Just joined the forums! I bought a 2003 996 with 32k miles on it about a month ago. I had RUF in Dallas do the used inspection on it and everything went great. I was driving it around yesterday and I noticed that my oil pressure is at 3-4 at idle and maxes out when the rpms go up. No engine lights are on and the car has plenty of oil in it (both electronic check and manual check). I am obviously going to call my shop, but I want to know if I am alright to drive it around. This time around, I decided to drive my sports car instead of keeping it as a second so it is currently my daily driver. Please help!

Thanks,
Justin

 

That is a perfectly normal reading.

 

I had an '04 Carrera 2 that did precisely the same thing. Don't know about long term, but it went 40 months and 30,000 miles without any issues. Never used a bit of oil, either.

 

Took it in today. When I first would start the car, it would read a 5 on the oil pressure, but after driving it, it would drop to ~2 at idle and then max out. My shop told me this was normal and just be sure the car was warmed up before I got on it. I love these cars, after not driving it for 48 hours, it was such a relieve to drive it again!

 

Yep, that's perfectly normal. Remember that Porsche, like many other high-performance cars use oil for engine cooling as well as lubrication. Which is why there's so much of it in the system (that, and the heat exchanger up front consumes a lot of oil in the pipes). But as a result, there's a lot to heat up before you put your foot in to it. I use the oil tem gauge, not the water temp gauge to determine when the car is warm enough to rev. It takes a bit but some things in life are worth waiting for.
And, until it's warm, the pressure reads very high because of the higher viscosity of the cool oil. So, it's all good. But good that you checked. Better safe than sorry.
And separately, how was the visit to RUF? I'm considering sending my car down there for their supercharger add-on.
t32b