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!

  • AdPale1230@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • liftoff_oversteer@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      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.