What is this counting down to?

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Stuck clock button?

It is checking your oil level. It will generally take 5 seconds when the car is cold (key in, but not running). If it has been driven a bit, it will sometimes count down from a higher number. Mine also counts down from 5 right after fueling up. In other words, do not worry unless there is no oil!

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You are correct! It was reading oil level. Man I LOVE this car!!! I keep discovering new things with it everyday.

I would not place too much stock in that reading. Best is to use the dipstick on level ground - do it frequently, there's some oil consumption in some of these engines. Manual recommends at every fill up, just make sure you give enough time for the oil to return to the sump.

After you drive the car it takes a few minutes for all the oil to settle back down into the pan. The timer is timing how long it takes.

The digital oil level check does some predictive sensing based on some parameters like oil + watertemp and how m the car was driven just before checking. The hotter the oil is the faster it flows back into the pan from higher levels in the engine. When designing the digital dipstick they equipped it with some �mapping� for oil level sensing. Knowing how much oil will have returned in the pan based on time and temperatures.

I don't really understand why it takes 5 seconds when dead cold -- the car has been sitting there all night -- no more oil is going to settle and it shouldn't take 5 seconds to detect the level. When warm, the timer makes all the sense in the world. The oil status on the 996 is much better than the oil monitoring on a modern Audi. Our Q5 will tell you when the oil is low, but after you add oil, it says that it doesn't have any oil information when you go to the oil level screen. It seems like it's not until the next day (or at least a long time later) before it will tell you what the oil level is after adding it. I can't think of anything less helpful. When you are adding oil, it's kind of useful to know what the new level is. In fairness, the warning says "add 1 quart", which seems to be pretty spot-on when I finally see the oil level again.

Maybe it takes 5sec to do the (average) reading. Or a kind of minimum delay built in the system. sounds logical the q5 story. Much newer car. Fully electronic dipstick? Adding oil will disturb probably the reading directly after. So it will need to run fully warm for example to do a new estimation.

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Just be thankful you can check the oil cold on the computer, hell or with a dipstick for that matter. After I change the oil on the TT I have to run the engine to temp before it will allow an oil check on the dash and to make matters worse, there is no dip stick.

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Install the GT3 Cup diptsick assembly. Cost of parts is about 100 bucks and to me would be worth every penny..

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Wow -- it's not a big deal for me because I only add oil and it tells you when to add 1 quart. The dealer does oil changes on the Q5, but I would not feel very comfortable doing that blind. I think you can buy a Audi/VW dipstick and add it. I have no experience with it, but it seems like it's only about $20 at some places from a quick google search.

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Ive thought about it, and if I tracked it I would likely do it. Ive learned to live with it so far, it just makes oil changes a pita having to be super accurate when you do initial fill.

So if the car is not on a flat surface, this can take up to an hour. I made the mistake of turning the key on when I had the rear of the car on jack stands but not the front, and the oil check timer went up to 55mins, I figured this will clear after the car was back on a flat surface, but nope, it took the 55 mins to complete. BTW, these was 55 mins of the key in the ignition with the engine off. As soon as the engine starts the timer stops counting down, it would continue from where it left off the next time the key is turned on. Don't know if driving the car would reset this condition, I just left the ignition on for the 55 mins while doing other things.

Oil count down is most accurate when cold and flat. Second most acurrate is during a refueling stop when it takes less than a minute. If the engine is started, even for just a few seconds, the reading won�t be acurrate. Only when the oil is stone cold or completely hot should the levels be checked, and verified by the dipstick about every few checks. My dipstick reading and dash readings are very close to each other.

Countdown is a calculated time to when an accurate reading can be taken. The reason it only takes a few seconds when cold (before starting the car) is because the oil has already drained back into the sump. It takes only a few seconds at a normal fill up because the oil is warm and drains back to the sump quickly. Longest time to accurate measurement would be a cold start followed by a shutdown before car is at operating temperature. In this case the oil has been pumped around the engine, however the oil is too cold to drain back quickly.