I only ask this because I've apparently been doing my oil changes incorrectly (6 quarts instead of 8.8) ever since I bought the vehicle (2021 Defender brand new). Should I be worried? This time during the oil change the vacuum oil extraction only pulled 4 quarts out :/ All other times it was in the 5+ quart range. I only have 14,000 miles on my girl and the last time it had an oil change apparently was January 2023 (this year) at 10,100 miles. And before that was 7,000 miles in July 2022.

So I've gone 3,900 miles in 10 months and the oil was definitely black and clearly it must've burned 2 quarts of oil during that time. Rambling here: the low oil indicator never went off. Soooooo I'm hoping that since I only drive like 6,000 miles a year, I didn't do much damage to the engine. Back to the original title of the post: what does the low end of the dipstick equate to for anyone who figured this out as I'm trying to determine if the vehicle computer would've alerted me to really low oil before danger sets in? Thoughts?

 

lf the engine is still running okay you've most likely got away with it.

 

I don't believe there is a low oil warning, but rather a low pressure warning. Since you didn't get a warning, there seems to have been enough oil to keep the pressure where it needed to be. I don't recall a spec indicating how much oil remains at the min mark on the dip stick. Next time you change, empty through the drain and see how much you add to get to the min line. Note, the volume isn't 8.8 quarts, it's 9.3 quarts. Don't confuse liters with quarts or you'll end up underfilling again. Also, if you're using a high-quality synthetic oil, it shouldn't be black after only 3,900 miles. My oil is still clear-ish after each 10k change.

 

lt depends, on a diesel the oil generally looks black very quickly but on a petrol engine it can stay clear for thousands of miles.