dipstick alternatives

[gtr-gaz]

I find it quite hard to get an accurate oil level reading.
The one that came with my AS engine is pretty crap to say the least! I only check it when cold, but it does not seem to be consistent.

Can anyone recommend a decent (foolproof) alternative?

Thanks.

[YIIHAA]

Glass sump?

(sorry I've had a couple of drinks)

[luckyp]

Gary - is your trouble accuracy or consistancy? Do you experience inaccurate readings from a known volume - i.e. after oil change or different readings each time you dip? I ask this as my AS dipstick seems to take a different route into the sump each time it is plunged. I don't have any oil in yet but this, married to the fact that the dipstick tube will foul the pipes as it is currently set, may give me the same prob you are having. Nice to look forward to!

Peeps?

[gtr-gaz]

luckyp said:

....Do you experience inaccurate readings from a known volume - i.e. after oil change or different readings each time you dip? Peeps?

Yep, that sums it up perfectly!

My dipstick tube also fouled the header pipes and had to be bent slightly.

Gary

[luckyp]

I could be talking billy b#ll%x, but after bending the tube, the dipstick's path into the sump will have altered slightly, giving you an inaccurate reading (i.e. when you know it's full it could read 3/4 if the stick prescriped a longer route).Inaccuracy can be lived with, as you can recalibrate the stick or keep a mental note of wher full really is. But it would only be if the bending process had created an oportunity for the stick to take several different paths that inconsistancy would be a factor..........

I'm gonna try to swivel my tube rather than bend.

Lucky

[luckyp]

Does the dipstick feel like it hit's something in the way down and if it does is it different each time?

[pb3]

Gary, if your sump is the same as mine, a Canton winged sump with baffles and trap doors I know exactly what you are experiencing. In the sump is a smallish hole 13mm dia say that the tip of the dipstick needs to pass through to reach the real oil level. If it does not go through the hole it just ends up sitting on the top baffle plate thus just reading any oil it scrapes along and in which is not usually that much.

Typically you can hear it when it does not go in properly, I ran for 3 months without checking the real level! I now have to twist the dipstick as I put it in before it ends up sitting straight, the twist helps guide it through the hole and I hear no metal on metal sound as it gets close to being pushed fully in. When it goes in wrong you can hear a scrapping sound. See what you notice when you try yours,

[tuxman]

have to admit mine is a pain too ,i have to run with a cutoff d/stick as i got mine in wrong once and the crank picked it up and broke it off simon