Hi everyone, I am in need of some help. The other day I came up and realized there was a large pool of oil in my garage. I come to find out it is an active leak and slowly dripping more oil as we speak, as witnessed when taking the picture. The odd thing about it is, I hardly drive the car because I work from home, so just usually to the gym, store and pick and drop off the kids. Definitely driving pretty tame on those drives. Maybe a total of 10 miles a day and usually just 1 mile if I don't have to get the kids. Also, it happened after one of these short drives, like something just broke or blew up after I parked it. I can't get it into the shop until Thursday, so I am just trying to get a handle on what it might be.

I did drive the car before noticing it and did not get any warnings of low oil or anything else, well other than the stupid TPMS sensor, hate those things! Any help would be greatly appreciated. The picture is taken from right next to the passenger tire.

Thanks!

 

not much you can tell until you get the pan off and look, might be as simple as the oil drain plug coming loose

are you a member of the Mid Ohio region? I'm sure there is someone who could give you a hand (if not you should join, lots of good info and people)

 

I am not, but need to look into that. Checked it out again and it is still dripping, and since I got an oil change just a few months ago, maybe they didn’t change the drain plug or washer. That makes a lot of sense because of the amount of oil. I will drop it off Thursday and just let it sit until then. Thanks!

 

Unfortunately I have lots of experience with oil leaks (much to my chagrin). Can you share your year and model (specifically V8 or V6)?

 

2010 Panamera Turbo

 

V8 engine pretty solid. Hopefully just drain plug or filter housing. Sometimes shops try to reuse crush washer (aluminum) so common failure point. I typically replace BOTH drain plug and washer at every oil change. I’ve seen filter housing not fully seated and torqued too.

I have V6 TT (‘14 4S) and have had leaks at oil separator and also timing chain cover (know V6 issue across full line-up (Cayenne/Macan/Panamera). Timing or cam covers are engine out repair. Both covered under factory warranty but I strongly suspect still leaking (thank goodness now for aftermarket warranty). Going in next month for a look.

 

This is likely something from that previous oil change you mentioned. It could be from the oil filter/cartridge if they had changed that also.

 

Have you checked the oil level to see how much oil you’ve lost? It would be a good idea to do this before driving it to the dealer.

 

Is there a way to check without the digital gauge that tells you you need to drive a little to get it to read? The amount that is still dripping seems to me that the shop did something wrong. That is still surprising as they are a high-end race shop that only focuses on German cars. I am just going to get it towed over there tomorrow, not worth driving just to be safe.

 

It's a shame that there isn't a manual dipstick to check the level on this engine.
But it seems to me that it is possible because I saw photos of the same engine block with the gauge maybe a cayenne then ??

 

Great idea on the tow. Might call them first and hopefully they offer to tow it, or offer to reimburse you on any tow charges. (Quite frankly if it were me, AND they didn't offer to reimburse towing charges, I'd never go back).

Oh, and they better not charge you to replace that large panel. (It wasn't very expensive when I replaced ours)...

 

Well, no luck on an easy fix. The shop was not really able to determine exactly what made me lose close to a half quart of oil and is still dripping on my garage floor. They just detailed all my potential leaks and recommended I take it to the dealer. I have a buddy who has a specialized shop that I will be taking it to at the end of the month to get everything sorted. Until then, I will just add some oil and not really drive it much. The main thing they thought I should change is the air/oil separator. After researching that, it makes no sense to me as I have never had any white smoke or check engine light. I am at a loss from what could have caused this, but thankfully my buddy will get to the bottom of this, unfortunately, he is just so slammed with everyone wanting to get their high-end exotics out now that the weather is nice. Below are the potential leaks that may need to be addressed that the shop detailed.** OIL PAN AND OIL COOLER APPEAR TO BE LEAKING
*** LEAKS AT FRONT AND REAR SWAY BAR HYDRAULIC UNITS ON BARS
*** TRANSMISSION PAN IS LEAKING, COULD HAVE OTHER TRANSMISSION LEAKS NEED TO START WITH PAN, CLEAN OFF AND RECHECK.
*** DRIVE BELT TENSIONER IS LEAKING OIL
*** SUGGEST BOTH MOTOR MOUNTS AND ENGINE MOUNT IN FRONT OF DRIVE SIDE MOUNT
*** LF CONTROL ARM HAD HYDRAULIC FLUID LEAK OUT, SUGGEST BOTH SIDES LOWER CONTROL ARMS
*** VACUUM PUMPS HAS A SLIGHT LEAK
*** RECOMMEND REPLACING THE AIR/OIL SEPARATOR
*** DRIVER SIDE TIMING COVER APPEARS TO BE LEAKING
*** POSSIBLE TURBO LEAK OR POWER STEERING LEAK, OR BOTH. SAME AS TIMING COVER LEAK.
*** TECH RECOMMENDED TAKING TO THE DEALERSHIP FOR REPAIRS
SALES TAX

 

If you have a way to raise the front up (safely), pull the panel off and take a peek at what's going on.

 

a lot of those are going to be stupid expensive to fix.....

 

Finding the source of a bad oil leak is not, or should not be, a challenging gig for a shop. Pull the belly pan, clean the existing oil off thoroughly, let it dry, start the car and let it warm up while on the lift. Then look for the oil. The timing cover leak is an engine-out procedure, but it can also be left alone if the leak is not super active. Most are not gushers because usually it's one or two of the bolts that snap. It seems like the area right around the tensioner on the driver's side is the most common failure point. The vacuum pump can easily be repaired with a $15 seal kit, versus the $1k Porsche will charge you to replace the entire unit.