and saw the flashing oil indicator"
From the Owner's Manual:
If the oil level is too low, the segment display appears. The segment below the min. mark flashes.
If the whole segment display flashes, there is a fault in the measuring device. In this event use the dipstick to check the oil level.

"When I said it was probably overfilled, she said the dipstick showed it was low"
Does your wife know how to properly read the dipstick?

Please keep us posted.
Stay safe.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

It was in the shop for a clutch repair, so there should have been no reason to mess with the oil. It had been sitting for 9 months, nothing on the garage floor, so I don't think there was a leak. As far as the flashing indicator, she said it was the whole thing, not the individual bar.
She did check the dipstick, and she does know how to read one. She said when she checked it the first time it showed nothing on the stick, and afterward looked normal.
I'm pretty confident she did everything right, It's just easy to freak out about that kind of thing when you're deployed.

Maybe if you told us where the car is someone could go by and check it out from an owner's standpoint, not as a mechanic or officially but just helpfully.