Dear all, I bought a used car with fresh checkup (120.000 km), the test drive and trip to the registration office were unproblematic, the car starts wonderfully and behaves appropriately for the 70kW.
Now I’ve just checked the oil, cleaned the dipstick as usual, then threaded it in, pulled it out and pressed it against a handkerchief. But there’s hardly any oil on it.
There was frost that night. Could this be a reason for the oil collecting at the bottom and I should just drive 10 km and then measure again? Or is the engine dry? Or is the oil so clean that I can’t see it?
I actually want to drive 200 km today, and of course no garage will give me an appointment for a proper oil change today. But I could of course buy oil and fill it up myself.
Thanks for your quick answers!
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Had a POS Firebird that was using a lot of oil. Bought a quart and added it and checked the dipstick. Dry. Went back in and bought another quart.
What is a quart? Quarter gallon, so 0.9 liters?
Something like that
You just need a longer dipstick. /s
Sounds like you should already know what to do… Go to the auto parts store and ask them for a longer dipstick. I’m gonna bet they can immediately identify the biggest dipstick in the store at that very moment.
Has it just been serviced? The dipstick in my Mazda is almost impossible to read accurately when the oil is brand new because it’s so clear.
That’s what I was wondering. But on a tissue I should see it really
Hmmm, dipstick is dry. I’m no rocket scientist but I would assume that means the oil level is low.
Are you parked on a level surface when you’re checking the oil? And have you let the car sit with the engine off for 5 minutes?
My 1.4 TSI shitbox has an oil level sensor that doesn’t trigger until the dipstick has been dry for a long time. Reading the dipstick is also a great experience, as the dipstick tube tends to hold oil and smear it onto the stick.
My car had extremely low oil usage until it didn’t and caught me not checking it one too many times. Dipstick was dry except for a tiny drop right at the very end. Found the most level spot I could and filled it up bit by bit (lots of bits…). Been driving as good as it ever was (read: like shit).
I also have a 1.4, 4 cylinder fiat engine. Should be robust but no oil is bad. I thought there’s sensors for that? I feel dumb for not checking when I bought. The hood was open but I didn’t check the oil
Just because it has an oil level sensor, doesn’t mean it warns you soon enough. Heard plenty of horror cases where the sensor triggering basically means that the engine is FUBAR.
Well, just top it up and hope, and maybe get an oil change soon-ish.
If you pull dipstick out, place it on a paper towel and wipe sideways, do you see any oil? Sometimes it’s hard to see, but it probably just doesn’t have any
So you learned that the car was low on oil. The question to answer now is why? Does the engine burn oil? Does it have an oil leak? Has it been so long since the last oil change that the oil ran low?
Dipstick usually only shows 2 quarts of the max capacity. So if the stick is dry you can add 2 quarts than check again.
I once bought a nice car and everything was fine until about a week later. It seems the previous owner had done some engine work and not tightened up the pan bolts enough. So about 100 miles into my 200 mile trip all the oil blew out and the engine was ruined.
Yeah always have it checked, that’s what I learnt. Maybe he reused the screw for the oil after letting it out. You should always use a new one because of the sealing
It was a tough lesson for the teenage me on my way to the gf parents lakeside place
At least top it off with the correct oil. Without proper oil level I wouldn’t drive another inch. Also did you check the oil level before buying?
The car may have been driven with insufficient oil for a while. Nobody knows whether this already caused any damage. Normally it should be ok s long as the oil pressure warning doesn’t go off. But who knows …
It could also lose oil via some leak. That’s easily checked for.
Or it burns the oil, which means there’s a problem with the engine.
I forgot to check the oil level. I know that was stupid. Car looked in good shape and it didn’t seem reasonable. But that was dumb. Next time I will print a checklist and go through it with a pen.
Either way, I’d top it off and check the levels often for some time, to learn whether the level stays put and the previous owner just forgot to top it off or whether the oil disappears and either leaks (puddles under the car) or is burned in the engine (worst option).
And a check-up in a garage as well as an oil change of course.
Yeah that’s my plan now. Getting 5L of 10W40, car takes 2,6L, the rest is coming with me. Next week it gets a visit to the local garage.
I‘m annoyed, that’s my third used car and each time there are issues that I could have found before. Maybe I’ll learn
Good luck!
Cars burn oil. That’s what they do. Some are better than others but generally speaking, it’s normal for cars to burn oil. It’s not an indication of anything by itself but can be part of an issue if there are other problems.
My Mazdaspeed3 burns a quart every 2000-3000 miles. I was burning a quart every 1k to 2k miles before I replaced my turbo and got the timing chain VVT redone.
Technically yes, but today’s engines when not worn out normally burn so little oil that you have to top it off only rarely. Yes, there are exceptions.
As an aside, and because it doesn’t look like anyone else has mentioned it: don’t put 2.6L of oil into your engine now. That figure will be from empty, if you’re changing the oil and have drained the old oil out.
The level in your engine now is dangerously low because it’s off the bottom of the dipstick, but there will still be some in it, otherwise your engine would have seized up and died after 2 mins of driving. If you dump 2.6L straight in, there’s a good chance you’ll over fill it, which can cause damage.
Add half a litre at a time and keep checking the dipstick until it’s near the “min” mark. Then add a quarter litre at a time, until the level is on (or just below) “max”. As you near the “max” mark, give the oil 30 secs to run down through the engine to the sump before checking the level.
And don’t beat yourself up because you don’t know everything! If everyone knew everything about cars, mechanics would be out of a job. You did the right thing by spotting it was low and asking people who do know.
Thanks, that’s what I did now. Filled 0,5 L, dipstick still dry. Filled another 0.5L, dipstick showed oil at lower third of the area. Filled in alother 0.5L, then it was at upper third. Left it at 1,5L.
Then 15 mins later I started the engine and let it run for 10s, then checked the oil again. suddenly it was about a third too high. But cleaned it and measured it a few times, and then the oil above the marking was less and less, I guess it was still sticking to the upper end of the thing where the oil is in.
Contacted the seller, he said he never measured it but left it to the garage to take care of it.
Anyway I will drive 200km later, I will post here if anything unusual happens. Will still get an oil change next week with new filters, I guess there’s lots of particles and stuff in the oil now, so cleaning it out will be well-invested money.
After running the engine you need to let it sit for a minute to get accurate measurement. Also adding 1.5L to engine that takes 2.6L if correct amount doesn’t sound good.
Fill the oil, If the dipstick doesn’t show anything, it just means it’s low. Temperature has almost nothing to do with that.
Low oil doesn’t mean the car doesn’t work, it means the engine isn’t lubricated enough. This usually doesn’t cause immediate failure, but excessive wear. Your engine won’t fail now but it will fail much earlier if you don’t service it.