While going over a friends '06 or so beemer before a cross country trip, it came out there's no oil dipstick (to check level)?

Heard this before... Thought it was a joke. Even the airplanes I've seen have dipsticks.

Looked it up in disbelief. Bmw successfully sells cars that you have to DRIVE FOR HALF AN HOUR UP TO OP TEMP BEFORE SENSOR(S) WILL DISPLAY OIL LEVEL on dash screen (suppose a low oil sensor cuts motor at some point, but what about time that leads up to that)??? What if LCD cuts out so reading unread?

http://www.google.com/search?q=bmw+h...ient=firefox-a

When the sensor goes bad what do you do with the rest of the car?

Anyway, a little later, spoke to another friend who read a study that indicates having a difficult car can take 20 years off your life (stress)... Well, I saw 20 years go by in 20 minutes of trying to find a dipstick.

Needless to say, the owner, whose been seeing various dealers for routine oil checks & changes, isn't happy. Has to be a way around this (SELL SELL SELL).

Opened "fill" cap (a chinese puzzle unto itself). Enough SLUDGE inside top for a really gud rock show tonight!

May not understand full story, but is BMW's (Brought Me Worries) marketing $#!t by the shovelful legal? They must be in hysterical delight that people buy these things.

 

I have a BMW and I basically let the system check how much oil I have left after I have driven the engine warm and the required distance for it to work - and that can be done when I leave home for work.

The lack of a dipstick is not an issue to me.

If you own a modern BMW and want to check what the engine oil levels are, well, do it when you return home from work etc., not in the morning when you wake up and not "Oh no, the engine isn't warm and the car doesn't have a dipstick!" Very simple.

What's the big deal?

 

if you have to ask i couldn't tell you... porsche audi and some others have this, glad you like it!

 

All I am saying is that the oil levels can be checked "the night before" while one is driving the car. A little bit of "planning ahead" is part of owning any car.

This reminds me of the people who are afraid to take their Mercedes Bluetec diesels on a long road trip for fear of running out of AdBlue. Before any long roadtrip is taken, every car owner should prepare their car for the trip to ensure that everything is topped up. That means a trip to the gas station where the tire pressure should be checked, the wiper fluids refilled etc. and if necessary a visit to the Mercedes dealer to have the AdBlue refilled if necessary. PLANNING AHEAD.

 

Not really news. A lot of German car manufactures don't have oil dip sticks for over 10 years now, Mercedes included. The lack of dip stick worried me when I first bought my Benz but I had not a single problem with the oil level related sensors and the 10+ years of this technology being out there it's already proven reliable.

You can do a search but you won't find much problems regarding to oil sensor failing.

 

"AdBlue" - that's a great trademarked name. I guess it sounds better than "Artificial Pi$$", which is essentially what it is.

 

Mercedes doesn't have a dipstick either, however they do not require the oil to be warm to check it. I wonder how accurate the sensor is, like if I top off half a quart would it be able to detect the change.

 

I don't see the big deal either, I rarely checked my dipstick in my cars that have them. I guess taking the car in for regular oil changes, I never even thought about it. Maybe a big deal for people with older cars that need constant attention?

 

Mercedes, atleast my 07 S550, has a dipstick for the engine oil. So did my father's 2001 S500. They have sealed transmissions so changing the trans fluid is a b!!!!. but my Toyota FJ also has a non-user-serviceable trans.

 

yeah what's a big deal? I have had many lexus in the past that I have never ever touched the dipstick.

 

Well, it all depends. The said cars have a 10k-15k oil change interval and usually hold around 8-10 quarts of oil. I'm ok with no dipsticks for those engines. But if it has a regular oil change interval and holds less than 5 quarts, dipstick please.

 

yikes, dipstick fail... sounds like you have to be an electrical engineer if you want to service your BMW yourself; no more DIY'ers

 

Eventually all these no-dipstick cars will be older cars, I don't see the problem with technology on new cars, but new becomes old and after multiple owners and questionable service records, should make for an interesting used car buy

 

Reason for dip stick and checking your oil regularly:

GM 3.6L engine (Cadillac CTS/SRX/STS, GM large crossovers) + Oil Life Monitor with long oil change intervals + frequent heavy oil usage + low oil indicator that appears only briefly on startup + stretched/broken timing chains = Fail

 

i only use the dipstick when refilling the oil after changing the filter out.
but without a dipstick, how do you know you've put the right amount of oil back in? yeah i know you can measure, but what if you got distracted and weren't sure if you've put in 3 or 4 qts so far?