Who are these dipsticks?
Why have car manufacturers abolished t he reliable and ver y usef ul dipstick? It was so easy to check t he oil level and its freshness by t he colour. Now we can only check t he level t hrough a digita l menu.
If t he engine oil had been over-f illed at t he last ser v ice, would t his show up on the menu display? My BMW M2’s oil level has been stuck on maximum for t he last 6000km, so I’m wondering if it’s a case of overf ill or t he car not using oil. A dipstick would give an instant answer.
Ken Hayes,
Mildura, VIC Morley Says...
YOU RAISE a very interesting point, Ken, and it’s one I bet the car makers never considered for a moment. And that’s the question of oil quality and condition. By dipping the oil the good old fashioned way, you not only get an immediate, accurate (providing you’re on even ground) idea of the level, but you also get an idea of how the oil is faring. Is it still clean? Has it discoloured and/or been contaminated by coolant? You can even wipe a bit off between your finger and thumb and check for how `oily’ it still feels. None of these are available to the poor sod with a modern car that relies on an electronic check of the level.
And what happens when the oil-level sensor packs it in or the electronics bundy off and do weird stuff that only modern electronics could come up with? How do you check the oil then? And am I the last bloke on earth who likes to check
“A DRIVE THROUGH LAWYER NO DOUBT”
the oil each morning of a road trip before I’ve even started the engine?
It ’ll get to the point where nobody bothers to even think about the level of oil in the sump anymore, and they’ll only be aware of it when the low-oil alarm goes off. Well, that’s too late for a mechanical sympathist like me. I want to know before I start driving that I have plenty of 20W50 sloshing around in there.
And here’s the stupid bit: With more and more engines using turbocharging, high compression ratios, short, slipper pistons, low-tension piston rings and alloy construction, modern engines use more oil than old, slow-revving cast-iron muthas ever did when new. A modern Golf GTi? An AMG V8? BMW V10? All of them – and plenty of others – can use their fair share of oil between services, so they all need a close eye on the dipstick. Provided they have one.
I’ve talked about the loss of such elegant, simple engineering like the humble dipstick before, and it seems a lot of people are on my side. But as you’ll see in the next letter, not everybody agrees.