When is it best to check oil
How To Check Dipstick & Engine Oil - EASY
back it's an automotive Monday at
Sinclair Community College my name is
Justin Morgan the chairperson of
automotive you guys haven't got a chance
go back and look at some of our previous
videos on used car inspection how to
install safety feet that mr. Singleton's
been a big part of and done a great job
today we're going to talk about how to
check your own engine oil so it's
something that maybe some of you have
done in the past or something that you
guys are scared to do out there and the
one thing I want to try to do is go
through and give you the information
that you need to check your own engine
oil the reason this is so important is
today on vehicles we have boiled life
intervals and what we do is we use a
monitor on the vehicles computer to tell
us when to change oil the problem with
that is on new cars is sometimes that
oil life interval will go to six seven
thousand miles and for those of you that
are uninformed our typical oil interval
and the past has been three thousand
miles so what do we need to do is when
we do those guests that looks at the
local gas station is that's a good time
to go ahead and pop your hood and check
your own engine oil so today we're going
to go through that procedure the one
thing I always recommend as we do in all
of our videos is consult your owners
manual if you're unsure and you don't
want to do this and always go ahead and
go to your local service repair facility
but it's a good idea at least once a
month to go ahead and check your engine
oil or at every gas fill up whatever you
would like to feel comfortable with so
let's go ahead and get started here so
the first thing that we want to do is
locate the engine oil dipstick usually
that's noted by a yellow color or like
an orange color on that dipstick to let
you know another dipstick that you might
find underneath the hood is the
automatic transmission fluid dipstick on
some vehicles especially older vehicles
so if you're unsure you consult your
owners manual to make sure that you have
the right one so one thing you want to
make sure is is anytime you're checking
the engine oils the engine should always
be in the off it's a good idea in some
cars a thing to just sit for just a few
minutes to let the oil settle to the
bottom of the oil pan so after you shut
the vehicle off go ahead and get ready
pull that dipstick out before you
proceed you probably want to go ahead
and get you a paper towel some sort and
of course at the gas station they'd have
a towel for you basically to go ahead
and check that oil for you so go ahead
and grab one of those to get ready to do
this so we're going to pull the dipstick
out just use one index finger I'm going
to go ahead and use my rag here and as I
pull it out slowly I'm going to wipe the
excess of oil off the dipstick as we
pull it straight up and out okay so I
don't need to look at it right now I'm
just going to clean off the dipstick
place it back down into what we call the
dipstick tube
push it down I like to go ahead and push
it down all the way count to about one
one thousand two one thousand three one
thousand that allows the oil to get
saturated on the dipstick we're going to
pull it back out and our fill level is
going to be viewed down here on our
level here there's going to be hash
marks and invitations there's a max
level and usually a ad level usually in
that region is a safe region on our
vehicles that have those oil life
intervals that are going 6000 or more on
our oil change we are starting to
consume oil
so although the oil may be fine the
issue is is we are getting low on oil
and what's happening is on a lot of
newer vehicles is we're having engine
failures due to the fact that customers
are not checking the oil and so although
the oil change says it does not need it
our oil level is actually low okay so
there are some things being done in by
the manufacturers to go ahead and kind
of remedy that that issue right now you
as a consumer a customer one of your
jobs is to make sure that you're
checking the oil regularly so any of you
that have had some expense of the engine
repair bills due to oil consumption this
might have been something that you want
to do on your next purchase is to go
ahead and continually change the oil
every 3,000 miles
so as we take a look here we're
basically up about right up here at the
fill level so we're good to go
if we wanted to double check I always
like to check it twice just to make sure
so I'm going to go ahead and pull it off
again clean it off I got a little drip
right here on my map I'm going to put it
back down in there and if you can see
right now here's my full hash mark
here's my add hash mark anything below
that or no will on the dipstick would be
cause for concern for me so you would
always want to make sure it's at least
viewable on the dipstick and just
specifically it should be falling in the
hash marks at any oil change okay one
one thousand two one thousand three one
thousand grab it and as you can see it
looks like it's actually filled up in
this case although on one side it showed
that it's a little bit filled it's right
here to the top marsh and it looks like
it's good so a lot of vehicles today
have oil life monitors most of those
monitors do not actually go off the
mileage some vehicles do or some
manufacturers do but a lot of them
actually go off of engine rpm engine run
time the amount of miles and a logarithm
basically that is done through
engineering so there's no set miles so
as you can see on this vehicle it's
actually at 98
percent life left so there will be a
prompt that comes up in your intrument
cluster that says that change oil soon
or you know you're at 20% oil life on
this vehicle you can see that it's at
98%
so downside of this though this vehicle
could have been 6000 miles since the
last oil change and that's when we need
to make sure you're continually checking
your engine oil because if the engine
starts to run low on oil that causes
catastrophic engine repair and now
that's costing the customer or the
consumer a bunch of money you're looking
at maybe possibly an engine replacement
at two or three thousand dollars so as
you can see from the odometer this oil
change is close to the oil life the oil
change interval judging by the sticker
we're about thousand miles left or so so
that tells me that even though we have
ninety-eight percent real life or about
a thousand miles away from our oil
change so I really like to rely on my
old change stickers from the repair
facility rather than the oil life
monitor I feel like that is a better a
better idea of to keep you constantly
checking and changing that oil regularly
just a quick tip here today on
automotive Monday's give you guys an
idea of how to check in on oil something
that's easy easily done and can keep you
out of a costly repair bill in the
future so thanks again and thanks for
watching
