In saturdays Telegraph Motoring HJ was sharp with a correspondent whose engine lost most of its oil without bringing up an alarm, and leading to early death.
I have not needed to top up the oil in any my cars for about 15 years now, and wouldn't know what oil to use if I did.
The Volvos and Subarus I've had have been oil tight. Never a sniff on the casing. Quite different to my Wolseley and all prior thereto. My sister once said, "Get that heap of scrap off my path." I used to rely on the leakage to keep the underside of the cars rust free.
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used to rely on the leakage to keep the underside of the cars rust free.
And the roads nice and slippery for teflon tyred motorcylists !!
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Nope - not a spot. Dipstick has not moved for the last 12,000 miles.
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It doesn't always take a leak for an engine to "lose" oil. A fair bit can get past rings and be burned during combustion without a drop ever reaching the ground.
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It had been years since I last had to put oil in a car (two Saab 9000?s and a Citroen Picasso never used a drop). But have had a Subaru Legacy 2.5 for 9 months and 8,000 miles from new and have used over 2 litres so far. But not a drop ever appears on the drive.
One problem I do have is that although the road outside my house has always appeared pretty flat to me, I can park the car facing one way and the dipstick will read minimum. I can then park facing the other way and the dipstick will read maximum. This gave me quite a fright the first time I discovered it when I was facing the ?minimum way?. I now struggle to find petrol stations with perfectly flat forecourts to accurately check the oil level.
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None of my cars have ever used any oil. I try to check it regularly, but I often forget about it for weeks or even months at a time.
Given that it's so important, I don't understand why manufacturers don't fit gauges that indicate oil level. Checking a dipstick is so primitive. Furthermore, I don't understand why the warning light is generally set so low. Although I've never actually had a warning light come on, as I understand it they tend to come on when you're already in serious trouble. Why not have the warning light come on when the oil level is at, say, half-way between min and max, or maybe third-way. I once had a test-drive in a Seat Toledo that I was considering buying - checked the dipstick and not a drop of oil to be seen - oil light wasn't on.
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I had a Renault 21 which had a dip stick gauge. I didn't have the car long enough to tell how accurate it was.
Why did they get rid of oil pressure gauges in cars?
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So what, just because the dip stick says everythings kosher dont mean the engine is perfect, condensation might manipulate the reading.
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I think the point HJ was trying to get across was that the correspondant should take some responsibility for their own expensive vehicle, and not start crying when they destroy the engine.
A colleague of mine (since made director???) trashed his Freelander engine by never checking or topping up oil, even after the lights started coming on. Thenkfully, he took it on the chin.
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Provided a dipstick is read with the car on a constant slope, it is a failsafe device. A remote method like an electronic gauge is more convenient, but if it fails or sticks? My Pug has a dial which shows the oil level whenever the engine is started, but I still read the dipstick - I know what I am getting.
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Agreed, electronic gauges are for lazybones and you can bet when something goes wrong it'll be the technology that lets you down and your engine will come to a steaming halt somewhere with a gauge blithely ignorant of impending disaster eventually.
I like to look at my oil, feel it, examine it, smell it (mmmmm!) then wipe the dipstick on my t-shirt. That way I KNOW I've got enough in there (or otherwise).
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My Triumph Speed Twin motorcycle had Triumph's special self-lubricating frame.
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My dad, who owned a petrol station and repair gagage in Cork in the fifties had a golden rule when a car wouldn't start. The first thing he always did was to dip the fuel tank, he had no faith in electrics of any description.
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"I don't understand why manufacturers don't fit gauges that indicate oil level"
Renault do
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"I don't understand why manufacturers don't fit gauges that indicate oillevel" Renault do
And Citroen.
Doesn't stop me checking levels weekly though. It's part of being a motorist rather than just a driver. If I were to lose an engine through neglect I would seriously consider self-harm.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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And Peugeot.(Notice a pattern?) I have a gauge on my '96 TD 306. I don't trust it completely, and resort to the dipstick for the definitive level.
I can also check the other fluid levels while I'm there.
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I do think that it would be wise of manufacturers to fit some kind of oil level checking guage such as some Renaults have. I have driven the same truck (Merc) for a long period and that checked the oil level every time you switched the ignition on. If it was low it told you how many litres you needed to add. There was no dipstick that you could easily pull out to check the oil level hence the ignition check. The only way to check the level manually was to raise the cab and use the dipstick underneath, which is a 10 minute task. The ignition check was never wrong in all the time I drove this truck.
One other misconception is that the red light that comes on on your dashboard is when the oil level is too low. Wrong - it tells you that there is little or no oil pressure. Which is either caused by either no oil in the engine or something serious like the oil pump has failed. Hence why when you see this light it is often too late.
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My 1946 Rover 16 had a button you pressed which converted the fuel guage to an oil level guage . Worked perfectly.
I see technology has improved since then:-)
madf
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One other misconception is that the red light that comes on on your dashboard is when the oil level is too low. Wrong - it tells you that there is little or no oil pressure. Which is either caused by either no oil in the engine or something serious like the oil pump has failed. Hence why when you see this light it is often too late.
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In the good old days when I had a 1600E with an oil pressure gauge, I went one stage further to give me warning of oil problems.
I fitted a T piece in place of the oil pressure switch and then installed a high pressure, 45 psi? switch with a warning light and the original switch.
This gave me an early warning of impending problems as it is not always possible to keep an eye on the gauge.
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And Peugeot.
And Porsche - an electronic dispstick and an oil pressure gauge. (plus a real dipstick - and a manual which says that is the only one to rely on!)
(Notice a pattern?)
Ooops! ;-)
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"I don't understand why manufacturers don't fit gauges that indicate oil level" Renault do
Quite right RF.
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I check my oil level regularly but since I switched to diesel a few years ago life has got complicated. When the engine is hot the dipstick level shows much lower that when it is cold. I am told that you should check after a run when you have switched off for 5 minutes.
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The oil level gauges on peugeots/cits seem to be quite accurate too. Mine will always read the same as the dipstick as long the engine hasn't been run within the last 10 mins or so and the car is on level ground.
Still not as reliable as checking the dipstick though.
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On my last car [VW] the manual advised checking oil level with engine cold, while my current car [Hyundai] tells me to check with engine at normal operating temperature - slightly curious I thought.....
I suppose it just relates to how the dipstick is calibrated
CF
p.s. I do check - roughly once a month, but I sympathised with the telegraph correspondent refered to above.
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I think it is easy to get too "anal" here. Meaning the word in its purest sense before somebody stabs the offensive key. Some vehicles need their dipsticks checking from cold, others after a bit of a warm-up.
Given these parameters, as long as the stuff registers between the Full and the Add marks, stop worrying.
All very well to say your car never burns a drop between changes - lucky you and me -- but a sight check is always reassuring.
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All very well to say your car never burns a drop between changes - lucky you and me -- but a sight check is always reassuring.
Lucky, because a sudden drop would tell you something had changed. And if it was working well before, and something has changed.....
So you still need to look!
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"I now struggle to find petrol stations with perfectly flat forecourts to accurately check the oil level."
You would need to park off to the side of the forecourt to do that. The oil needs to drain down over a few minutes or you will get a totally false reading.
Where I live there is no level ground, so I can't get to checking all that often. My Subaru is the 2.0l engine, 10 000 miles at 9 months. I checked today in a shoppers carpark in the next town. Right in the centre between the marks - didn't wipe the stick with my shirt, though.
My son's workmate had to be rescued when his company Audi A4 stopped miles from nowhere. The call out man had to drain a considerable amount of oil from the sump and do some work. The workmate didn't know that it had a dipstick. He thought that he had to add oil to the sump every month.
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Why did Ford drop the electronic dipstick in the eighties? A bit primitive having to get out of the car to check oil for heavens sake! Can't they adopt a simular system to Renault? ie a dash level indicator. It's like checking fuel with a dipstick and not having a gauge.
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>>Why did Ford drop the electronic dipstick in the eighties
Simple..wires broke.Wasnt that accurate anyway
--
Steve
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>>Why did Ford drop the electronic dipstick in the eighties Simple..wires broke.Wasnt that accurate anyway
Well yes and it only told you wether low or no but surley if Renault can do it now why can't Ford (and everyone else) IIRC Mercedes have some sort of system in place too.
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"It's like checking fuel with a dipstick and not having a gauge."
But fuel guages are not that accurate anyway are they? And with oil you are dealing with a small quantity compared to fuel - a litre or two inaccuracy with a fuel guage means a walk to the petrol station. A litre or two inaccuracy with an oil guage could mean a new engine.
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Blast! I was just thinking what a historic thread this was because "gauge" had been used about 20 times and all you educated people had spelt it correctly - then I spelt it wrongly myself!
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Now if you had an edit button...
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I'm sure Ford have a load of market research which tells them that the public would sooner save a few quid on not having an electronic guage (like spacesaver), and check it themselves each week when they do the tyres and other under-bonnet checks.
I'm also convinced that Renault have a bunch of market research telling them that customers want this extra feature and don't mind a few quid on top of the price of their cars to have it.
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I dont design em only work on them..Ps they were never accurate..they always gave false readings..
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Steve
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