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This car is now in the junkyard. My mom bought it for my sister. We told her it was an oil burner (most Saturns of that era were) and she had to check & add oil periodically. She never did and blew the motor. Otherwise it was a fine car, but not for a dingbat who refuses to check oil.
We told her it was an oil burner (most Saturns of that era were) and she had to check & add oil periodically. She never did and blew the motor. Otherwise it was a fine car, but not for a dingbat who refuses to check oil.
I wouldn't call someone who doesn't check the oil a dingbat. She probably grew up in a different era. Every car used to burn oil back in the day, but newer cars generally don't. Millennials in particular don't even know how to open the hood of their car. They don't really have interest in doing that and generally don't need to as long as they take it in for regular maintenance.
It would be a little tricky to engineer a gauge that works as a fuel gauge. I know some high end cars do do this, but some also register oil life simply based on time the engine has run. Many cars do have a low oil level sensor that sends a signal if the oil level drops below a certain level. These tend to function only when the engine runs as a "worst case scenario" since when the engine runs, the oil pump sends a lot of the oil up into the main engine area.
As a standard though, the oil capacity of an engine, is designed to be measured when the engine is off and has been sitting for a while. This allows the engine oil to drain back into the pan. If you measure the engine when warm, some of the oil may still be in the top half of the engine and hasn't drained back into the pan. SO if a car's spec is 5 qt, then you want to measure this cold and determind if 5 qt is in the pan.
Anyway, checking the dipstick on a cold engine is still a very effective way to measure oil level and condition.
To piggy back off Mike's comments, I did use the "check oil level" light on my 87 Mustang quite often, especially as it got into the high 2XX,XXX miles and burned a quart of oil every 700 miles or so. Always carried an extra quart in the back seat! I know the oil pan sensor turned on the light when the oil level in the pan was 1 quart low. I do think all cars should have this feature, but I guess they think that people won't keep cars long enough for them to start using oil or leaking a lot of oil or something.
You could have adequate oil pressure even when you are 2 quarts down. I agree that oil level should be measured at rest with engine off. This reminds me of the same issues motorcycles have with gas gauge. Many don't have one.
I believe some cooling of the oil happens in the oil pan. When the oil is low it gets hotter. Although you may still have full oil pressure when 2 quarts low, the hotter oil is not doing it's job as well.
The reason why your car does not have an oil level gage is because the oil level in the oil pan is changing constantly when the motor is running. A gage could not just check the level on both the pan or reservoir and also in the oil passages throughout the motor When the motor is running there only is enough oil in the pan for the oil pump to work.
The only time that an oil-level gage would be accurate is a few minutes after the motor has stopped running and the oil has returned to the oil pan. Therefore it makes no sense for an automobile manufacturer to add an oil-level gage. Now an oil pressure gage does work as far as telling how much oil pressure there is, but it can't tell you how much oil is left in the motor. The oil idiot light is not a bad idea, since at least it would let you know that you need to stop the car and add engine oil. But I would not rely on a light instead of checking the oil level at least once per week.
The reason why your car does not have an oil level gage is because the oil level in the oil pan is changing constantly when the motor is running. A gage could not just check the level on both the pan or reservoir and also in the oil passages throughout the motor When the motor is running there only is enough oil in the pan for the oil pump to work.
The only time that an oil-level gage would be accurate is a few minutes after the motor has stopped running and the oil has returned to the oil pan. Therefore it makes no sense for an automobile manufacturer to add an oil-level gage.
Uh, no. Did you just skip over the posts from people saying they have cars that have an oil level gauge that measures the level while the engine is running???
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When the motor is running there only is enough oil in the pan for the oil pump to work. 
