Checking Your Oil Level

Car Maintenance Checklist Series

How often: Make sure that you check your oil each, and every month.

Time required: Less than 10 minutes.

Your oil is one of the most important parts of your car.  Without oil, your engine is bound to fail, and you don’t want that $4,000 bill at the shop, do you?  As part of our car maintenance checklist, I wanted to give you a quick synopsis on how you can check your oil.  It generally will take you a little less than 5 minutes, and you’ll be glad you did.

How to check your oil levels –

Park your car in a safe area: If you live at a house, pull your car into the driveway, rather than doing it in the garage.  If you live where you park in a public place, make sure that you’re not near any traffic.

Pull the hood: Release the hood, and you’ll want to look for the oil dipstick.  This is a long piece of metal sticking out of the engine.  It will have the label “oil” on it.

Draw the dipstick: Make sure that you have a clean paper towel, or cloth handy.  You’ll want to pull the dipstick out, clean it, and stick it back in.

Pull out again: Now that the dipstick was clean, now you’ll get an accurate reading.  When you pull out the dipstick, you’ll want to check the levels.  If you look on the stick, you’ll notice level marks.  You’ll always want to make sure that your oil is as close to the “full” line.

Add more oil: If your levels are off, you may want to add a little more oil.  Make sure that you get the oil that your engine recommends.  If you’re unsure of this, either get your oil added professionally, or get an oil change altogether.

Put the cap back on: If you do decide to add more oil, make sure you replace the cap, as well as put the dipstick back in.

There you have it, it’s as simple as that when you’re ready to check your oil.  Just make sure that you do this at least once a month.

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