Nixon Motor Sports: Porsche Project #3: Oil Change

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Porsche Project #3: Oil Change

Changing your car's oil (I'll wait for the Tesla owners to finish laughing here) is the most important thing you can do to keep the engine in top shape. Recenty I saw an article about changing the oil on a ridiculously expensive Bugatti that would take hours and hours, and cost something like $20,000 at a Bugatti dealer. Well, my used Porsche Cayman is no 3 million dollar Bugatti, it doesn't go 300mph, but it still needs oil changes, and you can do them yourself if you like working on your car and/or saving money like me. After buying this car this summer, I figured it would be a good idea to take care of this job, and what better way to spend a rainy Saturday morning!

Pro Tip: CHECK YOUR OIL!
No dipstick, gotta read the dash!

The Cayman uses an oil filter in a cartridge, so at least for me it wasn't something new. Our Camry and my FIAT Abarth both use filters like this too. The oil change is pretty much like other cars, except for just a few things along the way. The three biggest differences, (or new to me anyway, plus another feature of the Cayman I discovered today):

1-the oil pan had a 8mm hex socket instead of a regular bolt washer to get it off

2- the Cayman takes something like 8.8 liters of oil. Compared to a 4 cylinder Camry or the FIAT, that is about twice as much oil. Of course the Cayman has a larger motor (2.9 liters vs. the FIAT 1.4), so maybe not a big deal, other than having to buy and pay for more oil. Hey, it's only money!

3-this year (2009) of Cayman doesn't have a dipstick for checking the oil level, so, you have to fill the oil, then run the car to get the engine warm, and then get the oil level reading on the dash of your car. If it's not full yet, turn off the car, put in some more oil, then start it up and read the level on the dash again. Repeat until full. I read that the earlier Boxsters (basically the same as the Cayman, but convertible) had a dipstick, but at some point Porsche went to only the digital dashboard to read your oil level.

Like I said, other than those three things, a pretty standard oil change. Thanks to having access to a lift, this job is like any other car (except Tesla, OK, we get it), and just the thing to pass the time on a rainy Saturday morning when you're waiting til noon to watch the F1 qualifying or college football!