I am considering purchase of a new 320CDi and just learned that the engine is not equipped with a dip stick! It seems they rely on a sensor to report oil level. Given the notariety of German electrical and electronic components I am not impressed. Do you know if a dipstick assembly is available as an accessory and if so, about how much it would cost installed? Thank you.

 

I know on my V6 C280 there is no dipstick for the transmission, but the tube is there, you can buy a stick from the dealer, don't know how much. Your engine doesn't have a tube for an oil dipstick/

 

C280 wizard wrote in part, "Your engine doesn't have a tube for an oil dipstick/
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Nope. The Ser. Mgr. gave me some malarky about customers adding too much oil as the reason! I did note the transmission dipstick tube and assumed there was a dipstick inside. If I buy a CDi, I will get a stick. Thanks for the heads up.

 

In a way I can agree with the service manager, people seem to either overdo or underdo things like this. When I had a BMW. One of the I was at Turner Motorsports store one day and I was told that a customer had oil dripping from under his 3 series and when the techs checked it they found they owner had over oil the cone filter he had on the car. The person used the entire bottle of oil after cleaning the filter. New MAS, cleaned the TB, it cost this guy a lot of money. He admitted he didn't read the cleaning directions, and figured the more oil the better.

 

All new Mercedes dont come with engine dipsticks and the new transmissions dont even have dipstick tubes!! I believe this was mostly done to bring customers back to the dealerships and not do work themselves. I dont believe dipsticks are available to the public but i might be wrong.