Electronic dipstick giving spurious readings ?

[HC1963M3]

Hi all, new CSL owner here.

Had my new toy delivered just over two weeks ago and took it on an extended roadtest the day after.
My test route took in the south of France and a bit of Italy and covered some 3000 miles over ten days :-D

Totally in :smt055 with the car now and seriously wondering why I've spent the last seven years driving Stuttgarts finest . . . . .

One small issue with the car was the oil level.

After a few hard miles in France I used the electronic dipstick function to check the oil level.

It showed + .9 litres. I duly purchased a litre of Castrols finest and put it in.

The display then showed the level as +.1 litres.

On the final day of my "extended test drive I checked the level electronically again. This time it showed +1.1 litres.

I take it this means the engine requires 1.1 litres and not that I've overfilled it by 1.1 litres ? ! ! :whistle:

I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and thus put another litre in. After this the display STILL showed +1.1 litres.

Am I being a total f*ckwit or is the electronic dipstick not functioning correctly ? (I believe there are known issues with the system ?)

Thanks in advance.

[cslbecks]

The engine is burning or losing a hell of a lot of oil over a short space of time if it is!!!!

[Jaw_F430]

Couldn't you have just used the normal way to check the oil and use the dipstick?

[cslbecks]

The dipstick on the CSL is underneath the carbon airbox - and so you need to remove the airbox to manually check the oil - not something i would personally want to do!!!

[Jaw_F430]

Guess I will find that out when I find one and buy it lol :thumbs:

[Andyk]

Should read 1.1.......also if you don't do many miles it may read -.- everytime you start it up. It's nothing to worry about because it takes arounds 25 mins to get a reading. If you don't get a reading after a long run then you will need to top it up.

[Mark CSL]

XPorker

You will have over filled it if you put 1lt in when it read .9

The min is 0.1 and the max i 1.1 it wont show you if you over fill it


Get the car to normal running temp then on level ground
turn the car off / then turn the ingnition to ingniton 2
get the display to show oil level then hold the sport button in

it will show --- then give you a reading if all this does not help
you have to remove the front of the carbon air box
then the dipstick is below it it is red and near the back.

I MUST MAKE A VIDEO :whistle:

[cslbecks]

Mark (or whoever else knows) - for the newbies and complete techno-phobes like me - could you give us an exact step by step to correctly check the engine oil? Would really help as i still cant really work out how to check it properly and know for sure that i have an exact proper reading. Thanks!!

[Mark CSL]

It is in the csl manuel that came with the car

[HC1963M3]

Blimey, fantastic responses on here ! !
Thankyou for that indepth description Mark. It's much appreciated.
I'd been carrying out the check incorrectly. . . . :smt101
I'd caned the car mercilessly so thought it quite possible that it may have burned a litre in 3000 miles.
I'll run a proper check when I use it again (it's not my daily driver)

Sorry to be a nuisance, I have a further question :whistle:
The car is currently running on Michelin Pilot Sport 2s (with incorrectly sized 275 section tyres on the rear)

3000 miles of hard driving in France have all but finished them off.
I visited the lads at Simpson Motorsport last week and asked what tyres they recomended fitting. they were vocal in their criticism of the MPS2s saying they'd had handling issues with a couple of cars they'd been fitted to.

I don't use the car on track (I know, I know) and I'm unsure about fitting the original equipment Michelin Cup tyres. I had them on a 997 GT3 and drove it in sub zero conditions with the roads damp and covered in grit/salt.

Personally I thought they were "ok" and a rise in temperature saw them improve drastically. BUT, I never drove that car on wet roads or in heavy rain.

The press and Mr Clarkson made a big deal about the Cups shortcoming in the wet (and the car does seem lacking in rear end grip compared with either my previous 996 or 997 GT3s) I'm thus worried about putting the Cups on as the weather gets colder and wetter . . .

What are peoples thoughts ?

[cslbecks]

What is the problem with running 275's on the back???

[Mark CSL]

XPorker
I run the PS2 and think they are great and have cups for the track.
265X30X19 AND 235X35X19 Extra Load Thats the correct size.

I know 1 that runs 275x30x19 and 245x35x19 on his CSL ok

Gaz has conts on his CSL and they are not as good as my PS2s
He is geting PS2s when the conts are done.

[HC1963M3]

Apart from the fact that technically the 275 section tyre is not the tyre that was specified originally for the car, there's nothing "wrong" with using the wider section.

As the originally specified tyre for ther rear is a 265 section it just seems sensible to retain the recommended sizes both front and rear (especially for road use)

As regards the PS2's, I've run them on my E46 330D Sport for the last 18 months and liked them.
Antony at Simpson M/sport was most vociferous that they'd caused major handling problems on a car they'd had in.

The car in question had been fitted with a new set of PS2's and the owner had complained the car handled poorly, after several checks of the geometry they ended up bolting another set of wheels on (fitted with Cup tyres) Bingo, problem solved.

They put the problem down to the PS2's having soft sidewalls (which they are softer than the original Pilot Sports hence the PS2 rides better and is quieter)

[Bravo73]

Re: Electronic dipstick giving spurious readings ?

It showed + .9 litres.
<snip>
I duly purchased a litre of Castrols finest and put it in.
<snip>
I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and thus put another litre in. After this the display STILL showed +1.1 litres.

:smt103

It sounds like you overfilled your engine by about 2 litres.

0.9l is a normal level. Unless your engine is seriously ill, you would have to drive at least 1000 miles around a track in order to burn off that much oil.

If I was you, I would take your car into a dealer and to get them to check the level manually. This will involve removing the airbox.

[Mark CSL]

I shall do a video later how to remove the airbox

Here is a good link on how to remove the airbox

http://www.m3csl.de/diy.php

on pix 4 there is a yellow arrow that is where the oil dipstick is :thumbs: