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Ain't No Way in the World!!
Ricci.Wright
Member Posts: 5,127 ✭✭✭✭
"Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and some Ford, Cadillac, Lincoln, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Mazda models, plus others, have eliminated the dipsticks from their vehicles and other manufacturers are going in the same direction with the oil dipstick. Instead, electronic sensors in the engine compartment communicate with the driver through the Message Center on the dash.
Now I knew about no transmission dipsticks but no engine oil dipstick??? I have no way to check my engine oil level?? That would be a reason for me not to buy a vehicle. I can just change my tranny fluid every thirty or forty thousand miles and be fine with that, but I demand a way to check my engine oil. And no, I really don't want to rely on the computer to tell me.
Comments
When you see this symbol, just pour a quart in.
ricci you have to understand that most of the people buying cars today dont really understand what checking the oil means. to me its not just the level but the looks of the oil also. they never been taught and most likely dont care.
May as well, ask anyone under 40 to check their oil and you will get a blank stare.🤨 They can't air up tires, eat without licking their fingers, and be darned change a tire.
I refuse to suffer for other people's stupidity. My own, fine, but not everybody else. How the heck can you drive a car and not know that you need to check engine oil??
That would be fine if they give me a unlimited life time drive train warranty lol
a lot of dipsticks don't know how to use their dipsticks nowadays
Ricci, old phardts like you and I can remember when oil only came in straight 30W, you could get "reconditioned" oil sold in glass bottles with galvanized spouts stacked next to the gas pump, and normal change interval was 1,000 miles.
In those days, you checked the oil every time you started the car, and it was usually a bit low - and black. Exhaust was always a bit blue, and additives like STP were just about required.
But those days (like our vim and vigor!) are long gone. Oils and engines today last seemingly forever and you can probably run 10,000 miles without burning much if any oil. There's almost nothing under the hood today that the consumer can fix or even check except for washer and radiator fluids. Or need to, actually.
more electronic stupidity to cost more and complicate simple maintenance .........luv to have my old 52 chevy pickup bavk
But, alas, the old shade tree is no more, so I have no place to work. The dealership does it now, and I pile up steps walking around his lot.
Be honest, when was the last time you even looked at the engine of a new car before buying. The last 3 new cars I have bought I never even raised the hood. Why?, because there is nothing under there I can do anything to anyway.
If you think a regular gas car is a jumble under the hood, you have never seen a hybrid. There is literally nothing in there except the radiator cap that is recognizable, much less serviceable. There's no starter, no starter battery, no alternator, no transmission, no belts. Crammed absolutely full with a tiny four-banger wedged sideways amid big fat wires, black boxes, and alien-technology-looking stuff. But at least ours has a dipstick!
I don't buy new cars. I did do PDI, Pre Delivery Inspections, at at dealership for five years. New cars are off loaded and the inspections, installing some options, checking over and test driving is done before the cars are set on the lot for sale. I would sometimes see customers test drive say a blue car and then make a deal on a red one like it without driving it. There can be a lot of difference between two new cars that look the same.
Millenial goes to a mechanic & says that the 710 thingy is missing from his car.
I have an older Mercedes (2001) Sedan. It holds 8 1/2 quarts of oil. The onboard system will alert me the oil needs checked. When it does it's one quart low. After checking several times and it always being one quart low I now just dump a quart in and go on. I use synthetic oil and change it at 6000 miles, it usually uses a quart in between oil changes. So the computer from 20 years ago works, but it also has an oil dip stick, though I seldom use it now. It has the sealed transmission also. If or when it starts having transmission trouble I'll sell the car and move on. I gave 2500 dollars for the car about 3 years ago. I run the dog legs off of it and when it goes belly up it will have way more than paid for itself.
My Land Rover is the universe’s counterbalance to all these cars that never need the oil checked. The yin to the yang as it were.
Monthly I have to check front diff, both front swivel housings, steering box, engine, oil bath air filter, tranny, transfer case, rear diff and as long as I’m down there I give each of 11 zerk fittings a shot of grease.
I call her the Exxon Valdez.
so you have a Turkish water pipe. I hope you are just smoking tobacky.
cars are being designed to take to the dealer and have them "service" and more people do it I have even heard of proposed rules laws about working on a car on your own .
then again basic things Ok oil change and similar but a new car you need a computer system that could power the space station to tell you what sensor or combination of them are bad or defective
when I was younger about 17 or so I had buddies that would go the local gas stations ( back then 99% had a car rack and worked on cars no shortage of Goobers to do it seems like but cars were simple )
any way they would just ask for used oil and get a gallon or so t for free keep in the trunk add as they needed it . ( I never did ) but then when you were driving a hundred or two hundred dollar car worrying about long term effect was not a priority
oh side note the same fellows also had a 4' long gas credit card in there trunks several local places accepted them 🙄like the skate rinks , bowling alleys or just a parked car late and a dark night , kept there gas tanks full , more often than actually buying any ,
Plenty of low mileage older cars out there.
Before I allowed my 3 kids to learn to drive (using my vehicle) they had to learn how to change oil, grease and change a tire!! Old school I guess☺️
I remembered a funny story about my younger brother ( RIP ) and one of his best buddy's
it was his buddy's first car of course all excited , but give credit at least they checked the oil first day home .
it was low , my brother told me later that day they had a huge mess , seems they were trying to get the oil down that small hole (well points for trying I guess ) figured out they were trying to add oil thru the dip stick tube with out a funnel just trying to dump the can of oil in it .
my dad ( RIP ) would change oil , and plugs maybe brakes about it all his "car tools" would have fit in a small shoe box and well he just never got us involved in it . now he was a decent carpenter ( and I have some of his tools) and did pass on to us some skills in building , but mechanical not so much
I had two uncles on moms side were decent mechanics that taught me or at least got me started /guided me early on
SIL decided to change the oil. Drained the oil, poured in new & then called that the car wouldn't move. Yep, he drained the transmission & didn't check the dip stick to see that the engine was still full.
"ricci you have to understand that most of the people buying cars today dont really understand what checking the oil means. to me its not just the level but the looks of the oil also. they never been taught and most likely dont care."
A local oil change, glass replacement, interior/exterior detail place is running an ad that indicates if the "low oil" light is on, the car owner should come to their business for an oil change.
Doesn't give one much confidence in buying a used vehicle, now does it?
Son drives a leased company vehicle. Around 2014 the policy was not to change engine oil until the "engine oil life monitor" said it was time. When the engines started failing(using significant amounts of oil) due to head/valve train damage resulting from inadequate lubrication, those whose engines were still OK began changing oil on the sly at 6-7K. Those engines ran through the end of lease period w/o failure.
Compared to losing an engine or incurring significant repair expense, a couple of extra oil changes seems really cheap.
Ditch-Runner, them 4' gas siphons were called West Virginia gas credit cards in SE Ohio. If you were dumb enough to go across the Ohio river and park in the Parkersburg Mall after dark, you could depend on hunting up a gas station before you left West Virginia heading home to Ohio. Them hillbillies would drain you dry!!
My auto parts store actually had a guy come in wanting to buy a longer dipstick for his car. Enough said.
As my grandkids are all car owners now, I need to buy motor oil in 55gallon drums.
Have had a few lease cars since new and they generally come with at least one or two free oil changes during the lease period, which is usually 3 year/36,000 miles. And they don't care if the service is actually done.
There is zero responsiblity of the leasee to actually change the oil in the vehicle. I was very surprised by this.
There must be many vehicles turned in off lease with original oil and filter.
Relying on a light to tell me oil level and time to change ?
Not this old guy.
I think they were universal accepted seemed to be wide spread use .
I have / had a lot of family from Tn . some use to stay with us when I was a kid they were about 6 or 7 years older then me . they taught me how to syphon gas and never touch my mouth with the hose , as follows place your thumb over one end of the hose shove it into the gas tank very rapid and release your thumb as it goes into the gas the pressure of the air leaving the open end pulls the gas along with it creating the vacuum
they also taught me to pick the common pad locks of the day but that's another story 😁
Dad taught me to change oil and filter every 2500 miles . Brother in law bought military surplus motor oil in 55 gallon drums from a friend in Norfolk that ran a salvage yard .
I worked with a fellow ( a engineer not that it mattered ) he never change or had his oil changed in his car however he would buy a new car every three years trade in his old one .
he said not one dealer ever ask did you keep the oil changed when trading in his car ??LOL
Fuel filler caps are headed the same way...
They no longer put caps on the diesels and I have been told some gas vehicles no longer have those caps.
So you just buy a new vehicle every 400 miles.