Half to one litre of oil in 6500 mile.
Your having a laugh.
Do you know where the dip stick is?
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I've had two VW Jettas (both high mileage) and currently a 1.6 SE Bora (60,500k) over the past 15 years - none of them has required any topping up of the oil between oil and filter changes and the light grey flagstone area in front of the house remains spotlessly clean.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Mine's got runflats AND a full size spare :-)
The run flats are very useful when people try to sabotage your tyres in the middle of the City's party centre at 3am in the rain, fortunately they weren't successful in puncturing it so I haven't had to fork out for a new tyre yet.
Blue
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"Half to one litre of oil in 6500 mile.
Your having a laugh.
Do you know where the dip stick is?"
Yes, I do thanks. I have not done the 6500 miles, I'm only running the car for the last couple of weeks of contract.
Wasn't expecting to get shouted at on here for this - was only passing comment on my day. Won't bother in future.
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DieselBoy, I think there is a lesson we can ALL learn here - check everything YOURSELF every time you get into a 'new' car - be it a company car, a hire vehicle (I've had one of those with close-to-no oil!) or a passed-on lease vehicle.
It still amazes me how some folk can drive into the forecourt, fill uip with petrol and leave ... for MONTHS at a time, unawares that something is 'missing' under the bonnet.
I suppose that's what makes us motorists, and them 'car-utilisers'...
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"Wasn't expecting to get shouted at on here for this"
As soon as I read your post I thought "they're going to crucify you for this"
Personally, if someone handed me a nearly new company car, I might adjust the seat position and the rear view mirror, but I certainly wouldn't check the oil. Neither would most people.
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Wasn't expecting to get shouted at on here for this -
DB, I think people are *trying* to offer you some advice as to check the fluid levels of the car regularly rather than shouting at you.
DD.
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"overtaken by a new 3 series. Clouds of smoke - his osr tyre came off the rim" Proof that relying on run flats work then ;-) Not on my car.
AT 80ish plus remember... how long had it been running like that? Was the guy aware he had a flat? Highly comic if you ask me if a bit dangerous...
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> how long had it been running like that? Was the guy aware he had a flat?
This has been bothering me as an idea, and now here's a concrete example. Run-flat tyres seem great if they allow you to pick up a nail but carry on at moderate speed until you can get the tyre repaired or replaced. But if the first warning you get of a problem is the tyre parting company from the rim, where's the safety benefit?
I have a feeling Ford offers run-flats on the S-Max only in combination with a tyre pressure monitoring system but I don't know if this is true of other makers. Who out there knows more than I do and can enlighten us?
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Same thing happened to a smartly dressed lady in Biddulph 4 weeks ago: Audi A3 2.0TDI engine: oil warning light on: 8k miles on clock. Oil never checked. I carry some Kentucky fried Chicken handwipes plus tissues plus pair of light rubber gloves for such emergencies.. So cam ein handy topping up oil.. 2 litres needed.
Seems an occasional VAG issue?
madf
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Fair enough guys - apologies for my outburst....
I suppose it is a lesson learnt for me and a reminder not to rely on someone else....
Still feel for the Beemer driver though.
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Yes, the stiffer side-walls of the run-flat mean you are probably less likely to notice you've got a puncture ... so you carry on at 80 ... until the tyre shreds.
Another reason why I will never buy a car with runflats.
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the stiffer side-walls of the run-flat mean you are probablyless likely to notice you've got a puncture
Nothing wrong with runflats (unless they are as harsh and ungrippy as I suspect), because they enable you to limp along to a safe wheel-changing place without completely destroying the tyre. But of course if you are sane you will insist on having a full-size runflat spare. Otherwise you may have to sit around waiting until the tyre place opens in the morning instead of continuing your journey.
What I find hard to believe is that a punctured runflat is going to sound and feel exactly like an unpunctured one at highish motorway speeds. Perhaps someone who has them can tell us for sure?
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Whenever I have had a puncture, they have been at the most inconvenient times - the last one was before an urgent trip to Bristol, to arrive before 5.00 pm. A runflat would have ben useless.
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In her second texting-whilst-driving accident, a friend of my missus heavily rear-ended another car with her own, jamming the bonnet tightly closed and creasing the front wings. As this was the latest of many accidents for her, neither she or husband wanted to go to the insurer to claim or fork out for repairs to her car from their own pocket.
As the driver's airbag didn't deploy and didn't therefore need replacing, the result was a car driven for an extended period of time without any hope of an oil check - even if there was a thought to actually perform one - let alone the service it was due, or any worry that something safety related might have been damaged.
I know plenty of people who have never checked oil levels in their life, and have no intention of ever doing so either, but the stupidity described above - from cause to aftermath - beggars belief.
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"What I find hard to believe is that a punctured runflat is going to sound and feel exactly like an unpunctured one at highish motorway speeds."
Perhaps he didn't notice because he was playing really loud drum'n'bass.
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And bouncing up and down and side to side so he couldn't feel that subtle weaving...
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Yes, the stiffer side-walls of the run-flat mean you are probably less likely to notice you've got a puncture ... so you carry on at 80 ... until the tyre shreds. Another reason why I will never buy a car with runflats.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a warning light or low pressure indicator on the dashboard if runflats are fitted? If the beemer driver was on run flats and fails to see the warning light / indicator flashing away and carries on driving on his merry way past the recommended maximum distance and speed for runflats, then quite frankly he's a prat.
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Yes, the stiffer side-walls of the run-flat mean you are probably less likely to notice you've got a puncture ... so you carry on at 80 ... until the tyre shreds.
...which is why BMW fit all cars with run flat tyres with a tyre pressure warning system ;-) IME they sound when the pressure drops by around 15%. Odds on there are more cars with standard tyres running around with tyres >15% under inflated. I still don't like RFTs though...
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"overtaken by a new 3 series. Clouds of smoke - his osr tyre came off the rim" Proof that relying on run flats work then ;-) Not on my car.
Quite right, BMW have lost a customer in myself due to the stupid insistance on using these run flat things......
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Can you not order a full size spare as an option? Certainly my E46 has one although it's pre-runflat vintage.
Blue
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Back to checking the oil level, I am ever so grateful that Citroen equipped our C5 with an oil level indicator read out. It is accurate too, as I do occasionally check the dipstick to make sure the read out is OK.
It seems odd that there are not more cars with this facility. I used to have a Renault 9 in the 80s and that one too. It is hardly high tech these days.
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an oil level indicator ..
>>.. I used to have a Renault 9 in the 80s and that one too.
Agree with that - perhaps it's a Renault thing, our Clio had one too, 10 yrs ago.
My MB doesn't even have a dipstick, although (as standard) the computer only tells you add oil if it needs quite a lot (1L?). There is a trick to get it to display the actual level though.
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"an oil level indicator .."
The Cits we have had since 1986 (2 BXs, 2 Xantias and 2 Berlingos) have all had this feature - though I have to admit that, despite never having had a wrong indication, I'm still an habitual dipstick user!
(SWMBO would omit the last word from that sentence)
--
Phil
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Back to checking the oil level, I am ever so grateful that Citroen equipped our C5 with an oil level indicator read out. It is accurate too, as I do occasionally check the dipstick to make sure the read out is OK. It seems odd that there are not more cars with this facility. I used to have a Renault 9 in the 80s and that one too. It is hardly high tech these days.
My 306 had a dial too.
As far as I can tell the Toledo does check it's oil level, but only puts the oil warning on if it is low. Once the engine is started it goes back to being an 'ordinary' oil pressure rather than level warninglight. As it is a VAG car I'm suprised the Golf didn't have something similar.
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Golf has an amber warning light that lights up on low oil, all my recent BMWs have had it as well...
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Golf has an amber warning light that lights up on low oil, all my recent BMWs have had it as well...
Hmmm. I changed the oil on the Toledo today, and for curiosity turned on the ignition (Not the engine!) while it was empty of oil. Not a peep!
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>> Back to checking the oil level,>>
Reminds me of the time I had my Fiat serviced at the nearest Fiat agents. Thought I`d check the oil next day,result -hardly any oil showing on the dipstick! Needless to say,that was the last time I took it to them,it`s now cared for by myself and a specialist for the complex jobs like timing belt renewal.
I`m convinced that if Fiat got themselves some decent agents their problems would be over in the U.K. now they`ve got a few good car models(Panda,Grande Tipo and now the 500).
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There nothing new in the automotive world; my 1959 Rover has both an oil level sensor (read via the fuel gauge upon pressing a button) and an engine start button, whats more it does this without so much as a single bit of electronicketry.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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Can you not order a full size spare as an option? Certainly my E46 has one although it's pre-runflat vintage.
You could but on an E90/E91 there's nowhere to put it. Which also means if you don't like the rided and want to swap to non-R/F the best you can do is carry a puncture repair thingy.
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Some years ago I went on one of those ?Planned Itinerary? tours in the US - East Coast to West Coast. There were several other parties of Brits in various models of Alamo rental cars. As one who (at the time) wrote aircraft maintenance manuals for a living, I sat and RTFManual before leaving the rental station. Not so the rest who sallied forth into the West post haste.
Next morning, as a motorist and not a ?utiliser?, I was checking the oil levels of the Buick before the day?s drive when one of the others asked ?Why on earth are you doing that?? I pointed out that America is a good deal bigger than UK and you might not have to pay for a wrecked engine, but you might have to kick your heels for some time before a replacement car appeared. Anyway, it only takes a minute which could save you hours as we have seen.
From then on I noticed he checked his oil too. Incidentally the car, which was brand new, didn?t use any oil at all in 3200 miles.
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'99 1.8 Vectra owned from 6 months old used a litre per 1000 fast motorway miles until it reached 30k miles. Now - at 58k - it uses nothing. (No doubt there wasn't a sharp tail-off in this, but it certainly felt like it.)
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The Ran makes a polite "ping" noise and a warning pops up in the display "check oil level" when it gets near the bottom of the dipstick.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Unfortunately you do still need to get your hands slightly dirty sometimes. To allow a car to do 6,500 miles and never check the fluid levels is asking for trouble. A coilleague's wife has a Golf TDI company car and she was also surpirsed to see the oil light come on - once again the bonnet had never been lifted. VAG diesels are renowned for using oil, epsecially in the early days and Audi give you a top up bottle of specfied oil with the car.
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My 98 306 GLX had an oil level gauge, but an earlier XSi model I once drove had a level gauge which became an oil pressure gauge (remember them?) as soon as the engine fired up. The needle would momentarily drop to zero, the level scale would disappear, and then you had a conventional working oil pressure gauge. A great use of instrument panel space, I thought, considering a level gauge performs no useful function with the engine running.
Cheers
DP
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"To allow a car to do 6,500 miles and never check the fluid levels is asking for trouble"
I'm sure it is, but I didn't allow the car to do 6,500 miles. I have no doubt that you would say "I would have checked the oil as soon as I borrowed the co.car for the last couple of weeks of the lease" - but I bet you wouldn't have actually done it.....
:-)
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I'm not directing blame at you, I've read the other posts and realise you are only owner of the car for a few weeks. It was a general statement probably relating more to the first owner that increased reliability of cars seems to instill in some people that total neglect won't cause any problems. At least the warnings are now for low oil level and not low oil pressure :-)
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Audi give you a top up bottle of specfied oil with the car.
Indeed they do, there is a reason for that. They hope that buy the time you find out it costs 14 pounds for a litre - (Yes thats 14 quid a litre, ( i can get good brandy cheaper than that) ) you cant remember where the dealer is to kick him between the legs.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Had an A-Class courtesy car recently and after about 10 miles the oil can light came on accompanied by bleeping and 'Hi' lit up on the dashboard. Assuming it wasn't simply being friendly I checked the oil. It was way over the max line. I rang the garage and they said they were "quite happy the oil level was correct" even though I clearly said I have just checked it and it is way over the max line. Thankfully nothing went wrong with it while I had it. I was under the impression that having too much oil can be pretty disastrous for an engine, not just having too little.
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