Lost faith in humanity

[Greg Oakley]

I just found out newer BMW’s and Mercedes do not have an oil dipstick. How can you make a car without an oil dipstick? Even Yugos have oil dipsticks and they are a fraction of the price. I know a sensor is supposed to tell me when to put oil in my car but I am not going to trust a stupid sensor. Those Germans have officially gone off the deep end…

Topic

[dave]

I am not opposed to innovation and new technology if it is based on sound and reasonable thinking.

I would at least give it a chance before judging the oil level sensor guilty. If we kept to the ‘old way of doing things’ we’d still be using carburetors.

[Dave]

What is wrong with carburetors ?

[dave]

Even the best carburetor is very inefficient as far as fuel economy compared to single port, multi-port, or direct injection. The ECM can constantly monitor and command a specific air/fuel ratio as opposed to a carburetor which can only maintain an arbitrary near-stoichiometric mix (accept during acceleration.) Additionally, it is still possible for a naturally aspirated engine to run even when the car is turned off.

Pulse width modulated fuel injection is the most efficient method of fuel delivery in today’s vehicles and is necessary to meet emission standards.

[Bill]

And a lot of North American cars don’t have a transmission dipstick or a sensor. How good is that? I guess BMWs and Mercedes don’t burn oil. Transmissions are not supposed to leak.

[Dave]

Yeah and when you are stuck on the side of the road without a scanner to tell you which sensor or electrical part is bad I will drive by with my old out of date archaic technology. I can fix a carburetor with a screwdriver and a wrench, what size wrench does that foreign made electronic mess take? :stick:
By the way cars with carburetors got mileage in the 20 to 40 mpg back in the day and an old civic from the 80s gets the same mileage as a new one.
Now manufacturers do not want people working in their own cars hence no dipsticks, and the special tool needed to check these fluids most of the time is a dipstick. :huh: :angry:

[Greg Oakley]

[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=63816]Yeah and when you are stuck on the side of the road without a scanner to tell you which sensor or electrical part is bad I will drive by with my old out of date archaic technology. I can fix a carburetor with a screwdriver and a wrench, what size wrench does that foreign made electronic mess take? quote]

Ahaha, I totally agree

[Darko]

Haha, when you make mantion on Yugos… We ware build them 😳 Tell me do you have there those cars and how often you work on them?

[W00DBar0n]

Interesting.
Hope you are able to check the oil level with out a scan tool or that would be a step backwards for people who change their own oil or even the smaller oil change places that don’t have scan tools.
Plus are some places gonna charge people to scan the oil level if a scan tool needed? Since some places do charge just to scan the vehicle.(Why i bring this up is because of oil filters, people who do and don’t pre-fill them will show different levels)
I hope they put a sight glass in, i do know of a few engines with out dip sticks but they have sight glasses… mind you these engines are bigger then any SUV BMW or Mercedes makes.

[quote=”Wrench Turner” post=63798]
Pulse width modulated fuel injection is the most efficient method of fuel delivery in today’s vehicles and is necessary to meet emission standards.[/quote]
Are we talking injection or direct injection?

[Bill]

I guess they figure if you can afford to drive one of those cars, you can afford to have the oil sensor scanned if needed.

I still like tinkering with a carburetor but i firmly believe the best thing they ever did was installing fuel injection on cars.

[Eliud Munoz]

At least with Chrysler, the scan tool is only used to see the temp of the transmission oil while you use a special dipstick that is used to see the level of the fluid in the transmission. With the difference of the temp and level you can tell what level the fluid should be at.

[Walter Cheryba]

[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=63816]Yeah and when you are stuck on the side of the road without a scanner to tell you which sensor or electrical part is bad I will drive by with my old out of date archaic technology. I can fix a carburetor with a screwdriver and a wrench, what size wrench does that foreign made electronic mess take? :stick:
By the way cars with carburetors got mileage in the 20 to 40 mpg back in the day and an old civic from the 80s gets the same mileage as a new one.
Now manufacturers do not want people working in their own cars hence no dipsticks, and the special tool needed to check these fluids most of the time is a dipstick. :huh: :angry:[/quote]

You tell em’ broke! Remember this all you young whippersnappers: “old age and treachery will always win out over youth and exuberance” (and sometimes technology too!) 🙂

[Bill]

We could go back to the model “T” days with petcocks on the side of the engine to check the oil level.

[dollman0]

[quote=”wysetech” post=64317]We could go back to the model “T” days with petcocks on the side of the engine to check the oil level.[/quote]
This is like saying the sight glass on a motorcycle is faulty equipment. I think the oil alert sensors are reliable.

I have an old Benz Diesel, its a bastard to work on as compared to other cars from the same year. I have to change the injection pump and not looking forward to that type of job. Just saying that some luxury cars are built differently than common vehicles and we should not condemn the newest technology because it will become commonplace on other auto lines.

[Konrad]

Your loss of faith in humanity is not misplaced, but your disapproval of this technology is. Don’t fear it. These sensors were not implemented to make life more difficult. Just the opposite. People don’t check their oil level often enough so car manufacturers implemented a feature to help drivers keep an eye on the oil level. You don’t need a dipstick. You can view the oil level through a display, and the vehicle will tell you when to add oil – for example, an Audi will tell you when to add a quart of oil. Next time you fill up on fuel just grab a quart of your favorite approved oil, and just dump it in the engine. How simple is that?! Now the engine is happy, and you don’t have to mess with a dipstick.

So, what if it fails and now you don’t have a dipstick to verify the oil level? I have worked on thousands of these cars since the 2008 year model when the oil level displays were implemented. I have yet to replace a single sensor. You have to see it from the car manufacturer’s point of view. They don’t want to warranty engines because an ignorant customer didn’t check the oil level. Proving that an engine died of oil starvation is not easy when politics are involved. These sensors are more robust that your average sensor, and they were designed this way to favor the manufacturer’s warranty needs. In the event of a malfunction, the system can easily spot implausible signals and any electrical problems.

[Bill]

I’m not saying that a sight glass is faulty equipment at all. At least you can look at it and be confident that the oil level is full. I’m just saying that this type of technology is not necessary and not convenient for the average car owner. They install this crap on cars whether we want it or not and the comsumer pays for it.

As far as petcocks…I was joking.

[Author]

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