Maybe I’ve become an old man. Maybe I’m no longer “with it” like all these youthful Tiktokers raised by the internet. I say this because when I think about the 2025 Ram 1500 not offering a dipstick on its 3.0-liter “Hurricane” inline-six engine, it makes me want to yell at a cloud and talk about the good ol’ days before engine covers and zero-weight oil and CVTs and touchscreens for all vehicle functions. A pickup truck without a dipstick — what is this world coming to? Has everyone lost their doggone mind? Man, I really am sounding like an old man.
I recently wrote a review about the new Ram and said it “Is So Good I Don’t Miss The Hemi V8.” But you know what? I change my mind; I do miss the V8. I miss that sound, I miss that parts availability/aftermarket support, and above all, I miss that thin metal tube that presses into that engine block and houses a long rod (well, cable in this case) called a dipstick.
The truth is that the new Ram probably doesn’t really need a dipstick; Ram’s digital oil level-monitor will definitely be easier to use for most people. Here’s a look at that digital oil-level monitor found in the instrument cluster ahead of the driver:
Now Ram drivers will literally never have to pop the hoods of their cars. No more rags. No more dirty hands. Ram is following the “make the engine a black-box to the driver” trend that has been permeating the industry.
Here’s what Ram says about the oil level gauge in its owner’s manual:
The 3.0L engine does not have a traditional “dipstick” and there is no need to manually check the oil level. If it is desired to check engine oil level, it can be seen on the instrument cluster display by navigating to the appropriate screen under “Vehicle Info”.
Use the up or down arrow buttons within the steering wheel controls to find the “Vehicle Info” menu. Then use the right or left arrow buttons until you reach the “Oil Level” submenu. There is a bar on the gauge which shows the oil level. As long as the oil level is between the minimum and the maximum it is safe to operate the vehicle. If the oil level is either too high or too low, a red bar will be illuminated. When the engine is in need of more oil, the Oil Level Warning Light will illuminate. This warning will appear for five seconds. Within the next 300 miles (500 km) you should add 1 quart of manufacturer
Why do I detest this so much? I think on some level, it’s just a matter of me not wanting change. But I also like to look at the quality/color of my oil! And the idea that something could break and I could no longer check on something this critical — something that has huge implications on the longevity of perhaps the most expensive component of my vehicle — it drives me crazy. Hell, even if my battery goes flat I can’t check the oil? [steam billows from my ears in rage].
To me, something so critical has to be basically 100% failure proof. I don’t want an oil-level sensor to fail or a battery/module/screen issue to prevent me from seeing how much oil I have. Being able to check the level and quality of your your motor’s precious lifeblood is something that you must be able to do no matter what the circumstances. It has to be basically failure proof.
To be sure, BMW drivers have been stuck with oil level sensors for years, and those have apparently been pretty reliable, for what that’s worth. To me, as an old man in a 32 year-old’s body, though, that’s not worth much.
There are, of course, some practical benefits to the setup. For one, your vehicle can notify you if the oil level is low, which is, theoretically, better than it waiting for low oil pressure to throw a Malfunction Indicator Light. It could also potentially derate power/throw the vehicle into limp mode based on oil quantity — again, before having to wait for oil pressure loss, which you don’t want. Still, why can’t I have both a dipstick and an oil level sensor? I suspect the driving force here is cost and packaging space.
I reached out to RAM asking them why they went down this route. Here’s what they told me:
“The Hurricane is a premium engine in the company’s lineup. As such, the design team reviewed available technologies to enhance not only performance, fuel economy, and engine operation but also customer convenience. The oil level sensor allows for oil level monitoring for customers that choose not to check their oil level on a regular basis.”
I guess part of me is a little shocked that Ram had the audacity to do this in a pickup truck. Sure, most trucks are street-queens, but the people who use the trucks as trucks — the folks that Ram highlights in its commercials — you just know this is going to bother them. If Ford is sticking with a space-wasting T-handle on the F-150 because customers say they want a chunky shifter, surely truck customers say they want access to a physical dipstick, right?
@huntfordchrysler Replying to @jayja351 we are finally taking a look at this 3.0L Hurricane Inline 6-cylinder on the 25 Ram 1500! #trucktok #trucks #ram #ramtrucks
I’m honestly not sure. What I do know is that some folks on the web aren’t thrilled. Here are some replies to the above Tiktok video by HuntFordChrysler:
- Because dipsticks have been so unreliable we thought we would use a sensor because they never go bad ????
- I think doing away with the Hemi was a big mistake……
- All these manufacturers are making vehicles more and more unreliable
- 30 yrs of dodges…. no more dodges for me or my family
Of course, those types of replies are expected. What surprises me is how many folks are totally cool with this. On a Reddit thread from last month, one users wrote “The RAM 1500 is dead,” but then that person got absolutely bodied by someone defending Ram. Check this out:
Ok, that was an extremely rude comment, and that person needs some therapy. Still, the thread includes other comments like these:
Of course, that Reddit thread also includes plenty of comments decrying Ram’s move. “You won’t see to many vehicles built in 2020 in 2040” writes one user. “If it ain’t broke, fix it till it is, and then we can charge them for it,” writes another. “That’s a 100% deal breaker” quips another.
So there’s a mixed response, here.
Tim Esterdahl from Pickuptrucktalk.com managed to get a bit more info from Ram about the oil level sensor. Per his article, it’s an ultrasonic sensor that can measure level while accounting for changes in oil density as a function of temperature. But beyond temperature and level, the sensor, which is mounted up-and-down in the oil pan, cannot give any indication of oil quality. As for what happens if the sensor fails? “The vehicle can be driven, but error messages will display in the cluster associated with the specific reason for loss of function,” the article estates.
I’m extremely annoyed by this, and in some ways, it feels like it’s alienating key customers, but maybe I’m just yelling at a cloud. What do you think?
Hat tip to whichever reader sent me this tip over social media!
Citroen Sabotaged Wartime Nazi Truck Production In A Simple And Brilliant Way
Citroen Sabotaged Wartime Nazi Truck Production In A Simple And Brilliant Way
Citroen Sabotaged Wartime Nazi Truck Production In A Simple And Brilliant Way
The dipstick will be the one in the drivers seat who buys this truck..
I hate this, but BMW has been doing this for years.
That’s not a stellar endorsement.
I’ll never own a dipstick less ICE vehicle if I can avoid it. Would be a dealbreaker for me.
Hello from the aviation world.
The automotive landscape is a perfect maelstrom of colliding beancounting/cost cutting, groupthink/design by committee, and flashy/showy no-substance consumer vapidity.
Three words: Fleet Manager Approved.
They never would have done this without consulting FMs and if the folks who know more about such things than anyone else on earth approve of it, I’m okay with it too.
My first experience with this is on my 2018 volvo. I sold it to my brother who now has it at 340k miles (livery vehicle)
I never minded having the sensor, but now its using a little oil and he wants to keep up on it. When you add oil, you need to drive for a while to get it to update the reading. Its kind of maddening. Like i just want to put in the right amount of oil and check it each time i gas up…not each tim i park.
You know what would be great, a redundant dipstick along with the sensor. But that would cost 27 cents….
The dipstick tube is a source of evaporative emissions. That is the bigger reason why they don’t have them than cost.
My BMWs tell you to add a quart when they get a quart low (not that either ever has). That is far more reliable than I am. If I had a car that I felt like I needed to check the oil at every fill up, I would either get rid of it or fix it.
Then make a twist to seal dipstick top and put a beefy half turn thread in the dip stick tube, like what you see on thermoses.
Pretty much every heavy duty engine uses a dipstick which makes a positive seal in the dipstick tube using an expanding rubber plug.
This is not remotely new technology, this problem was solved, I don’t know, at least 70 years ago?
Then it’s not a problem is it?
It’s not that it needs oil each gas fill up. But I’ve had cars that consume a quart or so between oil changes. Got in the habit of checking while i was filling it up.
The Volvo system is… It’s low.
Ok, put in exactly some oil. (Typically half a quart.)
Now i have to drive for 10-15 minutes for it to register in the screen. Add another half… Drive a bit more, hope for the best. There’s no add a quart, or two. There’s a vague gauge.
Now most dipsticks have a vague gauge, but the time to check is moments
Not only does my BMW not have a dipstick, but you check the oil with the engine RUNNUNG!!! Pure witchcraft.
Bugs me! Extra stuff to go wrong.
Your point on checking oil quality is a real one. My ol Cheb was losing coolant somewhere, so I immediately checked the dipstick to see if the oil level was higher, and to see if I had that delicious milkshake on the end of the stick. While this isn’t a perfect way to check if coolant is escaping into the crankcase, when doing some base level diagnostics, I don’t want to drain 7 qts of oil that I may not need to. Didn’t need to, water pump was leaking, just couldn’t see it!
My son was absolutely stunned the first time I pulled the dipstick out on my truck while he was “helping” me. I can’t see the same reaction happening when I tap over to the sensor readout.
(For the record, I have a 4.7. It’s an absurdly long dipstick that looks like you’re unsheathing Excalibur. At that time ut was longer than he was tall.)
It’s a Dodge Ram, the Dipstick has always been behind the steering wheel 😉
Many (if not all) of the “look at the oil / smell the oil” things can be done by removing the oil filler cap – there’s usually a thin coating of oil on the underside. I’ve also read that chasing the last few molecules of blowby emissions contributed to sealing up the dipstick (thought probably more than negated IRL by the neoprene gaskets with a half life on BMWs).
I don’t think I care too much about this. I would like to be able to see the oil but I don’t think I care enough about that to be irritated about this. The arguments about everything else being an electronic gauge really makes it a moot point.
With modern oils having thinner viscosity like 0W20 it makes reading a dipstick kinda hard anyways. I measure the volume of oil I use when doing an oil change and just ignore the dipstick. I would trust an oil level sensor if my truck had one, but I would prefer a dipstick.
I was shocked when I bought oil for a change recently that Mobil1 now comes in *0w8*! At that point, why even bother having the two ratings. What will be the first car to use 0w0? My cars take 0w40 or 5w40 in my climate range.
Lubricated by water soon enough
I think the real question is going to be, will they also do the same thing for the Ram 2500/3500 when the hemi dies on that one too?
Since the HD trucks are used for a lot of fleets, and Ram is still trying hard to eat away at Fords fleet marketshare… I think that there will be enough push by fleet managers to product managers at Ram to put one in, at least on the HD trucks.
My 996 has an oil level sensor readable from the dash, AND a real dipstick.
RAM’s PR response only addressed the advantages of the sensor, they didn’t answer why NOT to have a dipstick.
Evaporative emissions is the reason.
There are better ways to solve that problem. That was not the reason.
I look forward to a few years from now. I will open up YouTube one day and I Do Cars will have a video tearing down one of these engines. I have no idea if he will be delighted or disgusted with the lack of a dipstick tube. Possibly both.
I mean, this has been known on the Hurricane since it came out in the Wagoneer twins. It shouldn’t be shocking. Sad? Oh, absolutely, sadder than them dropping the Hemi. Just because it’s a V8 doesn’t mean it’s good.
The really sad/bothering thing is the design team thinking the update’s look was a good idea. It’s like they took a course in “Generics 101”.
More. Failure. Points.
Say they’re 10 bucks each, times half a million Rams.
5 million bucks? Done.
A dipstick doesn’t even cost 10 dollars with replacement parts markup. The dipstick tube adds some cost, but I can’t imagine that an ultrasonic oil-safe high-temperature sensor is significantly cheaper than a dipstick and tube.
The biggest problem I see with this is this:
How many of us have pulled the dipstick to check a potential car purchase for milky oil? AKA, a blown head gasket?
I guess it’ll be a lot easier for dealers to unload cars with coolant mixed with oil on unsuspecting people in the future.
As a counterpoint, try applying your same logic to any other gauge that measures a vital aspect of the engine. Would you also prefer some manual method of checking oil pressure or engine temperature or RPMs?
Well, there is a backup manual method(s) for checking engine temperature, and there is also a manual backup way to guesstimate RPM.
Are RPM and oil pressure even close to as critical as critical as having oil in the engine? As I write this, I’m sitting in a car that doesn’t have a tachometer at all.
Maybe you can throw out RPM, especially since you can kinda measure it by sound. But I maintain my stance on temp and oil pressure. Can they be measured manually ? Sure. But they can also be measured electronically with a very high level of reliability making a manual method something obsolete so nobody reasonable asks for a manual method or cares there isn’t one, so why shouldn’t we treat oil level the same?
And I would argue that oil pressure is easily as important, if not more important, than oil level. You can have oil but no pressure which is a catastrophic problem for your engine. If you have pressure, you already know your oil is not at a catastrophic problem level.
If you have oil but no pressure, the catastrophic problem already happened. You don’t need to worry about your engine anymore, you just worry about when the tow truck will get there.
If I’m worried that my engine is overheating even though the gauge reads normal, I get out, pop the hood, and there’s a few ways I can tell if it is or not. If it’s overheating bad, it may be boiling over and spraying coolant everywhere. I can touch the engine, radiator, and radiator hoses to assess the temperature. I can pop the cap and observe if it boils.
If I’m worried that my engine is low on oil even though the gauge is reading normal, and I’m unlucky enough to own a Hurricane Mopar, I am helpless.
I don’t know how high the standard of reliability of this sensor is. Mopar’s history suggests it’s not really very good. But I know for sure that the reliability is worse than a dipstick.
I can see the reasoning for removing it – the vast majority of people buying cars today will never touch their dipstick anyway.
At the same time, it is somewhat annoying not to have it. My fleet has 2 cars, and the Macan does not have a dipstick. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is you have to be careful when filling the oil after an oil change, because the sensor readout is temporarily disabled once the hood is open. At least on the Porsche, it measures the level after driving around for a few minutes and seems to take an average reading to account for different variables that would give an erroneous reading. All this is well and good, but it means there’s no way to add some oil, check the level, then add some more. The process is more like measure carefully and cross your fingers, you’ll find out after 15 mins of driving if you got it wrong.
I’m not sure if Castrol’s ad campaign would’ve had the same ring to it with this:
“Think with your oil level sensor, Jimmy!”
Hmm. Nope.
If they truly wanted “customer convenience”, RAM could have added the sensor and software, and left a traditional dipstick as well, thereby solving what should be a non-issue in the first place.
It’s not you…it’s because THIS IS ONE OF THE STUPIDEST FUCKING SHIT IDEAS EVER IN HISTORY!!!
Fuck all this digital everything!
It’s a dipstick; that’s important!
What a bunch of “dipshits”