3rd Gen Oil Dipstick

I’ve read a few TacomaWorld threads in full on this topic and now I have “THE ANSWER!” For an accurate reading, run your truck for a bit to get it to operating temperature (when temps increase stuff expands so nice always been told to check oil on a warm engine.) Pull the dip stick, wipe it off, and let it sit for 5 minutes or so to let the oil drain down to the pan and out of the dip stick tube. Grab your stick, get it started in the tube, then before you get too deep, thrust it all the way in until it’s fully inserted, and pull it out immediately. With the end pointed down, quickly set it down on a blue shop rag paper-towel, and rotate it once so you can see the wet oil mark on the rag compared to the oil level markings of the stick right next to each other.

If anyone is interested, I’m willing to take some pictures or something to assist with this. It can be frustrating. I also made cross hatched etching on the tip of my stick which wasn’t totally necessary after using the method above.

 

thanks for the triple post
Seems like a lot of work when all you have to do is sand the bottom 4-5" of the dipstick with coarse sandpaper. Then you can read oil level even with new oil.

 

Yeah my bad on that. I didn’t want to answer the question on just one of the question threads leaving the others hanging. My answer kind of brings together great recommendations from a few posts I read.

 

Not crosshatching the tip of my stick. That shit has to hurt.