Your car needs oil to function. Therefore it’s important to change your engine oil periodically as part of your routine automotive maintenance. While maintaining a schedule is crucial, there are times when you must replace your oil promptly.
You should check the car oil level to ensure your engine is always properly-protected. Here is a tutorial on how to check the oil level in your engine.
Step 1: Start Your Vehicle
You will only have an accurate reading if you check the car oil level while your vehicle is running. You must start your car to get it warmed up. The next thing you should do after warming up your vehicle is to drive it. You should run your vehicle until the temperature gauge is halfway between hot and cold or until it reaches operating temperatures.
Step 2: Open the Hood
You need to open the hood to check the car oil level. The hood latch is usually found in the bottom left corner of the dashboard, next to the driver’s footwell. Depending on the design of your car, you should pull this once or twice to unlock the hood. You can either support the hood or let dampers do their work.
Step 3: Look for the Oil Stick and Remove It
To check the car oil level, you need a dipstick. It’s usually bright yellow. However, the car brand will determine how this color coding is done. Dipsticks in orange, crimson, or other vivid colors also exist. You should know what you’re searching for because some dipsticks aren’t even in vibrant color.
Generally speaking, you want to search for an engine ring that protrudes. Get a tissue, paper towel, or cloth to clean the dipstick before you remove it, and then move on to step 4.
Step 4: Reposition and Remove the Dipstick
To check the car oil level, you need to insert the dipstick all the way back, wait for a second, and then remove it. Before you pull out, be sure the notch is in and the nut is all the way down. Removing the dipstick again will allow you to move on to step 5.
Step 5: Examine the Dots, Lines, or Other Symbols
Notches, dots represent your oil level or lines that show how high or low it is. The oil should ideally be halfway between the higher and lower levels.
You don’t want your car to be full, nor do you want your oil to be any lower than it needs to be. Generally, you should schedule an appointment with your service center after your oil fills your dipstick halfway.
You should carry out this procedure repeatedly. Your oil level will reveal a lot about the condition of your car. Checking your oil correctly and frequently is a recommended practice to keep. Remember that some cars use oil more quickly than others, and driving too fast will always reduce the time between maintenance checks.
If you need an oil change, you can bring your vehicle to Jiffy Lube. We are famous for our signature oil change service. There’s no need for you to schedule an appointment. Just bring your vehicle to any of our many locations.
