Today we’re going to check the oil on this Ford Mustang and show you the process. In our experience it is best to start with a warm engine. Let the car idle for about five minutes and shut it off let it cool a little bit. This way the oil has worked through the engine and you’re getting an accurate reading.
Let’s go ahead and find and pull this dipstick. The oil dipstick usually has a depiction of an oil can on the end handle or will actually say “OIL” on it. Many modern cars also have a dipstick for the automatic transmission fluid and will many times be longer than the oil dip stick. Automatic transmission fluid will be a red color and engine oil will be black to a honey brown color. For this procedure you want the dipstick for the engine oil which will have a black to golden brown fluid on the tip.
The first time you pull the dipstick out you want to wipe the oil off so you can get an accurate reading. We’re going to go ahead and put it back into the engine and we’re going to fully seat it and pull it out one more time. This second time we can now actually take a look at the graph and see how much of oil we have in this car. All dipsticks will have a graph, holes, or marks for the low and high readings on the dipstick. This particular Ford has a checkered area, while others may just have two lines.
If you see oil filling the “safe” zone between the lines the engine is safe to run. If you’re a little bit below on the side where it says add you’re going to consult your manual and for how much to add. We suggest adding only a small amount at a time and checking the oil each time until the engine is full again. If you overfill the engine you can also cause damage so you may need to drain the oil some if you overfill.
As you can see checking your oil is very easy the dipstick location may vary from model to model so always check your owner’s manual if you’re unsure. You can visit Eastwood.com for all of your auto tools and auto maintenance supplies.