This dipstick confuses me. I bought my car new and checked the oil a couple of days later when it had about 100 miles on it. The oil level showed halfway between the bottom and the top hole. Logically, it would seem that the top hole means "FULL" and the bottom hole means "EMPTY". But that's apparently not the case. I was concerned about the oil level, so I called the dealer. The service dude said it should just be above the bottom hole. What? That made no sense to me at all. So I'm still not sure how to read this stick.

I've read posts on here where people say things like, "My car was a quart low after 500 miles." How do they know that? How can you tell from the dipstick what point indicates 1 quart low?

I need someone to explain this to me.

Oh, by the way. The car now has 448 miles on it, and the level is still about halfway between the top and bottom hole. I still don't know what that indicates, but it doesn't seem to be using any. It it's supposed to be higher than that, it's my guess that the factory shorted it when they shipped it.

I hope someone with some dipstick reading experience will chime in here.
Thanks.

 

your good halfway between the two dots is perfect. if it gets to the lower hole add some oil untill your halfway between the dots again.
Congrats and have fun

 

oh and hey if you see Dorthy teller I said hello.

 

It is exactly 1 quart between those two dots. So right now your 1/2 a quart from being completely topped off.. but you don't need to worry because your engine holds 8 quarts of oil. You want to be right in-between the two holes because the dohc. Heads hold alot of oil in them and wont drain back inti the engine block for a while.

 

TBone-

That is the best explanation I've gotten so far as far as knowing the quantity of oil between the bottom and top hole. That's great info to know.

Thanks so much for sharing that.

 

the dash light will warn you long before anything bad happens

 

I would never rely on the dash light

 

When your engine seizes.

 

your welcome and glad I could help!

^^ this is also an accurate way of knowing when your oil is too low

 

That's not entirely true.
The percentage shown is based on changing your oil every 10,000 miles....I'm sorry but regardless of 'how long the oil last in these cars'...10,000 miles is a ridiculous amount of miles to wait to change your oil. Wouldn't risk anything like that.

 

He's not talking about the oil change meter, he's talking about the actual low oil warning light.

 

Ahh...my bad then...


And on this...my buddy who has a 12 V6 threw a rod a 8,000 miles...he never really got on it, and changed his oil at 3,000 miles at a ford dealership...
When he took it in, they said he had almost no oil left...and no lights ever came on.

Best bet, is to check the dipstick often, I check every time I fill her up...no issues can come from that.

 

That rod must have been a bad rod cause those engines just don't fail that often

 

I hope that's all it is.

 

As you all may have guessed, I'm kind of paranoid when it comes to oil. And not having a dipstick in the 335 BMW really made me nervous. I'm glad Ford didn't opt to remove the dipstick from the Mustang engines.

Plus, my BMW came with free maintenance for 48 months. Their oil change frequency was 15,000 miles. I know they have a great engine, though the turbo version in the 335 has a tendency to run hot, but 15,000 miles just seems like pushing the envelope to me.