Oil level

If the electronic dipstick fails you still have the low oil buzzer to give you the heads up.
Belt & braces
 
AndyBeech said:
Like all things electronic or mechanical it can fail, why I said both is the ideal. I'd still rather take electronic though personally!
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How can a mechanical dipstick fail? :?
 
Smartbear said:
I've heard of some bmw dipsticks snapping in half & the broken part falling into the sump :thumbsdown:
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This. Happened on an MR2 I had, proper PITA to sort that one out. Anyway, I'm not arguing about it, I prefer electronic, you prefer mechanical, cool beans!
 
thepits said:
AndyBeech said:
Smartbear said:
Anyway, I'm not arguing about it, I prefer electronic, you prefer mechanical, cool beans!
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We'll agree to differ :)

p.s. just as a matter of interest, how many broken dipsticks do we know -v- rebooted computors? :lol:
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I'm not disagreeing with you, I see the benefits and potentially pitfalls of both personally. I just like the way I can check the oil every journey electronically whereas it would be a ballache to do it everytime with a manual dipstick.

I guess the sensor can fail on the electronic one but don't know how that relates to rebooting a computer?
 
If the oil level is showing at 50% should you top it up and if so how much?

Or on the basis that it's within reasonable limits do you leave it until it tells you to add more?
 
NathanZ4C said:
Or on the basis that it's within reasonable limits do you leave it until it tells you to add more?
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Having the same question here : checked the level the other day and it showed 3/5. Still not sure if I should top it or not yet, and also important, how much should I pour in..?
Electronic is convenient, but I'd rather like to have the good old dipstick. BTW, I must have spent 20min looking for the dipstick when I bought the car before I gave up and checked the manual... :P
 
The other advantage of having a manual dipstick is that the tube allows you to use an oil pump, this means that you can do an interim oil change from start to finish in about 20 mins without getting under the car and having hot oil jet up your sleeve as you remove the plug :lol:
 
PerryGunn said:
The other advantage of having a manual dipstick is that the tube allows you to use an oil pump, this means that you can do an interim oil change from start to finish in about 20 mins without getting under the car and having hot oil jet up your sleeve as you remove the plug :lol:
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I've never liked those things.
I far prefer the tried and tested method of getting it all piping hot and letting it all whoosh out including any sediments and all !
 
ronk said:
PerryGunn said:
The other advantage of having a manual dipstick is that the tube allows you to use an oil pump, this means that you can do an interim oil change from start to finish in about 20 mins without getting under the car and having hot oil jet up your sleeve as you remove the plug :lol:
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I've never liked those things.
I far prefer the tried and tested method of getting it all piping hot and letting it all whoosh out including any sediments and all !
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They're great for interim changes - I have full plug-out changes at the prescribed service intervals but I also do extra oil changes inbetween and an oil pump makes it soooo easy

Just remember that lots of garages like to use oil pumps as it can save them having to remove the undertray
 
ronk said:
Ah, those undertrays !
I suppose they are a nightmare.
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They're not hard to remove, especially if the car's on a lift - but they take time to remove/replace and if a garage can do the job in half the time without needing time on the lift...
 
NathanZ4C said:
If the oil level is showing at 50% should you top it up and if so how much?

Or on the basis that it's within reasonable limits do you leave it until it tells you to add more?
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Leave it until it asks for more, that way you won't overfill
 
Thanks guys. I worry about having slightly too little oil in there for when driving hard. I would prefer it to be over half way to reduce the risk to oil starvation during heavy corning if its likely to happen.
 
NathanZ4C said:
Thanks guys. I worry about having slightly too little oil in there for when driving hard. I would prefer it to be over half way to reduce the risk to oil starvation during heavy corning if its likely to happen.
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You should find that there's sufficient oil for the most enthusiastic driving even when the oil level is at 'minimum' - the engineers aren't stupid and wouldn't set the levels without leaving a reasonable safety margin
 
Yeah i guess your right. Im probably just being over cautious Its just a litre seems like a lot of oil not to have in your engine
 
NathanZ4C said:
Yeah i guess your right. Im probably just being over cautious Its just a litre seems like a lot of oil not to have in your engine
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If a typical full oil capacity is about 6.5 litres, 1 litre is approx 15% of capacity - or looking at it another way, your oil level is still at 85%
 
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