Car instrumentation questions

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Iceweasel wrote: »

As for the electronic oil-level sensor, they are not very exact and need the level to be at or very near the minimum level before they indicate that topping up is necessary.

Many cars still have a dip-stick as well as the level sensor - but they may not mention it in the manual.

Not always the case. My 1999 Merc C230 had electronic measurement which was presented to the 0.5 litre, including complaining of an overfill after service.

Most people struggle to get a sensible reading from a dipstick, especially if they don't understand wiping it clean or that sometimes it drags oil up the dipstick tube and may appear to have more oil than it does have.

The other problem with 21st century driving compared with last century is that with modern sound systems I suspect people rarely drive so that they hear the car. I certainly notice odd things, like an unexpectedly harsh gear change (there are things you can do to upset even the clever boxes, so I would immediately be thinking about whether I'd done something to provoke it) then there is the noise that you were convinced wasn't there before. Of course, if you've never heard your car without the radio, you can never be sure whether the noise is new or how it was.

I also have sympathy with anyone who gets told it is their fault for not reading the manuals. I am an avid manual reader, but often I can't sort out what features are on my car - often you are just supposed to know but when it is all bundled together it's hard to know what you have bought - so there are two or three possibilities.

Simple example, I searched for ages to work out how to change the headlight position for going abroad and couldn't find the menu option described. Having found it by an index look up, I had to back track through the section to eventually find the footnote that the halogen setup didn't have a mechanism, they were designed to be compliant regardless of which side of the road you drove - never had come across that before.

It's too hard!