MAINTENANCE TIPS Kerala

Motorly Editorial · 06 Jul 2026 · 1 views

Nearly everyone's seen someone at a petrol bunk pull the dipstick, glance at it for half a second, wipe it on a rag, and stick it back in without a second look. That's better than never checking, but it's missing most of what the dipstick can actually tell you, and it's such a quick habit to do properly that there's no real reason not to. Check with the engine cold, or at minimum off for ten minutes, ideally on level ground — checking hot, right after driving, gives a falsely high reading because the oil's still partly circulated rather than settled back in the sump. Pull the dipstick, wipe it clean with a lint-free cloth, then reinsert it fully and pull it back out again — this second pull is the one you actually read, and it's the step almost everyone skips. The oil film should sit somewhere between the two marks, usually labelled MIN and MAX. Below the bottom mark and you're running low, reducing the oil's ability to lubricate and cool under load. Above the top mark means overfilled, which can get churned and aerated by the crankshaft and stop lubricating properly too. The more useful half of the check is colour and texture, not just level. Healthy oil is amber to dark brown and darkens naturally as it ages — that's normal. Oil that looks milky, almost coffee-with-cream, is a real warning sign, usually meaning coolant is leaking into the oil through a failing head gasket, and that needs a garage visit soon, not a wait for the next service. Oil that feels gritty or shows metal flecks suggests internal wear metal circulating, worth flagging at your next visit. Oil that smells distinctly of fuel can mean fuel dilution, more common in engines doing a lot of short city trips that never fully warm up, common in stop-start Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram traffic. Worth knowing: a handful of newer cars, including some current Kia and MG models sold in India, have moved to an electronic-only oil level check with no traditional dipstick meant for routine use — check your manual if you can't find one, that's not a fault on those models. As a rule of thumb, once a month is reasonable for most Kerala drivers, and definitely before any long highway or ghat drive.

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