Question on oil meter, druck oil, oil oil oil. Please read.

[rnln]

Please tell me what wrong with this. At idle, my oil meter a little above the mid point, and druck oil meter at around 3.
At 1,500rpm, oil meter comes down to at the top edge of the lowest white mark. Druck oil is almost at top.
At 2k rpm and above, oil meter at the bottom and stay there, druck oil at top and stay there.
I remember when I bought the car, the oil meter is always at low. But after a while, it starts working better. Now it comes low again.
Please tell me what drive the oil meter and what wrong with it? Or maybe nothing wrong?
Note: I check oil level often and oil level is always good.
Thanks.

[randywebb]

do you have an owner's manual?

Which gauge are you looking at? Is it on the left or right side of the 'circle'?

If you are looking at the oil pressure gauge, then it will read rel. low at idle and increase as the revs increase

does "after a while" mean several minutes (oil warms up), or days, weeks, months...??

[rnln]

Thanks Randdy.. Let me make it more clear.

First gauge from the left. Indicate OIL:

At idle, my oil meter is a little above the mid point.
At 1,500rpm, oil meter comes down to right at the top edge of the lowest white mark.
At 2k rpm and above, oil meter is at the bottom and stay there.
When it's moving up and down, it shakes. Very unstable.

Second gauge from the left, the right half, where it indecate "DRUCK OIL":

At idle, druck oil meter at around 3.
At 1,500rpm, Druck oil is almost at top.
At 2k rpm and above, druck oil at top and stay there as glue.

What do you think?

[lateapex911]

Sounds normal-ish to me. The guage on the left is an indication of oil level in the tank, and on the right is oil pressure.
If the level indicator is low all the time, check the level in the tank as prescribed by the manual, and if the pressure is low when you are above idle, then find the cause.

It is normal for your car to have lower pressure at idle. Some cars seem like it is so low as to be nothing. Yours sounds fine.

[donstevens]

This behavior is absolutely normal.

The guage to the left is oil level in the tank. As you rev the car, the pump draws more oil to all the important places. Thus, the drop in the level in the tank. At idle it evens back out.

The same goes for oil pressure which is the guage on the right. With reves the pums draws more oil creating more pressure in the feed lines to allowing more volume of oil to get all the critical places.

You should also see that as temperature rises, the level rises (due to thermal expansion of the oil) and that oil pressure decreases. Some say that the pressure decrease is due to the oil viscosity thinning with temperature which I don't think is completely accurate. The pumpability, not neccesarily the viscosity, changes with temperature which is why the oil pressure decreases with increased temperature.

All the above behavior is normal so Fugitabouit.

Don

[rnln]

Thank you very much.

[nesslar]

Aren't these folks just the biggest flippin' help? Really somethin'! I can't believe all the great advice and knowledge made available.
My oil level doesn't read up to the middle until I'm all warmed up and at idle. The pressure always reads fine, though.
Kinda' interesting the way the good Dr. and his crews developed and built these things.

'86 Targa still RED, still sportin' the TAIL!
Sun's out, top comes off as soon as I get home and back that baby out of the garage!

Caution, TARGA lurking.............

[fintstone]

Yes, that is correct. The oil level is only accurate when the car is level, not moving, idiling, and warmed up.

[livi]

Pretty normal description. At least, thats how my gauges work too. And it makes sense with the dry sump outfit and all.

[defcon65]

Yes, the oil gauges act weird - freaked me out as a new owner but I got used to it. The good advice of this forum is to check the dipstick with car warmed up, running and sitting level - target the midpoint of the stick for the fill level an you'll be OK. My oil level gauge bounces top to bottom until the oil warms and expands volume; the druck is usually at 3-5K regardless of engine speed. If the pressure is pegged out at all times you have probably overfilled. I'd only be worried about the fill level gauge if it is at the bottom and doesn't move after the car warms up. Just check the dipstick often and you will have no worries.

[defcon65]

Oops, my bad - that's druck 3-5, must be x10 PSI. Incidentally, my tach bounces all over the place when I blip the throttle - normal?

[jwetering]

Druck is the german word for pressure. Nobody mentioned it here but it helps to sort out the oil level gauge from the oil pressure gauge.

Also important is to realize that the oil pressure gauges in most cars (old Porches excepted) are configured (dampened) so that they indicate max oil pressure almost all of the time. This is so that owners don't get alarmed when the oil pressure drops at idle. In our cars on the other hand the oil pressure gauge acts as a pressure gauge should - i.e. it displays the actual oil pressure. I wonder how the gaues on new Porsches behave?

[Gunter]

Something doesn't sound right.
If the sender, wires, and gauge are in working order, idle-pressure reads around 1 bar. Expect 1 bar, for every 1000 RPM increase.
Example: 3000 RPM = 3 bar.
If your gauge doesn't show this, you have a problem with sender, wires, or gauge. (Or in extreme cases, oil pump- or major mechanical break down)
Most oil level gauges don't work right and the best way is to manually check it. If your oil level gauge fluctuates with different RPM's, it's due to the scavenging action of the pump or hard cornering.
If you would like a little more overall pressure, especially when idling, install the Porsche-recommended restrictor fittings on the cam oil lines.

[nesslar]

See picture below for last night's results of oil level check. Level was at middle of dipstick range, car on level pavement (garage floor), Perfect!

[jbrinkley]

rnln, you might notice a difference in the way those gauges behave if you clean the connectors up with a wire brush (the ones at the lower right of the engine next to the fan)

[Wil Ferch]

Druck is measured in "bar" ...about equal to one "atmosphere" or roughly 14.5-14.7 psi

14.5 psi = 1 bar

yep.. about 1-1.5 bar / 1000 rpm for a healthy engine.....

- Wil

[Emission]

Come on!

You have to admit having a bunch of little orange needles always moving around on the gauge is exciting! At least it gives you something to worry about.

My other (modern) cars have needles that move into position after a few minutes, and stick there (except that pesky fuel gauge).

[rnln]

On the Druck Press, I always get around 3 at start up, and around 2.5 to 3 at idle (engine warned up). This is in nomral case. When driving, it at top.
Abnormal case is when it always at the top.
Another question about oil pump. How do you know if your oil pump is dead? If you don't, then oil pump dead = engine dead, right?

[Gunter]

Originally posted by rnln
On the Druck Press, I always get around 3 at start up, and around 2.5 to 3 at idle (engine warned up). This is in nomral case. When driving, it at top.
Abnormal case is when it always at the top.
Another question about oil pump. How do you know if your oil pump is dead? If you don't, then oil pump dead = engine dead, right?

rnln:
Without oil pressure, the engine will heat up quickly and you'll hear bad noises.
Unless there is a catastrophic failure, the pump is not dead but, over time, the internal gears may wear reducing oil pressure.

With engine warmed up, the pressure should be around 1 bar at idle. At around 4000 RPM, at 4 bar, the pressure relieve valve will open; the needle on the gauge will never be at the very top.
2.5 - 3 bar at idle doesn't sound right; check out the sender.

[shbop]

It's an oil level guage. It's made in Germany! Don't ever rely on it!