dipstick!

Today the orange low oil level light in the DIS flashed on (going round a corner at the time)... so I stopped, popped the bonnet, checked the dipstick (yep, definitely oil over the 'min' mark), closed the bonnet and carried on. Light was off again.

A couple of hours later, going over a small crest in the road the light flashed on again. Having checked the dipstick before I wasn't too worried, so carried on until I could check it again. That wasn't until after I'd stopped the engine for a few minutes and then restarted again... light still on. So I found some level ground, pulled over, checked the dipstick again (still inconclusive, though definitely over the 'min' mark)... on restart no light.

14000 miles since last oil change, 2000 to go to the next service, I've owned the car for 3000 miles. So entirely unsurprising if I have to pop a bit of oil in.

My issue is this: I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on with the dipstick. I'm 100% certain that the oil isn't below the top end of the 'min' zone. Beyond that, I'm just not sure. It seems highly unlikely that 14000 miles from its last oil change it's still in the 'max' zone, but beyond that I just don't know. Why's it so flamin' hard to read?!

So I guess I'm going to bung a bit of oil in and see what happens. 1/4 litre or so to start with, just because I'm so paranoid of overfilling. I just wish I could confirm with my own eyes what a warning light (which may or may not be working correctly) is telling me :aargh4:

Surely I'm not the only one who can't read a 2.0pd dipstick?

No you're not alone.

In 25 years of car ownership this is the first car that I cant read the dipstick on - on previous cars I regularly checked the oil but now I just wait until the oil warning light comes on and stick some in. The dipstick is always covered in oil but I cannot read the level!!

I dont know why it is either but I do sympathise.

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Originally Posted by bezza981

No you're not alone.

In 25 years of car ownership this is the first car that I cant read the dipstick on - on previous cars I regularly checked the oil but now I just wait until the oil warning light comes on and stick some in. The dipstick is always covered in oil but I cannot read the level!!

I dont know why it is either but I do sympathise.

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Well, that makes me feel better. Thanks! :beerchug:

i personally change the oil every 7000 miles,so yours could do with some new oil too rather than a top-up.i don't know about the 2.0 engine but on my 1.9 the dipstick it easy to read.

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Originally Posted by OVI82

i personally change the oil every 7000 miles,so yours could do with some new oil too rather than a top-up.i don't know about the 2.0 engine but on my 1.9 the dipstick it easy to read.

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Maybe the 1.9's got a better dipstick :D

Point taken about the oil, though that's a separate debate really about long life vs fixed servicing. I've been thinking about taking the car off long life at the next service anyway. Not sure yet. But the next service is due soon anyway...

Is it possible that when the engine is running that its pulling the oil down below the minimum mark? The computer wont be smart enough to tell you otherwise - just an idea

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Originally Posted by SammoVWT

Is it possible that when the engine is running that its pulling the oil down below the minimum mark? The computer wont be smart enough to tell you otherwise - just an idea

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Good point. I would've thought that the level in the sump would drop when the engine's running, because it's not doing any good sitting in a big pool down there after all! But... presumably the oil level sensor is positioned to take that into account. To that extent the computer is smart enough! Too low is too low, regardless of whether you're measuring with the engine switched off (dipstick) or with it running (oil level sensor).

I've put 300ml of oil in and I'll see how it goes. As far as I can tell that puts the oil level at the top of the max mark, which doesn't really make sense - I can't see how the low oil light can come on if the level's 300ml below max. But there you go - the dipstick's bloody hard to read and the light only flickered on when I went round a corner, and reset itself once I'd opened the bonnet to have a look. What I didn't want to do was overfill it. Audi recommend topping up 500ml at a time, but that just seems a bizarrely large quantity to me unless the level's really, properly low.

I'll see how it goes. With another 300ml in there if the low oil light comes on again I'm going to suspect it's the sensor that's the problem, not the oil level...

I painted the dipstick white.
Its much easier to read now.

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Originally Posted by ukdan

I painted the dipstick white.
Its much easier to read now.

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I did this on my B7 but it didn't help much. The problem is that the dipstick needs to be flat.

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Originally Posted by SebRogers

Surely I'm not the only one who can't read a 2.0pd dipstick?

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Lol, no you're not. I've almost given up on checking the oil regularly to visually confirm the oil level and use that as the basis for deciding whether the engine needs a top up. The amber low oil level warning still surprises me no matter how confident I am that the manual checks I do are the best way.

That said, I still do a weekly check and still can't see with confidence whether the oil level is correct when looking at the dip stick. Guesswork and gut feel based on how many miles I've driven since the last top-up. Black oil on a black dipstick... Great design decision at Audi. (Latest A4 models don't have a dipstick at all, relying on electronics to measure the oil.)