Welcome back to the channel guys. Welcome back to the Vlog, and of course welcome
back to the series on BMW e60 m5 content. Today we're gonna talk about the
electronic dipstick, and I promised you in the last video that I would give you some
coverage on that. I'm gonna talk about the bmw e60 m5 electronic dipstick, how to use it,
the pros the cons, and everything in between. It's a very simple system but
a lot of people love it and a lot of people hate it. I want to talk about both sides of this polarizing topic on the bmw e60 m5.
First of all I want to talk about, yes this car has only an electronic dipstick,
in the e60 m5, and of course it does not come with the provisions to
pull out a manual steel style dipstick. In these cars, it's just not available.
BMW didn't include that and BMW said this is strictly a quick check. Anything
more than that and you should be checking your car into the dealership. So
some of the things that are great about the E60 M5 electronic dipstick? Well first of
all what's great about it ,well number one you know that oil is a
carcinogen. In other words, it causes cancer, so a lot of times people get a
little you know hoity-toity. They don't want to check their own oil. They don't
want to touch their own oil, and therefore this allows you to do a quick check on
the oil level without having to get oil on your hands. As well it's always giving
you the quick update. You realize that it takes a period of time usually in the
way of a thirty minutes or more for it to automatically readjust, recalibrate, and
spit out the latest oil level. But that's okay, it's constantly in a state
of updating your oil level. Now that's the most accurate way. The least accurate
way is the fast measurement. Say you want to check after you've added a
little bit of oil you want to do a quick check and see where the oil level sits.
Now well there is a way to do that. So to do the BMW e60 m5 oil level check manually, first of all
the car has to meet certain criteria. Some of that criteria of course is the
car must be fully warmed. You have to have driven it at least 10 kilometers or
about six and a half miles, and then you press the BC button. Which is the
computer button on the left-hand stock. You press that button and scroll through
until you're able to come across the level, or it'll show the gauge on your
dash. Once you see that gauge, it'll give you the current reading but you hold
that now for two seconds or more. Once you hold it for
two seconds, what it does is it goes into the calculation mode. Sometimes you'll
either see the hash marks or sometimes you'll see the little clock symbol. The
clock symbol means it's recalculating and checking the hash means it's out of
out of range or it's there's some criteria that hasn't been met. So either
of those conditions, not to worry the clock like I said it takes about 30
seconds or so to do a refresh. But that will give you the fast check and again
it's a great way to check it if you've just added some oil. Now that being said,
talking about adding oil. So we're gonna talk about some of the ranges of course.
Here now these levels that you're looking at, when you see the number,
refresh on your gauge that is X amount of liters over the minimum mark so if
you see 0.5 that means the oil level is currently sitting at about half a liter
over the minimum mark. If you see a point 8, that's point 8 liters above the
minimum mark, and so on and so forth. Now we'll talk about the different
ranges. If you see a range for example of 0.6 that is usually a healthy
zone. That's somewhere in the middle where you don't really need to add oil. I
would suggest you don't add oil, and just let it ride it out, that way there's no
confusion and certainly no possibility of making that mistake and adding too
much oil, because if you had too much oil you are likely to damage the motor, and
that's not just my instructions, that's certainly coming right out of the BMW
manual. Now if you're at the 0.0 that's the next range that
really suggests that you have zero extra oil above the minimum mark. You are on
the minimum mark and that means according to the owner's manual, get oil
in that engine as soon as possible, and I would suggest at least within a hundred
kilometers or so, you want to get oil in there. You don't want to run it too far
in this range, and you also have to be careful when you do add that oil that you
don't add more than a liter. So you add as
much as a litre, or somewhere less than a litre, but definitely add oil. Get off
of that minimum mark, but don't go over the maximum mark. That also can be
hazardous. The third level is if you get something
that say say reads 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, that means you have way too much oil in the
engine and that is a hazardous condition for the engine, and what I would
recommend is take the time drain a little bit of oil out of the bottom. Yeah
I know it can be a messy job, don't back the bolt out all the way maybe just let
it drizzle out a little bit. Get some of that oil out of there, recheck, and make
sure that you run that car no more than one liter in that range. That can cause
damage to the motor. Now the fourth range is if you're at 1.0. What that means is
you are right on the maximum mark and that's a good place to be. That's
ultimately where you want to reside after an oil change or after top-up.
That's the best place to be. That's maximum oil. You can be slightly less, if
anything, you are better off being slightly less than that, but that is the
highest you want to be is 1.0. So the fifth scale that the owner's manual
suggests, is it shows the little clock. But there's no number associated with
that, and as I mentioned before, all that means is you've attempted a quick
measurement. It's going through its calibration process, and that means
basically sit still and wait for it to do its job. It will likely if you're
sitting and the car's warmed up, and you put the right miles on it, it'll likely
be less than 30 seconds to wait, but it could be longer than that if the car's
not warmed or you have to go for a longer drive yet. So wait is all that's
telling you, is that it's calculating, and it's trying to calibrate, and find out
what your latest measurement is. The sixth one actually shows the hash
mark. That usually means something's not ready. Maybe one of the conditions aren't
met, or there's just something not quite right. So that's one of those things, just
try and try again. Make sure that you meet all those conditions, for example
the car's warm, you've driven over ten kilometers, and that may be you let the
car sit for a few minutes and idle so that everything settles down. That would
be probably my suggestion if you see that number or that little hash mark, and
you're not satisfied with the results. So now we'll talk a little bit more on
the whole idea of having a manual dipstick.
Does this car also have a manual dipstick? And the short answer is
no, it doesn't. Of course it has the electronic dipstick only and I know for
enthusiasts or do-it-yourselfers, most people frown on this whole concept. A lot
of people like the idea of checking their oil, and there's certain things
more than just checking the level of the oil. Some people like to grab the
dipstick and check to make sure the condition of the oil. Is it really dark
or does it have a pungent odor of raw fuel ? That can indicate an issue with
fueling or of course if you see a milky discharge mixed in with the oil that
often tells you or signifies there's an issue in the antifreeze, or maybe a head
gasket, or some other kind of issue where you've got antifreeze mixing with your
oil. That in itself could mean some expensive repairs, but I know a lot of
do-it-yourselfers out there like that idea of being able to pull that dipstick
manually, check, give it a sniff, give it a wipe and dip it back in, and ready to go.
I would say unfortunately BMW does not accommodate this in this car. That'd be
super if they had both features because I agree the electronic dipstick is great
for those quick checks, it never hurts to have the manual bypass as well, or be
able to pull a rod out of there, but you know again BMW caters to that clientele.
And as far as I can tell it's the technology they're using.
Moving along, it's the same thing with the electronic e-brakes and a lot of the
other things that they offer, and you know a lot of people maybe don't like to
move with the technology. I know I'm one that you know definitely likes the
old-school, but at the same time I can certainly grow with the new
technology. This isn't a bad way to go. I mean electronic dipstick is kind of
handy, the only thing I worry about is if the thing decides to fail at some point.
So the other question I know people have asked is can you get an upgrade or a retrofit?
Short answer is no, you cannot get a retrofit kit to put a dipstick as far as
I'm aware. As far as I'm seeing and even just you know, my own sense tells me
that's probably not even possible, because most engines have what you call
a wet sump, and so you have a tank of oil underneath the engine. It's basically
part of the motor, and it holds all four or five liters of oil that your
car typically holds, and so your dipstick can slide all the way down in the bottom
of that tank. Problem is with the e60 m5 is it utilizes a quasi-dry
sump, which is effectively to split half tanks, and you don't have all the oil in
one side or the other. So you don't really get a good clean indication. So
even if you want it to plumb in some sort of an aftermarket rig, I'm not even
so sure that it would give you an accurate measurement. I'm not even sure
that it would be an option, the way the current car is designed. I mean that's
not to say you couldn't redesign around that, but again that this whole
electronic dipstick concept sort of just goes in line with the
overall design of the engine. As well as you know, the technology that
they wanted to incorporate, so again everybody, I really hope you enjoyed the
video. Mark here signing out again, of course. Make sure you subscribe if you
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up, and a share, and I'd love to see you guys on the next one. Don't forget this
isn't the end of the road here, this is just one of the video of the ten. Make
sure you check all the other videos because I'm featuring the top 10 things
you need to know about the e60 m5, and we're only halfway done folks. So I hope
you enjoyed it. Thanks again and we'll talk to you soon.
Bye bye.