Good and Bad Oil Dip Sticks

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
All VW dipsticks are terrible. The tube and the sealed end of the dipstick are made from cheap plastic, so the dipstick eventually freely moves up and down. The tube usually breaks. Compounding the problem is that most VW engines consume oil, so checking is a must.

The VW 2.0 NA was one of the best that I've ever used.

 

[ekpolk]

Oh, I forgot the other huge gripe on the already-awful VQ35 dipstick. The geniuses who designed it managed to line it up perfectly underneath the oil filler port, above on the valve cover. The result is that when you add oil, it drains down over the bottom portion of the stick, making getting an accurate post-fill confirmation reading darned near impossible (without waiting 10 minutes for all the oil to finish draining down to the pan). Smart VQ fillers learn to think ahead, and pull the stick out BEFORE adding any oil. A perplexingly idiotic design on an otherwise fantastic engine.

 

[kschachn]

I like the plastic one on my Echo. It is easy to read the level and there's no guesswork.

I suppose however, the best one was that which was on my 1981 Mazda 626. It was very short and inserted just above the oil pan. You had to reach down a little to access the pull ring, but being only 6-7 inches long made the reading very accurate. No smearing along the length of the stick. In fact, there was no tube at all that it inserted into - you could look in the hole and see the oil level in the pan.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
Another design I hate is in GM Ecotec engines. There is a flexible steel cable with some solid notched piece on the end. Too bad it usually rubs on the sides of the dipstick tube, and the nothces are shallow and hard to read.


I find the Ecotec dipstick to be quite easy to read. Yes, it's somewhat hard to see if there's oil in the notches if it's clean and just been changed and the light is poor, but no more so than checking any other dipstick with clean oil...

 

[ProfPS]

My former minivan- '97 Nissan Quest V6 3.0

The dipstick was a piece of stamped lead on the end of a metal cable. The stamped cross hatched on the lead end was hard to read clean or dirty oil. The only way to tell if there was oil on it was by touch.

 

[kargo27]

I think that my '02 Nissan Maxima 3.5L may have been the same engine setup as the Infinity, but you'd have to wait 10 minutes for the oil to settle to check it.

I don't know how the technicians knew how much to put in b/c I know they didn't wait 10 minutes to check it.

 

[tsmay51]

My cummins gives good readings as long as you let it sit for say 5 minutes. Wipe and then check. The camry 4 cylinder isn't too bad. The dipstick is almost chrome looking that new oil is dark enough when checking. The 5w20 seems so thin it runs quickly though. Gotta level out the stick as soon as you pull it! CRV seems about the same as the camry.

 

[Alamogunr]

Originally Posted By: Cyprs
Pull out dipstick and immediately lay stick on lintless white paper towel and keep stick still as you read the level on the napkin in relation to the still stick. (I like the cheap hard paper napkins for this, little lint and slow absorbtion to distort reading) I do this until oil darkens over some time.

One could lightly sand the shiny surface and dull it for a better read, be sure to remove any files. I have never done this.

Cyprs


Good idea! I have a terrible time reading the oil level on our 2006 Toyota Avalon. The little round section with a couple of dimples is hard to read even after 3-4K on the oil. I'll try the paper trick tomorrow.

 

[98LSC32V]

The G35 dipstick is the worst by far! If you don't have a flashlight to check it when it's dark it is impossible to get the dipstick in!

 

[Black_Thunder]

Originally Posted By: kargo27
I think that my '02 Nissan Maxima 3.5L may have been the same engine setup as the Infinity, but you'd have to wait 10 minutes for the oil to settle to check it.

I don't know how the technicians knew how much to put in b/c I know they didn't wait 10 minutes to check it.


unless they knew the proper amount to put in i doubt it had the proper fill, where i worked we only had 30 minutes to do an oil change but we also check several different things, tires, etc. plus lifting the car up and letting it down, never had a chance to let it sit to check the oil, most oil changes we did we all pretty much knew the fill capacity off the top of our heads or we had a book to go by or at least give us an idea.


reminds me of the time i did an oil change on a early 90's pickup, i went to grab the dipstick and i pulled.......the whole tube and all came right out in my hand....haha

 

[Cyprs]

Alamogunr

You kinda have to visually compensate for a slight extra absorbsion line depending on how soft the paper napkin, after a few tries consistantly using the same paper you will get consistant with your readings, let me know if it works for you.

Cyprs

 

[Merkava_4]

My GM 3800 dipstick is real nice with its 5 drilled holes. It's nice and stiff too.

ADD|. . . . .|FULL

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: ProfPS
My former minivan- '97 Nissan Quest V6 3.0

The dipstick was a piece of stamped lead on the end of a metal cable. The stamped cross hatched on the lead end was hard to read clean or dirty oil. The only way to tell if there was oil on it was by touch.

+1. Worst dipstick on the planet. If you wiped it off and put it back down you can not read it again. It drags too much oil off the dipstick tube.

What were they thinking? Oh wait its Nissan..nevermind.

But I do have to say the dipstick on my 01 Sentra is the best I have ever used. Its nice and shiny and is very easy to use.

 

[johnd]

That is one of the only complaints I have about my wife's 2006 Civic. The dipstick is orange plastic, round with a sort of diamond emboss on the very end. Clean oil on it is virtually invisible. It does get progressively easier to see as the oil begins to get dirtier.

 

[01rangerxl]

I don't like the dipsticks on some Maximas. You can never get a good reading. They are useless.

For transmission dipsticks, I don't like Econolines. They have a mile long, twisted dipstick. Maybe all full size vans are like this.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: CBDFrontier06
Dipsticks in Mazda 2.0 & 2.3 give very low readings if you go by what it says on the first pull after the car has sat overnight. You have to pull, wipe and re-stick to get an accurate reading, otherwise it appears the car is nearly dry. Scary sight on a saturday morning.


You can just pull it up an inch, push it back down, and then check it.

I do remember the shock of the first time it read low on me!

 

[Kestas]

My 98 ZX2 always reads high in the morning. I believe a slight vacuum is created in the tube as the car cools down, sucking oil up a few inches. I just break the vacuum and reread a couple minutes later to get a good reading. At least I know the dipstick still has a good seal.

 

[rationull]

I don't have experience with as many different cars as a lot of people here, but I'm with johnd in that the worst dipstick I've ever experienced is the one on my 07 civic. The orange plastic means you've got to hold the stick just-so in the light to see the level after adding new oil. Plus, I've got misgivings (completely unfounded in any evidence) about the long term viability of the plastic dipstick in general. On the plus side, the front-and-center placement and having the stick shoot straight down into the engine is nice (though it requires the stick to be fairly long).

The best was on my '83 280zx, where the dipstick was like the ones on the old VW bugs Towel_Rail described: a short stiff rod that goes directly into the pan from near the bottom of the block. Easy to read, didn't bend, and very maneuverable.

 

[Cyprs]

03 Altima QR25DE drove me nuts getting consistant readings, surface had to be absolutely perfect and oil had to drain to
pan overnight, the QR25DE in my 05 X-trail is much better (except for the 1/2" over fill level as I mentioned earlier in this thread).

Cyprs

 

[Quattro Pete]

Is a bad dipstick as bad as no dipstick at all? Thinking of all the newest BMW and Mercedes engines where you have to rely on oil level sensor alone...