When you pop the hood of a new pickup truck, there's something you won't find any more: the oil dipstick.
General Motors has confirmed that its new sixth-generation 5.7-liter and 6.6-liter V8 engines, coming to the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500, will no longer have a conventional dipstick. Instead, drivers will check the oil level on a digital display inside the truck.
I still check my tires with a pressure gauge, even though my vehicles have tire-pressure monitoring systems.
I've been working on cars for decades, and I think this is a mistake.
Checking your oil is one of the simplest and most important things you can do to protect your engine. You pull out the dipstick, wipe it clean, reinsert it, and pull it out again. In seconds, you know whether your engine has enough oil. You can also see what the oil looks like.
You don't need to start the engine, navigate a touchscreen, or trust a sensor.
What's wrong with the old-fashioned way?
GM claims its new electronic system is designed to simplify ownership. It monitors oil levels, warns drivers when they're too low or too high, and even tells them how much oil to add.
And according to a GM engineer interviewed by Pickup Truck + SUV Talk, packaging was part of the decision: Additional fuel-injection hardware made it difficult to accommodate a traditional dipstick tube.
But here's my problem. When do you most want to check your oil? Before you start the engine.
The 2027 Silverado owner's manual instructs drivers to park on level ground, leave the engine idling at normal operating temperature, and select the oil-level display on the infotainment screen.
Think about that. You have to run the engine before you can perform a manual oil-level check.
My co-host on "The Drive," automotive analyst Karl Brauer, has dealt with this problem firsthand. His 2009 and 2012 Porsche 911s had electronic oil-level systems that required him to warm up the engine, park on level ground, and work through a series of menus.
Karl raised a question during a recent episode that gets right to the heart of the problem: What if your engine develops an oil leak overnight?
Suppose a gasket fails and oil drains out while your truck is parked. With a dipstick, you can check the level immediately, before starting the engine.
GM says its electronic system automatically warns drivers about low oil. But the owner's manual requires a warm, running engine for an accurate manual oil-level reading. Whether the system can warn you about oil lost overnight before you start the engine remains unclear.
I would prefer to have a dipstick so I can check for myself.
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Sensors aren't infallible
I have owned vehicles with electronic oil-level systems, including an Audi RS5, and I didn't like giving up that simple mechanical check.
Karl also recalled owning older BMWs that repeatedly displayed low-oil warnings even though the oil level was fine. The sensor was the problem.
A malfunctioning sensor can give you a false alarm. The more troubling possibility is a faulty reading that fails to alert you to a genuine problem.
That doesn't mean GM's new system is unreliable. The technology hasn't been in customers' hands long enough to establish that. But an electronic sensor introduces another component that can fail, and there is no longer a physical dipstick to double-check it.
Know what's under your hood
I'm a firm believer that every driver should understand the basics of vehicle maintenance.
Before my children started driving, I made sure they knew how to check their oil, tire pressure, and other essential fluids. I wanted them to understand what was happening mechanically rather than simply waiting for a warning light.
I still check my tires with a pressure gauge, even though my vehicles have tire-pressure monitoring systems. I compare the reading with the recommended pressure on the driver's doorjamb.
Technology can be an excellent backup. But I don't want it to be my only source of information.
To be clear, GM isn't eliminating the dipstick from every 2027 Silverado and Sierra. The 2.7-liter TurboMax four-cylinder and 3.0-liter Duramax diesel will retain theirs. It's the new V8s that lose the familiar yellow-handled tool.
Maybe the electronic system will prove to be convenient and reliable. I certainly hope so.
But I have to wonder what we have really gained by eliminating a device that costs very little, rarely fails, and lets an owner check a critical engine fluid without even turning the key.
Sometimes the simplest technology is still the best.