hey guys,

I recently purchased a 996 T. The car has upgraded turbos, exhaust, intake, etc as far as the engine mods. It hits about .8b at peak boost.

The issue Im having is with the oil pressure guage.

I was driving from Raleigh to Charlotte yesterday just cruising (getting into easy boost to pass, etc) and the guage dropped to "0" or acted like it just turned off really.

Of course I thought I blew the **** up somehow, so I immediately pulled over and turned the car off. I waited a few seconds and started it back up, guage was reading oil pressure fine. I sat there for a few and it seemed to be ok. Figured it was a minor error in the guage (as there was no change in the driving of the car, etc). Wasnt throwing any codes or anything either.

I continued driving down the road and it did it again maybe a minute later, so I pulled over and repeated the process.

I thought maybe the pump was dying, bad signal somewhere, the guage is broken, etc etc. Either way I continued driving, paying close attention to the car as it didnt appear that anything was actually wrong, and it was just some guage problem.

I drove for an hour or so on purpose without getting into more than .2b of boost, and it didnt drop once. When I would get into .4b or above (the cars weight shifts a bit more) it would drop/ cut off to 0, stay there for 4-5 seconds, then shoot all the way back up to normal (4.5-5) and stay there like nothing happened.

I read on a few forums that the guage issue has happened a good bit, but also to check the oil and see if its a bit low, and maybe under driving conditions part of the dry sump system was becoming starved. I spoke with the guy who previously owned the car and he said it had happened to him a couple times.

I let the car idle on flat ground for a few minutes, and it was reading oil pressure at about 2.5 on average. However, the guage jumps around pretty good. It rarely stays at 2.5, or 4.5, or anything, for more than a few seconds. It mostly sits at 2.5, but jumps to 3.5-4.5 every few seconds.

Is it normal for these guages to dance around like that? If so, where in its "dance" should I be taking the reading from?

Either way I assumed since it sat at 2.5 most of the time (and other forums recommended the guage read 3.5-4ish at idle), I added a quart. That seemed to change nothing, so I added another. That seemed to change the average idle level by a slight bit, but nothing anyone other than someone really paying attention to it would have noticed. From my reading the guage in the car is supposed to be really accurate (other than when they totally fail like mine appears to be doing.)

So suggestions? Ive put probably 100 miles on the car (the remainder of the trip) since it started happening, and nothing has changed in the car, other temps, driving, etc, so Im assuming it is actually something wrong with the guage/ something of that sort. A friend recommended to check/ add oil as necessary, but Im not sure Im getting an accurate reading from the guage so I didnt want to go dumping oil into the motor without asking a few questions.

The car was purchased through a friend who did all of the mentioned mods, but never raced the car and rarely even drove it hard. Was more of a weekend/ few times to work cruiser for him.

Im a noob to porsches so if anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

thanks!

 

Pretty simple fix:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996-turbo-gt2/73430-oil-pressure-problem.html

Here is a discussion on the same problem. I would check your oil level now tho, you may have over filled. Use the dash control. That is a pressure gauge, not a level gauge with the analog needle.

Tom

 

this guy seems to be having the exact same problem:

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...-question.html

Next question, is it safe to drive it like this before I replace the sending unit? I wasnt sure if this "sending unit" is purely for the guage purposes, or it is actually vital to oil pressure/ etc.

I apologize again for the noob ?'s.

 

Thanks Tom, I appreciate the help!

 

Oil pressure transmitter is known to fail on the TT. I can be DIY but a bit hard to reach. The part# is 996 606 203 00 and it is about $63.00.

 

I had this problem 6 months after I bought my car (3 year ago). I was told that it only is effecting the guage on the dash and doesn't reflect actaully oil presure as long as your oil level level is within range. I would still get it fixed asap.

 

Thanks again guys, I will be fixing it this week. I appreciate the help.