Dipstick the worst to read after oil change

Is it in the manual for you guys to nit-pick everything on your trucks?

 

At least we still have a dipstick. Can only imagine the vitriol around this place if Toyota phased in those fancy digital level senders like the Germans...

After you change the oil, drop the truck on level ground and wait 5-10 minutes. You basically have the first dipstick pull to get any resemblance of a level reading or else you are waiting again until the tube drains.

It's more a binary measurement... oil on rag = good to go, no oil = you messed up your L to Qt conversion so add more (but not too much)

 

Can't remember for sure if picture was taken at oil change or later, but I agree it does look like it has some miles on it..

There was a thread a few months ago where a guy over filled with oil after putting in what the owners manual said. So I may have ran out and checked mine after reading that thread... Which is often the case after visiting TW, run out to look for the latest problem to see if I'm affected.....

 

Pull the stick, wipe it, jam it right back in, pull the stick and read the level on the back side. It seems to be easier to read on that side. I think slowly inserting the stick and slowly removing the stick is allowing the runoff inside the tube to mess up your oil level.

 

The 15 year old in me thought this was hilarious! Haha

 

I noticed the backside is easier to read also

 

just the nit-pickers....lol

 

When you go with the backside, it usually comes out darker.

 

You know damn well nobody reads those.

 

Here we go.

 

Yup, when it comes to maintaining the truck I nit-pick because I love it! The truck that is.

 

I can't tell the difference

 

I did that on my 1st and 2nd Gens too, maybe you can try as someone mention on here and lay it on a towel and it will transfer over to see the level.

 

It's not the oil weight, I had a 2013 Taco that took 5w30 and it was the same shit. If the dipstick had some etching on it, it would be a lot easier to read.Im just going to rough it up with some emery cloth.

 

I gotta say I was resistant to idea #1 but after several people expressed that they would do this I may also try it.
I do think the key is that I'm not waiting long enough after adding oil to check it.
The truck has sat overnight on a levelish surface. I've driven about 1000kms since the oil change I did Wednesday. I'm curious if the oil is more visible at this point also.

 

Oh that's a good one. It was genuinely funny!

 

Section 10-4B.

 

it's a good thing to have your anxiety in check before you encounter this one. It has nothing to do with 0w20 being hard to see on the dipstick, I can see it just fine smeared all over the lower 4 inches of the dipstick with the low mark at 1" and the high mark at 2". I left the dipstick out overnight and checked the next morning not a bit different.

I have read through a lot of posts about this issue and have yet to find one that properly rectifies the design flaw. This condition has been present for many model years. I believe it was not properly addressed to enhance your dependency on official Toyota service.

 

Hey, a fellow Maritimer!

Points well made.
I have do admit that I've been too busy to try any of the suggestions mentioned yet.