Dipstick

[Five_OhGT]

My method:

Drive the car till it gets to operating temperature. Make sure you are on a flat and level surface. Wait 15 mins to allow the oil to settle into the pan. Pull dipstick and wipe oil off once. Put the dipstick back in and pull it out to observe oil level with phone flashlight or garage light. If you are having trouble seeing the level, get a clean, white paper towel and carefully close it over the dipstick. DO NOT PULL THE DIPSTICK OUT. Open the paper towel and observe where the oil level is on the paper towel compared to the dipstick.

Here is a picture I pulled from google to give you an idea of what I'm trying to explain. Hope this helps.

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[19gtaz]

I just checked mine cold and it is right in the middle of the cross hatch area. The next time I drive it I will check it after 15 minutes and see what the difference is.

 

[3rdRGR]

I just checked mine cold and it is right in the middle of the cross hatch area. The next time I drive it I will check it after 15 minutes and see what the difference is.

Yep I’ve been checking mine cold as at least it was a constant when you check and seemed to have the most clear metal vs liquid line. But maybe now after reading the by the book method, perhaps I’m overfilling a bit at times. I’ll try this method and see if I get a different reading.

 

[jimmerheck]

the hot vs cold test has been performed by a bunch of members already. Including me. As far as I remember, all of them said there was no difference in level between checking when hot (after the 15m wait) and checking the next morning when cold. My level doesnt change on my 16.

 

[Qcman17]

I check mine cold 99% of the time always in the same spot in my driveway.. I have the hash marks facing the passenger side as that gives me a good reading. I agree the cold versus hot is minimal if anything but is so much easier to read. I also look at the first pull when cold without a wipe and that is really easy to see too. But yeah this car is a bitch to read as per the manual.

 

[Elp_jc]

Difference between cold and hot is minimal. But what I do to compensate for that is I top off oil at the top of the hash marks, leaving some margin to the top dot, since I live in hot TX. But you can also safely top it off cold to the dots with zero issues. Level would be minimally high even in a hot summer day. And yes, it's a biatch to check level even cold, but hot is almost impossible, since the dipstick keeps getting smeared with oil even if done 10 times. Need to try the shop towel method one of these days to see if it helps (good tip).

 

[Hack]

Sorry, but this is the stupidest design/program in automobile history. It literally takes 20-25 minutes to correctly check your freaking oil and then when you get around to that part (and if you have a very common front strut tower brace) you have to do the freaking hokey pokey to get the freaking dip stick out then the viscosity is so thin that it's running up or down the stick from the moment you start pulling it out. I guess that is why they have a one inch freaking range to make sure you have enough oil. Then to boot many of our cars use oil by nature.... Thaaaaaannnk you...

Just check the oil when the car is cold. In my experience, this gives a good reading. It's faster and you won't burn yourself on a hot engine.

The long range is because of a few things. There are tolerances that stack up between the dipstick, heads, engine block, oil pan, dipstick tube, etc. This causes the exact position of the oil on the dipstick to vary from engine to engine. Also, the surface the car is resting on isn't level. Also, the car itself isn't perfectly level.

And the engine doesn't need an exact amount of oil to work perfectly. It needs enough but not too much. This is why Ford tells you DO NOT TOP OFF UNLESS THE LEVEL IS BELOW THE BOTTOM MARK. Due to tolerances, you can overfill trying to keep the level always perfectly at the top mark. If the oil level is between the lines - you are good.

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