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Oil Level Gauge (that old chestnut !)

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Hello All,

I've recently had my 1997 993 Targa serviced (48k) at a local(ish) specialist. Since the service the behaviour of the oil level gauge has changed significantly.

Prior to the service the gauge didn't budge during driving. The only time it moved when was the engine was up to temperature and the car was left idling for a few minutes - I believed this was normal operation.

However since the service the gauge is responding much more quickly. Whilst driving home this evening with the engine warm, the gauage moved halfway up the scale whilst I was trickling along in traffic. In addition when I pulled up at home last night there was whiteish smoke coming from the rear drivers (offside) wheel arch.

On phoning the specialist they suggested that this might have been excess oil dripping onto the exhaust. There was no smoke tonight nor was there oil under the car after standing overnight.

Is this something I should be worried about & take up with the specialist or is a quickly reacting oil level gauge normal behaviour? Could it be that the engine has been slightly overfilled? If so is this a major problem?

Any advice or suggestion would be most welcome.
 
I find that the oil level gauge will often move around when the engine is doing little more than ticking over if the oil level is fairly high. If you check the dipstick under the correct conditions (oil hot, thermostat open, ticking over, level ground) that should settle the issue. What the gauge says at times when you are not doing the above are pretty irrelevant really. Dipstick is the rule of law here.

Regards

Dave
 
Darren
Ditto the earlier rresponses.

It is probably moving about a bit more as there is more oil in there. I would do the basic dipstick check when the engine is warm just to check that it hasnt been overfilled.

Regards to the smoke very easy to spill a drop whilst refilling, have a look around where the oil filler is to see what level spillage there may have been, though I would expect it to have been cleaned up so there should just be what ever dripped through to burn off, only worry if the smoke persists.
 
I had EXACTLY the same situation after mine went in to have the RMS replaced. A couple of weeks later it was back at the garage having another leak repaired (Grrr), I got them to take a litre of oil out and it's been "normal" since then.

Cheers
 
Many thanks for all your input. My pulse has slowed down somewhat since reading that a sensitive oil gauge isn't something to worry about (nor is a slight overfill). The gauge did drop down off the scale when there were any significant revs, which also ties in with the comments above.[:)]

I'll be having a torch & dipstick session over the weekend to double check though.

Thanks again.
 
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