mbdave87

I've been doing some reading on checking the transmission fluid level on our cars (I have a '99 CLK 320) and came up with a question I haven't been able to find an answer to. My car has a dipstick tube, but no dipstick. And it doesn't have the red cap, it has a black cap that turns out to be pretty easy to remove and replace as needed. I was about to purchase a dipstick but an idea formed in my head: the dipsticks I'm seeing available online look very similar to to the dipstick for engine oil. Would I be able to wipe off the engine oil dipstick and use it to check the transmission fluid level?

exhaustgases

Sure as long as you know how long the transmission dipstick is supposed to be.
Just remember the top part that contacts the tube is the gauge length. The tip does not touch anything other than just oil. So to work the engine stick needs to be the same length as the transmission stick, and same for the marks that tell you how high or low it is. And really a car that new was 40 to 60 thousand and a dip stick is what 30 to 50 bucks? Just get one for the transmission and do the job right.

mbdave87

Yeah, after finding that the length of the available transmission dipstick is 1.2m, and the oil dipstick is like half that, this obviously wouldn't work.

And this idea was really more about creativity and curiosity than money. I went ahead and ordered a dipstick.