Oil a quart low... where did it go?

[TonyMS3]

Oops... Sorry for the late response.

It is similar to putting a straw in a glass of water with your finger over the top end. Substitute the dipstick "tube" for the straw and the end of the dipstick for your finger.

What I do is pull the dipstick up a few inches, wait about 10 seconds, push the dipstick back down, and then check the oil level.

wouldn't the dipstick need to be hollow to create the vacuum seen in the straw example? (dunno)

 

[zoom-zoomhatch]

the user manual should say something about what the measurement is between lines on the dipstick (ie the difference between low line and full line is 1 qt)

also, if the car is brand new it may eat more oil than normal due to the internals not being fully seated together yet. the break-in period should handle that.

there would also be a big difference in the way the oil looks if it were eating it or simply leaking it from the drain plug. if you're engine is eating oil than you could probably have major blowby, and your oil will break down faster. if it's just a drip than the oil will have the normal wear apperance

The particular time in question when the oil was low it was barely a drop on the dipstick. The oil change was done around 20k miles so I'm thinking it's pretty broke in. And the oil did look pretty rough though I'm still not thinking it's eating it and is a result of both it was time to change it when I noticed it and if it had been run that low for any period of time it could have led it to look pretty bad off.

 

[oaklandopen]

The particular time in question when the oil was low it was barely a drop on the dipstick. The oil change was done around 20k miles so I'm thinking it's pretty broke in. And the oil did look pretty rough though I'm still not thinking it's eating it and is a result of both it was time to change it when I noticed it and if it had been run that low for any period of time it could have led it to look pretty bad off.

if i were you i'd either change it myself, or check the dipstick right after you have it done at the dealer or (god forbid) jiffy lube. that way you can know if they really did give you the correct amount in the first place

 

[matsuda]

wouldn't the dipstick need to be hollow to create the vacuum seen in the straw example? (dunno)

The "tube" that you insert the dipstick into would be analogous to the (hollow) straw.