oil level on dipstick
 

had 1st oil change on camaro - Mobil 1 synthetic, they said they gave me six quarts. i have a V6 Camaro. They are a good shop, they always treat me great. been going there for a long time. have driven about 1200 miles since oil change. i do a lot of stop and start driving around town. checked oil today and this is the picture. ( i hate these modern dipsticks) does this mean i m down a quart or more, or what? My oil life is only at 80 percent. any help? never had a big engine and horepower like this.

Looks spot on. Should be about mid way in the flat gridded area.

I find it is best to read it by taking it out, wiping it off and setting aside for 5-10 minutes, then insert, pull and read. Comes out much cleaner and "crisper" that way.

Oil life is more of an indicator of viscosity and clarity as opposed to the actual oil level. If it's gone down 20% after 1200 miles, that's about right on (these engines seem to need oil changes every 3,000-5,000 miles if you're doing short distance driving). The 2nd dipstick photo looks like the level is still full. A good running engine shouldn't lose no more than 1/2 a quart to 1 quart of oil (My 2007 Cobalt has only lost up to about 1/2-quart in between oil changes).

As long as you are in the hash marks you are good.

You don't say what year and options you have. A LGX with oil cooler is 6 quarts, if you don't have an external oil cooler it's 5.5 quarts and was overfilled. Full mine goes right to the top of the hash marks, difficult to read with fresh oil.

well, you got two pictures there, but either level is fine.
Personally, I prefer to fill to the top of the hashed area. Then when I check intermittently, I can tell if it dropped.
You could just snap a photo on your phone and have that for comparison later. My "system" predates cell phones.

And the oil life monitor is bit more sophisticated than described above.
I have trusted the oil life algorithm on about 10 cars without issue.

Did you get a half reading and a full reading in back-to-back checks? Anywhere in the grid is fine but I like upper half.

thanks for all the replies
 

appreciate all the replies..yeah, I'm good...talked with other camaro enthusiasts and my oil is running about right...just me being overprotective I guess....

When I check my oil level in the V6, I get the same thing: one side of the dipstick is at half, while the other is completely full. I guess it's okay to take the average of the 2 levels to get the "real" oil level.

i check it when its cold,before the first start up in the morning.

my v6 always reads full 2020 camaro rs

I'm about 5000 miles since my last oil change, and from what I can see it hasn't burned any measurable oil.

There are numerous dipstick threads for the LT1 V8 because of the same dipstick reading inconsistencies (either sample to sample or one side of the dipstick vs the other).

The method I now use (and which seems to provide the most consistent level results) takes the best suggestions I've read on this forum and adds one more step:

1) Wait for engine to cool (overnight is best)
2) Remove dipstick and fully wipe dry, DO NOT reinsert yet.
3) Leave dipstick out for 15-30 minutes
4) Reinsert dipstick all the way
5) Rotate the dipstick handle 180 degrees (the new step I've added)
6) Withdraw dipstick and examine oil level

You need to do these extra steps because each time you withdraw the dipstick, it apparently pulls some oil with it up the dipstick tube. The 15-30 pause is to allow the oil to go back down the tube so as not to throw off the measurement. I added the rotation step because I was sometimes still getting inconsistent measurement on one side of the dipstick vs the other.

The dipsticks suck but the oil these days is incredible. I bet you could get 20k miles out of it.