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I am a relatively new owner. I've had the car about four months. It was at Mercedes in March of this year for an oil change and other mild maintenance.
Do you guys ever have to top off the oil or even check the oil between oil changes?
I did the procedure to check for oil levels and I find the dipstick extremely difficult to properly read.
Does anybody have any advice?
TIA.
I agree that the dipstick is rather difficult to read. I think that's a trait of the synthetic oils being yellowish, low viscosity and so "wet" (producing a thin coat) and the red color of the read surface. I use a bright light on it (and I though it was just my ol' fart eyes!).
I've never seen any noticeable oil consumption on our C43, a previous C63 S or the GTR. In fact, I've not measured any oil consumption even after a few track days (though that's the most I've left it without pulling 4-5 L of oil and adding new to keep the chemies fresh). To be fair, however, our cars get relatively low mileage so don't get near the maximums between normal change intervals.
Clean dipstick. Insert and extract dipstick and use a flashlight to read the oil level. If unsure, repeat, and you will get used to it.
If you have too much oil in the sump tank, a message will pop up on the dash while driving. Then you need a vacuum pump with tube inserted into the top of the sump tank to remove any excess, something like a half-a-litre.
OK, thank you for the advice guys
I had somebody else look at it, and they thought it looked a little low
To be on the safe side, I added a half quart
I took it out for a long drive after and I didn’t get a warning so I’m assuming it’s OK
on my Porsche, I long for the dipstick. Now I’m glad I don’t have it and I wish they had an electronic reader in the Mercedes.
So do you guys routinely check the oil?
OK, thank you for the advice guys
I had somebody else look at it, and they thought it looked a little low
To be on the safe side, I added a half quart
I took it out for a long drive after and I didn’t get a warning so I’m assuming it’s OK
on my Porsche, I long for the dipstick. Now I’m glad I don’t have it and I wish they had an electronic reader in the Mercedes.
So do you guys routinely check the oil?
Nope...and there is a way to check oil level thru the dash too.
OK, thank you for the advice guys
I had somebody else look at it, and they thought it looked a little low
To be on the safe side, I added a half quart
I took it out for a long drive after and I didn’t get a warning so I’m assuming it’s OK
on my Porsche, I long for the dipstick. Now I’m glad I don’t have it and I wish they had an electronic reader in the Mercedes.
So do you guys routinely check the oil?
This is one of those cars where you don’t need to constantly worry about checking the engine oil level yourself—the system will alert you through the dashboard if there’s a problem.
If you want to verify it manually, the most accurate reading comes once the engine oil has reached operating temperature (around 200°F). After driving, shut the engine off and check the dipstick within two minutes. In this sump-pump system, within these 2 minutes, the oil in the reservoir and oil pan will have equalized, giving you a reliable measurement.
Reading clean synthetic oil on the red dipstick can be tricky. The best way is to wipe the dipstick completely dry, reinsert it, then pull it out within 3–4 seconds. Shine a flashlight on it, and you’ll see the level much more clearly.
The GT platform is very precise when it comes to oil level monitoring. Even a slight overfill or underfill will trigger a message on your dash—sometimes annoying enough to make you want to fix it right away.
Here’s what you can expect:
If oil is low: “Check Engine Oil Level (Add 1 quart)”
If oil is too high: “Engine Oil Reduce Oil Level”
If the sensor fails: “Engine Oil Level Cannot Be Measured”
If no warning message is displayed, your oil level is right where it should be.
If you track the car, yes, check it manually before going on the track.
This is one of those cars where you don’t need to constantly worry about checking the engine oil level yourself—the system will alert you through the dashboard if there’s a problem.
If you want to verify it manually, the most accurate reading comes once the engine oil has reached operating temperature (around 200°F). After driving, shut the engine off and check the dipstick within two minutes. In this sump-pump system, within these 2 minutes, the oil in the reservoir and oil pan will have equalized, giving you a reliable measurement.
Reading clean synthetic oil on the red dipstick can be tricky. The best way is to wipe the dipstick completely dry, reinsert it, then pull it out within 3–4 seconds. Shine a flashlight on it, and you’ll see the level much more clearly.
The GT platform is very precise when it comes to oil level monitoring. Even a slight overfill or underfill will trigger a message on your dash—sometimes annoying enough to make you want to fix it right away.
Here’s what you can expect:
If oil is low: “Check Engine Oil Level (Add 1 quart)”
If oil is too high: “Engine Oil Reduce Oil Level”
If the sensor fails: “Engine Oil Level Cannot Be Measured”
If no warning message is displayed, your oil level is right where it should be.
If you track the car, yes, check it manually before going on the track.
Thanks very much for the details. I didn’t get a warning after driving it today after I added a half a quart. Hopefully I did not overfill it. I will not worry about it anymore, but I would like to check it one more time maybe tomorrow and use your instructions exactly.
thanks again.
Just to add, the M177/178 engines are not known to burn oil. It's been refreshing after having owned several Audis where apparently needing to top off up to 1 qt every 1000 miles is totally acceptable according to them. My last one burnt through 1 qt about every 3-4k miles. That wasn't as bad as the previous one that burned through 1 qt closer to every 1000 miles. Used to have a supply of oil in my garage, even though the Audi dealerships offered free top off to keep customers somewhat happy.
The 205 C63 and the GT have physical dipsticks, but the other models pretty much all have an electronic dipstick you can check in the dash, but it only has like three levels it displays. Min, Max and in between. You can't actually see the real level. Once I realized that the AMG engines don't burn oil like my previous cars, I stopped worrying about checking the oil level between changes. But I also only drive about 4k miles a year these days before the next oil change.
Last edited by superswiss; Sep 14, 2025 at 10:12 PM.
Once in, go to the " Vehicle Data" section, scroll to get to the Engine Oil .
In this picture, the Oil temp is not at the correct level so the oil level reading is not correct, just to make a point that the oil temp need to get to about 200F.
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