When topping up oils

[Greenpeace]

You need a hungry cat. The ratter feline of my youth destroyed everything smaller than itself, and scared off big dogs.

Mmm, I caught Clyde one morning about a month ago wandering around with a black cat in his mouth.

It had injuries "incompatible with life" I'm afraid.

Look at his little face. I'm still trying to convince Mrs G that the cat committed suicide, we are surrounded by a 6' fence after all.

 

[jo proffi]

Well, mostly. My daughter's Scenic reverted to miles after a battery change.... The manual explains how to change to km. Unfortunately, and this reinforces some comments here that differ from mine, it explains it so badly that I couldn't do it. It is simple, once you have found correct instructions from a UK Renault Forum, where there are thousands and thousands of these cars. It takes about 20 seconds, or three weeks and slashed wrists if you try to follow the handbook....

I do check the oil in the R8 a couple of time per year. 35 years after the engine rebuild, it still uses little to no oil. Mostly I check the concrete floor underneath it. I guess you have a point......

It is probably safer to check the floor.

i knew a guy who let his dad borrow his car to drive interstate, and told him to watch it doesn’t overheat and cook the motor. So dad checks coolant, forgets to put cap back on and Wada you know, the engine seized !

 

[renault8&10]

There is a level indicator - on start up it should say "oil ok" or if low, the "ok" disappears and "oil" flashes. This should also bring on a message and "service" light.

The other scenario is if the sensor has detected a fault and it just says "oil _ _ _"

Personally, I think if a person is too scared to use the dipstick, then they should probably not be operating a motor vehicle.

On my daughters‘ 206 currently, the dipstick is correct (full level) but the dashboard display only shows a couple of indicator on startup not the full display. when I do oil changes I measure out the oil required so it doesn’t make sense. Is the dash display or sensor that triggers it prone to fail at all?

 

[dacia4x4]

Yep thirty odd years ago wife’s coworker filled her hj 4.2 with oil,until it sat above rockers just below filler hole then tried to drive home from servo,engine died and yes she was blonde.Also I sold 504 pug full rebuild engine (crank grind,pistons and liners etc)to young uni student,get a blast over the phone that I sold a dud,put 5litres of oil in nothing showing on dipstick still she’s on her way to my workshop with her boyfriend who apparently knows about cars.they get to my shop,I check oil overfilled to buggery point out level to said car person,no no oil there he says…ummm what colour are you looking for?black of course oil is black was response.show him oil which I drained out and oil level on dipstick wiped oil off dipstick with fingers and say what’s that?explain everything inside has been cleaned and new parts fitted its virtually new inside oil is not black in a reco engine..off they go mumbling never saw them again…jim

 

[Greenpeace]

Many years ago my brother bought a mint early model 4WD Tercel really cheap as it was jumping out of 1st and 2nd gear.
Drained the gearbox oil and about 200ml came out, the owner's manual said it held 4L IIRC.
Stripped it down and the sides were worn off the shift forks and every bearing in there was also a nice shade of blue.
The log book was fully stamped but the car was long out of warranty.
We rebuilt it and went to fill it with oil and we hadn't even pull 1L in it and the oil was running out of the level plug.
There was nothing on filling the gearbox in the owner's manual and no internet back then so we started ringing Toyota dealers.
First couple were of no help but the service manager at the 3rd one said, "Oh there's a bolt on the middle housing that looks like a drain plug, you have to unscrew it 7 turns to let the oil run through to the main gearbox".
OK that makes sense.

 

[SLC206]

On my daughters‘ 206 currently, the dipstick is correct (full level) but the dashboard display only shows a couple of indicator on startup not the full display. when I do oil changes I measure out the oil required so it doesn’t make sense. Is the dash display or sensor that triggers it prone to fail at all?

The 206 (a much older car than the subject of this thread) has a couple of different oil indicator systems, depending on its age.

Early ones simply said "oil ok" or not, whereas later ones ended up with 6 segments or zeros, with 6 indicating full and a dash replacing the zero when it was down.

It's only accurate if the car is on level ground, has been running for a while and has been shut off for 10 mins or so.

I don't think it was very accurate and "oil level sensor fault" seems to be a common entry when one looks at OBD reader faults on 206/307s.

 

[Peter C]

The oil level indicator on my 406 is unrealiable due to it sometimes giving inconsistent indications. I'd rather just check the dip stick periodically.

 

[DeeCee]

Now I am getting confused.......... I thought the oil level indicator on my 203 was the dip stick. Silly me!