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Oil Bottle Holster - 2015 Porsche Macan S Long-Term Road Test
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Oil Bottle Holster - 2015 Porsche Macan S Long-Term Road Test
There's an oil bottle holster in the back of our 2015 Porsche Macan. Here's what's in it.
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Another perk for being a car-critic long term test car.
More new cars are requiring oil to be added between changes. It's not all bad, just different. Longer oil change intervals and low-friction piston rings contribute to slightly higher oil consumption. I actually prefer a little oil consumption so I can top off and replenish some additives before the next oil change.
I dislike having to add oil about as much as I dislike having to change it before 10,000 miles.
isn't the Macan S a 3.0 litre twin turbo V6??? the 3.6 litre V6 twin turbo is the engine in the Macan Turbo model
correct bruceshepherd, the Macan S has a 3.0 turbo. it says it right on the engine cover
I wouldn't say it is normal, but it's not unusual or a cause for concern. I would argue that the typical modern car should not use any oil, turbo or not. Even at 80k miles my 2004 Jetta with the 1.8T engine never used a drop of oil. Nor did my '96 Pontiac Sunfire or 2007 Subaru Forester or my 1996 Taurus SHO (with 100k miles). Modern engine tolerances are so tight that adding oil between changes, even extended ones, should be an exception.
Seems that Euro vehicles in general burn and require oil more than other vehicles. Not fond of having to add oil every 1 - 2000 miles.
I had a friend ditch her A4 for just that reason. I argued that was normal for small turbocharged engines particularly from VAG but she wasn't satisfied with that.
Funny enough, we just had to add oil to our 2010 Audi A6 Avant and a neighbor asked why I was addding oil to a relatively brand new car. It made me think... every Japanese car we've owned (including an NSX, 2 S2000s and several other "high performance models" never, ever burned oil. But every German car we've had burned oil. My 911 needed a quart of oil added almost religiously between oil changes (every 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever came first). My current E90 M3 needs a quart added at about the same interval. The Audi doesn't burn as much but this is the second time in 53,000 miles I've had to add oil in between oil changes. I've read and heard horror stories of burning oil as often as 1,000 miles on some AMG Mercedes (that would drive me nuts).
Not only is using a small amount of oil normal, it's actually probably good for the engine as an upper cylinder lubricant. Keep in mind I said "small amount", and by that I mean say 4 oz-6oz between changes.
My A4 2.8 V6 burned oil at a rate of a quart every 2k or so and it became every 1k at over 120k miles on the odo. No topping necessary in my G35 at 104k.
It amazes me the number of people that equate adding engine oil as being worse than a new car payment. So you add $15 in oil every 10k miles. Geez. My VW dealers have been known to fill up my used bottle from their bulk tank for the quart my car will consume between the oil changes. Just gotta ask nicely...and bring little presents to your mechanic sometimes. :-)
Thanks for catching that bruceshepherd, I'll make the correction ASAP.
-Ron Montoya, Consumer Advice Editor
I doubt there's any "off brand" oil that meets Porsche specs.
Engine oil consumption is not just a matter of engine tolerances. In reality, it's a combination of engine blowby and PCV oil separation efficiency. This is exacerbated/complicated by turbocharged engines (a German love), which suffer both from high blowby levels as well as positive intake manifold pressurization. The job of the PCV system is to circulate blowby as well as fresh air through the engine; the other job it has is to separate oil vapour from the blowby and send it back to the oil pan. If it doesn't do this job very well, your engine starts eating oil as PCV gasses go back into the intake and into each combustion chamber. Incidentally, this also led to the intake valve coking issue on early direct injected engines. It's probably needless to say but the Americans and Japanese seem to have this issue under control better than the Germans, despite the fact that the German OEMs usually specify extraordinarily complex PCV systems that sometimes look more like science experiments.
That is true, direct injection engines have had this problem of coking. I've seen it with my own eyes on a VW, and it's not pretty. Of course, not all modern engines are DI but many are going that way.
EGR gases also play a part in this carbon buildup. It's not just the blowby issue per se.
One solution seems to be to insert a second injector in the port area to allow the detergents in the gasoline to do their job.
It'll be interesting to see how these cars do out of warranty.
I am at 4,000 mi on my S and no oil so far.