I pulled the dipstick to check the oil level in my 2021 F150 5. V8 only to find no levels, So it is done using the screen monitor along with checking everything else. I miss the old days when I had a 1957 Plymouth flathead six-cylinder a child could work on. It took me about two minutes to even find the dipstick on my 2021 truck!!
With or without dipstick, many mechanics/or wanna-bees/ happily "check the oil" , for two hundred fifty dollars give or take some. By the number of problems they "find", real or not, they make thousands a week some weeks.
My 2019 Mazda still uses the dipstick. One of the first things I did when I bought the car was to install pneumatic hood struts to give me a lift-assist and to hold the hood up without the prop rod being in the way. I've mentioned that I bought a Bluetooth OBD2 Reader, a used tablet and some software specifically to set up gauges for those things that are not monitored on the modern dashboard...specifically, I miss having an oil pressure gauge. So I get all this stuff set up and start identifying data points I want to monitor, and cannot find the oil pressure in any of the computer outputs . Well, some (many?) modern cars do not have oil pressure sending units...they have a Hi/Lo sensor, but do not care if the crankcase pressure is at 50psi or 60psi. I can monitor the temp of the tranny fluid if I want. I felt like an idiot. It was not a lot of money, but I sure wasted some time. At least I can read Error Codes with it...but I better not get any. It's only 3 years old.
I was a quart low yesterday via dipstick. It is a 2009 Toyota Matrix which I got specifically for its primitive features: manual transmission, roll down windows, dipstick, There were a lot of things wrong with it when I bought it, right off the auction block but the dealer made good on most, after my friend went over it with a fine tooth comb. One thing we missed was the dipstick TUBE was broken. Never occurred to me, even as it got harder and harder to check the oil. I had never come across such a thing and replacing it was quite pricey.
My 2020 Ram 1500 diesel only gives me oil status on the dashboard display. To change the oil, I either have to go to the dealer and spend close to $300, or follow a longggggg YouTube video that details the many steps you need to take to change your own oil on this vehicle. Bah!
Sure - it gets serviced on a regular basis. Oil changes, etc. I think the engine thingie is up front. I do know how to put gas in the tank.
I still laugh at myself when I wanted some starter fluid a few years ago, which they used to sell at walgreens. I went in and could not find it. At the service desk, I asked a young man about its whereabouts. He looked at me like I was nuts. So, I clarified, You know, starter fluid? You spray it through the butterfly on the carberator... He said, Lady, they stopped making carberators in 1986.
Thank goodness. So do tractors. I go to Fleet Farm for it now, not Walgreens. Walgreens was the last to develop black and white film here and then any non digital film. They don't anymore. I guess they hang on to the services as long as they get enough customers. Makes sense. It just seemed funny at the time.
If there comes a time when you can't find it, you can put some gasoline in an empty windex bottle with sprayer. It's not quite as good but will work.
Thank you. To tell the truth the last time I took a small animal to the vet to have it put down, I did not like how she did it. So I put a dying guinea pig or someone in a cooler with a towel over a paper towel sprayed with starter fluid (ether) put in their favorite food, close the lid...come back later to a half eaten head of lettuce and a pet actually put to sleep.
Fun, ain't it John? My '07 Vette has been at an acquaintance's house for 5 weeks now, after dying on me 3 times from June of last year to November. I think I've told you about this problem before . . . ? He is the friend of a friend, and works full time designing test software for a company that produces and sells communication systems to cell phone providers, the military, overseas customers, etc. The Chevy mechanics couldn't find the problem (intermittent electronic) and if anyone can, this guy can. I told him in the beginning that if he can't specifically isolate and fix the problem then I was selling the car. He's got an amazing amount of electrical equipment and knowledge and fixes these kinds of car problems for a lot of people in his spare time. He's narrowed the problem down to maybe two areas/systems but is still testing. The summer is wasting away and I'm driving my stupid pickup everyday, lol. And so here we are with modern cars. I said twenty-some years ago about computers in general: that the technology was advancing faster than our ability to diagnose and fix it. What a joke. My car was very advanced for its time -- but left me stranded three times last year within a few months, and has been at this guy's house for five weeks now. It has keyless ignition (common now on other cars) but who really needs it? It's another entire electronic system that can leave you stranded, and the only upside is that I don't have to take the fob out of my pocket to run/lock the car. Wow, no thanks, I'll take an old metal key instead. And who needs an electronic pressure pad on the outside of the door to open it, and a button on the inside to get out? It's another system, tied into all the others, that can leave you stranded if it goes out. If you're too weak to work a mechanical door latch, maybe you should be in a nursing home instead of driving a sports car. I could go on . . .
I agree. I don't understand the attraction to the keyless system, either. Criminals now have receivers where they can capture and record the transmissions of the FOB and then duplicate it later to steal your car! Folks are admonished to leave their FOBs somewhere on the interior of the house where a criminal might not be able to capture its transmissions through the doors or windows (don't hang the FOB on a hook by the door.) Last I looked, my physical keys did not need a Faraday bag. When I first got my car, I walked into the store and left the thing running without realizing it, since there was no key to remove and put in my pocket as habit dictates. Then there's the integration of the stereo into the computer. They have all these safety features that prevent me from interacting with the screen for all the other functions while driving, but I gotta take my eye off the road to change radio stations rather than just reach down and hit the right preset button, without even having to look. My Mazda has a motorized rear hatch...you push the button and it automatically raises. But there's no foot activator in case your hands are full. If I can put my hand on the hatch handle to push a button, I can lift the damn thing up as long as I'm there. And if there's a motor, gimme a daggone foot activator; otherwise, what's the point? When I bought my 1989 S-10 pickup truck, I could not get a manual transmission...in a friggin' truck!!! And what's all this I hear about endangered feces??????