Hello All - my first post. I abandoned Rover last December and entered the surprising world of Skoda by buying a 3 year-old Octavia Ambiente 2.0 litre with 24k on the clock. I'm absolutely delighted with the car so far.

I find it difficult to check the oil level - the dipstick is quite dark in colour and the oil clean and light-coloured. I fiddle around, trying to catch the light at the right angle. I've been checking oil levels for about forty years and this is my first difficulty with this simple job. The kinks in the stick don't help but I still have the problem now that the level is half way between them.

Is there a way of making the dipstick lighter in colour - or getting an alternative replacement which is easier to read?

I expected this to be a common issue but a search on 'dipstick' didn't reveal anything helpful.

I had that same problem.

The ony thing I could do was look for where the "wet" bit of the stick started......

I know, not terribly helpful. But if you do a search on my username and "oil" you'll find I was a little remiss in checking my levels at one time..........

Thanks. A search on Javaman oil returned 'wonky wipers' only.

try this:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19557&highlight=oil+light

I agree that it is difficult to see the oil level on the dipstick in daylight. On the other hand it is quite easy to see where the oil is on the dipstick if you use a torch and check it at night - as I have just found out.

Thanks DGW, I'll try that. In response to Javaman, I looked at your earlier reference on oil. I have just clocked up my first 1000 miles (sorry, I'm one of the older fellahs - 1600 km for you youngsters) and I've used half the kink to kink length of dipstick - I guess about half a litre - is that right? Certainly a lot more oil than my 10 year-old Rover 216 (1.6 litre 113 bhp Honda engine) used but, by old timer standards, 1000 to the pint made us as proud as a dog with two tails.