What is the best oil?
This question is often asked. There are many factors to consider in determining the best oil such as cost, additives, regional conditions, driving habits, etc. The IntelliStick can help you determine which oil works best in your particular engine by allowing you to see when the additives deplete for any oil brand and how long the oil lasts prior to oxidation.

Will IntelliStick fit my vehicle?
IntelliStick is designed to fit most vehicles. However, some engines use a small diameter dipstick tube or may crimp the bottom of the diptube restricting the diameter of the tube. In these cases, the IntelliStick may not fit without modification to the dipstick tube or by using an optional Threaded Sensor.

Will any brand of PDA work with the IntelliStick?
No, only PDAs equipped with Bluetooth and Windows 5.0 or later can communicate with the IntelliStick. Check the IntelliStick website for compatibility with future Windows and Bluetooth releases.

What tools are required to install the IntelliStick?
Only basic hand tools are required to install an IntelliStick; a drill and drill bit, screwdriver, wire crimpers/strippers, a permanent marker, and an allen wrench (included in the kit).

How can I check oil level with the IntelliStick?
To determine oil level, the IntelliStick must be measured using the original dipstick. Draw a line with a permanent marker to indicate the “Add” and “Full” measurement marks corresponding to the original dipstick “Add” and “Full” marks. Due to manufacturer warranty issues, we recommend you use your OEM dipstick to verify oil level.

Where can the electronics assembly be mounted?
The electronics assembly can be mounted under the hood on the firewall (recommended) or in the passenger compartment.

Why does it take so long for the data to download from the IntelliStick to my PDA?
Since every PDA is different, it may take up to 5 minutes for the Bluetooth device to find and synchronize with the IntelliStick electronics assembly. Some PDAs only take a few seconds to locate and synchronize. Depending on the PDA manufacturer, surrounding electronics noise and other conditions, your PDA may communicate fast or slow. Laptops have the quickest download time.

Which PDA is best suited to communicate with the IntelliStick?
IntelliStick does not recommend any particular brand of PDA or Smartphone - at a minimum the PDA or Smartphone must run Windows Mobile OS and have Bluetooth support.

Sometimes the graphic data shows high or low spikes, what does that mean?
These spikes can mean different things, including; the IntelliStick is removed from oil, a contamination (water/coolant/fuel) in the oil, new oil or an additive has been added, there is a major oil loss, or data is not collected in a timely manner. The graph will spike with high points or low points, depending on what occurred and the current oil condition. Contact IntelliStick with questions.

After I changed my oil, there does not appear to be any noticeable change in my graph, why is that?
The IntelliStick will begin to recognize the difference in electrical properties of changed oil after the oil has reached a temperature of 150°F. It will often take two or three 'engine at temperature' events for the IntelliStick to reset the graph points and become clearly noticeable on your display.

Does data get lost if using two separate devices, for example downloading to my PDA and my PC?
No, the data does not get lost. However, some gaps in the data may appear if data is not collected by both devices.

How much data will the IntelliStick store?
The IntelliStick will store about 2 weeks worth of data. If you do not download data at least every 2 weeks, some data will be over-written and replaced with new readings, depending on how often you drive. If data is not collected, data may appear to have gaps or spikes as new data is downloaded.

Why do I need to save my original dipstick?
The original dipstick is the most accurate measuring device for the specific engine type, therefore; IntelliStick recommends saving the original dipstick. In some cases, your original dipstick may need to be inserted for factory servicing.

What do the additives in oil do?
Every motor oil today uses additives to help extend the life of the oil. One major class is metal phenoxides which prevent oxidation that can lead to sludge formation. They also serve as detergents and carry particulates to the oil filter for removal. The other key additive is ZDDP composition (zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) which provides anti-wear, anti-oxidant, and anti-corrosion inhibitors.

In the simplest of terms, we should start with what oil and lubrication is and what you need to know about it; basic things: what’s a detergent package and what contaminates oil, and how does it turn bad? What are the ways it can turn bad, and why is that significant?

The oil is the lifeblood of the engine. It not only lubricates but it also carries heat away from surfaces. It carries solids and contaminants away from moving surfaces so they can be filtered out. It has a lot of different functions and to do the functions properly it needs to have the right viscosity; it needs to have an anti-wear package…and it needs to be non corrosive. These are the main three things. The technologies we’ve been working on for the years have looked at the various aspects of oil and trying to decide what is important and what is not important. The chemistry of oil is constantly changing which also means that some of the standard techniques that used to work well, don’t work as well.

The detergent packages now seen in oil have started to increase dramatically. With engine oils, if you had one percent soot in your oil, that would be considered bad because the detergent package could only handle say half a percent; by the time you get to one percent, the soot would start to agglomerate, cause friction, and do some bad things to your engine. But now with the higher detergent packages they’re putting into oils they can withstand 4, 5, 6 percent soot and the oil is still considered good. Most soot is coming from the EGR system (exhaust gas recirculation, what they’re doing is putting contaminants back through the oil because of the environmental controls on the soot going into the environment. The soot is now being filtered into the oil instead. Therefore, the oil is being made to do more and more of the work.

Can you discuss what the additives in oil are and how are they measured?
There are anti-oxidants, to protect the oil from oxidation and also trying to protect the ZDDP from oxidation, ZDDP which is an anti wear agent, and detergents. Oxidation is the measurement most people think about and it’s handled by a wide-range of tests. If you can take a sample out, you can check it for environmental factors to see if you’re engine is starting to wear, you can check it for acid number and viscosity, even though viscosity doesn’t change until the oil is pretty badly degraded. We can check it for antioxidants using an instrument called the “ruler.” You can test with FTIR, which is very popular, where you can look at 5 or 6 different parameters with one instrument and that’s a definite laboratory; it’s not onsite and can be expensive and time consuming.

What can a coolant leak do to the oil?
There’s a lot of different aspects of the oil oxidation that you can look at, but the main thing that can cause the most damage the quickest is coolant leaks. When coolant gets into the oil, some coolant is dissolved however, it will begin reacting with metal surfaces and corroding it, and that’s the main thing that’s working to do the most damage.

Is ZDDP working on this?
No, the only thing that’s really in the oil to handle it is the detergents and dispersants; they will keep the water molecules and the coolant molecules dissolved in the oil and as long as they’re dissolved, it can’t do much damage, but as the coolant leak progresses, then the coolant and water will start becoming insoluble and first the oil will look hazy and then it will get milky if you get it up to one or two percent and that’s where you can really do damage.

The problem with the coolant leak is that there’s no timetable for it. Depending on your additive packages, oil has an expected lifecycle, whereas a coolant leak could happen right after an oil change, and by the time you do your next oil change, your engine could be totally destroyed by the coolant.

What about contaminants like dirt in the oil?
Dirt, sand, things like that can get into your engine, but usually the filtration will take care of those, but if they obviously got heavy enough, they can cause some damage also. But that would be more of a wear, more of a scraping and abrasive wear not a corrosive wear that actually gets into the metal, again that would be handled, and that again that takes time and that would be handled by oil changes and such.