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[olli]

Some of you may already know the inventor / manufacturer of the Hd oil dipstick:
http://gaslock.com/basisprodukte-en-us/oelmessstab-en-us/

In they site they proudly advertise the dipstick.

Has anyone (german) member been in contact to the company ? If so what have they said about the quality of the gadget they are selling?

Asking
Olli


 

[porthole]

After 3 of them failing, I should have.
First was 95 days old, so no 3 month warranty
2nd was a couple of weeks, filled with water on the way to Maggie Valley.
3rd also failed due to moisture intrusion.

[Trapperdog]

Yup, we had two of them and both failed at around 100 days due to moisture.

[porthole]

My OEM dipstick blew out of the pan. Stuffed a rag in the hole and went the to dealer. What a surprise, no $30 OEM sticks in stock, only this POS $90 item.

[halfcirclej]

I've had mine since UC 2008. Put it on my 2011 CVO TGU an it has no signs of moisture.  Still using the original battery.

[grc]

I guess I'm just not in touch completely with the modern world.  Plain old dipsticks have been doing a more than adequate job in all sorts of engines and transmissions and industrial gearboxes and lord knows what else, for more than a century.  I have yet to find a compelling reason to abandon a foolproof and simple solution and replace it with an overpriced electronic POS.  I've asked this question many times in the past when folks talk about oil temps, but I've yet to get a decent answer.  What do you intend to do if you press that button and the number that comes up is higher than what you've convinced yourself is an acceptable oil temperature?  Are you going to immediately shut the engine down, regardless of where you are at the time, and stand around with your thumb up your --- for a few hours until it cools down?  And what exactly is that "magic" oil temperature where you push the panic button?  As for the really super duper dipsticks that also tell you the oil level (sort of), how friggin' lazy are big bad bikers becoming for Pete's sake?  Afraid to get a drop of motor oil on your shiny boots if you use the manual dipstick?  Sheesh!

Jerry

[Sarhan]

I guess I'm just not in touch completely with the modern world.  Plain old dipsticks have been doing a more than adequate job in all sorts of engines and transmissions and industrial gearboxes and lord knows what else, for more than a century.  I have yet to find a compelling reason to abandon a foolproof and simple solution and replace it with an overpriced electronic POS.  I've asked this question many times in the past when folks talk about oil temps, but I've yet to get a decent answer.  What do you intend to do if you press that button and the number that comes up is higher than what you've convinced yourself is an acceptable oil temperature?  Are you going to immediately shut the engine down, regardless of where you are at the time, and stand around with your thumb up your --- for a few hours until it cools down?  And what exactly is that "magic" oil temperature where you push the panic button?  As for the really super duper dipsticks that also tell you the oil level (sort of), how friggin' lazy are big bad bikers becoming for Pete's sake?  Afraid to get a drop of motor oil on your shiny boots if you use the manual dipstick?  Sheesh!

Jerry

Well said 

[moscooter]

 
I had one of those digital temp oil level sticks in one of my old Road Kings.  Never had any moisture problems but had another "incident" with the damn thing.

The "stock" dip stick cap is (knurled) around its diameter.......this is nice so it doesn't slip out of your fingers while you're checking the oil level.

The damn expensive digital one did NOT have a knurled edge.......it was nice slippery chrome.   Of course,  I dropped it while checking the oil and put a nice dent in one of my chrome exhaust pipe heat shields.

[halfcirclej]

I'm an older person, private pilot, A&P license, ex late model race car driver an builder of my car. Oil temperature can tell you many things. Oil breaks down at certain temperature, known temps as normal, increasing temps usually mean something going wrong inside the engine.
I would much rather have a direct reading Gage installed where the stupid air temp gage is installed. I've been riding an working on bikes since about 9 yr old. Certified  mechanic for Honda an Kawasaki, worked on my HD'S, a lot of aircraft air cooled engines.
I don't mean to be little any one, just want to emphasize that a lot of information can be derived from monitoring the oil temperature of an air cooled engine. Thanks for listening to an old man.

[GregKhougaz]

I've had three of these fail so here is what I wrote to them on their site.  Let's see if I get a response!

Hello,

I am most amused by your quality claims.  I've had three of your oil dipsticks in my Harley motorcycles and none lasted more than a few months.  Harley only warrants them for three months.  I also help moderate a website called "cvoharley.com" with over well over 12,000 users.  There are many dissatisfied customers on our site.  Here is just one of many examples:  http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=96440.0;topicseen     I invite you to stand behind your products, join our website and help the many customers like me who have your failed product.  I assure you that people who read out forum do not use your product. 

Greg Khougaz

[grc]

I'm an older person, private pilot, A&P license, ex late model race car driver an builder of my car. Oil temperature can tell you many things. Oil breaks down at certain temperature, known temps as normal, increasing temps usually mean something going wrong inside the engine.
I would much rather have a direct reading Gage installed where the stupid air temp gage is installed. I've been riding an working on bikes since about 9 yr old. Certified  mechanic for Honda an Kawasaki, worked on my HD'S, a lot of aircraft air cooled engines.
I don't mean to be little any one, just want to emphasize that a lot of information can be derived from monitoring the oil temperature of an air cooled engine. Thanks for listening to an old man.

I agree, in the right hands monitoring of oil temperatures can be a good thing.  But for the average Joe, it's more of a gimmick than a useful tool.  And using a dipstick to do any sort of serious monitoring, versus a real dash mounted gauge, is not what I'd call a serious method.

Face it, the typical Harley rider these days is not a certified mechanic or an oil expert.  Having those kinds of people running around all upset over oil temperatures that are in fact not abnormal for a late model Harley, or for modern full synthetic motor oils, isn't doing them any favors.  And like I said, if they don't know what really is and isn't a true indicator of a serious problem, the gauge is useless to them and could be detrimental.  There is a very good reason why the auto industry largely abandoned truly accurate gauges for things like coolant temp many years ago.  Nontechnical people tended to get all upset when the accurate gauges would fluctuate or read a higher number than they thought the temp should be, and when they complained and folks like me tried to explain the range of normal temps and how coolant temperatures will in fact fluctuate depending on ambient temps and driving conditions, they'd call us liars and storm off swearing to never buy our product again.  When we then changed those dash gauges to something very akin to an idiot light, where there were no numbers and just a wide green "normal" band and the needle stayed pegged in the center until a truly significant change was detected, those complaints and ticked off customers ceased to be a problem.  It's much easier to fudge the gauges than it is to educate folks who don't really know anything about the subject and refuse to listen to anyone who does.

I still run across people who think their Harley should run oil temps in the 180° to 200° range (and think it's a good idea to change the 200° thermostat in their modern car to a 160° version).  Folks like that don't need to have gauges in or on their vehicles.

JMHO - Jerry

[dahsen]

Bought mine in 2009, still on original battery.  Never had any issue with it.

[halfcirclej]

Jerry, I agree with you, not all riders are knowledgeable about their equipment. Some don't want to know. For those who want to know this forum is excellent place to start.
It's just my thousands of hours of instructor time creeping out of me. I loved teaching folks if I could about flying on the KC- 135 air refueling aircraft.
Have a great one. I read all your stuff.

[skratch]

i don't know anything about these dipsticks, i'm to cheap to pay $100 for something that just keeps me from manually pulling it out, but the warranty on these things is now 1 year, not 90 days.  guess one could keep himself in a 'always new' supply of them

I've had three of these fail so here is what I wrote to them on their site.  Let's see if I get a response!

Hello,

I am most amused by your quality claims.  I've had three of your oil dipsticks in my Harley motorcycles and none lasted more than a few months.  Harley only warrants them for three months.  I also help moderate a website called "cvoharley.com" with over well over 12,000 users.  There are many dissatisfied customers on our site.  Here is just one of many examples:  http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=96440.0;topicseen     I invite you to stand behind your products, join our website and help the many customers like me who have your failed product.  I assure you that people who read out forum do not use your product. 

Greg Khougaz

[FlaHeatWave]

The one on the "09 had water in it at less than a year. The sweet and smokin' hot service writer at Paradise H-D in Tiger, OR called my Dealer to verify that it was less than a year old, and she even put it in for me