2009 Audi A4 Avant: Look Ma, No Dipstick

Oh yeah!
Electronic oil level sensor will for surely never EVER fail... Especially on German mobiles!!!

...right.

I would be angry if I couldn't check oil level old fashioned way... Because, frankly... dip stick is fail-safe 100% of the time unlike computers.

Even if the system was 100% accurate and 100% reliable I like the option to look at the oil myself.

Even though it can tell you about the oil level (assuming its accurate all the time), it cannot tell you about the quality of the oil.

With the dipstick you can see the consistency and color of the oil.

This was invented for the same reason the tire pressure monitors were invented -- the average car owner treats their car like an appliance, the only thing they know how to do is add gas, so they need to be told that their tires/oil/washer fluid/etc are low since they would never think or be able to check these things the manual way. People who like cars enough to be reading this will mostly prefer the "old fashion" way of opening the hood. Same goes for manu-matic trannys, variable ratio steering, etc.

I happen to think even the most common backwards blond can check oil and see that the tires are flat.

That being said, I've seen people prying the gas filler door open because they didn't realize it was a remote-opening door.

I happen to like old-fashioned ways of checking oil. I want to see it/feel it/taste it/hear it. Well...maybe not taste it. The BMW system would put me off by thinking I'm driving a video game.

No. This is NOT a good improvement. It is lazy and I can only imagine how much it would cost to fix if this was on a BMW or MB. Just keep the dipstick and we'll be fine, thanks.

You might think that, altimadude00, but eville_stu is actually correct. In general, the public is terrible at maintenance and proper tire inflation.

This was why I said no to the Boxster, which was even worse because you couldn't get to the engine, let alone see if it even had a dipstick, without dropping it out of the car. Personally: No dipstick = no sale.

I like the oil level meter, but only as a redundant system. Still, I like to be reminded that a car is a wonderful machine, not a computer. There is something deflating about this.

I agree with mohaji.

This looks like a great way to add cost to the vehicle while reducing longevity at the same time. Lately it seems like the germans have a lot of electronic hammers searching desperately for nails.

I don't mind an electronic oil level function, but keep the dipstick for us gearheads who don't pee their pants at the thought of raising the hood...

Ugh... another dipstickless machine with a plastic engine cover. At least Audi doesn't want you to go 15,000 miles between oil changes like BMW, right?

How do i know how much oil i need to add during the oil change?

That's a nice feature for casual observation, but I'd rather have a dipstick there just in case.

Okay...Electronic oil gauge. Nice, but also should have dipstick. How dirty is your oil? Not the original owner? Smell? Color? How about magnetizing your stick? Okay....is this for folks who don't pump their own gas? Marketing gauge I think - but stick especially for turbo's should remain.

Let's been clean about something people: You can not tell how the oil is doing based upon the color of the oil. Black or clear, it doesn't indicate a darn thing about how well it's protecting.

Second - I love checking my oil on my 06 Honda...clear as day. My 08 Subaru....clear as mud. The dipstick is under vacuum, so you need to remove the dipstick to break the vacuum, push it back in, wait for the oil level to rise, and then clean it a few times to get a halfway decent reading and hope it's not just oil you pulled up the tube.

I love the readout in my father's '99 Boxster. Before you start the car, a graph shows you how full of oil the car is....lets you know if you are low.

I share everyone's concern about an electronic oil sensor failing. I would still sign up for it as long as there were 2 seperate oil sensors running on two seperate systems and informing me if one fails of if the reading between the two is off by more than a certain amount.

If it can do that, then I think you've eliminated the need for a dipstick. Now, when a car can read my oil to determine level of contamination, TBN, viscosity, fuel content, water content, and sodium level....well, then we'll be talking :)

Joe

I gues it makes this ad obsolete:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5ms9PJDNY

I remember reading somewhere that this engine still has a dipstick tube, just not the dipstick itself (possibly because the block is used in other VW applications that don't have the electronic oil sensor). Can anyone confirm? That would be better than BMW where you're stuck with the electronic oil gauge.

"Let's been clean about something people: You can not tell how the oil is doing based upon the color of the oil. Black or clear, it doesn't indicate a darn thing about how well it's protecting."

Exactly! I'm surprised that some people haven't claimed that they can evaluate their oil by taste...

that is terrible. A4's are pretty good but historically, one of the flaws has been sometimes faulty electronics and displays- this does not bode well for long-term use.

there must be a physical dipstick somewhere... also, what is under the plastic engine cover? can we see?
Is that the oil filter peeking out of the front of the engine? That would be great if it is.

for a car that lengthened the wheelbase and "pushed the front wheels forward", it doesn't look to have any more space in the engine bay than the older models.
Did they move the battery or is there still a second firewall and hidden under the black plastic at the base of the windshield?

thanks, enjoy the more tech aspects of these LT tests!

I am of the ipod generation. Oil is dirty. Tech is good. Tech that keeps me from touching oil. Very good. If i want to see the color, i will just open the filler cap.

When I took delivery of my '09 avant they told me you could buy a dipstick. So it must have the tube.

It's not just the oil level but the gas level as well. You gotta check how much gas ya got with that silly little gauge.

When I was a kid, we had a tractor where you checked the oil with the dip stick and the gas by dunking a spanner wrench in the gas tank. This could get spectacular when someone forgot to put out their corn cob pipe.

...then somewhere along the way they changed over to that rotten gas meter-gauge-thing on the dash.

(driving an '09 Avant that's a ringer for the Edmunds ride).

What do you mean you gotta use it to check the gas? Mine has a needle gas gauge in the lower right corner. I can't even pull up the gas level in the MMI.

Why not have both? I would always trust the dipstick more than a computer screen, especially since there's always the chance of a malfunction.

I got caught today by this trick oil check.

A cousin dropped in, from Sydney, about 1100Km away, in his new A4. He was worried by the oil warning.

I looked in the owners manual, & found a picture of a dip stick, & instructions on how to read it.

I went looking for this dip stick, & spent some time looking for it. I finally rang the nearest dealer, & was told it wes not thjere.

My feeling, if they can't get the hand book right, I don't want to depend on their computer, thanks.

I'll stick to my 29 year old daily driver, it's as simple as me.

Just responding to gas gauge being compared to the oil gauge... Not having gas doesn't make your engine seize up while not having oil does... I'd be down with ADDING the MMI meter but keeping the dipstick... at least us hardcore, oil checking Audi guys can buy one an add unlike with the BMWs! I'm a converted BMW guy by the way...