I learned a trick form my Dealer techs on checking the oil level.

Regardless of engine temp or when you last ran the engine: This would be convenient if you are about to depart on a road trip and want to check the engine oil level while it's still cold. (of course common sense will tell you Engine OIL LEVEL will most definitely be at it highest level or stabilized when cold, never assume oil level is accurate just after shutting engine off...wait at least 10 minutes before checking...)



1. Open the hood (Bonnet)

2. Turn on ignition without starting.

3. Scroll through trip settings using trip button on end of turn signal stalk.

4. Stop on oil level indicator read out.

If read out is not available, push the "Cancel" button on cruise control two times quickly and try again.

 

How do they come up with all these crazy procedures to get information.?

 

They don't want owners overfilling the sump.

As long as the oil level is between the marks the sump has enough oil in it. Owners who actually check their oil tend to like to fill to the MAX line, including me. Trouble is many engines only show correct oil level under certain conditions. Until you get to know your engine's idiosyncrasies you can misread the dipstick. They don't want amateurs misreading the electronic read out.

Overfilling the sump can destroy an engine. Running it with the oil level between the marks cannot.

 

Well said. Coming from an aviation career that introduced technology 30 years ago that's just now appearing on cars, jagular is spot on. Making partial or misleading info available to the wrong people at the wrong time can have all sorts of unexpected negative consequences.

 

This works great. However, assuming the illuminated bar represents one litre then the oil level when cold shows about one quarter litre less than when hot. If the illuminated bar is half a litre then proportionally less.

The key is the accompanying text message: "oil level OK" meaning don't add any.

 

I have an 09 XF-SC and this short cut did not work for me. It probably was not part of the 09 electronic menu.

 

09 uses only an analogue dipstick I'm afraid. There's no electronic check at all.

 

My XF reads full when hot and only 2/3 full when cold assuming the bar graph represents the normal one quart difference between full and add.

 

That makes no sense...it should show fullest when cold, as by then all the oil has had a chance to drained back to the sump..Mine indicates full + (Level OKAY) when cold and 2/3's full when Hot or right after shutting off the engine...Better get it checked out by a professional...something is wrong with yours.

 

Hot oil occupies more volume. It makes perfect sense.

 

Maybe in your part of the woods..but in the real world, engine oil does not have that great amount of expansion coefficient as say transmission fluid does, to show a half a quart low when cool....As I said..Makes No sense..

The engine oil level sensory system is ultrasonic and uses sound waves that bounce off of the oil surface..the rest of the calculations is FM, to give you a level reading.

 

Depends on the shape if the sump. Jaguar wants you to check oil level only when the oil is hot.

I was reporting only what I observed. One quarter litre in 7.4 litres (yielding a total expansion coefficient of 0.034 which would need to be divided by the temperature delta, say 80 degrees C?) doesn't sound like a lot of expansion and if the sump is tall then the change in level would be noticeable.

My Audi also read low when cold and so does my Subaru.

 

Really?..Come on man..let's keep it believable

I was gonna Google all that too , but your incred-o-facts is so ambiguous to any specific Synthetic Motor oil, that it could be the coefficient of Emu oil... but I didn't think it was necessary to try and impress with rambling numbers ..simple English sufficed..

I keep forgetting, you now have a V6..so that may account for the anomaly with the oil level reading..I don't know...anyway, as long as you're happy and satisfied with what you see and with your own expatiation, you'll just have to trust your own interpretation..

GL.

 

I know what I see. We just disagree on why or how this could display in this way. Surely you're not suggesting I can't see the bar graph on the dashboard. There is a noticeable and consistent difference when measured hot or cold.

Check out this thread:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...Number=1865675

 

Yeah..I wasn't trying to dispute your theroy at all..just seems odd to me that it would read less at cold when ALL the oil is in the sump...Maybe your oil amount is borderline being low...Course the only way to know, is drain it out or suck it out and add back the CORRECT amount to be 100% certain..

Anyway..Bob the oil guy is just another forum of sorts, with a bunch of varied opinions there as well..hardly a reliable source..I go there sometimes to get me to think about things in another way (it's called having an OPEN MIND)..there is some good information there for sure..but nothing Gospel though, just like these forums here..mostly personal experiences and opinions....again, nothing wrong with that either...it's call information sharing..you can believe it or not...But where you and I differ..you like to jam what you think you know to be true down everyone's throat..

Anyway, it's all good...You have a good time now with that New XF..

 

I just write what I see as being factual. I am puzzled why anyone thinks this is ramming anything down anywhere. My point is to inform others that using the tip about checking the oil level cold, not according to the Handbook, may have drawbacks. If you assume the oil level is low when it shows low when cold and you don't allow for this shrinkeage effect you may overfill the sump which would be a very bad thing to do.

 

The shrinkage effect of the oil is miniscule...

You have a bad habit of selecting facts as YOU call them, when they only support YOUR argument...And As I've seen, your method of delivery is less than gracious...You're puzzled because you can't see yourself at be wrong..EVER.

As in this article that was in the Bob the oil Guy link you so conveniently found..you must not of read all the information and only what suited you.

Toledo Blade - Google News Archive Search


I'm done with this discussion, because you will always be right..

 

Manufacturers have been in the bad habit of fixing things that weren't broken - take the dipstick. Worked perfectly well, was accessible anytime, you could make an instantaneous judgment about whether things looked right or not (including the color and smell of the oil). Now, unless we use the workaround, when you are most likely to want to check the oil (at the gas station), you can't. I'm sure there are valid reasons for not having a dipstick - you can't drop a bunch of frozen peas down the tube, for instance - it seems to hurt the cause. Fact of the matter is, though, that people are not, by and large checking their oil - ever. Unless you count having it changed once a year as checking it... My two cents.

 

Well said Rob...

I don't like the gadgetry either in this respect..I made a wire dipstick of my own that fits down the little tube to the bottom of the sump...

After just having my oil changed at the dealer..I knew I had 7.65 qts of oil added (I watched them put it in)..When I got home and let the engine cool and all the oil drain back to the sump...I made a mark on the homemade dipstick at to where the level was on it...Yes; I want to smell and see the color of the oil too from time to time..Lets me also know if any engine coolant is getting in or not.

 

Manufacturers do this because car owners think they know what they're doing but they don't. Looking at or smelling engine oil from the sump tells you nothing reliable. The level of oil in the sump is just not important as long as it falls somewhere between the MIN and MAX marks. Some of the posts on this thread prove those manufacturers are correct to remove the dipstick. The temperature gauge has been removed from many cars for the same reason, owners misunderstanding what it means. Oil pressure gauges are useless and so are oil temperature gauges now we use synthetic oil. And so on.