Well when first caught word of the "electronic oil monitoring" thing few years ago thought a good idea (didn't realize "no dipstick")...

In speaking to people that have it, most are tired of taking to dealer for such a rudimentary check or change (particularly if no dealer conveniently located within say ten plus miles roundtrip)...

Also noticed a number of people online mentioning engine failure, somehow attributed to "not" having "luxury" of visually checking motor oil level/ condition.

I'm going to leave my ego at the door to say having this space technology sounds like a marketing ploy (to get you in dealer, like it or not)... The alternative being to put car on ramps; drain oil; measure; refill; cross fingers & monitor oil level from "control center"..

But what if "all" oil didn't drain fully, or, the monitors that monitor the monitors fail, or, as pointed out earlier, you became distracted (phone rings> your large mean looking dog makes a loose run for the hills> have to sign for package> hot neighbor wants to chat> company stops over... all at once). This happened to me on an oil change (although "hot" probably an overstatement). Guess it wouldn't matter having servants to not get hands dirty but that's no fun and help only goes so far? Is life bad planning or circumstance?

We're on earth, can get out of car to check things.

Respectfully, to all those people who can't, I loves my dipstick!!!

 

Here is the readout on my BMW 118d. Did this today while coming home from work.

Here I am selecting the oil level menu...




...and here is the readout. Notice it tells you how much oil is still in the tank and it will also tell you when to refill.

 

Like that... One's I've seen have an LCD display in center console (and no dipstick). Can you still check oil under hood?

 

I wouldn't trust the old dipstick method since the piping beneath the tank is twisted so any sort of accurate measurement through a makeshift dipstick can automatically be eliminated.

Generally the BMW dealership will check the oil level and refill it for me if its low. I've only had to refill the oil tank once myself when the system gave me a "Low Oil Warning" message. I pulled into the next gas station and bought the recommended Castrol for BMW Diesel oil.

 

Not having a dipstick is idiotic. It is one of the simplest, most obvious feature an engine and transmission should have.

 

It's easy for us on this board to say "give me a dipstick!" but I think that's because most who take time to read and post on a place like this are knowledgeable on oil changes and how to read a dipstick correctly. And we're also a bit **** on stuff like that. (Who here is also a frequenter of BitOG? LOL). The majority of people don't check it or don't how to do it correctly increasing the likelihood of neglect or overfilling, etc. More people are likely to respond to a light on the dashboard. And with oil change intervals getting longer, more likely people will neglect the oil as they will likely never check the dipstick.

 

Exactly. I agree with your statement.

 

After reading this I think of all the people I know who never check their oil cause they have oil change lights, what makes me laugh is the cars they drive don't have oil indicators, it's just the SES/engine oil pressure light, but because of what they read and think they have it.

 

Sadly even then some people ignore it through negligence or pure ignorance/idiocy.

 

Electronic sensors are fine, in fact they are valuable for people who are ignorant about cars. But sensors fail, it's almost impossible for something to wrong with a dipstick. Just include it FFS.