Quote:
snarf said:
I only adjust oil on the basis of a cold reading with the car level. I've read somewhere that overfilling is to be avoided and my dealer advised not adding any oil before level dropped two bars. However, as each bar on the guage is equivalent to 0.4l I add just 0.2l when the reading falls to one bar below full. Upto now this has always taken it back to full and never given an overfilled reading.



I agree with the cold and level reading. However, I have always been told that as long as the reading is somewhere between the full and add marks on the guage, to not add oil and that's what I do. My Club Coupe dropped one bar around 1,000 miles and never used any more oil up to 2500 miles when I had the oil changed.

The point is, you shouldn't be stressing about the guage reading one bar down from full.

When a car sits for awhile the condensation can be enough to give you a full reading; drive it some and the reading drops back down. I suspect that is what the original poster observed.

As far as the dipstick (or lack thereof), I could never read the darn dipstick in the 996/986's I had prior to my 996 Turbo and 997 which have none. So I don't miss it.