Now, first of all I'm not a complete idiot ( some would argue with that ) but I have a few quick questions on checking the oil level on the Vec-C.
As many of you will know, I have a 54 reg 3.0 V6 CDTi SRi.
Over the last couple of years of ownership I have found it hardly uses any oil whatsoever. Even when I had the CRD2 box on it under hard acceleration with the Sally map running the puffs of smoke to the rear resulted in no apparent oil consumption.
Anyway, cut to the chase - In between oil changes I don't check my oil every week, but try and do it on a reasonably regular basis say once a month or so.
Now, I checked it yesterday in the morning, coming off nightshift at work. Pulled the dipstick out, wiped it, put it back in, waited a bit and then pulled it back out. Result was a tiny spot of oil at the very bottom of the dipstick ( the pointy bit ). Nowhere near the "Min" mark.
So I topped it up with what I had left in a bottle of GM 5W/30 Synth in the boot ( about 400ml worth ).
So got home in the car and parked up. Left it to cool down for 3 hours and checked the oil again. This time it was sat about 3/4 the way between the "Min" and the "Max" marks. Fine.
Checked it again this morning after the car has been sat overnight and it's back to showing just a slight blob of oil on the pointy end of the dipstick, nowhere near the "Min" mark again.
The car has been on perfectly level ground during the checks.
So what's going on there?. When are you meant to check the oil level?. Is 3 hours not enough time to let it cool down to get a reasonably accurate idea of the level?. And why after leaving it overnight does it look like I'm running the thing with no oil in it!!!???.
Car has done just under 50k miles and has been serviced at the required intervals ( I dunno what service interval thingy I'm on, Ecoflex or what, not sure how to check? ) all I know is that there's a service light thing that pops up on the dash when it needs done.
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