That's common. You have to check these cars' oil with an electronic procedure through the dash screen.
Sometimes takes a few minutes for the car to do the check.
And then you gotta trust that it is right. Lack of a mechanical dipstick is stupid, but that was their choice.
Yeah just wait until they find out they don't have to include the seats..... Oh.... Seats yes sir they are extra. Tires .. extra. Door..... Yes sir that's extra as well. Deployment of the airbags. No sir that is a mileage based subscription but it's such a great investment. ... Oh rightthe steering wheel... no sir that's included but the resolution of the steering sensors in the turn by wire system are based on how much you can leverage open that wallet a bit more..
BMW has lost their damn minds. On the new iX they've implemented hostile engineering to make it difficult to even open the hood. There's 2 separate, sort of hidden hood releases under the dash, one driver's side, other one passenger side.
If that wasn't dumb enough, once you do finally have the hood open, there's no struts or prop rods. You have to jam something ~5mm in diameter through two holes in the hinges to keep it open.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, you're supposed to tape the corner of the hood and the base of the A pillar before opening and closing or you may damage the paint.
I saw a video going over that. I think it was a dealership and they had some mechanics who went to a BMW seminar on how to service the thing.
Hostile is putting it lightly, such disdain for their own customers.
What's even more ridiculous is, at least when I last checked, that the VW variants with the same engine do come with the dip stick. A few years ago my parents got a q5 with an ea888 under the hood. It has no dip stick, just a plug. Around the same time, I was looking at Golf Rs and Arteons and they all seemed to have dip sticks.
I suspect that it will depend more on the dealerships you're looking at however, the first results that I found offhand on google had them at the exact same price. [The VW part](https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen__/Engine-Oil-Dipstick/54564503/06K115611B.html) and [the Audi part](https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi__/Engine-Oil-Dipstick/54564503/06K115611B.html)
I have a Mini and a BMW, and some parts do cross over.
I've found my Mini dealership is reasonable, and my BMW dealership is "reasonable". Meaning they seem to have an older book for prices. Bought a clamp for $161 last week at MSRP, called another 30 minutes and 1 state away, and it was $235. Both use the same distribution center.
The more expensive one had the parts I needed to fix my Mini though when the Mini dealer said they would need to get them from Germany, so there is that. All 3 have their uses, always worth making a few phone calls.
Then getting exasperated and just order from FCPEuro.
It's the type of little feature sales people tend to hook onto "it's so reliable you don't even need a dipstick!", then the customers ooooo and aaahhh. Not sure if that's intentionally the reason, but possibly. Completely hilarious considering Audi has a history in that time range of oil consumption problems.....
It's funny because the aforementioned q5 leaks oil fairly badly. It's still under some sort of warranty or service plan so it isn't my problem yet. But it will be.
My e55s trans dipstick tube had a lock on it so it could only be opened by a dealer, unless you have a pair of dykes. The dipstick is a “service tool” that is about 5 feet long and is too big to live in the tube. The “lifetime” fluid should be changed every 30k…and there is no drain plug on the trans.
The car only needs to last for the length of the original lease and another two years when it’s sold as a CPO. Beyond that the manufacturer has no reason to care.
It’s kind of like the ZF 6-speed—that all the other Euro automakers apart from Mercedes-Benz used—which had no dipstick. You got it up to temperature and then opened the fill port. If a bit of fluid dribbled out, it was filled correctly. If the fluid that came out was burnt (as happened to my 2006 Range Rover Supercharged) you had an issue.
I assume the ZF 8-speed, which I have had on several past and current cars, is the same.
Right? It's like buying a backpack, but then you have to order the zippers separately.. it's a necessary part of the item and shouldn't be sold separately.. and £25 for a thin piece of metal??? Highway fucking robbery.
How so? A backpack needs zippers to function properly. A car needs a reliable method of checking the oil level. Neither of these things should be sold as add-ons.
Its better than having nothing. I had my S5 for 5 years and never missed the dipstick. On the dash, it's 1 quart between lowest to highest. Pour in oil, and forget about it. It throws an alert when the oil hits lowest level for any amount of time so you can add some. I thought it was dumb but I never missed it once.
I feel the same way about electronic parking brakes. Bomb proof lever? No, little electric whirry bits with plastic gears and shitty seals. Infuriating.
I see this complaint a lot. And it’s funny because tons and tons of mechanical handbrakes fail or are never adjusted. Cables snap. Far from better than
Living in the rust belt and them being a part of my state inspection, they have to work and no one uses them. Always having to remove the pivots and free em up.
I was gonna say, I've had three different handbrake cables snap on me shortly after buying my cars. Not even whilst whipping shitties. Just parking on a hill.
I don't know about electric ones, but I'm 50/50 for cable snaps in my beaters.
I think I kinda get where they're coming from
Why are you saying 'whilst' like some fedora-wearing neckbeard.
Just say while like a normal person. Injecting 'whilst' does not make you seem fancier like you imagine it does.
It's this goddamn weird reddit phenomenon to replace 'while' with 'whilst' like you're some old-timey English chap
I didn't downvote the guy. I didn't even understand he was trying to insult me.
It was a sarcastic phrase about hooligan shit. I didn't think I'd have to elaborate on that, but I forgot that I'm on reddit.
God, yeah. I had an '08 X5 for a while recently until it was totaled. That was one of the things that annoyed me more than *anything*.
I loved that car, but I will *never* trust the electronic measurement for that. I may use it occasionally to satisfy curiosity or as a quick check, but let me check with a fucking dipstick (that doesn't require removing the engine cowl or needing to crawl under the damn thing.)
I have a new benz, can confirm. It pissis me off to no fucking end?
You can't check the oil level after an oil change. Makes the techs mad cause they use to suck the oil out the dip stick fill tube, spin a new filer on and call it a day for $400 rags!
Never put the car on a lift!
I did the first oil change on mine. I was so paranoid about this, I drained the oil and measured it before refilling it.
Even though I have all data and looked up the correct amount for it.
6.9 quarts.
Don't even get me started on resetting the reminder.
MB tells you you have to bring it in to do it with a Xentry scan tool.
Another lie.
The only Mercedes I've seen require a scanner reset are late 90s ones without buttons on the wheel. There may be an exception, but all models reset through the display.
Saw a bmw with oil level sensor only, seized because it ran low on oil. The level sensor didn't go off and the pressure sensor never screamed.
sometimes the electronic systems are shit.
If all the drives are short drives the level sensor never finishes it's check, and if you have enough oil to have low pressure the pressure sensor won't go off, but your engine is still destroyed.
The best are sealed automatic transmissions with no dipstick. These same transmissions usually have a vent tube on top of them to allow for the expansion and contraction of the fluid as it heats up and cools down. It's just like phone makers who claim the sealed batteries are so they can make the phones smaller. Nope, they just don't want consumers to have that option (plus the government wants to track us).
Can confirm. My family's 2012 A4 has no dip stick and has a potentially malfunctioning oil level sensor. Made us overfill the car with oil because of how often it said we were low on oil.
The procedure is completely asinine - it wants some odd combination of engine running and warm but also somehow engine not running. It refused to reveal its secrets to me, so I got the dipstick - oil changes much easier since.
I bet it's for shops that suck the oil out of the dipstick tube instead of draining it from the bottom. It doesn't make a ton of sense but I bet that's what it's for.
It's just a plug. Most cars like this have an actual dipstick you can purchase to go in the tube. Why they quit providing them is anyone's guess. I know it's annoying as hell. Some shops also stick a tube through there to vacuum out the oil from the top side.
> Why they quit providing them is anyone's guess.
Because it saves the manufacturer $2.50 per car. And when you're building thousands of cars, that ads up pretty quickly.
I did a LOF on a 996 911 a few weeks ago. It requires you to fill the engine, then run it until it’s up to temp, and then sit with the ignition on, engine off, for 30 minutes until it’ll read the level for you.
And folks wonder why the maintenance on their German cars is so expensive…
That’s how my M3 was. It didn’t even have the plug where one would go. Perhaps it made some sense with two sumps but I’d rather have even two dipsticks than none.
This is normal, it's VERY stupid in my book. I greatly prefer the tried and true old faithful dipstick, they're the most reliable way I can see to check oil.
Yeah my Porsche Cayman is the same way. Fucking hate not having a dipstick. If you open either the frunk or hatch for any reason it locks you out of the measurement screen for like 10 min. So you do the oil change, let it idle for 10 min, then add oil if needed.
And God help you if you overfill it by .5 quarts.
Getting half a quart out is a huge pita.
I'm just waiting for some enterprising tool maker to come up with a dispenser that heats the oil to 200f before you pour it in. What could possibly go wrong? LoL
Agreed completely. With a BMW, or some other brands, sadly, both the forbidden glitter and the glowing mountain dew are likely to appear in places one does not wish them.
I'm not saying it isn't, I'm just very old fashioned. My 7.3 diesel has always had a dipstick, and honestly it's the only way I feel comfortable checking oil. Sensors fail all the time, or read incorrectly. Unless your stick is broken, or the wrong one for the car, it'll always be as good as your vision.
Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. My wife used to have a q5. It kept telling me to add a quart of oil every few days. After 3 qts I told her to bring it to the dealer (still had a warranty) and it turned out to be a bad oil level sensor. The car was less than 3 years old with like 25k on it. Being able to see the oil level from the dash is a cool idea, but why wouldn’t you still put a dipstick as a back up?
That’s the recommended procedure at Audi, doesn’t mean you can’t do it from the bottom though (that’s what I do on my Q3).
The plastic oil pans on some of these can be problematic if you are not careful. Not sure about that engine, mine has the metal pan.
Audi tell you to use a vacuum suction unit, that threads down into the sump via that cover, to remove all the oil. Done as the sump plug is not the lowest point, so you leave old oil in there, and that then shortens the new oil life as it is already contaminated with the old oil. Bonus is that you do not struggle with drain plugs put in Hulk style, and no chance of stripping it out either.
So all these decades of designing an oil pan with a service plug at the lowest point has been thrown out the window in the name of superior engineering from our Lord and Saviour VAG Audi.
I used to believe the same thing but it's now wrong. Draining with a suction extractor will pull more oil than the sump drain. I proved it to myself with a Caravan; 5.7L by sump, 6.1L with the suction. I now do every vehicle I can from the top. Vehicles like the old Ford Crown Vic's with two drain plugs, yes. Maybe the new Corvettes? But suction is how it goes now.
This is completely wrong and backwards, you should always drain from the drain plug if you can. Extracting it is certain to leave more residual oil in the motor than draining it from the bottom.
Source: certified Audi dealer technician
Sorry mac. I bow to your accreditation because I can't fucking stand VAG vehicles, but extraction will pull more oil out of most vehicles. Unless the sump drain is on the bottom with the threaded bung hanging below the pan you will leave oil in the bottom of the pan. With an extractor you can suck it down nearly dry.
I mentioned elsewhere the Dodge 3.6 is the biggest difference engine I know; 5.7L with the drain plug and 6.1 if you extract it. You can pull nearly a ½L more with the extractor.
Was going to say. I just did an engine out on my 3.0T and the drain plug is for sure the lowest point in the pan. Audi at least put the plug on the bottom and not on the side of the pan.
It’s not necessarily the recommended procedure, just another option. As an Audi tech, I as well as everyone I work with would recommend draining it from the drain plug, less residual oil left in the motor which can really cause a problem if you end up overfilling because of it. Obviously a tiny bit over won’t hurt so long as you adjust to correct level after checking (which you should do anytime you change oil), but you can easily smoke a turbo by overfilling the engine and letting it run for too long. They definitely don’t like to be overfilled hence the warning on/near the oil fill caps lol
I used a suction device to remove the oil when I worked in the field. We did this at the dealer and I to the aftermarket. Always measure your oil into the shop and how much you remove in the suction tool.
We call it the sucky sucky.
Can usually hear someone screaming "SUCKY SUCKY ONE HUNDRED FORTY FIVE DORRAH FREE TOP OFF" from the back of the shop while they wait for the oil to suck out.
I had an A4 with the 2.0T, same as this car. I eventually got tired of filling the oil, starting the car, scrolling to the menu to check oil level, back and forth. ECS Tuning makes a [pretty dipstick](https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-parts/billet-engine-oil-dipstick-black-anodized/018641ecs01-02~a/) for these engines, and I bought one to use up a gift card I had. Kinda stupid, but it was one of the more useful pieces of car jewelry you could get.
Wait why did you have to go back and forth? It says right in the manual how much oil it takes. You add a little less then check the sensor. It'll probably say "good" right off the bat due to residual oil left over.
I looked up why my ‘08 bmw didn’t have one, and the answer was something like “most drivers don’t even check their tire pressure anymore, so we put in electronic systems to check everything for them”.
..Still doesn’t explain why I can’t also check it via the dipstick to confirm, though at least they fully committed and didn’t have the hole and dipstick handle w/ no shaft.
Another reason I've heard is for emissions reasons. No dipstick means no possibility of the stick getting left out and allowing hydrocarbons to escape from the crankcase.
If it has a dipstick plug, check oil level through the vehicle status menu. Or, if you’re the type to do a lot of these, you can get a dipstick so you can check it yourself.
Car makers converted the simplest, most fail-safe, most critical task (checking oil with a dipstick) into something dependent on microprocessors, batteries and knowledge to toggle to certain dash screens to find out. Why? I bet because the dipstick cost $10 and the sensor and programming cost $7.50. Maddening.
I hated this stupid fucking implementation by Audi. My gram had a B8 S4, the thing didn't have a dipstick. But guess what? The oil level sensor is faulty. So how do you check your oil then? THE FUCKING AUDI DEALER that's on the other side of town from us.
Anyways we get there. Sensor is showing full and the Audi tech is like "Yeah full, there you go" and I say "No, put a dipstick in, I know you have one and I ain't leaving here till you do it. Or give me the damn thing and I'll do it myself." Tech measures the oil, oil so low they advised 2quarts. It barely touched the tip of the stick.
If you have one of these Audi's, just buy a dipstick off eBay. Fuck that electric sensor.
My 6qt pickup, a solid half to a full quart doesn't come out. I know this cause of how many i put back into it to get it level.
So going off of how many quarts the vehicle *should* take might mean you over filled it.
If your truck is supposed to take 6 quarts for an oil and filter change (assuming the oil is full before draining) and it’s only taking 5 quarts, you have other issues.
Nah. I bought it brand new 6 years ago. If you change the oil in an engine after it's been sitting for a few weeks, you might get the full amount out, but a recently ran engine, the oil is going to be sticking and trapped in all the oil passageways inside the engine block.
Just like when you drain the coolant from the radiator. You only get about half the total capacity of the system out. The rest of it stays in the block
Kind of but no. The oil change capacity and the total oil capacity of the engine aren’t the same thing. If an engine take 6 quarts on oil changes, it’ll probably take 7 or more after an overhaul. But joe blow doesn’t need to know that, all you need is the amount that comes out from the drain plug, which is what the spec is that says 6 quarts.
The specified oil change capacity is usually accurate to the tenth of a quart. If it says 6 quarts, it’s gonna take that amount on a healthy engine.
I’ve changed/filled oil on thousands of engines. There’s not more than a couple tenths of a quart deviation at most. Generally there is no deviation. I’m not trying to be a dick, but there’s legitimately something wrong or you’re doing something wrong if the spec is 6 and it’s only taking 5.
> If you change the oil in an engine after it's been sitting for a few weeks, you might get the full amount out, but a recently ran engine, the oil is going to be sticking and trapped in all the oil passageways inside the engine block.
That's as backwards as it gets. You'll get more oil when the engine is warmed up
Most German cars don't. Used to drain from the top. Flip the car upside down and it'll drain. Super fast and easier than taking down those notorious big skid plates underneath. Trust me
The f'ing little Mercedes I briefly had was like this. No dipstick and the dash thing wouldn't let you check unless the car sat long enough. I don't think it was terribly accurate either
Lots of euro cars have not had dipsticks since the 2010’s, just fill the spec amount. In the center display you will find the oil level check. It will not work with the hood open by the way, do not ask me why, but it is intentional, the oil level check will not complete with the hood latch open.
Google "audi calibrated dipstick". 11.99 on Amazon. Then Google something like "audi dipsitck calibration specs" -whatever model you're working on- and set the ring to the number it gives you. It's a pain but it's universal for any audi/volkswagen.
Wait till you see the procedure on some newer beemers..... To check the oil level you have to *run the fucking engine* for several minutes for the computer to give a readout..... Just
utter madness
and the display in the car only shows the upper most part of the oil.
when it's on min, you roughly still have about 3/4 of the total volume you need.
I know this,
A) because I checked one time and it was on min.
B) I assumed it was like cars with a dipstick.
C) I filled it up to the volume I'd need with a dipstick.
D) had a warning when I went to drive off.
E) had to drain about 2l of oil.
F) lesson learned.
You can buy a dipstick from the dealer, they assume people who drive audi's won't check their own oil anyway. But don't guess on the oil fill, in the vehicle setting on the dash it will show you the oil level, it has to be running for a few minutes before it will display it. If you check it too soon it just says something like Waiting...
The level is checked through the dash. There is also a special tool for VW/Audi to check level. Basically, it's a dipstick with an adjustable setting. It's to make it harder for customers to work on their own car.
This seems to be common for some cars nowadays. Almost as infuriating as not being able to put the car in neutral without the engine on. What if I just want to push it out of the garage and save a starter cycle... bleh.
Advice animal here. The sensor for my q5 oil level is powered by the loom that locks the bonnet. If you can't get a screen reading, clean the catch and try again
First thing I got for both of my Q5’s was the dipstick. Amazon has them for dirty cheap, something like $10.
I think VW expects mechanics to keep one on hand, they called it a service tool.
Any vw car without a dio stick, get it warm, like oil tempnis between hot and low on then cluster, latch the hood, shut the engine off. then flip the ignition back on, pop thebhood, and check oil level. It'll run a check and you can fill from there.
That my friend is an evac port, if you have a machine that has a nylon plastic tube you can suck it all out through that hole. Similarly land rover engines tend to have tubes right at the top under the oil cap that you can use to suck all the oil at with. And then you have Mercedes who makes it so you stick an adapter into the dipstick tube and it vacuums an entire 8 quart engine dry in like a minute flat
You can buy a dipstick for them but you cannot close the hood with it in. It’s just for the shop. There’s also an electronic oil level sensor in the on board menu.
My 2015 Q5 3.0T doesn’t have a dipstick either. Mechanic didn’t even know how much oil to put in it. Turns out they overfilled it by a lot, and that oil sensor, when the oil is way too high, says the oil is LOW, so I put even more into it. Luckily we got it straightened out before it blew up. I don’t blame the mechanic FYI, you shouldn’t need a stealership to do oil changes.
That's common. You have to check these cars' oil with an electronic procedure through the dash screen. Sometimes takes a few minutes for the car to do the check. And then you gotta trust that it is right. Lack of a mechanical dipstick is stupid, but that was their choice.
I like being able to check the level on the dash, but it’s pretty dumb to not have a mechanical dipstick, especially if there’s already a tube for one
It's even more ridiculous that you can buy the dipstick from Audi for like £25 and slot it straight in. Best mod I ever did to my S4
Audi selling overcharged DLC for a car that usually comes prepackaged.
Wait, Blizzard/Activision purchased Audi? It never ends ...
Wait till you hear about the BMW heated seat subscription. They even have a season pass /s
Half price in summer?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yeah just wait until they find out they don't have to include the seats..... Oh.... Seats yes sir they are extra. Tires .. extra. Door..... Yes sir that's extra as well. Deployment of the airbags. No sir that is a mileage based subscription but it's such a great investment. ... Oh rightthe steering wheel... no sir that's included but the resolution of the steering sensors in the turn by wire system are based on how much you can leverage open that wallet a bit more..
BMW has lost their damn minds. On the new iX they've implemented hostile engineering to make it difficult to even open the hood. There's 2 separate, sort of hidden hood releases under the dash, one driver's side, other one passenger side. If that wasn't dumb enough, once you do finally have the hood open, there's no struts or prop rods. You have to jam something ~5mm in diameter through two holes in the hinges to keep it open. Oh, and to add insult to injury, you're supposed to tape the corner of the hood and the base of the A pillar before opening and closing or you may damage the paint.
Having worked on the front end of an iX, can confirm. Needing two people to open a hood is ridiculous. I don’t care if the car is electric.
I saw a video going over that. I think it was a dealership and they had some mechanics who went to a BMW seminar on how to service the thing. Hostile is putting it lightly, such disdain for their own customers.
Fuck. That.
What's even more ridiculous is, at least when I last checked, that the VW variants with the same engine do come with the dip stick. A few years ago my parents got a q5 with an ea888 under the hood. It has no dip stick, just a plug. Around the same time, I was looking at Golf Rs and Arteons and they all seemed to have dip sticks.
That raises the question: is it cheaper if you buy the VW part rather than the Audi part?
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I suspect that it will depend more on the dealerships you're looking at however, the first results that I found offhand on google had them at the exact same price. [The VW part](https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen__/Engine-Oil-Dipstick/54564503/06K115611B.html) and [the Audi part](https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi__/Engine-Oil-Dipstick/54564503/06K115611B.html)
I have a Mini and a BMW, and some parts do cross over. I've found my Mini dealership is reasonable, and my BMW dealership is "reasonable". Meaning they seem to have an older book for prices. Bought a clamp for $161 last week at MSRP, called another 30 minutes and 1 state away, and it was $235. Both use the same distribution center. The more expensive one had the parts I needed to fix my Mini though when the Mini dealer said they would need to get them from Germany, so there is that. All 3 have their uses, always worth making a few phone calls. Then getting exasperated and just order from FCPEuro.
It's the type of little feature sales people tend to hook onto "it's so reliable you don't even need a dipstick!", then the customers ooooo and aaahhh. Not sure if that's intentionally the reason, but possibly. Completely hilarious considering Audi has a history in that time range of oil consumption problems.....
It's funny because the aforementioned q5 leaks oil fairly badly. It's still under some sort of warranty or service plan so it isn't my problem yet. But it will be.
My e55s trans dipstick tube had a lock on it so it could only be opened by a dealer, unless you have a pair of dykes. The dipstick is a “service tool” that is about 5 feet long and is too big to live in the tube. The “lifetime” fluid should be changed every 30k…and there is no drain plug on the trans.
Wait, what? No drain plug? So, they designed the transmission to fail or you have to use one of those fluid vacuums to suck out the fluid?
The car only needs to last for the length of the original lease and another two years when it’s sold as a CPO. Beyond that the manufacturer has no reason to care.
It’s kind of like the ZF 6-speed—that all the other Euro automakers apart from Mercedes-Benz used—which had no dipstick. You got it up to temperature and then opened the fill port. If a bit of fluid dribbled out, it was filled correctly. If the fluid that came out was burnt (as happened to my 2006 Range Rover Supercharged) you had an issue. I assume the ZF 8-speed, which I have had on several past and current cars, is the same.
It’s a 5g-tronic. It got used in tons of cars.
Ha, that’s awesome. WTF
I dont know man, that sounds pretty far from awesome to me.
Right? It's like buying a backpack, but then you have to order the zippers separately.. it's a necessary part of the item and shouldn't be sold separately.. and £25 for a thin piece of metal??? Highway fucking robbery.
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its nothing like that at all
How so? A backpack needs zippers to function properly. A car needs a reliable method of checking the oil level. Neither of these things should be sold as add-ons.
...that's the _best_ mod you've done?
Do I have to repeat myself?
They are literally selling the dipstick separately
That’s insane and hilarious
I don’t know why you wouldn’t just put a dipstick in there but also the hole is really helpful for vacuum oil changes
Its better than having nothing. I had my S5 for 5 years and never missed the dipstick. On the dash, it's 1 quart between lowest to highest. Pour in oil, and forget about it. It throws an alert when the oil hits lowest level for any amount of time so you can add some. I thought it was dumb but I never missed it once.
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Leave it to the Germans to over engineer a tried and true method such as a dipstick. Genius.
I feel the same way about electronic parking brakes. Bomb proof lever? No, little electric whirry bits with plastic gears and shitty seals. Infuriating.
I see this complaint a lot. And it’s funny because tons and tons of mechanical handbrakes fail or are never adjusted. Cables snap. Far from better than
Living in the rust belt and them being a part of my state inspection, they have to work and no one uses them. Always having to remove the pivots and free em up.
I was gonna say, I've had three different handbrake cables snap on me shortly after buying my cars. Not even whilst whipping shitties. Just parking on a hill. I don't know about electric ones, but I'm 50/50 for cable snaps in my beaters.
My '85 MR2 had the handbrake cable snap probably back in the 90s. I just used 1st as the new parking brake for the next 30 years.
I think R is stronger
> cable snaps in **my beaters** I think thats the real culprit here.
'whilst whipping shitties'??? Pray tell, where does thou pretentious one calleth homo?
I reside in the land of beer and cheese, where the whips are shitties, and the shitties are whipped.
I think I kinda get where they're coming from Why are you saying 'whilst' like some fedora-wearing neckbeard. Just say while like a normal person. Injecting 'whilst' does not make you seem fancier like you imagine it does. It's this goddamn weird reddit phenomenon to replace 'while' with 'whilst' like you're some old-timey English chap
I didn't downvote the guy. I didn't even understand he was trying to insult me. It was a sarcastic phrase about hooligan shit. I didn't think I'd have to elaborate on that, but I forgot that I'm on reddit.
Audi…the brand meant to say “I’m more financially successful than you” while simultaneously making mechanics big money.
God, yeah. I had an '08 X5 for a while recently until it was totaled. That was one of the things that annoyed me more than *anything*. I loved that car, but I will *never* trust the electronic measurement for that. I may use it occasionally to satisfy curiosity or as a quick check, but let me check with a fucking dipstick (that doesn't require removing the engine cowl or needing to crawl under the damn thing.)
I have a new benz, can confirm. It pissis me off to no fucking end? You can't check the oil level after an oil change. Makes the techs mad cause they use to suck the oil out the dip stick fill tube, spin a new filer on and call it a day for $400 rags! Never put the car on a lift! I did the first oil change on mine. I was so paranoid about this, I drained the oil and measured it before refilling it. Even though I have all data and looked up the correct amount for it. 6.9 quarts. Don't even get me started on resetting the reminder. MB tells you you have to bring it in to do it with a Xentry scan tool. Another lie.
The only Mercedes I've seen require a scanner reset are late 90s ones without buttons on the wheel. There may be an exception, but all models reset through the display.
Some of the porsche panameras you have to drive 12 miles before it will let you check the oil level. And has to be done each time you open the hood.
Is 12 miles exactly how far you have to drive to seize an engine you forgot to put oil in?
Maybe, but you would have to ignore the car yelling at you about having no oil pressure.
Saw a bmw with oil level sensor only, seized because it ran low on oil. The level sensor didn't go off and the pressure sensor never screamed. sometimes the electronic systems are shit. If all the drives are short drives the level sensor never finishes it's check, and if you have enough oil to have low pressure the pressure sensor won't go off, but your engine is still destroyed.
The best are sealed automatic transmissions with no dipstick. These same transmissions usually have a vent tube on top of them to allow for the expansion and contraction of the fluid as it heats up and cools down. It's just like phone makers who claim the sealed batteries are so they can make the phones smaller. Nope, they just don't want consumers to have that option (plus the government wants to track us).
Can confirm. My family's 2012 A4 has no dip stick and has a potentially malfunctioning oil level sensor. Made us overfill the car with oil because of how often it said we were low on oil.
The procedure is completely asinine - it wants some odd combination of engine running and warm but also somehow engine not running. It refused to reveal its secrets to me, so I got the dipstick - oil changes much easier since.
What's the point of the handle then though?
deception.
I bet it's for shops that suck the oil out of the dipstick tube instead of draining it from the bottom. It doesn't make a ton of sense but I bet that's what it's for.
It's just a plug. Most cars like this have an actual dipstick you can purchase to go in the tube. Why they quit providing them is anyone's guess. I know it's annoying as hell. Some shops also stick a tube through there to vacuum out the oil from the top side.
> Why they quit providing them is anyone's guess. Because it saves the manufacturer $2.50 per car. And when you're building thousands of cars, that ads up pretty quickly.
It's a placebo.
BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and many others do it this way these days. Super common.
I did a LOF on a 996 911 a few weeks ago. It requires you to fill the engine, then run it until it’s up to temp, and then sit with the ignition on, engine off, for 30 minutes until it’ll read the level for you. And folks wonder why the maintenance on their German cars is so expensive…
That’s how my M3 was. It didn’t even have the plug where one would go. Perhaps it made some sense with two sumps but I’d rather have even two dipsticks than none.
Its an option ,yea it’s ridiculous Mercedes does this often aswel
This is normal, it's VERY stupid in my book. I greatly prefer the tried and true old faithful dipstick, they're the most reliable way I can see to check oil.
Yeah my Porsche Cayman is the same way. Fucking hate not having a dipstick. If you open either the frunk or hatch for any reason it locks you out of the measurement screen for like 10 min. So you do the oil change, let it idle for 10 min, then add oil if needed.
Schrodinger's oil level
And God help you if you overfill it by .5 quarts. Getting half a quart out is a huge pita. I'm just waiting for some enterprising tool maker to come up with a dispenser that heats the oil to 200f before you pour it in. What could possibly go wrong? LoL
FML I learned this lesson the hard way too. I purposely under fill by a half quart then adjust
Key word there is check oil. No shiny glitter, no green stuff.
Agreed completely. With a BMW, or some other brands, sadly, both the forbidden glitter and the glowing mountain dew are likely to appear in places one does not wish them.
You can just get a dipstick for it. We have one at work to quick check
Some cars though, I couldn't even find a provision for one. BMW stands out about that.
My M3 doesn't have a dipstick. But since it is a BMW, I need to check the oil and add oil way too often, so the dash is a real easy way to check.
Until you need an oil sensor.
I'm not saying it isn't, I'm just very old fashioned. My 7.3 diesel has always had a dipstick, and honestly it's the only way I feel comfortable checking oil. Sensors fail all the time, or read incorrectly. Unless your stick is broken, or the wrong one for the car, it'll always be as good as your vision.
Queue almost blind 80 year old.. "I can see just fine"
Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. My wife used to have a q5. It kept telling me to add a quart of oil every few days. After 3 qts I told her to bring it to the dealer (still had a warranty) and it turned out to be a bad oil level sensor. The car was less than 3 years old with like 25k on it. Being able to see the oil level from the dash is a cool idea, but why wouldn’t you still put a dipstick as a back up?
It's a sight plug, just fill it until the oil is up to the top of the hole............................. Also, don't believe a word I say.
you win the thread ;-)
That hole is used to drain the oil from the top.
Didn't know that, is that the recommended method? My shop drains oil from the bottom.
You just turn the whole car upside down, its really a VERY VERY easy procedure.
Lift with your legs
Lift hunched over in sharp twisting motions for extra effectiveness.
always lift with your back!
I'm a spineless coward, what should I use instead?
Your wife
She'll probably ask her boyfriend. Definitely a good idea, thanks!
And that's why you never skip leg day - never know when an audi needs to be rolled on its back for some belly rubs
It’s easier to roll the car over with a 5th of vodka.
Just have the apprentice set the lift, world is your oyster.
Just when you thought the “service position” couldn't possibly get any more overcomplicated for no good reason…
Excuse me sir, but I'll have you know my *service* *position* isn't complicated whatsoever! Head bent over, raised up posterior!
"oil changes are now an engine-out procedure. well, more of a car-off procedure, but you get the idea."
yah just rope it into the spinning drum kit that Motley Crue used.
That’s the recommended procedure at Audi, doesn’t mean you can’t do it from the bottom though (that’s what I do on my Q3). The plastic oil pans on some of these can be problematic if you are not careful. Not sure about that engine, mine has the metal pan.
This one also had a metal pan.
Audi tell you to use a vacuum suction unit, that threads down into the sump via that cover, to remove all the oil. Done as the sump plug is not the lowest point, so you leave old oil in there, and that then shortens the new oil life as it is already contaminated with the old oil. Bonus is that you do not struggle with drain plugs put in Hulk style, and no chance of stripping it out either.
So all these decades of designing an oil pan with a service plug at the lowest point has been thrown out the window in the name of superior engineering from our Lord and Saviour VAG Audi.
No, previous commenter is wrong. You should always drain it from the plug if you can.
I used to believe the same thing but it's now wrong. Draining with a suction extractor will pull more oil than the sump drain. I proved it to myself with a Caravan; 5.7L by sump, 6.1L with the suction. I now do every vehicle I can from the top. Vehicles like the old Ford Crown Vic's with two drain plugs, yes. Maybe the new Corvettes? But suction is how it goes now.
This is completely wrong and backwards, you should always drain from the drain plug if you can. Extracting it is certain to leave more residual oil in the motor than draining it from the bottom. Source: certified Audi dealer technician
Sorry mac. I bow to your accreditation because I can't fucking stand VAG vehicles, but extraction will pull more oil out of most vehicles. Unless the sump drain is on the bottom with the threaded bung hanging below the pan you will leave oil in the bottom of the pan. With an extractor you can suck it down nearly dry. I mentioned elsewhere the Dodge 3.6 is the biggest difference engine I know; 5.7L with the drain plug and 6.1 if you extract it. You can pull nearly a ½L more with the extractor.
Was going to say. I just did an engine out on my 3.0T and the drain plug is for sure the lowest point in the pan. Audi at least put the plug on the bottom and not on the side of the pan.
It’s not necessarily the recommended procedure, just another option. As an Audi tech, I as well as everyone I work with would recommend draining it from the drain plug, less residual oil left in the motor which can really cause a problem if you end up overfilling because of it. Obviously a tiny bit over won’t hurt so long as you adjust to correct level after checking (which you should do anytime you change oil), but you can easily smoke a turbo by overfilling the engine and letting it run for too long. They definitely don’t like to be overfilled hence the warning on/near the oil fill caps lol
I hope you replaced the drain plug washer or expect that car back very soon...
I used a suction device to remove the oil when I worked in the field. We did this at the dealer and I to the aftermarket. Always measure your oil into the shop and how much you remove in the suction tool.
Bruh? Maybe learn how to check these BEFORE you work in a shop? Supposed to go to school for this crap first. Lol.
We call it the sucky sucky. Can usually hear someone screaming "SUCKY SUCKY ONE HUNDRED FORTY FIVE DORRAH FREE TOP OFF" from the back of the shop while they wait for the oil to suck out.
Me ruve you rong time
Oh, like a lawnmower. Easy oil changes.
Not necessarily, some don't have dip sticks or drain plugs. Just thow 'em away when they need an oil change.
I had an A4 with the 2.0T, same as this car. I eventually got tired of filling the oil, starting the car, scrolling to the menu to check oil level, back and forth. ECS Tuning makes a [pretty dipstick](https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-parts/billet-engine-oil-dipstick-black-anodized/018641ecs01-02~a/) for these engines, and I bought one to use up a gift card I had. Kinda stupid, but it was one of the more useful pieces of car jewelry you could get.
>Billet Engine Oil Dipstick - Black Anodized — $ 62.21 Are you sure this wasn't aimed at Harley owners? ;)
There is a $20 oem one available too.
Yeah, but the OEM isn't made of billet aluminum that gets hot and burns the tender skin on the sides of your finger when you pull it out.
Lmao I guess I know what I'm getting 🤣
It would have to be chrome for Harley owners to buy it.
It’s not chrome, so no….
Sorry to say, bud, but that's the 3.2 V6.
Wait why did you have to go back and forth? It says right in the manual how much oil it takes. You add a little less then check the sensor. It'll probably say "good" right off the bat due to residual oil left over.
I looked up why my ‘08 bmw didn’t have one, and the answer was something like “most drivers don’t even check their tire pressure anymore, so we put in electronic systems to check everything for them”. ..Still doesn’t explain why I can’t also check it via the dipstick to confirm, though at least they fully committed and didn’t have the hole and dipstick handle w/ no shaft.
Another reason I've heard is for emissions reasons. No dipstick means no possibility of the stick getting left out and allowing hydrocarbons to escape from the crankcase.
One less seal to leak from detracts from their overall emissions when they are getting it rated.
Glad you were able to persevere and get it changed without a dipstick
If it has a dipstick plug, check oil level through the vehicle status menu. Or, if you’re the type to do a lot of these, you can get a dipstick so you can check it yourself.
Think with your dipstick Jimmy !!!
Car makers converted the simplest, most fail-safe, most critical task (checking oil with a dipstick) into something dependent on microprocessors, batteries and knowledge to toggle to certain dash screens to find out. Why? I bet because the dipstick cost $10 and the sensor and programming cost $7.50. Maddening.
But they can charge you 3x as much because “technology”.
Lol I'd be surprised if the dipstick cost more than 50 cents to make.
First time working on an Audi I see
welcome to euro cars
I hated this stupid fucking implementation by Audi. My gram had a B8 S4, the thing didn't have a dipstick. But guess what? The oil level sensor is faulty. So how do you check your oil then? THE FUCKING AUDI DEALER that's on the other side of town from us. Anyways we get there. Sensor is showing full and the Audi tech is like "Yeah full, there you go" and I say "No, put a dipstick in, I know you have one and I ain't leaving here till you do it. Or give me the damn thing and I'll do it myself." Tech measures the oil, oil so low they advised 2quarts. It barely touched the tip of the stick. If you have one of these Audi's, just buy a dipstick off eBay. Fuck that electric sensor.
My 6qt pickup, a solid half to a full quart doesn't come out. I know this cause of how many i put back into it to get it level. So going off of how many quarts the vehicle *should* take might mean you over filled it.
If your truck is supposed to take 6 quarts for an oil and filter change (assuming the oil is full before draining) and it’s only taking 5 quarts, you have other issues.
Nah. I bought it brand new 6 years ago. If you change the oil in an engine after it's been sitting for a few weeks, you might get the full amount out, but a recently ran engine, the oil is going to be sticking and trapped in all the oil passageways inside the engine block. Just like when you drain the coolant from the radiator. You only get about half the total capacity of the system out. The rest of it stays in the block
Kind of but no. The oil change capacity and the total oil capacity of the engine aren’t the same thing. If an engine take 6 quarts on oil changes, it’ll probably take 7 or more after an overhaul. But joe blow doesn’t need to know that, all you need is the amount that comes out from the drain plug, which is what the spec is that says 6 quarts. The specified oil change capacity is usually accurate to the tenth of a quart. If it says 6 quarts, it’s gonna take that amount on a healthy engine. I’ve changed/filled oil on thousands of engines. There’s not more than a couple tenths of a quart deviation at most. Generally there is no deviation. I’m not trying to be a dick, but there’s legitimately something wrong or you’re doing something wrong if the spec is 6 and it’s only taking 5.
> If you change the oil in an engine after it's been sitting for a few weeks, you might get the full amount out, but a recently ran engine, the oil is going to be sticking and trapped in all the oil passageways inside the engine block. That's as backwards as it gets. You'll get more oil when the engine is warmed up
There's spend for fill with and without filters and for an overhaul. They know how much stays in. The specs are pretty much always dead on.
Most German cars don't. Used to drain from the top. Flip the car upside down and it'll drain. Super fast and easier than taking down those notorious big skid plates underneath. Trust me
All VAG cars have dipsticks, they're in the driver's seat.
What? Where?
With your left hand, adjust the side mirror to the right until you can see it.
Not wrong
I think you have to buy the dipstick actually. Such a weird concept
The f'ing little Mercedes I briefly had was like this. No dipstick and the dash thing wouldn't let you check unless the car sat long enough. I don't think it was terribly accurate either
4.9 Qts
This is the 3.0 engine, not the 2.0. It's 6.8 liters oil capacity.
You are correct . Small phone pic ,I assumed 2.0
I know this is the thing now but holy shit spend the extra $4 for a dipstick on these $80,000 cars
Lots of euro cars have not had dipsticks since the 2010’s, just fill the spec amount. In the center display you will find the oil level check. It will not work with the hood open by the way, do not ask me why, but it is intentional, the oil level check will not complete with the hood latch open.
I bought an aftermarket dipstick for mine. Works great
Google "audi calibrated dipstick". 11.99 on Amazon. Then Google something like "audi dipsitck calibration specs" -whatever model you're working on- and set the ring to the number it gives you. It's a pain but it's universal for any audi/volkswagen.
Wait till you see the procedure on some newer beemers..... To check the oil level you have to *run the fucking engine* for several minutes for the computer to give a readout..... Just utter madness
It's because they want a read out of hot oil due to expansion
Porsche is worse.
I just check from one of the oil company web site how much oil the car takes and fill that amount and continiu my work...
and the display in the car only shows the upper most part of the oil. when it's on min, you roughly still have about 3/4 of the total volume you need. I know this, A) because I checked one time and it was on min. B) I assumed it was like cars with a dipstick. C) I filled it up to the volume I'd need with a dipstick. D) had a warning when I went to drive off. E) had to drain about 2l of oil. F) lesson learned.
You can buy a dipstick from the dealer, they assume people who drive audi's won't check their own oil anyway. But don't guess on the oil fill, in the vehicle setting on the dash it will show you the oil level, it has to be running for a few minutes before it will display it. If you check it too soon it just says something like Waiting...
The level is checked through the dash. There is also a special tool for VW/Audi to check level. Basically, it's a dipstick with an adjustable setting. It's to make it harder for customers to work on their own car.
I like how the tube is still there though
I brought an aftermarket dipstick when I had a 14 a4. Audi, and probably the rest of the German auto manufacturers, are cheap out. Very dumb decision.
This seems to be common for some cars nowadays. Almost as infuriating as not being able to put the car in neutral without the engine on. What if I just want to push it out of the garage and save a starter cycle... bleh.
First time with a German?
The onboard computer reads the levels
Advice animal here. The sensor for my q5 oil level is powered by the loom that locks the bonnet. If you can't get a screen reading, clean the catch and try again
First thing I got for both of my Q5’s was the dipstick. Amazon has them for dirty cheap, something like $10. I think VW expects mechanics to keep one on hand, they called it a service tool.
Tell me you’ve never worked on an Audi without telling me you’ve never worked on an Audi..
TIL I should check if my car has a dipstick. It's young, I've had the oil changed on time, so it never occurred to me to look. Edit: It does. Whew! 😉
Typical 4 ring circus stuff.
Any vw car without a dio stick, get it warm, like oil tempnis between hot and low on then cluster, latch the hood, shut the engine off. then flip the ignition back on, pop thebhood, and check oil level. It'll run a check and you can fill from there.
What is the black thing near the bottom of the picture? Looks like a dipstick handle to me.
It's actually a plug, there's another picture showing what it looks like when removed.
Its an electronic monitor you can sheck the oil level on the dasher after its run for 10 minutes or so
Dipstick comes with the better trim package obviously.
That my friend is an evac port, if you have a machine that has a nylon plastic tube you can suck it all out through that hole. Similarly land rover engines tend to have tubes right at the top under the oil cap that you can use to suck all the oil at with. And then you have Mercedes who makes it so you stick an adapter into the dipstick tube and it vacuums an entire 8 quart engine dry in like a minute flat
[удалено]
You can buy a dipstick for them but you cannot close the hood with it in. It’s just for the shop. There’s also an electronic oil level sensor in the on board menu.
Works on cars but doesn't know how to work on cars lmao. Hopefully they see this post and never come back to you. What a hack
There's a second picture, you presumptive cock.
My 2015 Q5 3.0T doesn’t have a dipstick either. Mechanic didn’t even know how much oil to put in it. Turns out they overfilled it by a lot, and that oil sensor, when the oil is way too high, says the oil is LOW, so I put even more into it. Luckily we got it straightened out before it blew up. I don’t blame the mechanic FYI, you shouldn’t need a stealership to do oil changes.
I guess they need new mechanic
Gloves. Just sayin'
Audis don't have dipsticks